City Road tube station
City Road is a disused London Underground station in EC1 Islington, central London. It was opened in 1901 as part of the City & South London Railway's extension from Moorgate Street to Angel. City Road was situated between Old Angel; the railway is now part of the Northern line. The station was closed in 1922 due to low passenger usage, it remained derelict until demolition in the 1960s which left only the structure around the original lift shaft, at street level, at City Road's junction with Central Street and Moreland Street, while the underground tunnels remain at track level. From the start, City Road station was little used, discussions of its closure were held as early as 1908: less than seven years after it was opened; the station was close to both Old Street and Angel, was in a deprived area of Islington. However, City Road remained until 8 August 1922 when the City & South London Railway's northern section between Euston and Moorgate Street was closed to enable the diameter of the tunnels to be increased from 3.2 m to the Underground's standard diameter of 3.56 m, so that larger and longer Standard Stock trains could be operated.
Low passenger usage meant that the required expansion of the platform tunnels and upgrading of the station could not be justified on financial grounds, City Road remained closed when the line was reopened on 20 April 1924. The platforms were removed and the lift shaft was converted for use as a ventilation shaft. City Road was the only twin tunnel station on the line not to be reconstructed. During the Second World War the station was converted for use as an air-raid shelter; the station building remained until the 1960s, when all but the structure around the original lift shaft was demolished. At track level the temporary structures for the air-raid shelter were removed after the war and the site of the platforms can be seen from passing trains. In 2015, planning permission was granted to demolish the remaining structure as part of a district heating scheme for the nearby council estate which would use heat from the tunnels. On 26 August 1916 a passenger was killed when a guard signalled for a train to depart before all of the passengers had alighted.
London's Abandoned Tube Stations - City Road Includes underground photos. London Transport Museum Photographic Archive City Road station in 1915
Buses in London
The London Bus is one of London's principal icons, the archetypal red rear-entrance AEC Routemaster being recognized worldwide. Although the Routemaster has been phased out of regular service, with only one route still using the vehicles, the majority of buses in London are still red and therefore the red double-decker bus remains a recognised symbol of the city. Buses have been used on the streets of London since 1829, when George Shillibeer started operating his horse drawn omnibus service from Paddington to the city. In 1850 Thomas Tilling started horse bus services, in 1855 the London General Omnibus Company was founded to amalgamate and regulate the horse-drawn omnibus services operating in London. LGOC began using motor omnibuses in 1902, manufactured them itself from 1909. In 1904 Thomas Tilling started its first motor bus service; the last LGOC horse-drawn bus ran on 25 October 1911, although independent operators used them until 1914. In 1909 Thomas Tilling and LGOC entered into an agreement to pool their resources.
The agreement restricted the expansion of Thomas Tilling in London, allowed the LGOC to lead an amalgamation of most of London's bus services. However in 1909 Thomas Clarkson started the National Steam Car Company to run steam buses in London in competition with the LGOC. In 1919 the National company reached agreement with the LGOC to withdraw from bus operation in London, steam bus services ceased that year. In 1912 the Underground Group, which at that time owned most of the London Underground, bought the LGOC. In 1933 the LGOC, along with the rest of the Underground Group, became part of the new London Passenger Transport Board; the name London General was replaced by London Transport, which became synonymous with the red London bus. Bus numbers were first used in 1906; when the independent firms started in 1922, they used General route numbers, along with suffixes from the alphabet to denote branch routes. In 1924, under the London Traffic Act, the Metropolitan Police was given the authority of allocating route numbers, which all buses had to carry.
This led to chaos and in the London Passenger Transport Act of 1933 the powers of allocating route numbers was taken away from the police and handed once again to professional busmen. Suffixes were abolished over the decades, the last such route in London being the 77A, which became the 87 in June 2006; the LPTB, under Lord Ashfield, assumed responsibility for all bus services in the London Passenger Transport Area, an area with a radius of about 30 miles of central London. This included the London General country buses, Green Line Coaches and the services of several Tilling Group and independent companies. London buses continued to operate under the London Transport name from 1933 to 2000, although the political management of transport services changed several times; the LPTB oversaw transport from 1933 to 1947 until it was re-organised into the London Transport Executive. Responsibility for London Transport was subsequently taken over to the London Transport Board, the Greater London Council and London Regional Transport.
However, in 1969 legislation was passed to transfer the green country services, outside the area of the Greater London Council, to the formed National Bus Company. Trading under the name London Country the green buses and Green Line Coaches became the responsibility of a new NBC subsidiary, London Country Bus Services, on 1 January 1970. A former network of express buses operated by London Transport in central London was the Red Arrows; the routes, all numbered in the 500s, ran from main line stations to various locations in the West End and City. They were introduced in 1966 and expanded in 1968, but in the 1990s they were phased out and only two former routes, 507 and 521, remain. In 1974 Jill Viner became the first female bus driver for London Transport. In 1979 the operation of London's buses under the GLC was divided among eight areas or districts, as described in the table below: The districts were reorganised and reduced to six, following the Transport Act of 1985, were done away with in 1989 with privatisation imminent.
In the 1980s the government of Margaret Thatcher decided to privatise the bus operating industry in the Great Britain. At the time, local bus transport was dominated by London Transport in London, in other major cities by large municipally owned operators, as well as by the government-owned National Bus Company and Scottish Bus Group elsewhere; the Transport Act 1985 brought about bus deregulation throughout Great Britain which opened up local bus operation to private operators and required municipal companies to operate independently of local government on a commercial basis. In London a different model was used from the rest of the country; this regime is still in place today, bus operations in London must be put out to competitive tendering so that routes are operated by a number of private companies. In 2000, as part of the formation of the new Greater London Authority, the ownership of London Buses moved from the central government-controlled London Regional Transport to the Mayor of London's transport organisation, Transport for London.
From the early days of motor bus operation by the London General Omnibus Company in the 1900s until the 1960s, London went its own way
Honourable Artillery Company Museum
The Honourable Artillery Company Museum opened in 1987 in Armoury House, City Road, England. It is associated with the Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest regiment in the British Army, which still maintains an active regiment as a core part of today's Army Reserve; the museum was opened in 1987 when a large volume of archival material and militaria was sorted and put on display. It was re-opened by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh on 12 October 2011; the collection includes uniforms, silver and decorations, weapons and applied art. The archives date from 1537 and are of particular interest for 17th and 18th century militia and City of London matters. Entrance is free. Goold Walker, G.. The Honourable Artillery Company, 1537–1987. London: Honourable Artillery Company. Honourable Artillery Company website
Pentonville Road
Pentonville Road is a road in Central London that runs west to east from Kings Cross to City Road at The Angel, Islington. The road is part of the London Inner Ring Road and part of the boundary of the London congestion charge zone; the road was built in the mid-18th century as part of the New Road, a bypass of Central London for coach traffic. It was named Pentonville Road after the new town of Pentonville, that encouraged manufacturing to move out of the city and into suburbia. Numerous factories and commercial premises became established on the road in the 19th and 20th centuries after the arrival of London railways in the 1840s; as industrial manufacturing fell out of favour in London in the late 20th century, many properties are now residential or student accommodation. Current premises include the Crafts Council Gallery on the site of a former chapel, the Scala nightclub in a former cinema, The Castle, a public house; the road runs east from King's Cross station as a continuation of Euston Road.
It ends at Islington, at a junction with Islington High Street and Goswell Road. Only eastbound traffic can travel on the full extent of the road; the road is on the London Inner Ring Road and as such forms part of the boundary of the London congestion charge zone. Since 1995, it has been a red route, prohibiting stopping of any kind, including loading and unloading. Most of the road is in the London Borough of Islington but a small part near Kings Cross is in the London Borough of Camden, including the King's Cross Thameslink railway station and the "Lighthouse" Block. London Underground and National Rail stations in the vicinity include Kings Cross and Angel Underground station. There has been a bus service on Pentonville Road since 1829. Regular bus routes running along the road are 30, 73 and 146. What is now Pentonville Road was built as the final section of the New Road in 1756, connecting the City of London to the western suburbs, so that coach traffic could avoid Central London. At the time, the route now covered by Pentonville Road was fields, with Battle Bridge occupying the space where King's Cross now is.
It included a tavern known as Busby's Folly, a meeting place of a drinking group known as the Society of Bull Feathers. It is marked on John Ogilby's map of London in 1675, it was renamed the Belvedere Tavern. The current building dates from 1876; the road was designed as part of Pentonville, a new suburb away from the City and became a local hub for manufacturing in the area. There was some debate over the final route of the road; as it was always intended to be a main road, a coach service began in 1798 between Paddington and Bank but was withdrawn. The road was turnpiked in 1830 and renamed Pentonville Road after landowner Henry Penton in 1857; until 1882, the upkeep of the road was paid by the local parish, paying a ground rent to Penton's estate for the disused toll house at No. 274. The street is distinguished by the "set back" housing lines intended to provide an atmosphere of spaciousness along the thoroughfare; the original 1756 act to create the New Road prohibited the construction of any building within 50 feet of its side.
Though the area had been designed to be a pleasant suburb, the arrival of railways in the 1840s turned the road into an industrial urban street, with factories and workshops aligning the road. The original bylaw restricting property on the front of the road was ignored and shops were built on top of gardens. By the 21st century, most of the manufacturing base along Pentonville Road had disappeared; the original townhouses are now apartments. Alexander Cumming, former clockmaker and organ builder to Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll, built a house at No. 166 Pentonville Road. In 1807, the year after his death, the house became the London Female Penitentiary, housing "fallen women" and rehabilitating them into society, it was extended between 1811–12 tripling its capacity, moved to Stoke Newington in 1884. The Thomas S. Jones organ builders were based at No. 25 Pentonville Road between 1860 and 1935. The Dunn & Hewett cocoa factory was established at No. 9 Pentonville Road in 1833 by Daniel Dunn, who went into partnership with Charles Hewett in the 1850s.
The business claimed to have invented soluble chocolate and cocoa, moved to No. 136, expanding to No. 138 in the 1870s. The building was enlarged and rebuilt over the 1880s and 90s, included a staff tea-room at No. 140 by 1907. The factory was subsequently sub-let to various businesses; the Ealing Radiator Company was established at Nos. 152–154 Pentonville Road in 1936, manufacturing car radiators. A first floor extension was added in 1952, while Nos. 136–150 were cleared to accommodate a low metal-framed building. These premises have now been sub-let to various businesses; the Claremont Chapel was at No. 44a Pentonville Road. It was named after Claremont House, home of the then-recently deceased Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales; the chapel was designed by Thomas Wilson, who acquired the 2 acre site in 1818 for £700, spending an additional £6,000 on building works. It opened in October 1819, though a regular pastor was not appointed until 1822; the building was extended in 1847 to accommodate a Sunday school, while sash windows were installed in 1853.
In 1860, the building was refurbished and given a Classical facade, but reducing the capacity of the inside gallery. Attendance declined and the chapel was sold to the London Congregation
Finsbury Pavement
Finsbury Pavement is a short length of street connecting Moorgate with City Road in the London Borough of Islington. It forms a part of the London Inner Ring Road, before the introduction of the ring of steel around the City of London it formed a major through-route towards London Bridge and south London; the name was Moor Fields Pavement, being on the west side of the Moorfields, behind the Bethlem Hospital. Its current name derives from lying within the historic manor of Finsbury, the manor forming one of the prebends of St Paul's Cathedral, becoming the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury, in 1900; the area was first drained in 1527, the existing postern made into a gate in the city wall at Moorgate. In the early 19th century, the southern end of the street was renamed Moorgate, by the City of London – and the name change marked the boundary, but today, due to boundary changes, most of the street is within the City's Coleman Street ward. By 1761, the Islington turnpike trust built City Road.
The street formed an early terminus for coach traffic from the north, in 1871, the street became the terminus for tramways running from Islington. In 1891, Finsbury Pavement became the City terminus for the Great Northern & City underground railway serving Finsbury Park, via the Copenhagen Fields tunnel, under Islington; this line was taken over by London Underground in 1913, as a part of the Northern line's Highbury branch, the terminus extended to Moorgate station. This branch was never integrated with the underground system, is now operated as the Northern City Line, a suburban service. In 1825, George Batty and his wife founded Batty & Co, a condiments manufacturer, at Finsbury Pavement; the company established a large manufacturing plant in Peckham, which became the United Kingdom's first manufacturing base of H. J. Heinz Company in 1905; as well as Moorgate, the closest mainline railway station is Liverpool Street, a short distance to the east which has an integrated London Underground station.
Finsbury Circus Barbican Centre Museum of London Bunhill Fields
Regent's Canal
Regent's Canal is a canal across an area just north of central London, England. It provides a link from the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal, 500 m north-west of Paddington Basin in the west, to the Limehouse Basin and the River Thames in east London; the canal is 13.8 kilometres long. First proposed by Thomas Homer in 1802 as a link from the Paddington arm of the Grand Junction Canal with the River Thames at Limehouse, the Regent's Canal was built during the early 19th century after an Act of Parliament was passed in 1812. Noted architect and town planner John Nash was a director of the company; as with many Nash projects, the detailed design was passed to one of his assistants, in this case James Morgan, appointed chief engineer of the canal company. Work began on 14 October 1812; the first section from Paddington to Camden Town, opened in 1816 and included a 251-metre long tunnel under Maida Hill east of an area now known as'Little Venice', a much shorter tunnel, just 48 metres long, under Lisson Grove.
The Camden to Limehouse section, including the 886-metre long Islington tunnel and the Regent's Canal Dock, opened four years on 1 August 1820. Various intermediate basins were constructed. Many other basins such as Wenlock Basin, Kingsland Basin, St. Pancras Stone and Coal Basin, one in front of the Great Northern Railway's Granary were built, some of these survive. All the locks were built with duplicate chambers to facilitate the heavy barge traffic. With the demise of commercial traffic in the early 1970s, at the end of 1973, the British Waterways Board embarked on a three year programme to convert one chamber at each lock into an overflow weir to facilitate unmanned use by pleasure craft without the risk of serious flooding due to incorrect use of the paddles; the City Road Basin, the nearest to the City of London, soon eclipsed the Paddington Basin in the amount of goods carried, principally coal and building materials. These were goods that were being shipped locally, in contrast to the canal's original purpose of transshipping imports to the Midlands.
The opening of the London and Birmingham Railway in 1838 increased the tonnage of coal carried by the canal. However, by the early twentieth century, with the Midland trade lost to the railways, more deliveries made by road, the canal had fallen into a long decline. There were a number of abortive projects to convert the route of the canal into a railway. In September 1845 a special general assembly of the proprietors approved the sale of the canal at the price of one million pounds to a group of businessmen who had formed the Regent's Canal Railway Company for the purpose; the advertisement for the company explained: The vast importance of this undertaking, whereby a junction will be effected between all existing and projected railways north of the Thames, combined with the advantage of a General City Terminus, is too obvious to require comment. By the proposed railway and goods will be brought into the heart of the City at a great saving of time and expense, facilities will be afforded for the more expeditious transmission of the mails to most parts of the kingdom.
The railway company subsequently failed, but in 1846 the directors of the canal went about trying to obtain an Act of Parliament to allow them to build a railway along its banks. The scheme was abandoned in the face of vigorous opposition from the government who objected to the idea of a railway passing through Regent's Park. In 1859, two further schemes to convert the canal into a railway were proposed. One, from a company called the Central London Railway and Dock Company, was accepted by the directors, but once again the railway company failed. In 1860 the Regent's Canal Company proposed a railway track alongside the canal from Kings Cross to Limehouse, but funds could not be raised. Further schemes over the next twenty years came to nothing, with the Metropolitan Railway that opened to the south in 1863 serving much the same purpose of linking the lines radiating north of London. In 1883, after some years of negotiation, the canal was sold to a company called the Regent's Canal and City Docks Railway Company.
At a cost of £1,170,585. The company altered its name to the North Metropolitan Railway and Canal Company in 1892, but no railway was built. A new purpose was found for the canal route in 1979, when the Central Electricity Generating Board installed underground cables in a trough below the towpath between St John's Wood and City Road; these 400 kV cables now form part of the National Grid. Pumped canal water is circulated as a coolant for the high-voltage cables; the canal is used today for pleasure cruising. Due to the increase in cycle commuting since the 2005 London Bombings and increasing environmental awareness, the canal's towpath has become a busy cycle route for commuters. National Cycle Route 1 includes the stretch along the canal towpath from Limehouse Basin to Mile End. British Waterways has carried out several studies into the effects of sharing the to
City Road Basin
The City Road Basin is an English canal basin and part of the Regent's Canal in London, owned by the Canal & River Trust. It opened in 1820, made a large contribution to the prosperity of the Regent's Canal. By the 1950s, its surroundings were derelict, but a programme of regeneration began in 2004, involving several large-scale residential developments, public access to the basin was provided for the first time in 2009; the basin is used for canoeing by the Islington Boat Club. Following the completion of the Grand Junction Canal's branch to Paddington Basin in 1801, various plans to link it to the River Thames further to the east were suggested. A scheme to build a canal to the Thames at Limehouse was agreed, an Act of Parliament was obtained on 13 July 1812 to authorise the Regents Canal; the canal was opened from Paddington to Camden Town in 1816, work on the Islington Tunnel had started, but the company was chronically short of money, as they had failed to raise the original capital, the cost of construction was anticipated to be much more than the first estimate of £400,000.
A third Act of Parliament, increased the authorised capital to £600,000, but the company had only raised £254,100 of the original amount, failed to raise any more. A chance meeting between Charles Munro, the chairman of the Regents Canal prior to 1816 and the long-named Committee of the Society for relieving the Manufacturing Poor led to discussions of government loans, the Exchequer Bill Loan Commission was created under the provisions of the Poor Employment Act 1817, with powers to lend money to public schemes which would create employment for those without work, they agreed to lend the canal company £200,000 if they could find another £100,000, which they succeeded in doing, in December 1817, work resumed on the canal. In 1819, a fourth Act was obtained, which made provision for the construction of City Road Basin, removed powers to build a cut to Shoreditch. Another £105,000 was raised and the canal opened on 1 August 1820; the opening celebrations included the arrival of boats from Manchester, which discharged their cargos at the basin and began their journey back to the north on the same day.
City Road Basin, close to the eastern end of Islington Tunnel, made a huge contribution to the prosperity of the company, as it was more convenient than Paddington, was soon acting as a distribution centre for goods into London. Several firms which had become established at Paddington moved to City Road Basin, including the carriers Pickfords. A lucrative trade developed and although most of the cargo from the Grand Junction Canal only travelled as far as City Road Basin, there was growing traffic in coal, bricks and other building materials from the eastern end of the canal to locations west of the basin, where building development was flourishing; the owned Wenlock Basin was opened in 1826, next to City Road Basin, passage through the tunnel was speeded up by the provision of a towing boat in 1830. This remained in use until the 1930s, used a chain on the bottom of the canal, along which it wound its way. Large volumes of goods were being shipped locally, in contrast to the canal's original purpose of transshipping imports to the Midlands.
The opening of the London and Birmingham Railway in 1838 increased the tonnage of coal carried by the canal. However, by 1929, with the Midlands trade lost to the railways, more deliveries made by road, the canal – and this basin – fell into a long decline; the basin was always private, with no public access, by the 1950s had become run-down and derelict. In 2004, Islington Borough Council adopted the City Road Basin Masterplan as an official policy, work began on the regeneration of the area. Major high-rise buildings were built on parts of the surrounding area, in each case Section 106 planning obligations ensured that there was funding available to carry out environmental improvements to the basin area; this has allowed the public to access the basin for the first time in its history. The work, completed in 2009, has included the provision of public open space at the head of the basin, a landscaped park, new facilities for the Islington Boat Club, who have been providing canoeing facilities for schools on the 3-acre basin since 1972.
Canals of the United Kingdom History of the British canal system List of canal basins in the United Kingdom British Waterways: Planning Permission A Step Closer For City Road Basin Development
