Amazing & Extraordinary Facts: London Read Online Free PDF Page B

authorised Joseph Bazalgette (1819-91) to begin work on a plan which he had been advocating for years: a scheme which would intercept the sewage and conduct it to treatment works in the Thames Estuary. From 1859-75 Bazalgette built 82 miles of main sewers, some of them larger than the Underground train tunnels, and 1,100 miles of street sewers. To accommodate the sewers and to prevent the Thames from flooding he also built the Victoria, Albert and Chelsea Embankments besides creating many streets, bridges and parks. By the time he had finished his work the Thames was once again a clean river where salmon could be found and cholera and other waterborne diseases never again threatened the capital. Bazalgette was knighted by a grateful Queen Victoria in 1874.
    WH SMITH GOES GREEN
    In building the Victoria Embankment from Westminster to Blackfriars Bazalgette created Victoria Embankment Gardens between the Strand and the river. Prime Minister William Gladstone wanted to appropriate the land so that he could build offices on it and use the rents thus gained to abolish income tax. WH Smith, newspaperman and Member of Parliament, organised protest meetings and petitions to thwart him. So we have WH Smith to thank for Victoria Embankment Gardens, a much-needed green space in that busy, noisy part of London. But we still have income tax!

London’s eternal railway ring
Commuting to the very end
    A careful examination of a map of London reveals that London’s main line railway stations are built in a ring, with those north of the river being located at some distance from the main centres of business, finance and entertainment where most commuters work. Starting in the north-west with Paddington we can follow the line east through the stations north of the Marylebone Road – Euston Road – Pentonville Road – City Road. These comprise Marylebone Station, Euston, St Pancras and King’s Cross, leading on to Liverpool Street and Fenchurch Street which are both just within the City. To the south of the Thames we have London Bridge and Waterloo though southern commuters were able to penetrate the area north of the river by taking trains to Cannon Street, Charing Cross and Victoria. Why did the railway companies not build their main termini within the City itself and within Westminster for the convenience of their passengers?

    121 Westminster
    There are two reasons. First, the considerable areas of land required for railway termini could be purchased much more cheaply on the northern edge of the metropolis which was still largely undeveloped. Despite the prohibitive cost of land Robert Stephenson proposed to locate the terminus of the London-Birmingham Railway at the Strand (near the site now occupied by the Savoy Hotel), while Brunel wanted the Great Western Terminus to be at Pimlico rather than Paddington. Wiser counsels prevailed and were reinforced when Parliament forbade railway works south of the Marylebone-Euston-Pentonville Roads because of the disruption caused by the proposed building works. It was for this reason that the first Underground railway was built, the Metropolitan Railway, to take passengers from Paddington, Euston, King’s Cross and later St Pancras to Farringdon, additional Underground lines being added as the years passed.
    The largest and busiest railway station in London is Waterloo. Opened in 1848 as the London terminus of the London and South-Western Railway it handles 90 million passengers a year on its 19 platforms (plus the two which, until 2007, were the terminus of the Eurostar Channel Tunnel trains). Clapham Junction Station, 4 miles to the south, has more trains since it is the point at which trains from Waterloo and Victoria meet. The most extraordinary feature of Waterloo however is the now forgotten London Necropolis Station which lay adjacent to the main station and was operated by the London Necropolis Company which ran funeral trains, each carrying up to 48 coffins (first, second or third