page_title: Underground Electric Railways Company of London
section_title: Extensions and improvements
hierarchical_section_title: Underground Electric Railways Company of London / Operation / Extensions and improvements
caption_attribution_description: English: 55 Broadway, designed by Charles Holden, built 1927&#8211;29. This is the headquarters of London Underground above St. James's Park Underground station.
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: Another way in which the UERL tried to improve income was the construction of extensions to its lines to generate additional passenger traffic, often through the stimulation of new housing developments in the areas through which the lines ran. 
  The DR was extended to Uxbridge in 1910, by a connection made to the MR. In 1913, the Bakerloo Tube was extended to Paddington and to Queen's Park and Watford Junction four years later. The Hampstead tube was extended a short distance at its southern end to provide an interchange with the Bakerloo and the DR at Embankment in 1914. It was extended at its northern end from Golders Green into the Middlesex countryside to reach Edgware in 1924. In 1926, the Hampstead tube was extended south to connect to the C&SLR at Kennington in conjunction with a reconstruction of the C&SLR and its 1926 extension from Clapham Common to Morden. The CLR was extended to Ealing Broadway in 1920. Permission for an extension of the line to Richmond was obtained in 1913 and again in 1920, but was not used. Later, during 1932 and 1933, the Piccadilly Tube was extended at both ends: in the north from Finsbury Park to Cockfosters, and in the west from Hammersmith to Hounslow and Uxbridge using the DR's tracks.
  In addition, a programme of modernising many of the Underground's busiest central London stations was started; providing them with escalators to replace lifts. New and refurbished rolling stock was gradually introduced on a number of lines with automatic sliding doors along the length of the carriages instead of manual end gates, reducing boarding times. By the middle of the 1920s, the organisation had expanded to such an extent that a large, new headquarters building designed by Charles Holden was constructed at 55 Broadway over St. James's Park station.
caption: 55 Broadway, St James's, headquarters of the London Electric Railway
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