The City and South London Railway (C&SLR) was the first successful deep-level underground "tube" railway in the world, and the first major railway to use electric traction. The railway was originally intended for cable-hauled trains, but owing to the bankruptcy of the cable contractor during construction, a system of electric traction using electric locomotives – an experimental technology at the time – was chosen instead.
When opened in 1890, the line had six stations and ran for Length of line calculated from distances given at in a pair of tunnels between the City of London and Stockwell, passing under the River Thames. The diameter of the tunnels restricted the size of the trains, and the small carriages with their high-backed seating were nicknamed padded cells. The railway was extended several times north and south, eventually serving 22 stations over a distance of from Camden Town in north London to Morden in south London.
Although the C&SLR was well used, low ticket prices and the construction cost of the extensions placed a strain on the company's finances. In 1913 the C&SLR became part of the Underground Group of railways, and in the 1920s it underwent major reconstruction works before its merger with another of the Group's railways, the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway, forming a single London Underground line called the Morden–Edgware line. In 1933, the London Passenger Transport Board was created by amalgamation of the C&SLR with the rest of the Underground Group, bus and other transport companies. This was a public authority but not nationalised until 1948 with the creation of the British Transport Commission. Today, its tunnels and stations form the Bank Branch of the Northern line from Camden Town to Kennington and the southern leg of the line from Kennington to Morden.
Establishment In November 1883, notice was given that a private bill was to be presented to Parliament for the construction of the City of London and Southwark Subway (CL&SS). The promoter of the bill, and engineer of the proposed railway, was James Henry Greathead, who had, in 1869–70, constructed the Tower Subway using the same tunnelling shield/segmented cast iron tube method proposed for the CL&SS. The railway was to run from Elephant and Castle, in Southwark, south London, under the River Thames to King William Street in the City of London. The tracks were to be in twin tunnels in diameter, running for a distance of .
The bill received royal assent as the (47 & 48 Vict. c. clxvii) on 28 July 1884. Section 5 of the act stated:
In 1886, a further bill was submitted to Parliament to extend the tunnels south from Elephant and Castle to Kennington and Stockwell. This received assent on 12 July 1887 as the (50 & 51 Vict. c. cv), allowing the construction of the extension to be added to the work on the original route, which had begun in 1886. The tunnels on this section were of a slightly larger diameter – and extended the line by a further . Before the railway opened, a further bill received assent, granting permission to continue the line south to Clapham Common. The act was given royal assent on 25 July 1890 as the (53 & 54 Vict. c. cxiv), also effecting a change of the company's name.
Haulage and infrastructure
Because of the small diameter of the tunnels and the difficulty of providing sufficient ventilation, steam power, which was used on London's other underground railways, would not work for a deep-level tube railway. Like Greathead's earlier Tower Subway, the CL&SS was intended to be operated by cable haulage with a static engine pulling the cable through the tunnels at a steady speed. Section 5 of the 1884 act specified that:
The Patent Cable Tramway Corporation owned the rights to the Hallidie cable-car system first invented and used in San Francisco in 1873; trains were attached to the cable with clamps, which would be opened and closed at stations, allowing the carriages to disconnect and reconnect without needing to stop the cable or to interfere with other trains sharing the cable. There were to be two independent endless cables, one between City station and Elephant and Castle moving at , and the other between Elephant and Castle and Stockwell, where the gradient was less, at . However, the additional length of tunnel permitted by the supplementary acts challenged the practicality of the cable system.
It is reported that this problem with the CL&SS contributed to the bankruptcy of the cable company in 1888. However, electric motor traction had been considered all along, and much engineering progress had been made since the tunnel's construction had begun in 1886. Hence, CL&SS chairman Charles Grey Mott decided to switch to electric traction. Other cable-operated systems using the Hallidie patents continued to be designed, such as the Glasgow Subway which opened in 1896.
The solution adopted was electrical power, provided via a third rail (now a fourth rail) beneath the train, but offset to the west of centre for clearance reasons. Although the use of electricity to power trains had been experimented with during the previous decade, and small-scale operations had been implemented, the C&SLR was the first major railway in the world to adopt it as a means of motive power. The system operated using electric locomotives built by Mather & Platt collecting a voltage of 500 volts (actually +500 volts in the northbound tunnel and −500 volts in the southbound) from the third rail and pulling several carriages. A depot and generating station were constructed at Stockwell. Owing to the limited capacity of the generators, the stations were originally illuminated by gas. The depot was on the surface, and trains requiring maintenance were initially hauled up via a ramp although, following a runaway accident, a lift was soon installed. In practice, most rolling stock and locomotives went to the surface only for major maintenance.
To avoid the need to purchase agreements for running under surface buildings, the tunnels were bored underneath public roads, where construction could be carried out without charge. At the northern end of the railway, the need to pass deep beneath the bed of the River Thames and the medieval street pattern of the City of London constrained the arrangement of the tunnels on the approach to King William Street station. Because of the proximity of the station to the river, steeply inclined tunnels were built to the west of the station. Because of the narrow street under which they ran, they were bored one above the other rather than side by side as elsewhere. The outbound tunnel was the lower and steeper of the two. The tunnels converged immediately before the station, which was in one large tunnel and comprised a single track with a platform on each side. The other terminus at Stockwell was also constructed in a single tunnel but with tracks on each side of a central platform.
Opening
The railway was officially opened by Edward, Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) on 4 November 1890, and was opened to the public on 18 December 1890. Initially, it had stations at: Stockwell The Oval (now Oval) Kennington Elephant & Castle Borough King William Street
The Prince of Wales gave the following speech at the opening:
The original service was operated by trains composed of an engine and three carriages. Thirty-two passengers could be accommodated in each carriage, which had longitudinal bench seating and sliding doors at the ends, leading onto a platform for boarding and alighting. It was reasoned that there was nothing to look at in the tunnels, so the only windows were in a narrow band high up in the carriage sides. Gate-men rode on the carriage platforms to operate the lattice gates and announce the station names to the passengers. Because of their claustrophobic interiors, the carriages soon became known as padded cells. Unlike other railways, the C&SLR had no ticket classes or paper tickets; when the railway began operations, a flat fare of two pence, collected at a turnstile, was charged. Despite the cramped carriages and competition from bus and tram services, the railway attracted 5.1 million passengers in 1891, its first year of operation. To alleviate overcrowding, the fleet of rolling stock was enlarged.
Extensions to Clapham Common and Angel, 1890–1901
Shortly before it opened to the public, the C&SLR gave notice of its intention to submit another private bill to Parliament, to construct a new line from its northern terminus at King William Street towards Islington. Because of the awkward arrangement of King William Street station, the extension was not to be connected directly to the existing running tunnels but was to be linked via a pedestrian subway through which passengers could make interchanges between the separate lines. The bill was rejected on the grounds that the extension failed to make a connection to the existing line. In November 1891, the C&SLR published details of a revised bill for the extension to Islington. The company had recognised the deficiencies of its King William Street station and, just a year after the line had opened, planned to construct a new pair of tunnels to bypass the problematic northern section.
Near Borough station the new tunnels would branch off via a new station to form an interchange with the SE&CR and the LB&SCR at London Bridge mainline station. The tunnels would then pass to the east of London Bridge, north through the City of London to Angel. Following a delay, during which a joint select committee reviewed the proposals of several new underground railways, the (56 & 57 Vict. c. ccvii) received royal assent on 24 August 1893. The Act also incorporated another Bill of 1893 to grant an extension of time to build the southern extension to Clapham.
Construction of the two authorised extensions was delayed while funds were raised and plans were finalised. Between 1895 and 1898, three further Bills were put before Parliament to keep the permissions alive and obtain additional approvals: 1895: an extension of time for the 1890 Act and to allow for a new approach tunnel to be built into King William Street station. Approved as the (58 & 59 Vict. c. xix) on 14 April 1895. 1896: an extension of time for the 1893 act and changes to the construction of Bank station. Approved as the (59 & 60 Vict. c. cclii) on 14 August 1896. 1898: an extension of time for the 1896 act, plans to add sidings to the southern extension at Clapham Common and plans to sell King William Street station and its approach tunnels to the newly proposed City and Brixton Railway (C&BR). Approved as the (61 & 62 Vict. c. xi) on 23 May 1898.
The new tunnels permitted by the 1895 act enabled the track layout at King William Street station to be modified to a single central platform with a track on each side. This was opened as a temporary measure while funds for the extensions were raised. Finance was eventually obtained, and construction proceeded so that the King William Street section closed and the first section of the northern extension opened on Monday 26 February 1900,The Times, 26 February 1900, page 11 with stations at: London Bridge Bank Moorgate Street
The southern extension opened on at mid-day on Sunday 3 June 1900The Times, 4 June 1900, page 8 with stations at: Clapham Road Clapham Common
Like the original Stockwell station and the rearranged King William Street, Clapham Road and Clapham Common were constructed with a single station tunnel, with a central platform served by tracks on each side.
Work continued on the rest of the northern extension. The (63 & 64 Vict. c. v), approved on 25 May 1900, gave permission to enlarge the station tunnel at Angel to a diameter of and the rest of the extension opened on 17 November 1901, with stations at: Old Street City Road (closed 1922) Angel
Extension to Euston, 1901–1907