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The station has a number of linked rooms with an unknown function, but possibly a waiting room.
Baker Street: The World's First Underground
..the origins of the world’s first Underground network.
Opened on 10 January 1863 as part of the Metropolitan Railway, Baker Street was home to the launch of a revolutionary idea – carrying passengers beneath Victorian London’s congested streets. Cutting a 90-minute journey to just 20 minutes, the ‘Met’ revolutionised travel in the city and provided the foundation for Metro systems across the world.
Explore closed-off parts of the station including original platforms, disused lift shafts and corridors that are hidden in plain sight - some of which were last accessed by the public over 75 years ago in 1945. Learn about the station’s history as the Operational Headquarters for London Underground, and hear first-hand accounts from those who worked (and played) there over the years.
This tour will take you on a historical journey through the 160 years of the station, starting with the early days of Victorian underground steam travel and ending in the busy station of 10 platforms and five Underground lines that it is today.
Along the way, you’ll hear what the very first passengers thought of underground travel in 1863, how the Underground grew and expanded over the next 16 decades, and how Baker Street served not only passengers, but also London Underground staff..
[*London Transport Museum]
HISTORY: In 1854 an Act of Parliament was passed enabling the Metropolitan Railway to construct an underground railway between Paddington and the City, as part of an envisaged 'Inner Circle' linking the mainline stations, to be completed in conjunction with the MR's collaborator, later arch-rival: the Metropolitan District Railway (MDR), inaugurated in 1864. This - the world's first underground railway - was constructed 1860-3 under the supervision of (Sir) John Fowler, the MR's Engineer in Chief, from Paddington, Bishop's Road (now Paddington), and Farringdon Street (Farringdon), with intermediate stations at Edgware Road, Baker Street, Portland Road (Great Portland Street), Gower Street (Euston Square) and King's Cross. The railway was constructed on the 'cut-and-cover' system whereby a trench is excavated and roofed over, a method employed until the 1890s when it was superseded by the deep tube system for electrified trains. Both broad and standard-gauge track were laid.
The original MR station surface buildings were relatively modest, single-storey Italianate buildings in brick and stucco and none survives other than as fragmentary remains. Of the seven, Paddington, Edgware Road, Kings Cross and Farringdon had platforms in open cuttings flanked by brick retaining walls covered by conventional iron-and-glass roofs, while Gower Street, Great Portland Street and Baker Street had sub-surface platforms covered by a brick barrel vault, lit by globe gaslights; these latter stations were thus the first true 'underground' stations. At Baker Street and Gower Street, which were virtually identical, lighting was supplemented by a series of deep lunettes pierced through the vault, lined with white glazed tiles, each of which had a thick glass cover at surface level with ventilation apertures, enclosed by railings. No more of these sub-surface platforms were built due to the noxious atmosphere from steam and gases.
Baker Street station opened on 10 January 1863, comprising a pair of one-storey buildings on the north and south corners of Marylebone Road and Baker Street, each containing a booking office and stairs down to the west end of the platforms. In 1868, two surface-level platforms opened on the north side to serve an extension to Swiss Cottage, later extended to four, with a link to the existing line. From here the line - known as the 'Metropolitan Extension' - was incrementally extended north-westwards into Middlesex, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire, reaching Aylesbury and Verney Junction in 1892, some 50 miles from central London. Branch lines were opened from Harrow to Uxbridge (1904), Moor Park to Watford (1925) and finally Wembley Park to Stanmore (1932). The MR absorbed the Hammersmith & City Railway in 1867, and opened a new branch from Edgware Road to South Kensington in 1868. The MR also operated trains on the London and South Western Railway line to Richmond by 1877. The original line was extended to Moorgate in 1865; Bishopsgate (Liverpool Street) in 1875 and Aldgate in 1876. Meanwhile, the remainder of the Inner Circle was constructed by the MDR, from South Kensington (1868) to Tower Hill (1884). The Baker Street & Waterloo Railway (later the Bakerloo Line) opened its station at Baker Street on 10 March 1906.which stood to the northwest of the MR station, interlinked to it by a subway. It was demolished in the 1960s.
The MR deliberately cultivated the image of a mainline company (which in effect it was). The line was electrified by 1907, and in 1911 the MR embarked on a comprehensive rebuilding programme in which Baker Street was to be its new company headquarters and flagship station. This was prompted not only by increasing congestion, but also the drive to exploit suburban expansion to the northwest. Here, the MR enjoyed a uniquely privileged position whereby it was legally enabled to retain surplus land it had acquired for railway development in the late C19. Thus was born 'Metro-land', the term coined by the MR's publicity department in 1915 and used henceforth in MR marketing, and which rapidly entered common parlance as an idealised evocation of northwest London commuterland. Baker Street Station was the 'Gateway to Metro-land'.
The new station was designed by Charles Walter Clark (1885-1972), appointed Chief Architectural Assistant to the Engineer of the MR in 1910 and Architect in 1921. It was intended to form part of the ground floor of a large five-storey, 15-bay hotel carried on a tall rusticated-arcaded ground floor, approached by a long ramp. The station comprised a grand booking hall and concourse at basement level with a ladies' room, buffet, lost property office and WH Smith bookstall among the facilities, providing a modern service comparable to that of a main-line station. To the east were offices, a parcels office and a goods entrance. The MR Extension platforms were remodelled, and to the northeast in Allsop Place an imposing new MR headquarters was built to Clark's design. Building ceased on the outbreak of WWI, and the hotel proposal was superseded by a scheme for mansion flats, named Chiltern Court, designed by Clark in 1927 and completed in 1929.
The MR remained fiercely independent until 1932, having resisted absorption into 'the Combine' which dominated underground railway construction in London until the 1930s. In 1933 the Combine, the MR and all bus and tram networks, were merged into the London Passenger Transport Board, an unsubsidised public corporation, and the MR network became the Metropolitan Line. In 1939, Bakerloo trains took over the ML service to Stanmore. Another entrance was formed further to the west in Chiltern House c1939, linked to the ML booking hall by a corridor. In 1979 the new Jubilee Line took over the Baker Street to Stanmore branch of the Bakerloo line and added an extra northbound platform. In 1990 the section of the ML from Baker Street to Hammersmith became part of the newly-created (or recreated) Hammersmith & City Line.
[Historic England]
FearFest 2013 @ The Asylum 2, Birmingham. Day 1 Friday 4th October
Photographs by Tony Gaskin for Midlands
Rocks
© 2013 Tony Gaskin - Stagedive Photography
FearFest 2013 @ The Asylum 2, Birmingham. Day 1 Friday 4th October
Photographs by Tony Gaskin for Midlands
Rocks
© 2013 Tony Gaskin - Stagedive Photography
مؤتمر الكويت للتدقيق الداخلي
30th November to 1st December 2016
Hilton Kuwait Resort, Al Dorra Ballroom
This is what many people came home to after Hurricane Katrina. Count your blessings. Now.
Lower Ninth Ward 20 months after Katrina.
Internal Conflict @ Bloodstock Open Air Festival 2013
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Photograph by Sean Larkin for Midlands Rocks
© 2013 www.seanlarkin.co.uk
Photos may not be reproduced or used anywhere without permission.
In the top picture I have identified some lesions on the stomach that could have indicated a decline of health in the fish. A parasite worm was found near the lesion grouping.
In the second picture the internal anatomy structures can be clearly seen and identified.
Photos by Marcus Jamieson-pond www.jampondphotography.com
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Facebook Workplace for Good - free online workspace/ intranet for charities
Squint to the right of the chancel arch at St Nicholas's, Curdworth.
Uploaded originally for the 'Guess Where UK?' Group.
Left to right....
-This always happens....
-What the hell are you doing!
-Hey you paying attention
-Who cares...
-Um is he alright
-Zzzzz
My brain just arguing with itself...Another typical day in the meeting room...
مؤتمر الكويت للتدقيق الداخلي
30th November to 1st December 2016
Hilton Kuwait Resort, Al Dorra Ballroom
Internally displaced people (IDPs) has become a really common term in such a short time here. Sometimes I refer to them as refugees as a shorter phrase, but IDP describes what they are so much better. This is about half of the families represented. Some were about a 45 minute drive in a smaller village and some came a little later. There were not many children there at the time because they were in school. The local schoolmaster graciously let them enroll their children in his school even though they did not have money for the school's fees (books, uniforms).
An inside view of the ratchet. There's that grocery rubber band in action. The piece on the right that the band is attached to is the axle for the pawl to rotate on.
FearFest 2013 @ The Asylum 2, Birmingham. Day 1 Friday 4th October
Photographs by Tony Gaskin for Midlands
Rocks
© 2013 Tony Gaskin - Stagedive Photography