Location : Greater London Authority, Hertfordshire Three Rivers, Watford Lambeth, Brent, Ealing, Hammersmith and Fulham, Camden, Harrow, City of Westminster, Southwark Watford Rural Non Civil Parish
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Summary : The 'Bakerloo', as it was invariably called after the portmanteau word was invented in 1906, was the first London tube to cross the centre north-south. Authororized in 1893, the project languished until it was taken up in 1897 by the London and Globe Finance Corporation of Whitaker Wright. Work began on the tunnel under the Thames in 1898, but it stopped after the London and Globe's failure in 1901. The powers were taken over by the C T Yerkes Underground Electric Railways group in 1902, and the line was opened from Baker Street to Elephant and Castle (3.6 miles) in 1906. In 1913 the line reached Paddington; in 1915 it was linked at Queen's Park with the London and North Western Railway, over which its trains were projected to Watford in 1917. To relieve the inner section of the Metropolitan line a tube link from Baker Street to Finchley Road was opened in 1939, over which Bakerloo trains were projected to Stanmore. The in-town section soon became so much overloaded that the Stanmore branch was detached to form part of the Jubilee line in 1979. At the southern end, extension to Camberwell was authorized in 1931 and briefly revived in 1949, but never proceeded with. In 1982, the service beyond Queen's Park to Watford Junction, by then only four peak period trains, was withdrawn with Queen's Park again becoming the northern terminus. |