LONDONUNDERGROUND

LONDON UNDERGROUND

Poetry On The Underground

In 1986 Gerard Benson (1931-2014), Judith Chernaik and Cicely Herbert selected five poems that were placed upon 3000 24in. by 11in. advertising spaces within London Underground carriages. The Poetry On The Underground scheme proved to be highly popular with the travelling public.

Website: https://poemsontheunderground.org https://poetrysociety.org.uk/projects/poems-on-the-underground https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tfl/culture-and-heritage/poems-on-the-underground

Sausages

There was a vast vertically-integrated operation. The Underground had farms that produced foodstuffs, these were processed, and served in canteens. It is reputed that some staff were inclined to wax lyrical about Griffin sausages.

See Also: FOOD; MEAT Sausages

Website: https://dav31d.wordpress.com/tag/london-transport-catering-logo

The Underground Electric Railways Company

Sir Edgar Speyer 1^st Bt. (1862-1932) was a New York-born German Jew, who was raised in Frankfurt. In 1887 he settled in London and became the head of the British branch of the Speyer Brothers bank. Five years later he was naturalised as a British citizen.

Speyer financed the Underground Electric Railways Company, which financed the creation of the Metropolitan District Railway. In 1905, following the death of Charles Tyson Yerkes's death, he became U.E.R.C. s chairman. At the time the enterprise s finances were in a dire state, its costs exceeded its revenue.

The banker was a patron of arts. His wife was a concert violinist. Private concerts that took place in their townhouse were conduct by the likes of Debussy and Richard Strauss. He became the Chairman of the Queen's Hall concert board. In 1902 Robert Newman went bust. Speyer stepped in and financed the Proms and encouraged leading musical figures to participate in them. He was also one of Scott of the Antarctic's backers.

Speyer was an associate of the Liberal Prime Minister Asquith. He dined frequently in Downing Street. In 1906 he was made a baronet. Three years later he was appointed to be a Privy Counsellor.

In the early 1910s the Metropolitan District began to make a profit.

Following the outbreak of the First World War, there were vehement expressions of anti-German sentiment. Speyer handled the situation poorly. There were claims that he signalled to German submarines from Overstrand, his country house near Cromer. He was forced off the U.E.R.L. s board. In 1915 he moved to America. In large part the British Nationality & Status of Aliens Act of 1918 was targeted at him. In 1921 he, his wife and their three daughters were stripped of their British citizenship. His name was struck from the membership roll of the Privy Council.

In time, his children returned to live in Britain.

Location: 46 Grosvenor Street, W1K 3HN (purple, red)

The Underground Group

Following the opening of the City & South London Railway in 1890, a number of schemes were promoted for the cutting of other deep-level tunnels; this helped the grouping together of London's underground railway companies. British investors were generally wary of such subterranean schemes. Charles Tyson Yerkes, acting for American financial interests, came to be the leading figure in the industry. Starting with the District Railway, Yerkes's Underground Electric Railway Company acquired the Bakerloo Line, the Northern Line, and the Piccadilly Line. The Underground Electric Railways Company Limited (subsequently the Underground Group) was incorporated in 1902 as a holding company for the Yerkes-gathered underground railway companies.

Albert Stanley was born in Derby. His family emigrated to the United States while he was a still child. In adulthood he had a career in street railway management, first in Detroit and then in New Jersey. In 1907 he was appointed as the general manager of the Underground Electric Railways of London. Three years later he became the enterprise s managing director. The company acquired the Central Line and the City & South London Line. The only operator to hold out was the Metropolitan Railway, which was unique among the underground railway companies in its also being a de facto major property developer.

In 1912 Underground Group took over the London General Omnibus Company.

The Underground Map

Initially, the Underground lines developed under different managements. By 1912 they were - with the exception of the Metropolitan Line - all owned by the same company, the Underground brand was established and its first map created. This and the subsequent early maps of the system were geographically correct. This meant that information for the central area was crowded, with stations names sometimes being illegible, while on the peripheries they were arranged relatively sparse.

In 1931 Harry Beck of the London Underground Signals Office drew the world's first diagrammatic underground railway map. This distorted the central area by enlarging its share of the chart. Mr Beck had developed the idea in his spare time. London Transport's management rebuffed the design when he made it known to them. He offered it to them a second time the following year. It was tested on members of the public who gave it a positive reception.

In 1937 Beck conveyed the copyright of the map to London Transport. The following year the two parties had their first spat over it. Their subsequent relations with one another were to prove to be fractious. In 1947 he resigned from London Transport. In 1960 a new edition of the map caused his relations with London Transport to rupture permanently.

Website: www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/stories/design/mapping-london-iconic-tube-map

David Backhouse 2024