page_title: Underground Electric Railways Company of London
section_title: Construction of the tube railways
hierarchical_section_title: Underground Electric Railways Company of London / Engineering works / Construction of the tube railways
caption_attribution_description: The glorious red-tiled frontage of Russell Square station on the Piccadilly line
context_page_description: The Underground Electric Railways Company of London Limited, known operationally as the Underground for much of its existence, was established in 1902. It was the holding company for the three deep-level "tube" underground railway lines opened in London during 1906 and 1907: the Baker Street and Waterloo Railway, the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway and the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway. It was also the parent company from 1902 of the District Railway, which it electrified between 1903 and 1905. The UERL is a precursor of today's London Underground; its three tube lines form the central sections of today's Bakerloo, Northern and Piccadilly lines.
  The UERL struggled financially in the first years after the opening of its lines and narrowly avoided bankruptcy in 1908 by restructuring its debt. A policy of expansion by acquisition was followed before World War I, so that the company came to operate the majority of the underground railway lines in and around London. It also controlled large bus and tram fleets, the profits from which subsidised the financially weaker railways.
context_section_description: With funds in place, construction of the BS&WR was quickly restarted. 50 per cent of the tunnelling and 25 per cent of the station work had been completed before work had been stopped, and by February 1904 virtually all of the tunnels and underground parts of the stations between Elephant & Castle and Marylebone were complete and works on the station buildings were under way. Construction of the GNP&BR and the CCE&HR began in July 1902 and proceeded quickly so that the UERL was able to record in its annual report in October 1904 that 80 per cent of the GNP&BR's and 75 per cent of the CCE&HR's tunnels had been completed.
  Following the pattern adopted by the earlier tube lines, each of the UERL's lines was constructed as a pair of circular tunnels using tunnelling shields with segmental cast iron tunnel linings bolted together and grouted into place as the shield advanced. Generally the tunnels followed surface roads and were constructed side by side, but where the width of the road above was insufficient, tunnels were placed one above the other. Stations on all three lines were provided with surface buildings designed by the UERL's architect Leslie Green in a standardised style modified for each site. These consisted of two-storey steel-framed buildings faced with red glazed terracotta blocks with wide semi-circular windows on the upper floor. The stations had flat roofs and were designed to accommodate upward extension for commercial development. Most stations were provided with between two and four lifts and an emergency spiral staircase in a separate shaft. At platform level, the wall tiling featured the station name and an individual geometric pattern and colour scheme designed by Green.
  The UERL used a Westinghouse automatic signalling system operated through electrified track circuits. This controlled signals based on the presence or absence of a train on the track ahead. Signals incorporated an arm that was raised when the signal was red. If a train failed to stop at a red signal, the arm would activate a "tripcock" on the train; applying the brakes automatically.
caption: Russell Square station, an example of the Leslie Green design used for the UERL's stations
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