The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-07-17 00:00:00

NEW RAILWAY FACILITIES IN
LONDON.

The following particulars of the new line connecting the
Metropolitan Railway with Bishopsgate, which was opened
on Monday for public traffic, are from The Times, and as it
affords new facilities for travelling over the Metropolis, it
will interest those who resort there either for business or
pleasure :
The railway improvements and clearances effected
by the North London, Great Eastern, and Metropo-
litan Railways have completely changed the character
of the district between Finsbury-circus and Bishopsgate-
street, one of the best known remaining landmarks of
which is the Roman Catholic Church, Moorfields.
Three large and handsome buildings—one semi-palatial
in its architectural elevation and extent,—now occupy
this site, and form the termini of the railways above
mentioned. People who hurry along the great thorough-
fare of Bishopsgate-street can hardly fail to notice the
almost entire demolition of Liverpool-street just above
St. Botolph's Church. When these houses are replaced,
as they will be in the course of a few months, by a vast
range of elegantly-fitted shops, the newly-constructed
railway termini, with their approaches, will be-
come one of the architectural features of London.
The largest of these edifices—the semi-quadrangular
terminus of the Great Eastern Railway—is not yet
completed, and is only mentioned now as perhaps
the finest railway terminus in London and the chief
architectural feature of the new and vast area just
opened out, The building next in size is the solid and
handsome terminus of the North Londgn Railway in
Broad-street, which has been openedifor some time.
Lastly comes a new and elegant fafaclO which imme-

diately faces the North London and the Great Eastern
Stations, and which is at present the eastern terminus
of the Metropolitan Railway. This new station will
bring the traffic of the Eastern counties and the
northern and eastern suburban districts upon the
Metropolitan Railway, and will form the great and
much-desired connecting link between the east and west
of London.

1 .. . Fourteen trains an hour will arrive and depart
and the spacious and coirmodious station, with its
booking-offices and waiting-rooms, will be thronged by
hundreds of railway travellers. It is the largest
station of the Metropolitan Railway, and as it is
brought into direct communication with the Great
Eastern and North London systems, and as trains at
two-minute intervals can be worked in and out of the
station, it is expected to attract the largest traffic of
any station on the Metropolitan line. The new con-
neecting-link begins at the Moorgate-street station of
the Metropolitan railway, and is carried under Moor-
gate-street and Finsbury-circus. It emerges between
two well-known places of worship —the Congregational
Chapel and St. Mary's Catholic Church, Moorfields—
into a wide and extensive open cutting running
parallel with the entire frontage of the North London
Railway on the opposite side of Liverpool-street.
Before the new station is reached there is a roomy
signal-box fitted up with 44 levers, and containing all
the latest improvements in interlocking machinery.. .
Standing at the signal-box on the line, it is seen that
the handsome brick station with facings of Portland
and Bath stone, and architectural elevation sufficient
to provide two or three rows of chambers and offices
over the booking-offices, actually stands upon broad
iron girders which cross the line. Passing under these
girders, which also support the roadway in Broad-street,
the station platforms are reached. They are protected
I from the weather by a light, lofty, and well-ventilated
roof of glass and iron. The span of the roof is 75ft.,
and the height from the rails about 40ft. There are
platforms for three lines of railway—a side platform of
18ft. in width, and a centre platform of 24ft. The
length of the platforms is 370 ft., and the width of the
station 85ft. Two light, airy, and cheerful subways,
the one 20 and the other 30 yards in length, lined with
white enamelled tiles and white glazed bricks, are
carried from the up platform under Liverpool-street,
and will enable the Metropolitan passengers to
reach the Great Eastern terminus. At the
eastern end of the station the tunnel has been con-
structed and rails laid down for direct train traffic
connexion (without change of carriage) with the Great
Eastern system. The glass andiron roof of the station
is supported on the Liverpool-street side by eight lofty
and handsome iron columns, the additional strength
being required to support a range of shops and offices
fronting the Great Eastern station. The booking-
office upstairs is gained by light, broad, and elegant
double staircases, with separate means of ingress and
egress for passengers arriving at and leaving the station.
The station building has a façade both in Liverpool-
street and Broad-street New Buildings of about 150 ft.
in all. Within are separate booking-offices at one end
for first and second-class passengers and through traffic,
and at the other for third-class suburban traffic. The
experience gained by the directors and managers of the
Metropolitan Railway since its opening in 1863 has, in
short, been brought to bear at the new station to pro-
mote the comfort and accommodation of the public.
The new line . . . from Moorgate-street to Broad-
street is about 480 yards in length. It has been laid
with solid steel rails' weighing 861 b. to the yard, and
is the heaviest road known. It has been about two
years in construction. Some engineering difficulties
were met, especially in connection with the Pro-
Cathedral in Moorfields. It was found that the church
was built on piles, and that the foundations were bad.
The first stratum was composed of debris, the next
of peat, then gravel, and lastly clay. The piles
had only been taken down as far as the gravel,
and it was found necessary to underpin the church,
the vaults, schools, &c., and put a concrete
foundation to the entire fabric. The side walls
of the Congregational Chapel had also to be un-
derpinned, while the London Provident Institution
which stand midway between the two, but nearer the
station, had to be entirely taken down and rebuilt
The improvements do not end here. A publithouse
called the Railway Taverns which now occupies the
corner of Broad-street Buildings, is to come down,
and in its place a handsome restaurant or hotel, facing
the North .London and Great Eastern termini, will be
erected, in an admirable situation for business. Broad-
street will also be widened about eight feet in front of
the new station, so as to accommodate the traffic to
the Bank.

The effect of the new connecting link upon the rail-
way system of the metropolis will be easily understood.
The entire service of trains now running over the Me-
tropolitan line to the Moorgate-street station will run
into the new Bishopsgate Station. Thus passengers
from Hammersmith, Addison-road, and South Ken-
sington (by the inner circle route), passengers by the
main-line trains of the Great Western Railway, and
passengers arriving at Moorgate-street by the trains of
the London, Chatham, and Dover, Midland, and
Great Northern can come on to Bishopsgate
from Moorgate. Passengers by the Metropolitan
trains will, of course, come on without change
of carriages, while the passengers by other com-
panies trams will change at Moorgate-street into the
Metropolitan trains. The Great Eastern will gain
largely by the enterprise of the Metropolitan directors
in so promptly coming to Bishopsgate to meet its trains,
and to bring their traffic into the centre and west of
London. Through booking arrangements already exist
between all the stations on the Great Eastern and
Metropolitan lines, and there is already a very large
interchange of traffic. . . .

It may be said that, practically, the Metropolitan
directors gis e their passengers the benefit of this costly
extension for nothing. The fares from all the Metro-
politan stations to the new station. . . will be exactly
the same as to Moorgate Station. The directors rely
for the return of their capital upon the increased
facilities offered to the public, and upon the consequent
development of their traffic. They have made another
step towards bringing the dense population of the
East into direct communication with the Centre and
West of London. The new station is in closer prox-
imity to the Bank, the Exchange, and the Docks than
its name " Bishopsgate " would imply, for Bishopgate
has lately come to be identified in the public mind with
Shoreditch, as the terminus of the old Eastern Coun-
ties line used to be called. The Great Eastern
has now really come to Bishopsgate, and it cannot be
too soon known that " Bishopsgate " really means
Broad-street, and is within some five minutes walk of
the Mansion-house and the "London Tavern." This is
the most important extension the Metropolitan has
ever made, but it has not yet reached its final terminus
at the East. The directors intend at the earliest pos-
sible moment to go on to Aldgate. Nearly_the whole
of the land is bought, and a station in High-street,
Aldgate, will probably be the next proof of their spirit
and enterprise. . . .