London's Underground: The Story of the Tube

Product Information

These vignettes are deftly done. The narration of “London Underground” uses a broad range of sub-plots or “slants” in different times and places, some far from London, that involve the unfinished business of World War II. They contribute to the intense suspense of the novel.

To sum up, this book is a fantastic piece of research which is easy to follow and understand throughout. Well worth a read in my opinion. Bradford Railway Circle It is super-nerdy of me to give this book a five star rating but I have a thing for subterranea and certainly the tunnels and underworlds of big cities, especially London. Anyone who thinks like me or likes railways and transport (which is less my thing) will love this book. Highly commendable" Oxfordshire Family History Society - Oxfordshire Family Historian, Volume 37, No.1, April 2023 A fascinating book covering not just the history of the Underground map but of the Underground itself. Recommended.

You asked

It is sobering to note that the Government gave up on deep shelter strategies for the population almost immediately after the first nuclear bombs were demonstrated because no place inside London would be safe from their effects. Worth noting in the age of sabre-rattling over Ukraine. The story of how the Underground map evolved is almost as troubled and fraught with complexities as the transport network it represents. Mapping the Underground was not for the faint-hearted – it rapidly became a source of frustration, and in some cases obsession – often driving its custodians to the point of distraction. The solution, when eventually found, would not only revolutionise the movement of people around the city but change the way we visualise London forever. The book moves on to the Picadilly Circus complex, Down Street and its role as the wartime railway executive's headquarters and the first of two overground stories with an account of the modernist 55 Broadway headquarters of the underground system built in 1929. Now add to these human actors a population of thousands and thousands of rats . . . and an untold number of other animals living underground. And if you can imagine how all these people and animals will interact without reading the novel, your imagination is far greater than mine.

In their earliest diagrams the companies that became London Underground imposed their lines on a “base map” showing the local streets. But realistic geography faded away as the lines promoted their own concept of themselves. For example, on maps of Metroland, the suburb created by the Metropolitan Railway, golf clubs loomed disproportionately. This extraordinarily well-illustrated book is much more than its title suggests........This is a very important contribution to how we understand what the London Underground has given to the metropolis, much more than just its internationally recognised ‘map’. The Historian – Autumn 2022 Then we have the hinge of British recent history - the war - where the underground had a double function of protecting the people from air warfare and ensuring that the state administration and war effort could run unhindered by turning tunnels into administrative and control assets.Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. A book Londoners and anyone interested in design should read." The Society of Model and Experimental Engineers - York Model Engineers Newsletter, March 2023