Victorian Transportation: The Underground Railway
The Origins of The Tube
Traveling the nineteenth-century streets of London was no picnic. There were crowds of people. Random farm animals being moved about clogged up the narrow lanes. Besides on foot, the main mode of transportation was by horse, so toss a LOT of manure and carriages into the mix. All in all, this made traversing the city a bit precarious. So, what to do?
Why not leave it all behind and go below?
The idea of an underground railway to ease London street traffic was first proposed in 1830. By 1863, the Metropolitan Railway was opened between Paddington and Farringdon, carrying 38,000 passengers that first day. How exciting—albeit smelly, packed and hot—it must’ve been.
Steam locomotives hauled gas-lit wooden carriages, making ventilation a huge problem for drivers and passengers alike. Attempts to build smokeless locomotives were unsuccessful, so something else needed to be done. All that steam needed a place to escape, so in some places airholes were cut into the street, allowing sooty hot air to discharge aboveground. The hero in my new release, The Thief of Blackfriars Lane, inadvertently experiences just such a blast.
But that situation didn’t last. Times changed, as did technology, and eventually those airholes were no longer needed. Neither were many of the stations that had been built over the years. Today there are forty-some lost underground stations that’ve been abandoned, known as ghost stations. Regardless, past or present, the tube is a Victorian wonder.
And if you’d like to read about the adventures of a rookie cop and an unlikely lady con artist who end up down in those tunnels, here’s your chance to win a signed copy of The Thief of Blackfriars Lane…
