The London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom, in operation from 1833 to 1846, when it became part of the London and North Western Railway (L&NWR).
The 112-mile (180km) railway line which the company opened in 1838, between London and Birmingham, was the first intercity line to be built into London. It is now the southern section of the West Coast Main Line.
As early as 1823, a company was formed with the objective of building a railway between London and Birmingham, and in 1826, the engineer John Rennie surveyed a route through Oxford and Banbury, a route later taken by the Great Western Railway.[1]
In 1829 a rival company was formed by Francis Giles who proposed building a line through Watford Gap and Coventry. Neither company obtained backing for its scheme, and in late 1830 the two companies decided to merge. The new company appointed Robert Stephenson chief engineer, and after preparing a detailed survey, he chose the route through Watford Gap, largely to avoid possible flooding from the River Thames at Oxford.[1]
The L&BR
The prospectus for the London and Birmingham Railway offered the following inducements to potential investors:[1]
First, the opening of new and distant sources of supply of provisions to the metropolis; Second, Easy, cheap and expeditious travelling; Third; The rapid and economical interchange of the great articles of consumption and of commerce, both internal and external; and Lastly, the connexion by railways, of London with Liverpool, the rich pastures of the centre of England, and the greatest manufacturing districts; and, through the port of Liverpool, to afford a most expeditious communication with Ireland.
Cheffin's Map - Route of London and Birmingham Railway, 1850
The company was created with an initial capitalisation of £5,500,000.[2][lower-alpha 1] Much of the subscribed funds came from Lancashire, where great profits were being made in the cotton industries.[3]
The construction of the line was the subject of much opposition by landowners, who organised a campaign in the early 1830s to prevent the L&BR from driving a line across their estates. Turbulent public meetings were held in towns in west Hertfordshire to protest against the project, including one held at the King's Arms public house in Berkhamsted. Another was held in Watford which was attended by wealthy and influential peers of the realm who had property interests on the planned route of the line: the Earl of Essex was keen to protect his Cassiobury Estate from invasion by the "iron horse", as was the Earl of Clarendon, who owned The Grove Estate. The anatomist Sir Astley Cooper was also in attendance, intent on preventing the new railway from cutting across his Gadebridge Estate. On 22 June 1832, Lord Brownlow of Ashridge voiced his opposition in the House of Lords to "the forcing of the proposed railway through the land and property of so great a proportion of dissentient landowners."[4] The L&BR company's first application for an act of Parliament to construct the line was rejected in 1832, due to pressure from landowners and road and canal interests.
The railway route proposals through Hertfordshire were modified; a second parliamentary bill was approved in May 1833 as the London and Birmingham Railway Act 1833 (3 & 4 Will. 4. c. xxxvi), and the line received royal assent. Construction began in November of that year. The line would follow the River Bulbourne instead of the River Gade, skirting around the edge of Hemel Hempstead to protect Sir Astley Cooper's interests; for this reason, Hemel Hempstead railway station is located one mile (1.6km) outside the town centre, at Boxmoor.[4]
Construction
Making the embankment - Wolverton Valley (Great Ouse), 28 June 1837.
Peter Lecount, an assistant engineer of the London and Birmingham railway, produced a number of – possibly hyperbolic – comparisons in an effort to demonstrate that the London and Birmingham Railway was "the greatest public work ever executed either in ancient or modern times".[5] In particular, he suggested that the effort to build the Great Pyramid of Giza amounted to the lifting of 15,733,000,000cuft (445,500,000m3) of stone by 1 foot (0.305m).
The railway, excluding a long string of tasks (drainage, ballasting, and so on) involved the lifting of 25,000,000,000cuft (710,000,000m3) of material reduced to the weight of stone used in the pyramid. The pyramid involved, he says, the effort of 300,000 men (according to Diodorus Siculus) or 100,000 (according to Herodotus) for twenty years. The railway involved 20,000 men for five years. In passing, he also noted that the cost of the railway in penny pieces, was enough to more than form a belt of pennies around the equator; and the amount of material moved would be enough to build a wall 1 foot (305mm) high by one foot wide, more than three times around the equator.
Opening
Plaque at Curzon Street station commemorating the arrival of the first train from London to Birmingham
The line had been planned to open at the same time as the Grand Junction Railway which entered Birmingham from the north. However great difficulty in constructing the Kilsby Tunnel in Northamptonshire delayed the opening. The first part of the line between Euston Station[6] and Boxmoor (Hemel Hempstead) opened on 20 July 1837. Services were extended to Tring on 16 October 1837. On 9 April 1838 the company opened the north end of the line, between Birmingham and Rugby, and the south end from London to a temporary station at Denbigh Hall near Bletchley with a stagecoach shuttle service linking the two parts to allow through journeys to London. The line was officially fully opened on 17 September 1838, with the first passenger train from London to Birmingham arriving that day. The first London-to-Birmingham trains took 5+1⁄2 hours to complete the 112+1⁄2-mile (181.1km) journey.[7]
Camden Town stationary steam engine chimneys and locomotive workshops in 1838.
It has often been claimed that initially, owing to the lack of power available to early locomotives,[9] trains from Euston were cable-hauled up the relatively steep incline to Camden by a stationary steam engine. However, this was denied by Peter Lecount, one of the L&BR engineers, who wrote in his 'History of the Railway connecting London and Birmingham' (1839), page 48: "It is not because locomotives cannot draw a train of carriages up this incline that a fixed engine and endless rope are used, for they can and have done so, but because the Company are restricted, by their Act of Parliament, from running locomotive engines nearer London than Camden Town." The railway opened from Euston on 20 July 1837; the stationary engines and rope haulage did not commence until 27 September, and handled all trains from 14 October 1837. Until then, and whenever the rope system was stopped for repairs, locomotives hauled the trains up the incline. From November 1843 some expresses were worked without recourse to the rope, and from 15 July 1844 the rope working ceased permanently.
Initially, it was decided that it would be cheaper to work the railway by a contractor, and Edward Bury was chosen and awarded the contract in May 1836. The contract stipulated that the company would provide locomotives to Bury's specification, while he would maintain them in good repair and convey each passenger and each ton of goods for a fixed sum at a speed not to exceed 22+1⁄2 miles per hour (36.2km/h).
Bury provided specifications and drawings for a passenger and a goods engine, and by mid-1841 the L&BR was equipped with sixty 2-2-0 passenger engines and thirty 0-4-0 goods engines. They all had inside cylinders and dome-topped fireboxes, and were mounted on inside bar-frames; they were manufactured by seven different firms, including Bury's own.
Working the line by contract never worked in practice, because of the unforeseen ever-increasing traffic and the demand for higher speeds, so in July 1839 the contract was annulled, and thereafter Bury was engaged as manager of the Locomotive Department in the normal way, on a fixed salary with a profits bonus.
By the end of the L&BR's separate existence in July 1846, the total stock was about 120 locomotives; some six-wheeled engines had been acquired, but some of these proved inferior to the original four-wheelers.
The locomotive workshops were established in 1838 at Wolverton, roughly halfway between the two termini at London and Birmingham. These workshops remained in use for locomotive repairs until 1877, but had been gradually taken over by the Carriage Dept from 1864, and remained as a manufacturing facility up until the 1980s; today just a few parts of the original Wolverton railway works are used solely for rolling stock maintenance and repair.
Stations
When the railway was fully opened, it had sixteen intermediate stations between London and Birmingham. The "first-class" stations (served by all trains) were at Watford, Tring, Leighton, Wolverton, Blisworth, Weedon, Rugby and Coventry. Additionally, "second-class" intermediate stations (served by slower second-class trains only) were at Harrow, Boxmoor, Berkhamsted, Bletchley, Roade, Crick, Brandon and Hampton. Roade was later redesignated as first-class due to its stagecoach connections.[10] From about 1844 platforms were opened at Camden for tickets to be collected on southbound trains. This became a public station in 1851.[11]
Links and branches
Transfer certificate of the London and Birmingham Railway Company, issued 16. April 1842
The first branch from the main line was the Aylesbury Railway at Aylesbury Railway Junction, seven miles (11km) of single track, which opened in 1839 and was leased to the L&BR until purchased outright by the LNWR in 1846. The Warwick and Leamington Union Railway, a branch of almost nine miles (14km) between Coventry and Leamington, was purchased by the L&BR in 1843 and opened in 1844.
In 1845, the Northampton and Peterborough Railway, a 47-mile (76km) branch from the main line, was opened from Blisworth. Also in 1845 branch lines, from Bletchley to Bedford and from Leighton to Dunstable, were leased; they opened in 1846 and 1848. The 'London and Birmingham Railway Act 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. clvi) authorised the L&BR to lease the West London Railway, and this took effect from 1846 (jointly with the GWR). The West London Railway has opened in 1844 between Willesden Junction and the canal basin at Kensington.
The L&BR purchased the Trent Valley Railway in 1846 on behalf of the LNWR; this fifty-mile (80km) line connected Rugby on the L&BR with Stafford on the Grand Junction Railway thus creating a more direct line from London to Liverpool and Manchester by avoiding the original route through Birmingham. The Rugby and Stamford Railway, a further branch into the Eastern Counties was approved in 1846.
Merger
Hardwick's Curzon Street station, the Birmingham terminus of the line
Neither of the L&BR's original termini, both designed by Philip Hardwick, has survived in its original form. Curzon Street station in Birmingham closed to passenger traffic in 1854 (the original entrance building remains) when it was replaced by New Street station and the original Euston station in London was demolished in 1962 to make way for the present structure which opened in 1968. On the closure of Curzon Street as a passenger station, the site became the London and North Western Railway goods depot (Birmingham) and became fully operational in 1865. The Curzon Street goods site continued railway operations as a parcel depot until 1966. The remaining parts of the old passenger station received listed building status in 1952.[12]
Euston railway station is a major central London railway terminus managed by Network Rail in the London Borough of Camden. It is the southern terminus of the West Coast Main Line, the UK's busiest inter-city railway. Euston is the tenth-busiest station in Britain and the country's busiest inter-city passenger terminal, being the gateway from London to the West Midlands, North West England, North Wales and Scotland.
The London and North Western Railway was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the LNWR was the largest joint stock company in the world.
The Grand Junction Railway (GJR) was an early railway company in the United Kingdom, which existed between 1833 and 1846. The line built by the company, which opened in 1837, linked the Liverpool and Manchester Railway to Birmingham via Warrington, Crewe, Stafford and Wolverhampton. This was the first trunk railway to be completed in England, and arguably the world's first long-distance railway with steam traction. It terminated at Curzon Street Station in Birmingham, which it shared with the London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR), whose adjacent platforms gave an interchange with full connectivity between Liverpool, Manchester and London.
The Manchester and Birmingham Railway was built between Manchester and Crewe and opened in stages from 1840. Between Crewe and Birmingham, trains were worked by the Grand Junction Railway. The M&BR was merged into the London and North Western Railway in 1846.
Rugby railway station serves the market town of Rugby in Warwickshire, England. The current station dates from 1885; two previous stations dating from 1838 and 1840 respectively, existed at locations to the west of the current one. It has been Rugby's only station, since the closure of the former Rugby Central station in 1969, on the now-abandoned Great Central Main Line route through the town. Between 1950 and 1970, the station was known as Rugby Midland before reverting to its original title. The station underwent an extensive remodelling between 2006 and 2008; new platforms were added and a new ticket office and entrance building were constructed. The original Victorian part of the station was retained in the upgrade.
The Nickey line is a disused railway that once linked the towns of Hemel Hempstead and, initially, Luton but later Harpenden via Redbourn, in Hertfordshire, England. The course of most of the railway has been redeveloped as a cycle and walking path, and is part of the Oxford to Welwyn Garden City route of the National Cycle Network. It is approximately nine miles (14 km) long.
Birmingham Curzon Street railway station was a railway station in central Birmingham, England. Initially used as a major early passenger terminus before being eclipsed by newer facilities and converted into a goods depot, it was a continuously active railway facility up until 1966.
Coventry railway station is the main railway station serving the city of Coventry, West Midlands, England. The station is on the Birmingham loop of the West Coast Main Line (WCML); it is also located at the centre of a junction where the lines to Nuneaton and to Leamington converge. It is situated on the southern edge of the city-centre, just outside the Coventry ring road, about 250 yards to the south of junction 6.
Kings Langley railway station is almost under the M25 motorway near Junction 20. It serves the village of Kings Langley, and the nearby villages of Abbots Langley and Hunton Bridge. The station is 21 miles (34 km) north west of London Euston on the West Coast Main Line. The station and all services calling at the station are operated by London Northwestern Railway.
Hemel Hempstead railway station lies in Boxmoor, on the western edge of the town of Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England. It is located 24+1⁄2 miles (39.4 km) north-west of London Euston on the West Coast Main Line. The station is managed by London Northwestern Railway, who operate its train services along with Southern.
Berkhamsted railway station is in the historic market town of Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England. It is located just beside Berkhamsted Castle, overlooking the Grand Junction Canal. The station is 28 miles (45 km) north west of London Euston on the West Coast Main Line. London Northwestern Railway operates services to London, Northampton and many other destinations.
Tring railway station is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) outside the market town of Tring, close to the Grand Union Canal but actually nearer to the village of Aldbury in Hertfordshire, England. Situated on the West Coast Main Line, the station is now an important marshalling point for commuter trains from here for most stations to London Euston.
The Varsity Line was the main railway line that linked the English university cities of Oxford and Cambridge, operated by the London and North Western Railway.
Heath Park Halt was a railway station in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire in England, UK. It was the terminus for passenger services on the Nickey line, a 9-mile (14 km) branch line which ran from Harpenden into Hemel Hempstead town centre. Passenger services were withdrawn in 1947, and the line through the station was closed completely in 1959.
The Rugby–Birmingham–Stafford line is a railway line in the West Midlands of England. It is a loop off the West Coast Main Line (WCML) between Rugby and Stafford, via the West Midlands cities of Coventry, Birmingham and Wolverhampton. The direct route between Rugby and Stafford is the Trent Valley line.
The Cheddington to Aylesbury Line was an early railway branch line, opening in 1839. It was promoted by local people who formed the Aylesbury Railway to construct it, and it made a junction with the London and Birmingham Railway at Cheddington. That company worked the branch line, and when the L&BR merged with others in 1846 to form the London and North Western Railway, the line was in effect the Aylesbury branch of the LNWR.
Transport in Buckinghamshire has been shaped by its position within the United Kingdom. Most routes between the UK's two largest cities, London and Birmingham, pass through this county. The county's growing industry first brought canals to the area, then railways and then motorways.
Blisworth railway station was a junction station on the London and North Western Railway, the Northampton and Banbury Junction Railway, and the Northampton and Peterborough Railway. As well as providing interchange between the lines, the station served the village of Blisworth in Northamptonshire and its environs. The station was opened by the London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR) in 1838.
Watford railway station was a railway station in Watford, Hertfordshire in the UK. It was opened by the London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR) and it was the first railway station to open in Watford. It closed in 1858 when it was replaced by Watford Junction railway station. Today the small ticket office is still standing and it is a Grade II listed building.
Primrose Hill Tunnel is a 1,164-yard (1,064 m) railway tunnel on the West Coast Main Line, approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) from Euston station. It is located in South Hampstead in the London Borough of Camden, just north of Primrose Hill park and consists of two bores: the slow line to the northern side, driven through the London clay by the engineer Robert Stephenson for the London and Birmingham Railway in 1838, and the fast line to its south, added by the London and North Western Railway in 1879. The original tunnel's Italianate portals were designed by William Budden and later replicated for the fast line. The western portals have been listed at Grade II and the eastern at Grade II* since 1974.
↑ In an article in the Staffordshire Advertiser, Saturday 18 August 1838, that refers to the 1838 Harrow train accident, Euston station is referred to as "the station at Euston grove."
↑ Roscoe, Thomas (1839). The London and Birmingham Railway; with the .... etc., Pub. Charles Tilt. London. Facing p. 44.
↑ Michael Ball, David Sunderland (2001). An Economic History of London, 1800–1914. Routledge. p.212. ISBN0-415-24691-1. the slope had been engineered too steeply for the weak steam locomotives
1 2 Roscoe, Thomas (1839). The London and Birmingham Railway; with the .... etc., Pub. Charles Tilt. London. Facing p. 117.
↑ Roscoe, Thomas (1839). The London and Birmingham Railway; with the .... etc., Pub. Charles Tilt. London. Facing p.. 64.
Further reading
Elliot, Peter H. (1985). Rugby's Railway Heritage. Anderson Publications. ISBN0-907917-06-2.
Gould, David (1987). The London & Birmingham Railway 150 Years on. David & Charles. ISBN0-7153-8968-8.
Hough, Richard. "The London and Birmingham." History Today (Aug 1951) 1#8 pp 51–57
Jack, Harry (2001). Locomotives of the LNWR Southern Division, London & Birmingham Railway & Wolverton Locomotive Works. Railway Correspondence and Travel Society. ISBN0-901115-89-4.
Lecount, Peter (1839). The History of the Railway connecting London and Birmingham.
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