Rails to Nowhere

In this episode we conclude our look at London’s Transport in the 1930s with a look at the legacy of this era and a glance at what occurred following the Second World War.

Part of the research for this episode stems from work written by Simon in pursuit of their MA in Railway Studies from the University of York, so an acknowledgement of the support from Dr David Turner in writing that essay is also due.

Follow our Twitter: www.twitter.com/railstonowhere

Support the Podcast through our Patreon and get bonus episodes, behind the scenes content and more: www.patreon.com/railstonowhere

Thanks to our wonderful Patreons who help make Rails to Nowhere happen and especial thanks to our £10 patreon ValkyrieLeamons.

Follow Simon at: www.twitter.com/reddragontweets

Our roundtable with History Indoors can be found here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=te7NtsEiadM

Ela talks Jersey Railways with Gareth Dennis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7OnwVwiXnQ&t=3890s

 Music: Cassette by Infraction https://inaudio.org/track/cassette-synthwave/used under Creative Commons Attribution Unported 3.0 (CC BY 3.0

Bibliography

Abercrombie, Patrick. Greater London Plan. London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1945.

Asher, Wayne. Rings Around London: Orbital Motorways and the Battle for Homes before Roads. Harrow Weald: Capital Transport, 2018.

Blake, Jim, and Jonathan James. Northern Wastes. Palmers Green: North London Transport Society, 1989.

David, Gareth. Croydon Tramlink: A Definitive History. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Transport, 2020.

Day, John. The Story of the Victoria Line. London: London Transport, 1969.

Forman, Jay. ‘What Happened to London’s Trams’. Jay Forman Youtube Channel, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ji3C_PjJonM.

Fowler, James. ‘How History Challenges Current Thinking on Hybridity: The Effects of Hybridity on London’s Transport 1933–1948’. In Hybridity in the Governance and Delivery of Public Services, edited by Andrea Bonomi Savignon, Luca Gnan, Alessandro Hinna, and Fabio Monteduro, 7–28. Bingley: Emerald Publishing Limited, 2018.

Fowler, James. London Transport: A Hybrid in History 1905-1948. Bingley: Emerald Publishing Limited, 2019.

Fowler, James. Strategy and Managed Decline: London Transport 1948-1987. Bingley: Emerald Publishing Limited, 2021.

Glover, John. Rails Across London. Manchester: Crecy Publishing Ltd, 2018.

Gourvish, Terence. British Railways 1948-73: A Business History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Harley, Robert. Lord Ashfield’s Trams: How London Lost a World Class Tramway System. Harrow Weald: Capital Transport, 2015.

Harris, Sim. London Transport a Brief History. Dunstable: Railhub, 2011.

Horne, Mike. The Jubilee Line. Harrow Weald: Capital Transport Publishing Ltd., 2000.

Horne, Mike The Victoria Line. London: Douglas Rose, 1988.

James, Jonathan. London Underground: The Northern Line. Stamford: Key Books, 2023.

Lee, Charles. The Bakerloo Line: A Brief History. London: London Transport, 1973.

Oakley, E. R., and C. L. Withey. Improving London’s Trams 1932-7. Broxborurne: LRTA Publications, 1988.

O’Brien, Terence. British Experiments in Public Ownership and Control: A Study of the Central Electricity Board, British Broadcasting Corporation and London Passenger Transport Board. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1937.

Wilson, G Lloyd. ‘The London Passenger Transport Board - A Public Transport Trust’. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 201, no. 1 (1939): 118–23.

Support the Podcast through our Patreon and get bonus episodes, behind the scenes content and more: www.patreon.com/railstonowhere

Thanks to our wonderful Patreons who help make Rails to Nowhere happen and especial thanks to our £10 patreon ValkyrieLeamons.

Music: Cassette by Infraction https://inaudio.org/track/cassette-synthwave/ used under Creative Commons Attribution Unported 3.0 (CC BY 3.0)

Show notes

In this episode we are back on the road as we talk about how the LPTB sought to adapt its Tram and bus systems to the changing needs of London over this period.

Follow the podcast on Twitter, www.twitter.com/railstonowhere and Instagram www.instagram.com/railstonowhere

Support the Podcast through our Patreon and get bonus episodes, behind the scenes content and more: www.patreon.com/railstonowhere

Thanks to our wonderful Patreons who help make Rails to Nowhere happen and especial thanks to our £10 patreon ValkyrieLeamons.

Follow Simon at: www.twitter.com/reddragontweets

Music: Cassette by Infraction https://inaudio.org/track/cassette-synthwave/ used under Creative Commons Attribution Unported 3.0 (CC BY 3.0)

Bibliography

Baker, Michael. London Transport in the 1930s. Hersham: Ian Allan, 2007.

Baker, Michael. London Transport. Oxford: Shire, 2016.

Baker, Michael. London Transport 1933-1962. Shepperton: Ian Allan, 1996.

Cowderoy, J. E., and J. H. Benford. ‘The Co-Ordination and Development of Road Transport’. In Staff Meetings Session 1937-38, 1–22. London: London Passenger Transport Board, 1938.

Forman, Jay. ‘What Happened to London’s Trams’. Jay Forman Youtube Channel, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ji3C_PjJonM.

Glazier, Ken. London Buses Before the War. Harrow Weald: Capital Transport, 1995.

Green, Oliver. London Buses. Stroud: Amberley, 2019.

Harley, Robert. LCC Electric Tramways. Harrow Weald: Capital Transport, 2002.

———. Lord Ashfield’s Trams: How London Lost a World Class Tramway System. Harrow Weald: Capital Transport, 2015.

Kevin Tennent and David Turner. ‘The Transport Tavern: Trams & Pacers, with Kevin Tennent’. Dr David Turner You Tube Channel, 18 May 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvAe62mdpPE&list=PLeKnFHihTV5rj6FLgNoLcqRwQoXSs5YsI&index=13&t=2773s.

Law, Michael John. ‘“The Car Indispensable”: The Hidden Influence of the Car in Inter-War Suburban London’. Journal of Historical Geography 38 (2012): 424–33.

Law, Michael John. The Experience of Suburban Modernity: How Private Transport Changed Interwar London. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2014.

London Passenger Transport Board. ‘Fifth Annual Report and Statement of Accounts and Statistics for Year Ended 30 June 1938’. London Passenger Transport Board, 1938. LT000237/026. TfL Corporate Archive.

LPTB. ‘First Annual Report and Statement of Accounts and Statistics for the Year Ended 30 June 1934’. London Passenger Transport Board, 1934. LT000146/001. TfL Corporate Archive.

LPTB. ‘Fourth Annual Report and Statement of Accounts and Statistics for the Year Ended 30 June 1937’. London Passenger Transport Board, 1937. LT001011/004. TfL Corporate Archive.

LPTB. ‘Frank Pick: Correspondence, Minutes and Memoranda Concerning Development Proposals’. London Passenger Transport Board, 1940 1935. LT000475. TfL Corporate Archive.

LPTB. ‘Second Annual Report and Statement of Accounts and Statistics for the Year Ended 30 June 1935’. London Passenger Transport Board, 1935. LT001011/002. TfL Corporate Archive.

LPTB. ‘Sixth Annual Report and Statement of Accounts and Statistics for the Year Ended 30 June 1939’. London Passenger Transport Board, 1939. P.P.1111.la. British Library.

LPTB. ‘Third Annual Report and Statement of Accounts and Statistics for the Year Ended 30 June 1936’. London Passenger Transport Board, 1936. LT000237/024. TfL Corporate Archive.

Oakley, E. R., and C. L. Withey. Improving London’s Trams 1932-7. Broxborurne: LRTA Publications, 1988.

Tennant, Kevin D. ‘The Vulnerability Paradox: The Illusion of Permanence in the UK Public Transport Industry’. In Transport and Its Place in History: Making the Connections, edited by David Turner, 53–76. Abingdon: Routledge, 2020.

Wright, Daniel. ‘A Station of Two Halves (Southgate Underground and Bus Stations, London, UK)’. The Beauty of Transport, 2015. https://thebeautyoftransport.com/2015/08/05/a-station-of-two-halves-southgate-underground-and-bus-stations-london-uk/.

Wright, Daniel. ‘Country Strong, Part 1 (the London Country Bus Garages of Wallis, Gilbert & Partners, UK)’. The Beauty of Transport, 2015. https://thebeautyoftransport.com/2015/01/07/country-strong-part-1-the-london-country-bus-garages-of-wallis-gilbert-and-partners-uk/.

Wright, Daniel. ‘Country Strong, Part 2 (the London Country Bus Garages of Wallis, Gilbert & Partners, UK)’. The Beauty of Transport, 2015. https://thebeautyoftransport.com/2015/01/14/country-strong-part-2-the-london-country-bus-garages-of-wallis-gilbert-and-partners-uk/.

Wright, Daniel. ‘The Bus Station Now Arriving (The Fall and Rise of British Bus Station Design)’. The Beauty of Transport, 2016. https://thebeautyoftransport.com/2016/05/18/the-bus-station-now-arriving-the-fall-and-rise-of-british-bus-station-design/.

Show Notes

In this episode Simon and Ela are talking all things Underground as we move into the expansion of the LT network during the 1930s. Known as the “New Works Programme” this set of works was the principle project of the LPTB during its existence and would see the Underground become, for the first time an integrated network and reach its arms out into even more of London’s suburbs.

Follow the podcast on Twitter, www.twitter.com/railstonowhere and Instagram www.instagram.com/railstonowhere

Support the Podcast through our Patreon and get bonus episodes, behind the scenes content and more: www.patreon.com/railstonowhere

Thanks to our wonderful Patreons who help make Rails to Nowhere happen and especial thanks to our £10 patreon ValkyrieLeamons.

Follow Simon at: www.twitter.com/reddragontweets

Music: Cassette by Infraction https://inaudio.org/track/cassette-synthwave/ used under Creative Commons Attribution Unported 3.0 (CC BY 3.0)

Bibliography

Abbott, Joshua. Tube Station Anthology 1924-1961. Art Deco Magpie, 2022.

Badsey-Ellis, Antony. The Hampstead Tube: A History of the First 100 Years. Harrow: Capital Transport, 2007.

Baker, Michael. London Transport in the 1930s. Hersham: Ian Allan, 2007.

Barker, Theo. A History of London Transport: Passenger Travel and the Development of the Metropolis, Vol. 2, the Twentieth Century to 1970. 2 vols. Allen & Unwin, 1974.

Barman, Christian. The Man Who Built London Transport: A Biography of Frank Pick by Christian Barman. Newton Abbot: David and Charles, 1979.

Beard, Tony. By Tube Beyond Edgware. Harrow Weald: Capital Transport, 2002.

Blake, Jim, and Jonathan James. Northern Wastes. Palmers Green: North London Transport Society, 1989.

Croome, Desmond. ‘Services Proposed for 1935-1940 New Works Program: Bakerloo, Central and Metropolitan Lines’. Underground News, Hemel Hempstead, October 1993.

Croome, Desmond, and Alan Jackson. Rails Through the Clay: A History of London’s Tube Railways. 2nd Edition. Harrow Weald: Capital Transport, 1993.

Durning, Stephen. London Underground Stations. Harrow Weald: Capital Transport, 2010.

Forman, Jay. ‘The Unfinished Northern Line’. Jay Forman Youtube Channel, 2009. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjuD288JlCs.

Fowler, James. London Transport: A Hybrid in History 1905-1948. Bingley: Emerald Publishing Limited, 2019.

Foxell, Clive. The Metropolitan Line. Stroud: The History Press, 2010.

Hawkes, Irene. A History of the Metropolitan Railway & Metro-Land. Manchester: Oxford Publishing Co, 2018.

Horne, Mike. The Piccadilly Tube: A History of the First 100 Year. Harrow: Capital Transport Publishing Ltd., 2007.

Jackson, Alan. London’s Metropolitan Railway. London: David and Charles, 1986.

Lawrence, David. Bright Underground Spaces: The Railways Stations of Charles Holden. Harrow Weald: Capital Transport, 2008.

———. The Moving Metropolis: A History of London’s Transport Since 1800. Edited by Sheila Taylor. Second. London: Laurence King Publishing, 2015.

Lee, Charles. The Bakerloo Line: A Breif History. London: London Transport, 1973.

London & North Eastern Railway. ‘Proposed Electrification of Great Northern Suburban Area’. London & North Eastern Railway, 1931. Rail 390/263. National Archive.

London Passenger Transport Board. ‘Estimated Population North and South of the Thames 1940 and 1950’. Frank Pick: Correspondence, Minutes and Memoranda Concerning Development Proposals. London Passenger Transport Board, 1939. LT000475. TfL Corporate Archive.

———. ‘Estimated Traffic and Financial Results of Proposed Extension from Edgware to Elstree’. Northern Extension - London And North Eastern Railway Company and Northern Line. London, 1934. LT000254/405. TfL Corporate Archive.

———. ‘First Annual Report and Statement of Accounts and Statistics for the Year Ended 30 June 1934’. London Passenger Transport Board, 1934. LT000146/001. TfL Corporate Archive.

———. ‘Fourth Annual Report and Statement of Accounts and Statistics for the Year Ended 30 June 1937’. London Passenger Transport Board, 1937. LT001011/004. TfL Corporate Archive.

———. ‘Frank Pick: Correspondence, Minutes and Memoranda Concerning Development Proposals’. London Passenger Transport Board, 1940 1935. LT000475. TfL Corporate Archive.

———. ‘Proposed Extension of the Bakerloo Line From Elephant & Castle to Camberwell Green’. Frank Pick: Correspondence, Minutes and Memoranda Concerning Development Proposals. London Passenger Transport Board, 1939. LT000475. TfL Corporate Archive.

———. ‘Road Transport in Relation to Railway Development (In Connection with Survey Carried out by Mr J. P. Thomas)’. Frank Pick: Correspondence, Minutes and Memoranda Concerning Development Proposals. London Passenger Transport Board, 1940. LT000475. TfL Corporate Archive.

———. ‘Second Annual Report and Statement of Accounts and Statistics for the Year Ended 30 June 1935’. London Passenger Transport Board, 1935. LT001011/002. TfL Corporate Archive.

———. ‘Third Annual Report and Statement of Accounts and Statistics for the Year Ended 30 June 1936’. London Passenger Transport Board, 1936. LT000237/024. TfL Corporate Archive.

Maxwell, F. G. ‘Train Services on the 1935-40 Railway Extensions’. In Staff Meeting Session 1938-39. London: London Passenger Transport Board, 1939.

Office of the General Manager (Railways). ‘Relief of Morden - Edgware and Piccadilly Lines and Electrification of Main Line Suburban Services’. Northern Extension - London And North Eastern Railway Company and Northern Line. London: London Passenger Transport Board, 1937. LT000254/405. TfL Corporate Archive.

Office of the Vice Chairman. ‘Report for Submission to Board: Morden - Edgware Line Extension from Edgware to Elstree’. Northern Extension - London And North Eastern Railway Company and Northern Line. London Passenger Transport Board, 1934. LT000254/405. TfL Corporate Archive.

Wolmar, Christian. The Subterranean Railway: How the London Underground Was Built and How It Changed the City Forever. London: Atlantic Books, 2005.

Show Notes

In this episode we continue our look at the outcomes of Simon’s dissertation research as we discuss the changing shape of suburban development between the 1890s and the 1930s. The 1930s semi is a classic part of the suburban image of London, but how did this housing format come to dominate and why is it so inextricably tied with the rise of the motor car and what challenges did it present London Transport for serving these areas?

Part of the research for this episode stems from Simon dissertation, submitted in pursuit of his MA in Railway Studies from the University of York, so an acknowledgement of the support from Dr David Turner and Dr Kevin Tenant in writing that dissertation is due.

Follow our Twitter: www.twitter.com/railstonowhere

Follow Simon at: www.twitter.com/reddragontweets

Support the Podcast through our Patreon and get bonus episodes, behind the scenes content and more: www.patreon.com/railstonowhere

Thanks to our wonderful Patreons who help make Rails to Nowhere happen and especial thanks to our £10 patreon ValkyrieLeamons.

Bibliography

Abercrombie, Patrick. Greater London Plan. London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1945.

Asher, Wayne. Rings Around London: Orbital Motorways and the Battle for Homes before Roads. Harrow Weald: Capital Transport, 2018.

Barker, Theo. The Rise and Rise of Road Transport, 1700-1990. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1993.

Hardy, Dennis. ‘Garden Cities: Practical Concept, Elusive Reality’. Journal of Planning History 4, no. 4 (2005): 383–91.

Harrow-on-the-Hill Urban District Council. ‘Harrow-on-the-Hill Urban District Council Town Planning Scheme Map No. 25’, 1925. Headstone Mannor Museum.

Hawkes, Irene. A History of the Metropolitan Railway & Metro-Land. Manchester: Oxford Publishing Co, 2018.

Howard, Ebenezer. Garden Cities of Tomorrow. London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co. Ltd., 1902.

Jackson, Alan. London’s Metroland. Harrow: Capital Transport, 2006.

Law, Michael John. ‘“The Car Indispensable”: The Hidden Influence of the Car in Inter-War Suburban London’. Journal of Historical Geography 38 (2012): 424–33.

Law, Michael John. The Experience of Suburban Modernity: How Private Transport Changed Interwar London. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2014.

London Passenger Transport Board. ‘Fourth Annual Report and Statement of Accounts and Statistics for the Year Ended 30 June 1937’. London Passenger Transport Board, 1937. LT001011/004. TfL Corporate Archive.

London Passenger Transport Board. ‘Road Transport in Relation to Railway Development (In Connection with Survey Carried out by Mr J. P. Thomas)’. Frank Pick: Correspondence, Minutes and Memoranda Concerning Development Proposals. London Passenger Transport Board, 1940. LT000475. TfL Corporate Archive.

‘Metroland’. BBC, 1973.

Metropolitan Railway. Metro-Land (1924 Edition). Edited by London Transport Museum. 2004 Facsi. London: Southbank Publishing, 2004.

Ministry of Transport. Design and Layout of Roads in Built-Up Areas. 1957th ed. London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1946.

Porter, Roy. London: A Social History. London: Penguin History, 1994.

‘Report of the Town Planning Committee’. Harrow Urban District Council, 3 May 1935.

‘Report of the Town Planning Committee’. Harrow Urban District Council, 11 November 1938.

Scott, Peter. ‘Marketing Mass Home Ownership and the Creation of the Modern Working-Class Consumer in Interwar Britain’. Business History 50, no. 1 (n.d.): 4–25.

Scott, Peter. The Making of the Modern British Home: The Suburban Semi and Family Life between the Wars. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.

Sutcliffe, Anthony. ‘Introduction: The Debate on Nineteenth-Century Planning’. In The Rise of Modern Urban Planning 1800-1914, edited by Anthony Sutcliffe, 1:1–10. Planning and the Environment  in the Modern World. London: Mansell, 1980.

‘Town and Country Planning Act 1932’, 1932. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1932/48/enacted.

‘Town Planning Act 1925’, 1925. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/acts/town-planning-act-1925.

Town Planning Info. ‘History of Town Planning in England’, 2023. https://www.townplanning.info/what-is-town-planning/history-of-town-planning-in-england/.

UK Parliament. ‘Council Housing’. UK Parliament Website, 2023. https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/towncountry/towns/overview/councilhousing/.

Watson, Henry. Street Traffic Flow. Cheep Edit. London: Chapman and Hall Ltd., 1935.

Support the Podcast through our Patreon and get bonus episodes, behind the scenes content and more: www.patreon.com/railstonowhere

Thanks to our wonderful Patreons who help make Rails to Nowhere happen and especial thanks to our £10 patreon ValkyrieLeamons.

Bibliography

Badsey-Ellis, Antony. ‘Building and Financing the District Railway’. In 150 Years of the District, 4–15. Crowthorne: Capital Transport Publishing Ltd., 2018.

———. London’s Lost Tube Schemes. Harrow: Capital Transport, 2005.

———. The Hampstead Tube: A History of the First 100 Years. Harrow: Capital Transport, 2007.

Barker, Theo. A History of London Transport: Passenger Travel and the Development of the Metropolis, Vol. 2, the Twentieth Century to 1970. 2 vols. Allen & Unwin, 1974.

———. ‘“Unification by Statute” and “The London Passenger Transport Board”’. In A History of London Transport: Passenger Travel and the Development of the Metropolis, Vol. 2, the Twentieth Century to 1970, 270–311 & 407–9. London: Allen & Unwin, 1974.

Barman, Christian. The Man Who Built London Transport: A Biography of Frank Pick by Christian Barman. Newton Abbot: David and Charles, 1979.

Cain, P.J. ‘Railways, 1870-1914: The Maturity of the Private System’. In Transport in Victorian Britain, edited by Micheal J. Freeman and Derek H. Aldcroft, 92–133. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1988.

Channon, Geoffrey. Railways in Britain and the United States, 1830-1940 : Studies in Economic and Business History. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001.

Connor, Piers. Going Green: The Story of the District Line. Harrow Weald: Capital Transport Publishing Ltd., 1994.

Crafts, Nicolas, Timothy Leunig, and Abay Mulatu. ‘Were British Railway Companies Well Managed in the Early Twentieth Century?’ Economic History Review 64, no. 1 (2008): 842–66.

Crame, Thomas. ‘Signalling on the District’. In 150 Years of the District, 64–67. Crowthorne: Capital Transport Publishing Ltd., 2018.

Croome, Desmond, and Alan Jackson. Rails Through the Clay: A History of London’s Tube Railways. 2nd Edition. Harrow Weald: Capital Transport, 1993.

Franch, John. Robber Baron: The Life of Charles Tyson Yerkes. Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2008.

Green, Oliver. ‘Appearance Values: Frank Pick and the Art of London Transport’. In London Transport Posters: A Century of Art and Design, edited by David Bownes and Oliver Green, 37–62. Aldershot: Lund Humphries, 2008.

Hawkes, Irene. A History of the Metropolitan Railway & Metro-Land. Manchester: Oxford Publishing Co, 2018.

Horne, Mike. London’s District Railway A History of the Metropolitan District Railway: Volume I: Nineteenth Century. Crowthorne: Capital Transport Publishing Ltd., 2018.

———. The Piccadilly Tube: A History of the First 100 Year. Harrow: Capital Transport Publishing Ltd., 2007.

Jackson, Alan. London’s Metropolitan Railway. London: David and Charles, 1986.

Kenton, Will. ‘Robber Barons’. Investopedia, 2018. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/robberbarons.asp.

Mitchell, Brian, David Chambers, and Nick Crafts. ‘How Good Was the Profitability of British Railways, 1870-1912?’ The Economic History Review 64, no. 3 (2011): 798–831.

Murphy, Simon. ‘The American Father of the London Underground – Charles Tyson Yerkes’. The American Magazine, 2019. https://www.theamerican.co.uk/pr/ft-Charles-Tyson-Yerkes-London-Underground.

Sherwood, Tim. Charles Tyson Yerkes: The Traction King of London. Stroud: The History Press, 2008.

Stack, Martin, and Myles P. Gartland. ‘Path Creation, Path Dependency, and Alternative Theories of the Firm’. Journal of Economic Issues 37, no. 2 (2003): 487–94.

Turner, David. ‘Managing the “Royal Road”: The London & South Western Railway 1870-1911’, 2013.

Wolmar, Christian. The Subterranean Railway: How the London Underground Was Built and How It Changed the City Forever. London: Atlantic Books, 2005.