1.
Southall
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Southall is a large suburban district of west London, England, and part of the London Borough of Ealing. It is situated 10.7 miles west of Charing Cross, neighbouring places include Yeading, Hayes, Hanwell, Heston, Hounslow, Greenford and Northolt. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London, Southall is located on the Grand Union Canal which first linked London with the rest of the growing canal system. It was one of the last canals to carry significant commercial traffic and is open to traffic and is used by pleasure craft. The district of Southall has many other Anglo-Saxon place-names such as Elthorne and its earliest record, from ad 830, is of Warberdus bequeathing Norwood Manor and Southall Manor to the archbishops of Canterbury. Southall formed part of the chapelry of Norwood in the ancient parish of Hayes, for Poor Law it was grouped into the Uxbridge Union and was within Uxbridge Rural Sanitary District from 1875. The chapelry of Norwood had functioned as a parish since the Middle Ages. On 16 January 1891 the parish adopted the Local Government Act 1858, in 1894 it became the Southall Norwood Urban District. In 1936 the urban district was granted a charter of incorporation and became a municipal borough, in 1965 the former area of the borough was merged with that of the boroughs of Ealing and Acton to form the London Borough of Ealing in Greater London. The southern part of Southall used to be known as Southall Green and was centred on the historic Grade II* listed Tudor-styled Manor House which dates back to at least 1587. A building survey has much of the building is original. Minor 19th and 20th century additions exist in some areas and it is currently used as serviced offices. The extreme southernmost part of Southall is known as Norwood Green and it has few industries and is mainly a residential area, having remained for many years mainly agricultural whilst the rest of Southall developed industrially. Norwood Green borders, and part is inside, the London Borough of Hounslow, the main east west road through the town is Uxbridge Road, though the name changes in the main shopping area to The Broadway and for an even shorter section to High Street. In 1877, the Martin Brothers set up a factory in an old soap works next to the canal and until 1923, produced distinctive ceramics now known. A branch railway line from Southall railway station to the Brentford Dock on the Thames was also built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1856 and it features one of his engineering works, the Three Bridges. Brunel died shortly after its completion, sections of his bell-section rail can still be seen on the southern side being used as both fencing posts and a rope rail directly under the road bridge itself. It is listed as a Scheduled Ancient Monument, otto Monsted, a Danish margarine manufacturer, built a large factory at Southall in 1894
2.
British Leyland
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It was partly nationalised in 1975, when the UK government created a holding company called British Leyland, later BL, in 1978. It incorporated much of the British-owned motor vehicle industry, which constituted 40 percent of the UK car market, despite containing profitable marques such as Jaguar, Rover and Land Rover, as well as the best-selling Mini, British Leyland had a troubled history. In 1986 it was renamed as the Rover Group, later to become MG Rover Group, MG and the Austin, Morris and Wolseley marques became part of Chinas SAIC, with whom MG Rover attempted to merge prior to administration. Certain other related businesses, such as Unipart, continue to operate independently. At the time, LMC was a manufacturer, while BMH was perilously close to collapse. The Government was hopeful LMCs expertise would revive the ailing BMH, the new corporation was arranged into seven divisions under its new chairman, Sir Donald Stokes. After the merger, Lord Stokes was horrified to find that BMH had no plans to replace the elderly designs in its portfolio. Also, BMHs design efforts immediately prior to the merger had focused on niche market models such as the Austin Maxi and the Austin 3 litre. BMH had produced several cars, such as the Mini. While these cars had been advanced at the time of their introduction, the Mini was not highly profitable, immediately, Lord Stokes instigated plans to design and introduce new models quickly. The first result of this programme was the Morris Marina in early 1971. It used parts from various BL models with new bodywork to produce BLs mass-market competitor and it was one of the strongest-selling cars in Britain during the 1970s, although by the end of production in 1980 it was widely regarded as a dismal product that had damaged the companys reputation. The Austin Allegro, launched in 1973, earned a similarly unwanted reputation over its 10-year production life, the company became an infamous monument to the industrial turmoil that plagued Britain in the 1970s. Industrial action instigated by militant shop stewards frequently brought BLs manufacturing capability to its knees, the upshot was that both Ford and Vauxhall ultimately overtook BL to become Britains two best selling marques, a title they hold to the present day. At its peak, BLMC owned almost 40 manufacturing plants across the country, even before the merger BMH had included theoretically competing marques that were in fact selling substantially similar badge engineered cars. The British Motor Corporation had never properly integrated either the dealer networks or the facilities of Austin. The upshot was that plants were producing badge engineered models of otherwise identical cars so that each network would have a product to sell. Rover competed with Jaguar at the end of the market
3.
British Motor Museum
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The British Motor Museum, formerly known as the Heritage Motor Centre, is a British motor museum in Warwickshire, England. It is affiliated to the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust, in 1979, the company became BL Heritage Limited, adopting a new headquarters at Studley, Warwickshire. Two years later, a museum was opened at the London Transport Museums former home of Syon Park, west of London, during the early 1980s, closer ties were made with other British motor manufacturers. Austin-Rover continued as the backer of the Trust, and gradually the other companies withdrew their support. Meanwhile, the continued to grow. In the late 1980s, it became evident that larger premises would be required as the collection developed, several new sites were considered for a purpose built museum. The present location was chosen, on the site of the former RAF Gaydon airfield in South Warwickshire, plans were drawn up and construction began in 1991 for the new Heritage Motor Centre. The site also includes conference facilities, when Rover Group was taken over by BMW in 1994, the British Motor Museum came under their ownership. Six years later, BMW sold the Rover Group, which meant that the Centre changed hands yet again, this time under the ownership of the Ford Motor Company. This latest change of ownership means that the Trust now had the opportunity to expand its collection to all of the companies that have formed part of Britains motor manufacturing history. Following Jaguars decision to close their Jaguar Daimler Heritage Centre, a selection of the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Collection has been on display at the Museum. In November 2015 the Heritage Motor Centre closed for a £1.1 million refurbishment and this is not an exhaustive list — a complete list is provided on the centres website. Due to space limitations, not all cars are exhibited at all times and this can include such details as a list of the options the car was ordered with, the original paint colour and any identification numbers that may be missing. British Motor Museum Classic Car Collection Gaydon Series of photos of the cars at the British Motor Museum
4.
Malta
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Malta, officially known as the Republic of Malta, is a Southern European island country consisting of an archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. It lies 80 km south of Italy,284 km east of Tunisia, the country covers just over 316 km2, with a population of just under 450,000, making it one of the worlds smallest and most densely populated countries. The capital of Malta is Valletta, which at 0.8 km2, is the smallest national capital in the European Union, Malta has one national language, which is Maltese, and English as an official language. John, French and British, have ruled the islands, King George VI of the United Kingdom awarded the George Cross to Malta in 1942 for the countrys bravery in the Second World War. The George Cross continues to appear on Maltas national flag, the country became a republic in 1974, and although no longer a Commonwealth realm, remains a member state of the Commonwealth of Nations. Malta was admitted to the United Nations in 1964 and to the European Union in 2004, in 2008, Catholicism is the official religion in Malta. The origin of the term Malta is uncertain, and the modern-day variation derives from the Maltese language, the most common etymology is that the word Malta derives from the Greek word μέλι, meli, honey. The ancient Greeks called the island Μελίτη meaning honey-sweet, possibly due to Maltas unique production of honey, an endemic species of bee lives on the island. The Romans went on to call the island Melita, which can be considered either as a latinisation of the Greek Μελίτη or the adaptation of the Doric Greek pronunciation of the same word Μελίτα. Another conjecture suggests that the word Malta comes from the Phoenician word Maleth a haven or port in reference to Maltas many bays, few other etymological mentions appear in classical literature, with the term Malta appearing in its present form in the Antonine Itinerary. The extinction of the hippos and dwarf elephants has been linked to the earliest arrival of humans on Malta. Prehistoric farming settlements dating to the Early Neolithic period were discovered in areas and also in caves. The Sicani were the tribe known to have inhabited the island at this time and are generally regarded as being closely related to the Iberians. Pottery from the Għar Dalam phase is similar to found in Agrigento. A culture of megalithis temple builders then either supplanted or arose from this early period, the temples have distinctive architecture, typically a complex trefoil design, and were used from 4000 to 2500 BCE. Animal bones and a knife found behind an altar stone suggest that temple rituals included animal sacrifice. Tentative information suggests that the sacrifices were made to the goddess of fertility, the culture apparently disappeared from the Maltese Islands around 2500 BC. Archaeologists speculate that the builders fell victim to famine or disease
5.
AEC Routemaster
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The AEC Routemaster is a front-engined double-decker bus that was designed by London Transport and built by the Associated Equipment Company and Park Royal Vehicles. The first prototype was completed in September 1954 and the last one was delivered in 1968, the layout of the vehicle was traditional for the time, with a half-cab, front-mounted engine and open rear platform, although the coach version was fitted with rear platform doors. Forward entrance vehicles with platform doors were produced as was a unique front-entrance prototype with the engine mounted transversely at the rear. The first London bus route to be operated by the Routemaster was route 2, on 8 February 1956, the same bus, with a revised front end, appeared at the Lord Mayors Show in November 1956. Most Routemasters were built for London Transport, although numbers were built for British European Airways. A total of 2,876 Routemasters were built, of which 1,280 are still in existence, in modern UK public transport bus operation, the old-fashioned features of the standard Routemaster were both praised and criticised. Despite the retirement of the version, the Routemaster has retained iconic status. In 2006, the Routemaster was voted one of Britains top 10 design icons which included Concorde, Mini, Supermarine Spitfire, London tube map, World Wide Web, in the late 2000s work began on a New Routemaster bus inspired by the Routemasters traditional design. It entered service in February 2012, the Routemaster was developed between 1947 and 1956 by a team directed by AAM Durrant and Colin Curtis, with vehicle styling by Douglas Scott. The resulting vehicle seated 64 passengers, despite being three-quarters of a ton lighter than buses in the RT family, the first task on delivery to service was to replace Londons trolleybuses, which had themselves replaced trams, and to begin to replace the older types of diesel bus. The Routemaster was designed by London Transport and constructed at Park Royal Vehicles, both companies were owned by Associated Commercial Vehicles, which was taken over by Leyland Motors in 1962. It was a design and used lightweight aluminium along with techniques developed in aircraft production during World War II. As well as a novel, weight-saving integral design, it also introduced for the first time on a bus independent front suspension, power steering, a fully automatic gearbox and power-hydraulic braking. This surprised some early drivers, who found the chassis unexpectedly light and nimble compared with older designs, footage of RM200 undergoing the skid test at Chiswick was included in the 1971 film On the Buses. The Routemaster was a departure from the traditional chassis/body construction method and it was one of the first integral buses, with a combination of an A steel sub-frame and a rear B steel sub-frame, connected by an aluminium body. The gearbox was mounted on the underside of the structure with shafts to the engine. Later pre-war London trolleybuses, however, had previously adopted chassisless construction, London Transport placed four prototype Routemasters in service between 1956 and 1958. The first two were built at the London Transport works at Chiswick, the third by Weymann at Addlestone and the fourth, the third and fourth had Leyland engines
6.
Coach (carriage)
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A coach is originally a large, usually closed, four-wheeled carriage with two or more horses harnessed as a team, controlled by a coachman and/or one or more postilions. It had doors in the sides, with generally a front and a seat inside and, for the driver. The term coach first came into use in the 15th century, there are a number of types of coaches, with differentiations based on use, location and size. Special breeds of horses, such as the now-extinct Yorkshire Coach Horse, were developed to pull the vehicles, Kocs was the Hungarian post town in the 15th century onwards, which gave its name to a fast light vehicle, which later spread across Europe. Therefore, the English word coach, the Spanish and Portuguese coche, the German Kutsche, and it was not until about the middle of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, that coaches were introduced to England. Coaches were reputedly introduced into England from France by Henry FitzAlan, a coach with four horses is a coach-and-four. A coach together with the horses, harness and attendants is a turnout, the bodies of early coaches, as of American Concord stagecoaches, were hung on leather straps. In the eighteenth century steel springs were substituted, an improvement in suspension, a coach might have a built-in compartment called a boot, used originally as a seat for the coachman and later for storage. A luggage case for the top of a coach was called an imperial, the front and rear axles were connected by a main shaft called the perch or reach. A crossbar known as a bar supported the springs. Coaches were often decorated by using a sable brush called a liner. In the 19th century the term coach was applied to railway carriages, a park drag is also known as a private coach as it was owned by private individuals for their own personal driving. A park drag has seats on its top and is driven to a team of four well-matched carriage horses. The principal ceremonial coaches in the United Kingdom are the Gold State Coach, Irish State Coach, the business of a coachman was to drive a coach. He was also called a jarvey or jarvie, especially in Ireland, if he drove dangerously fast or recklessly he was a jehu (from Jehu, king of Israel, who was noted for his furious attacks in a chariot, or a Phaeton. A postilion or postillion sometimes rode as a guide on the horse of a pair or of one of the pairs attached to a coach. A guard on a coach was called a shooter. Traveling by coach, or pleasure driving in a coach, as in a tally-ho, was called coaching, in driving a coach, the coachman used a coachwhip, usually provided with a long lash
7.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
8.
Frank Searle (businessman)
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Frank Searle CBE, DSO, MIME was a British transport entrepreneur, a locomotive engineer who moved from steam to omnibuses, the motor industry and airlines. Searle was born in late 1874 at Greenwich, the son of draper Henry Searle, Searle appears in the 1881 census of Greenwich living with his parents and siblings at 282 New Cross Road in Deptford, he is described as a six-year-old scholar. In the 1891 census Searle is still at 282 New Cross Road with his siblings, in 1897 he married Charlotte Louise Soyer. He remarried after Charlottes death in 1944, Searle died aged 73 at his home in Bournemouth, Hampshire on 4 April 1948. His estate was valued for duty at £44,732 3s 3d, having seen that mechanized road transport would present better prospects for making money Searle entered business as a consultant motor engineer located in the West End of London. In 1905 he was in Paris, France where he represented the Turgan and he sold several Lacoste et Battman chassis to the London and District Motor Omnibus Company, which traded as Arrow. The Lacoste et Battman buses were unreliable, and suffered frequent breakdowns, Searle was forced to abandon his consultancy when the final part of the order was cancelled due to the unreliability of the vehicles. Arrow took Searle on as a mechanic to keep the fleet of buses on the road, Searle patented and sold to LGOC for £1,000 an ingenious silent roller-chain constant-mesh gearbox. In 1907, the London General Omnibus Company employed Searle as Superindendent at its Mortlake garage at a salary of £350. He was soon transferred to Cricklewood and on 18 May 1907 was appointed as Chief Motor Engineer at a salary of £450, at the time, LGOC had a varied fleet of some 600 motor-buses all of which proved unable to cope with the stresses of operating in Londons traffic. Searle persuaded LGOC to allow him to design a vehicle that was fit for the job, the best features of existing vehicles were taken and incorporated into the new design named the X-type bus. The prototype was completed on 12 August 1909 and, due to licensing delays, the next year Searle produced an improved design, the B-type bus, which entered service on 18 October 1910. Rumours reached the LGOCs board that Searle had been offered a position with the Daimler Companys planned new motor-omnibus business. Searles salary was increased from £1,000 to £1,250 on condition that he devote all his time to LGOC, Searle was ordered to appear before the board at their meeting on 4 May 1911. Offered a salary of £2,000 provided he signed a new contract there and then, the details of his new position with Daimlers The Premier Motor Omnibus Company were announced in The Times on 6 May 1911. In 1910 Searle had entered business with a Mr F H Hall to form Hall & Searle Ltd and to develop. In 1913, Hall and Searle was floated on the exchange as The Searle Unburstable Inner Tube Company. Days later these plans were scrapped and it had been intended that this new London bus company would use Daimlers new KPL petrol-electric hybrid
9.
Walthamstow
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Walthamstow is the principal town of the London Borough of Waltham Forest in North East London, England. It is located 7.5 miles northeast from Charing Cross, Walthamstow is a large town, situated between the North Circular Road to the north, Lee Valley and the Walthamstow Reservoirs to the west, and Epping Forest to the east. The town centre consists of Walthamstow Market, the longest single street market in Europe, Walthamstow is recorded c.1075 as Wilcumestowe and in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Wilcumestou. King John visited Shern Hall in 1213, the building survived until 1896, at one point Walthamstow was just a culmination of five small villages, and affairs were discussed at Vestry House, acting as the first town hall. In 1870 it had grown to the size of a small suburb, until the 19th century it was largely rural, with a small village centre and a number of large estates. The main route through the district was the aforementioned Hoe Street, additionally, there were various smaller lanes, crossing the town. The road now known as Forest Road was originally called Clay Street, further south, the High Street was named Marsh Street, and led from the original settlement out to the marshes. Shernhall Street is an ancient route, as is Wood Street, in the 1660s Sir William Batten, Surveyor of the Navy, and his wife Elizabeth Woodcocke had a house here where, according to Samuel Pepys, they lived like princes and cultivated a vineyard. With the advent of the railways and the ensuing suburbanisation in the late 19th century, Walthamstow experienced a growth in population. The Lighthouse Methodist Church which dates from 1893 which is situated on Markhouse Road, there is a lantern at the top of the tower, which also contains a spiral staircase. The LGOC X-type and B-type buses were built at Blackhorse Lane from October 1908 onwards, the B-type is considered one of the first mass-production buses. The manufacturing operation later became AEC, famous as the manufacturer of many of Londons buses, on 13 June 1909, A. V. Roes aircraft took to the air from Walthamstow Marshes. It was the first all-British aircraft and was given the nickname of the Yellow Terror. Roe later founded the Avro aircraft company, which built the acclaimed Avro Lancaster. From 1894 Walthamstow was a district and from 1929 a municipal borough in Essex. In 1931 the population of the borough, covering an area of 4,342 acres, other places in east London formerly of the county of Essex, such as Ilford and Romford were placed into London Boroughs along with Walthamstow. None of the district names or codes was changed at this time. Since the 2012 Summer Olympics, the town has become popular mostly as a result of gentrification
10.
Underground Electric Railways Company of London
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The Underground Electric Railways Company of London Limited, known operationally as the Underground for much of its existence, was established in 1902. It was also the parent company from 1902 of the District Railway, the UERL is a precursor of todays London Underground, its three tube lines form the central sections of todays Bakerloo, Northern and Piccadilly lines. The UERL struggled financially in the first years after the opening of its lines, a policy of expansion by acquisition was followed before World War I, so that the company came to operate the majority of the underground railway lines in and around London. It also controlled large bus and tram fleets, the profits from which subsidised the financially weaker railways, in the 1920s, competition from small unregulated bus operators reduced the profitability of the road transport operations, leading the UERLs directors to seek government regulation. The first deep-level tube railway, the City & South London Railway, construction had started on one other line and then stopped following a financial crisis. The rest of the companies were struggling to raise funding, the District Railway was a sub-surface underground railway which had opened in 1868. Its steam-hauled services operated around the Inner Circle and on branches to Hounslow, Wimbledon, Richmond, Ealing, Whitechapel, by 1901, the DR was struggling to compete with emerging motor bus and electric tram companies and the CLR which were eroding its passenger traffic. To become more competitive, the DR was contemplating a programme of electrification and it also had parliamentary approval for a congestion-relieving deep-level line that was to run beneath its existing route between Gloucester Road and Mansion House. Yerkes had unsuccessfully attempted to bribe the city council and Illinois state legislature into granting him a 100-year franchise for the tramway system, following a public backlash, he sold his Chicago investments and turned his attention to opportunities in London. Yerkes first acquisition in London was the Charing Cross, Euston, Perks was also a large shareholder in Yerkes next target, the Metropolitan District Railway, usually known as the District Railway or DR. By March 1901, the syndicate had acquired a controlling interest in the DR, Yerkes established the Metropolitan District Electric Traction Company on 15 July 1901 with himself as managing director. The company raised £1 million to carry out the works including the construction of the generating station. In September 1901, Perks became the DRs chairman, the Brompton and Piccadilly Circus Railway was a tube railway company which had been purchased by the DR in 1898, but had remained a separate financial entity. It had permission to construct a line from South Kensington to Piccadilly Circus, at South Kensington it was to connect to the deep level line planned by the DR. On 12 September 1901, the DR-controlled board of the B&PCR sold the company to the MDETC, in the same month, the B&PCR took over the Great Northern and Strand Railway, a tube railway with permission to build a line from Strand to Finsbury Park. The routes of the B&PCR and GN&SR were subsequently linked and combined with part of the DRs tube route to create the Great Northern, Piccadilly, Yerkes final purchase was the Baker Street and Waterloo Railway in March 1902 for £360,000. The BS&WR had permission to construct a line from Paddington to Elephant & Castle and, unlike his other tube railway purchases, construction work had started in 1898. With a varied collection of companies under his control, Yerkes established the UERL in April 1902 to take control of all and manage the planned works
11.
London Underground
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The London Underground is a public rapid transit system serving London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. The network has expanded to 11 lines, and in 2015–16 carried 1.34 billion passengers, the 11 lines collectively handle approximately 4.8 million passengers a day. The system has 270 stations and 250 miles of track, despite its name, only 45% of the system is actually underground in tunnels, with much of the network in the outer environs of London being on the surface. In addition, the Underground does not cover most southern parts of Greater London, the current operator, London Underground Limited, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for London, the statutory corporation responsible for the transport network in Greater London. As of 2015, 92% of operational expenditure is covered by passenger fares, the Travelcard ticket was introduced in 1983 and Oyster, a contactless ticketing system, in 2003. Contactless card payments were introduced in 2014, the LPTB was a prominent patron of art and design, commissioning many new station buildings, posters and public artworks in a modernist style. Other famous London Underground branding includes the roundel and Johnston typeface, to prepare construction, a short test tunnel was built in 1855 in Kibblesworth, a small town with geological properties similar to London. This test tunnel was used for two years in the development of the first underground train, and was later, in 1861, the worlds first underground railway, it opened in January 1863 between Paddington and Farringdon using gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives. It was hailed as a success, carrying 38,000 passengers on the opening day, the Metropolitan District Railway opened in December 1868 from South Kensington to Westminster as part of a plan for an underground inner circle connecting Londons main-line termini. The Metropolitan and District railways completed the Circle line in 1884, built using the cut and this opened in 1890 with electric locomotives that hauled carriages with small opaque windows, nicknamed padded cells. The Waterloo and City Railway opened in 1898, followed by the Central London Railway in 1900, the Metropolitan Railway protested about the change of plan, but after arbitration by the Board of Trade, the DC system was adopted. When the Bakerloo was so named in July 1906, The Railway Magazine called it an undignified gutter title, by 1907 the District and Metropolitan Railways had electrified the underground sections of their lines. In January 1913, the UERL acquired the Central London Railway, the Bakerloo line was extended north to Queens Park to join a new electric line from Euston to Watford, but World War I delayed construction and trains reached Watford Junction in 1917. During air raids in 1915 people used the stations as shelters. An extension of the Central line west to Ealing was also delayed by the war, the Metropolitan promoted housing estates near the railway with the Metro-land brand and nine housing estates were built near stations on the line. Electrification was extended north from Harrow to Rickmansworth, and branches opened from Rickmansworth to Watford in 1925, the Piccadilly line was extended north to Cockfosters and took over District line branches to Harrow and Hounslow. In 1933, most of Londons underground railways, tramway and bus services were merged to form the London Passenger Transport Board, the Waterloo & City Railway, which was by then in the ownership of the main line Southern Railway, remained with its existing owners. In the same year that the London Passenger Transport Board was formed, in the following years, the outlying lines of the former Metropolitan Railway closed, the Brill Tramway in 1935, and the line from Quainton Road to Verney Junction in 1936
12.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
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TL 3513 (1934) KYE 402 (1949)
