Chapter III: Communications

_Railways._--The trunk railways leaving London, with their termini,
are as follows: (1) _Northern_. The Great Northern, Midland and London
& North-Western systems have adjacent termini, namely King's Cross, St
Pancras and Euston, in Euston Road, St Pancras. The terminus of the
Great Central railway is Marylebone, in the road of that name. (2)
_Western_. The terminus of the Great Western railway is Paddington
(Praed Street); and that of the London & South-Western, Waterloo,
south of the Thames in Lambeth. (3) _Southern._ The London, Brighton &
South Coast railway has its western terminus at Victoria, and its
central terminus at London Bridge, on the south side of the Thames.
The South-Eastern & Chatham railway has four terminal stations, all on
or close to the north bank of the river--Victoria, Charing Cross,[2]
Holborn Viaduct and Cannon Street (City). St Paul's Station on the
Holborn branch is also terminal in part. (4) _Eastern._ The principal
terminus of the Great Eastern Railway is in Liverpool Street (City),
but the company also uses Fenchurch Street (City), the terminus of the
London, Tilbury & Southend railway, and St Pancras. These lines,
especially the southern lines, the Great Eastern, Great Northern and
South-Western carry a very heavy suburban traffic. Systems of joint
lines and running powers are maintained to afford communication
between the main lines. Thus the West London Extension line carries
local traffic between the North Western and Great Western and the
Brighton and South-Western systems, while the Metropolitan Extension
through the City connects the Midland and Great Northern with the
South-Eastern & Chatham lines.

The railways whose systems are mainly or wholly confined within the
metropolitan area are as follows. The North London railway has a
terminal station at Broad Street, City, and serves the parts of London
implied by its name. The company possesses running powers over the
lines of various other companies: thus its trains run as far north as
Potter's Bar on the Great Northern line, while it serves Richmond on
the west and Poplar on the east. The East London line connects
Shoreditch with New Cross (Deptford) by way of the Thames Tunnel, a
subway under the river originally built for foot-passengers. The
London & India Docks line connects the city with the docks on the
north bank of the river as far as North Woolwich. The Metropolitan
railway has a line from Baker Street through north-west London to
Harrow, continuing to Uxbridge, while the original main line runs on
to Rickmansworth, Aylesbury and Verney Junction, but has been worked
by the Metropolitan and Great Central companies jointly since 1906.
Another line serves the western outskirts (Hammersmith, Richmond, &c.)
from the city. Metropolitan trains also connect at New Cross with the
south-eastern railway system. This company combines with the
Metropolitan District to form the Inner Circle line, which has
stations close to all the great railway termini north of the Thames.
The Metropolitan District (commonly called the District) system serves
Wimbledon, Richmond, Ealing and Harrow on the west, and passes
eastward by Earl's Court, South Kensington, Victoria and Mansion House
(City) to Whitechapel and Bow. The Metropolitan and the District lines
within London are for the most part underground (this feature
supplying the title of "the Underground" familiarly applied to both
systems); the tunnels being constructed of brick. The earliest part of
the system was opened in 1863. Although these railways, as far as
concerns the districts they serve, form the fastest method of
communication from point to point, their discomfort, arising mainly
from the impossibility of proper ventilation, and various other
disadvantages attendant upon the use of steam traction, led to a
determination to adapt the lines to electrical working. Experiments on
a short section of the line were made in 1900, and later schemes were
set on foot to electrify the District system and bring under one
general control this railway, other lines in deep level "tubes"
between Baker Street and Waterloo, between Charing Cross, Euston and
Hampstead, and between Hammersmith, Brompton, Piccadilly, King's Cross
and Finsbury Park, and the London United Tramways Company. The
Underground Electric Railways Company, which acquired a controlling
influence over these concerns, undertook the construction of a great
power station at Chelsea; while the Metropolitan Company, which had
fallen into line with the District (not without dispute over the
system of electrification to be adopted) erected a station at Neasden
on the Aylesbury branch. Electric traction was gradually introduced on
the Metropolitan and the District lines in 1906. The former company
combined with the Great Western Company as regards the electrification
of, and provision of stock for, the lines which they had previously
worked jointly, from Edgware Road by Bishop's Road to Hammersmith, &c.
The Baker Street & Waterloo railway (known as the "Bakerloo") was
opened in 1906 and subsequently extended in one direction to
Paddington and in the other to the Elephant and Castle. The Great
Northern, Piccadilly & Brompton line, from Finsbury Park to
Hammersmith, was opened early in 1907, and the Charing Cross, Euston &
Hampstead line later in the same year. Deep-level electric railways
("tubes"), communicating with the surface by lifts, were already
familiar in London. The first opened was the City & South London
(1890), subsequently extended to run between Euston, the Angel,
Islington, the Bank (City) and Clapham. Others are the Waterloo & City
(1898) running from the terminus of the South-Western railway without
intermediate stations to the Bank; the Central London (1900), from the
Bank to Shepherd's Bush, Hammersmith; and the Great Northern & City
(1904) from Finsbury Park (which is an important suburban junction on
the Great Northern railway) to Moorgate Street.

_Tramways._--The surface tramway system of London cannot be complete,
as, within an area roughly represented by the boroughs of Chelsea,
Kensington and Fulham, the city of Westminster and a considerable
district north thereof, and the city of London, the existing streets
could not accommodate tram lines along with other traffic over any
great distance consecutively, and in point of fact there are few,
beyond the embankment line from Blackfriars Bridge to Westminster
Bridge, which connects with the southern system. Another line, running
south from Islington, uses the shallow-level subway under Kingsway and
connects with the embankment line. The northern, western and eastern
outskirts and London south of the Thames are extensively served by
trams. On the formation of the London County Council there were
thirteen tramway companies in existence. Powers under the Tramways Act
of 1870 were given to the council, enabling it to acquire possession
of these undertakings, and within the county of London they have been
for the most part so acquired, and are worked by the council. Outside
the county both companies and local authorities own and work tramways.
Both electric and horse traction are used; the latter, however, has
been in great part displaced by the former. The total mileage for
greater London is about 240.

_Omnibuses._--The omnibus system is very extensive, embracing all the
principal streets throughout the county and extending over a large
part of Greater London. The two principal omnibus companies are the
London General Omnibus and the London Road Car. The first omnibus ran
between the Bank and Paddington in 1829. In 1905 and following years
motor omnibuses (worked mostly by internal combustion engines) began
to a large extent to supplant horse traction. The principal existing
companies adopted them, and new companies were formed to work them
exclusively. With their advantages of greater speed and carrying
capacity over the horsed vehicles, their introduction was a most
important development, though their working at first imposed a severe
financial strain on many companies.

_Cabs._--The horse-drawn cabs which ply for hire in the streets, or
wait at authorized "cab-stands," are of two kinds, the "hansom," a
two-wheeled vehicle so named after its inventor (1834) and the
"four-wheeler." "Hackney coaches" for hire are first mentioned in
1625, when they were kept at inns, and numbered 20. Until 1832 their
numbers were restricted, in 1662 to 400, in 1694 to 700, in 1771 to
1000. In some cases a driver owns his cab, but the majority of
vehicles are let to drivers by owners, and the adjustment of terms
between them has led to disputes from time to time. In 1894 a dispute
necessitated the formulation of the "Asquith award" by the Rt. Hon. H.
H. Asquith as home secretary, and subsequent modifications of this
were only arrived at, as in 1904, after a strike of the drivers
affected. A long-standing cause of complaint on the part of the public
has been the common refusal of cab-drivers to accept their legal
fares, but, on the other hand, several attempts to introduce cabs with
an automatic taximeter failed, until the introduction of motor cabs,
of which a few had already been plying for some time when in 1907 a
large number, provided with taximeters, were put into service.
Subsequently, as the number of "taxicabs" (see MOTOR VEHICLES)
increased, that of horse-cabs decreased.

Traffic commission 1903.

_Traffic Problem._--One of the most serious administrative problems
met with in London is that of locomotion, especially as regards the
regulation of traffic in the principal thoroughfares and at the
busiest crossings. The police have powers of control over vehicles and
exercise them admirably; their work in this respect is a constant
source of wonder to foreign visitors. But this control does not meet
the problem of actually lessening the number of vehicles in the main
arteries of traffic. At such crossings as that of the Strand and
Wellington Street, Ludgate Circus and south of the Thames, the
Elephant and Castle, as also in the narrow streets of the City,
congestion is often exceedingly severe, and is aggravated when any
main street is under repair, and diversion of traffic through narrow
side streets becomes necessary. Many street improvements were carried
out, it is true, in the last half of the 19th century, the dates of
the principal being as follows: 1854, Cannon Street; 1864, Southwark
Street; 1870, Holborn Viaduct; 1871, Hamilton Place, Queen Victoria
Street; 1876, Northumberland Avenue; 1882, Tooley Street; 1883, Hyde
Park Corner; 1884, Eastcheap; 1886, Shaftesbury Avenue; 1887, Charing
Cross Road; 1890-1892, Rosebery Avenue. At the beginning of the 20th
century several important local widenings of streets were put in hand,
as for example between Sloane Street and Hyde Park Corner, in the
Strand and at the Marble Arch (1908). At the same period a great work
was undertaken to meet the want of a proper central communication
between north and south, namely, the construction of a broad
thoroughfare, called Kingsway in honour of King Edward VII., from High
Holborn opposite Southampton Row southward to the Strand, connexion
with which is established at two points through a crescent named
Aldwych. The idea of such a thoroughfare is traceable back to the time
of William IV. The magnitude of the traffic problem as a whole may be
best appreciated by examples of the vast schemes of improvement which
from time to time have been put forward by responsible individuals.
Thus Sir John Wolfe Barry, as chairman of the Council of the Society
of Arts in 1899, proposed to alleviate congestion of traffic by
bridges over and tunnels under the streets at six points, namely--Hyde
Park Corner, Piccadilly Circus, Ludgate Circus, Oxford Street and
Tottenham Court Road, Strand and Wellington Street, and Southwark
Bridge and Upper Thames Street. Another scheme seriously suggested in
1904, to meet existing disabilities of communication between north and
south by linking the northern and southern tramway services, involved
the removal of the Charing Cross terminus of the South Eastern and
Chatham railway to the south side of the river, and the construction
of a new bridge in place of the railway bridge. The mere control of
existing traffic, local street improvements and provision of new means
of communication between casual points, were felt to miss the root of
the problem, and in 1903 a Royal Commission was appointed to consider
the whole question of locomotion and transport in London, expert
evidence being taken from engineers, representatives of the various
railway and other companies, of the County Council, borough councils
and police, and others. The commission reported in 1905.[3] With
regard to street improvements the most important recommendation was
that of the construction of two main avenues 140 ft. wide, one running
west and east, from Bayswater Road to Whitechapel, and passing through
the city in the neighbourhood of London Wall, and another from
Holloway to the Elephant and Castle, to cross the Thames by a new
bridge above Blackfriars. Four lines of surface tramways and four
railway lines in shallow tunnels were proposed along these avenues.
Many widenings and other improvements of existing thoroughfares, and
extensions of tramways were proposed, and detailed recommendations
were made as regards urban and suburban railways, and the rehousing of
the working population on the outskirts of London. Finally, the
commission made the important recommendation that a traffic board
should be established for London, to exercise a general supervision of
traffic, and to act as a tribunal to which all schemes of railway and
tramway construction should be referred.

_Thames Steamers._--A local passenger steamboat service on the Thames
suffers from the disadvantage that the river does not provide the
shortest route between points at any great distance apart, and that
the main thoroughfares between east and west do not touch its banks,
so that passengers along those thoroughfares are not tempted to use it
as a channel of communication. High pier dues, moreover, contributed
to the decline of the traffic, and attempts to overcome the
disinclination of passengers to use the river (at any rate in winter)
show a record of failure. The London, Westminster and Vauxhall
Steamboat Company established in 1840 a service of seven steamboats
between London Bridge and Vauxhall. This company was bought up by the
Citizen and Iron Steamboat Companies in 1865. The City Steamboat
Company, established in 1848, began with eight boats, and by 1865 had
increased their fleet to seventeen, running from London Bridge to
Chelsea. This company was taken over by the London Steamboat Company
in 1875. The sinking of the "Princess Alice" in 1878 was a serious
blow to the London Steamboat Company, which collapsed, and was
succeeded by the River Thames Steamboat Navigation Company, which went
into liquidation in 1887. The fleet was bought by a syndicate and sold
to the Victoria Steamboat Association. The Thames Steamboat Company
then took up the service, but early in 1902 announced that it would be
discontinued, although in 1904 it was temporarily resumed. Meanwhile,
however, in 1902 the London County Council had promoted a bill in
Parliament to enable them to run a service of boats on the Thames. The
bill was thrown out on this occasion, but was revived and passed in
1904, and on the 17th of June 1905 the service was put into operation.
The boats, however, were worked at a loss, and the service was
discontinued in 1909.

_Foreign Communications._--A large pleasure traffic is maintained by
the steamers of the New Palace Company and others in summer between
London Bridge and Southend, Clacton and Harwich, Ramsgate, Margate and
other resorts of the Kent coast, and Calais and Boulogne. Passenger
steamers sail from the port of London to the principal ports of the
British Isles and northern Europe, and to all parts of the world, but
the most favoured passenger services to and from Europe and North
America pass through other ports, to which the railways provide
special services of trains from London. The principal travelling
agency in London is that of Messrs Cook, whose head office is at
Ludgate Circus. A number of sub-offices of large steamship lines are
congregated in Cockspur Street, Trafalgar Square, and several of the
principal railway companies have local offices throughout the centre
of the metropolis for the issue of tickets and the collection and
forwarding of luggage and parcels.

_Post Office._--The General Post Office lies in the centre of the City
on either side of the street called St Martin's le Grand. The oldest
portion of the buildings, Ionic in style, was designed by Sir Robert
Smirke and erected in 1829. Here are the central offices of the
letter, newspaper and telegraph departments, with the office of the
Postmaster General; but the headquarters of the parcels department are
at Mount Pleasant, Clerkenwell; those of the Post Office Savings Bank
at Blythe Road, West Kensington, and those of the Money Order
department in Queen Victoria Street. The postal area is divided into
eight districts, commonly designated by initials (which it is
customary to employ in writing addresses)--East Central (E.C., the
City, north to Pentonville and City Roads, west to Gray's Inn Road and
the Law Courts); West Central (W.C., from Euston Road to the Thames,
and west to Tottenham Court Road); West (W., from Piccadilly and Hyde
Park north to Marylebone and Edgware Roads; the greater part of
Paddington and Kensington, north part of Fulham and Hammersmith);
South-west (S.W., City of Westminster south of Piccadilly, Chelsea,
South Kensington, the greater part of Fulham, and London south of the
Thames and west of Vauxhall Bridge); South-east (S.E., remainder of
London south of the Thames); East (E., east of the City and Kingsland
Road); North (N., west of Kingsland Road; Islington); North-west
(N.W., greater part of St Pancras and St Marylebone, and Hampstead).
The postal area excludes part of Woolwich within the county; but
includes considerable areas outside the county in other directions, as
West Ham, Leyton, &c., on the east; Woodford, Chingford, &c., on the
north-east; Wood Green, Southgate and Finchley on the north; Hendon
and Willesden on the north-west; Acton and Ealing, Barnes and
Wimbledon on the west; and Penge and Beckenham on the south, wholly or
in part. There are ten district head offices and about a thousand
local offices in the metropolitan district.

_Telephones._--The National Telephone Company, working under licence
expiring on the 31st of December 1911, had until 1901 practically a
monopoly of telephonic communication within London, though the Post
Office owned all the trunk lines connecting the various telephone
areas of the company. The company's management did not give
satisfaction, and the use of the telephone was consequently restricted
in the metropolis, when in 1898 a Select Committee on Telephones
reported that "general immediate and effective" competition by either
the government or local authority was necessary to ensure efficient
working. The Post Office thereupon instituted a separate system of
exchanges and lines, intercommunication between the two systems being
arranged. Charges were reduced and efficiency benefited by this
movement. The area covered by the local as distinct from the trunk
service is about 630 sq. m. extending to Romford, Enfield, Harrow,
&c., north of the Thames, and to Dartford Reigate, Epsom, &c., south
of it. Public call offices are provided in numerous shops, railway
stations and other public places, and at many post offices. The
District Messengers Company affords facilities through local offices
for the use of special messengers.