Royal Commission on Metropolitan Railway Termini
The Royal Commission to Investigate the Various Projects for Establishing Railway Termini Within or in the Immediate Vicinity of the Metropolis (usually referred to as the Royal Commission on Metropolitan Railway Termini) was a Royal commission established in 1846 with a remit to review and report on railway termini in London. The commission recommended that lines north of the River Thames should be prevented from entering the central area. The absence of rail connections contributed to the creation of the Metropolitan Railway, the first part of the London Underground. Establishment. The Royal Commission on  Metropolitan Railway Termini was established on 2 April 1846. It had five commissioners: Remit and investigation. The royal commission was established by parliament to examine proposals for railway terminals in central London and advise if any should be allowed to be constructed within an area that parliament had proposed as a railway-free zone. At the time, Britain was in the midst of Railway mania with 435 bills submitted for parliamentary consideration in England and Wales with nineteen new lines and termini proposed for London. The commission's remit was limited to evaluating proposed lines that came into the urban  area bounded by Edgware Road, New Road (now Old Marylebone Road, Marylebone Road, Euston Road, Pentonville Road), City Road, Finsbury Square, Bishopsgate Street, London Bridge, Borough High Street, Blackman Street, Borough Road, Lambeth Road, Vauxhall Road (now Kennington Road, Kennington Lane), Vauxhall Bridge Road, Grosvenor Place and Park Lane. Within the area under consideration the nineteen proposed new lines and termini were identified as: North Side of the River Thames South Side of the River Thames Report. The commission interviewed representatives of the various railway companies and other proponents of schemes and collected and collated a body of information. The  commission's report was presented to the House of Lords on 29 June 1846 and published in "The Times" newspaper on 1 July 1846. It was supported by the "Minutes of Evidence" containing the interviews and information collected. The commission made five recommendations: Afterwards. None of the schemes north of the river proceeded and the subsequent locations of King's Cross (opened 1852), St Pancras (1868) and Marylebone (1899) stations were on the north side of the New Road. The schemes south of the river did not proceed directly in the form proposed to the commission. Entries by main line  railways into the commission's review area were permitted during the 1860s: Outside the central area various railway companies made connections to each other, informally delivering the commission's recommendation for an encircling railway. The North London Railway (opened 1850) and North and South Western Junction Railway (1853), the West London Railway (1844) and West London Extension Railway (1863), the East London Railway (1869 to 1876) and lines constructed by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway and the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (1863 to 1866), provided connections between routes. Though mainly used for goods services, some semi-circuitous  passenger services were run as the Outer Circle. The lack of railways into the central area continued to be a problem for travellers and was one of the factors that encouraged proposals for an underground railway connecting the stations on the perimeter of the exclusion zone. The Metropolitan Railway was promoted by Charles Pearson and the first section opened between Farringdon and Paddington in 1863. The line progressively extended from both ends forming connections with the Metropolitan District Railway to complete the Inner Circle in 1876. Both companies extended branches from their central sections into the outlying districts to bring  commuters into the capital. The success of the two underground railway companies led to numerous proposals for other underground lines. The first of these, the deeply tunnelled City and South London Railway, opened in 1890 and was followed by a series of similar lines. In the next two decades, the Waterloo and City Railway (1898), the Central London Railway (1900), the Great Northern and City Railway (1904), the Baker Street and Waterloo Railway (1906), the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (1906) and the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway (1907) all opened beneath the central area forming the nucleus  of the London Underground.