From the 1640s, during the puritanical years of the Interregnum, various forms of enjoyment were prohibited. Following the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 theatres reopened and flourished. At the same time, other forms of entertainment and relaxation came into existence, including pleasure gardens.

Prior to the 19^th century London was still quite small, so it was relatively easy for people to escape from the squalid city to the countryside on foot or by carriage. Various spas outside the city provided entertainments, a garden, and food and drink. An alternative, for the upper classes, was the royal parks. The lands of Hyde Park and St. James’s Park to the west of London had opened in the early 17^th century to ‘people of quality’ where they could promenade alongside royalty and aristocracy.

Over a century earlier, during the reign of Elizabeth I, a section in the north-east corner of St. James’s Park, close to where Admiralty Arch is now located, was laid out as the ‘Spring Garden’, named after the spring that was located there. By the early 17^th century the Spring Garden contained a bathing pond, fountains, gravelled paths, and fruit trees, as well as “beasts and fowls”. John Evelyn mentions eating in the garden in a diary entry of 1653. The following year he describes the garden as a “Paradise” and mentions that “it is usual there to find some of the young company till midnight”. The garden has long gone but a street there still bears the name of Spring Gardens.

Seeing the potential for profiting from entertaining Londoners of all classes, several entrepreneurs began to create ‘pleasure gardens’. These were enclosed outside spaces a short distance from the city, an idealized substitute for the countryside. People could promenade there in a safe and pleasant environment, especially during evenings, with refreshments and various forms of entertainment. In the 200 years from the mid-17^th to mid-19^th centuries there were at least 60 pleasure gardens around London.

The first of London’s pleasure gardens that we know much about is the New Spring Gardens. It lay upstream of Westminster at Vauxhall, between where Goding Street and St. Oswald’s Place are located today, now close to the MI6 building and on the opposite bank of the river to Tate Britain. It opened in about 1661, when people could once again begin to entertain and be entertained.

The area of Vauxhall at Lambeth on the east bank of the Thames was then outside of the urban area of London and Westminster and until the 19^th century still quite remote from London. To reach it by road in the 17^th century required crossing London Bridge and then a journey of about 2½ miles south-west, through Southwark and St. George’s Fields, passing Lambeth Marsh. Most people took the more pleasant 30-minute journey by boat along the Thames, with many a willing waterman to take them there from any of the many landing stages in the City and Westminster.

The locality’s name derives from a mansion located there in the 13^th century belonging to Falkes de Breauté, which name evolved as Falkes Hall or Foxhall. The area came to be held by Christ Church Canterbury and later occupied by multiple owners. On the Thames were various boatyards and landing stages, while away from the riverside the place was known for its market gardens.

Other attractions in the same area were the Lambeth Wells, known for their purging waters, and several inns such as the Three Coneys that provided music, and the Dog and Duck where ducks could be hunted on its pond. Close by, for the curious, was the garden and collection of curios from around the world of the Tradescants, father and son, which opened to the public in 1634 and several decades later became the basis of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford.

In its first year John Evelyn noted: “I went to see the new Spring-Garden at Lambeth a pretty contriv’d plantation”. It seems there had been an older Spring Garden close by because in May 1662 Samuel Pepys recorded:

With my wife and the two maids and the boy took boat to Foxhall – where I have not been a great while – to the Old Spring garden. And there walked long and the wenches gathered pinks. Here we stayed; and seeing that we could not have anything to eat but very dear and with long stay, we went forth again… Thence to the New one, where I never was before, which much exceeds the other. And here we walked…

Pepys no longer describes the garden as ‘new’ after the second mention in his diaries, indicating that it was probably established in 1661.

David Garrick, actor, playwright, producer and manager of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane was one of the most influential figures in the history of British theatre. During his long career he transformed and modernized the style of acting, production, methods of rehearsal, and even the attitude of audiences, which had previously been rather unruly. Plays changed from being a succession of speeches, with new styles of characterization and acting methods we would recognize today. Improvements were also made to lighting and scenery. Unusually he was an actor who was able to bring a business-sense to theatre management, gained by his early career in the wine trade.

One of the earliest ‘superstars’ of the entertainment world, Garrick’s talent earned him fame, fortune, respect and the ability to mix with the highest levels of society, which was unusual prior to the 20^th century for a person who was neither of aristocratic birth nor a politician.

Garrick had a natural flair for acting, which began from childhood as the gift of mimicry. Unlike many of his contemporary actors he was a master of both comedy and tragedy, well-educated, extremely eloquent, and with a capacity for self-analysis that was rare in other actors of the time.

In the century and a half after Shakespeare’s death authentic versions of his plays had been all but forgotten but Garrick returned them to the stage, with adaptations that were closer to the originals, triumphantly taking lead roles for himself as major characters such as Richard III and Hamlet. He also revived works from the Restoration period, with updated versions suitable for the Georgian audience.

Garrick’s grandfather, David Garric, was a Huguenot Protestant and wine merchant of Bordeaux during the mid-17^th century, himself the son of a successful wine trader, who fled to London in 1685. He soon rebuilt his wine business, took British nationality and anglicized his name to Garrick. His son Peter moved to the garrison town of Lichfield as a recruiting officer and that was where his family lived when his son, the future actor, was born.

Young David, an amusing boy who developed a talent for mimicry, visited the local bookseller, Michael Johnson, on an almost daily basis. Johnson’s son, Samuel, eight years older than David, was to become such a great influence on him during his life. Both David and Samuel were pupils at Lichfield Grammar School, which was strong in the classics. The two were the opposite in many ways, with quite different personalities, but also separated by age and generational outlooks, one becoming an old Tory and the other a Whig-style man of the 18^th century. In their adult lives they were to move in different artistic worlds but remained constant companions, both tracing their roots to genteel poverty in Lichfield.

Even at a young age David became interested in the stage and both he and Samuel had the advantage of seeing touring companies perform at the Guildhall in Lichfield. He began to learn lines from plays with which he would entertain friends and relatives and in 1727, at the age of only ten, organised a performance of George Farquhar’s popular The Recruiting Officer in the great hall of the bishop’s palace, casting his friends, designing sets and choosing costumes. Garrick cast himself in the leading role and the play was a great success.

Samuel Johnson, seeking some form of income, set up a school close to Lichfield in 1736. It began with five pupils including David and George Garrick. David was by then nineteen and took very little interest in the work set for him by Johnson, spending much of his time writing comedy plays.

It was decided that David should study at the Inns of Court in London, but initially to prepare at a school in Rochester. Samuel Johnson’s school had not proved a success so he was contemplating moving to London to find employment as a writer or translator, and also to attempt to have his play Irene staged there.

Garrick and Johnson, neither of whom had any money, decided to make the 120-mile journey to London together, in March 1737. They could only afford one horse so took turns to ride. With little money they had to borrow five pounds as soon as they arrived in order to afford food and shelter.

Garrick continued on to the school at Rochester. In the meantime, his father died and the family were left without an income. The only solution was for him to give up his studies and for him and his elder brother Peter use family connections to make their way in the wine trade. David set up the London end of the business, based close to the Strand.

Garrick easily fitted into London society. While not working he spent his free time around the nearby Covent Garden area, which in those days was the equivalent to Soho in the 20^th century, with coffee-houses, theatres and the market. It was not difficult for him to make friends with actors and playwrights who frequented the Bedford coffee-house, thereby gaining admittance to the backstage areas of the theatres. By attending performances of many plays he was able to understand acting techniques and styles and the workings of the profession. Garrick also started to write critical reviews of plays, which appeared in the press. However, he also had a business to run and had continuous friction with his brother due to the amount of time he spent at the theatres.

What we now know as the Circle Line that forms an underground loop around Central London was originally two separate railways, the Metropolitan and the District. The story of what was first known as the ‘inner circuit’ is one of both cooperation and conflict between the two railway companies.

The Metropolitan Railway opened in January 1863 between Paddington and Farringdon. Its steam trains ran underground connecting the railway termini at Paddington and King’s Cross, with several intermediate stations, and rapidly brought people to and from their place of work in the City of London.

What seems surprising from a modern point of view is that, as well as running its own services, the Metropolitan was also linked to main line railways, allowing trains from various companies to use the tracks. In that way, for example, a train of the Great Western Railway company from Slough could continue beyond Paddington and all the way under London to Farringdon.

The early success of the Metropolitan prompted proposals to Parliament for other underground railways in London, with many of similar routes to each other. The Parliamentary Select Committee on Metropolitan Railways recommended in 1863 an ‘inner circle’ to connect all London’s principle railway termini, including those stations serving south of London. This had become a possibility with the plan to develop new embankments along the Thames, within which it was possible to create a railway line.

One such route was proposed by John Fowler, chief engineer of the Metropolitan, which gained approval. Thus, the District Railway company received royal assent in July 1864 for a new line between South Kensington and Tower Hill, while at the same time two other Bills were passed for extensions to the Metropolitan. The District Railway, London’s second underground railway line, was closely associated with the Metropolitan, sharing directors, and with Fowler as chief engineer of both, but established as a separate company for the purpose of raising funds. The two companies would henceforth cooperate with each other under the name of the Metropolitan District Railway.

To help achieve this circular railway, the Metropolitan opened a new section in October 1868 from Edgware Road to Praed Street, serving the GWR’s Paddington station. It then continued through the sparsely populated districts of Bayswater and Notting Hill Gate, and on to Kensington, and Brompton (Gloucester Road). This whole section had to pass beneath streets and houses and was therefore more difficult to build than the Metropolitan’s original Paddington to King’s Cross section that had been constructed under the New Road (Euston and Marylebone Roads). There was much opposition from residents, and large compensation payments also had to be made to property owners. Much of the section alternates between short enclosed tunnels and open-air sections, with one lengthy tunnel under Campden Hill between Notting Hill Gate and Kensington.

The District Railway had similar problems. Like the Metropolitan, it was what we now call a ‘sub-surface railway’, meaning that it was only just below the level of buildings and streets. The line passed under valuable properties, with subsequent high compensation to freeholders. Aristocratic landowners blocked plans, the company had to improve some streets, and the River Westbourne had to be piped across Sloane Square station. Slums were demolished along the way and a brewery rebuilt over a tunnel. The cost of three million pounds to create the line was three times as high as the Metropolitan, with lower profits forecast, so finance was difficult to raise. There had been an expectation that the two companies would amalgamate but the District suffered from large debts, making it an unattractive proposition for the Metropolitan shareholders. The District continued to struggle financially for much of its forty-year existence.

Part of the line was created in open cuttings, and other parts by the cut-and-cover tunnelling method. One hundred and forty million bricks to create the tunnels and embankments were produced in huge kilns at Earls Court. The first section of the District Railway ran from Westminster Bridge to South Kensington, with stops at St. James’s Park, Victoria, where the London, Chatham & Dover Railway had their London terminus, and Sloane Square. A pedestrian subway was provided for MPs from Westminster Bridge station directly into the Houses of Parliament. This section opened on Christmas Eve 1868 to capitalize on high Christmas Day passenger numbers. On the same day the Metropolitan line was extended from Brompton, to meet the District line with an end-on stop at South Kensington where each of the companies had its own separate station.

The District Company had built the line but it was initially worked by the Metropolitan Company, who received 55 percent of gross receipts. The District received only about 40% after other charges. With limited income from this arrangement, and struggling under the weight of debts caused by the high cost of construction, the District was forced to take over the working of their route. It began running its own trains in 1871.

In 1864 the Metropolitan Board of Works began the construction of the Victoria Embankment along the north bank of the Thames from Westminster Bridge to Blackfriars Bridge. It included a plan to run the District line within it. The District Railway expected this to be inexpensive for the company but that proved not to be the case as extensive works were required to support the road above the railway. For six years the MBW pushed the District Railway to complete its line but financiers were reluctant to make further investment and the company was relying mostly on the slow trickle of income from its already-completed section to pay for new work. That section of the District line within the Embankment finally opened in May 1870, running east from Westminster to Charing Cross, Temple, and Blackfriars.

The idea of creating a railway under London was revolutionary, risky, and expensive. To operate under a city on the scale of London’s first underground railway had never been considered anywhere in the world. Even after its evident success it took a long time for any other city to attempt it: the Paris Metro was created after a further forty years and New York’s subway even later.

The population of London greatly increased during the 19^th century and likewise the traffic on the capital’s streets. The City and Westminster in particular were clogged with horse-drawn vehicles of many sorts. Railways carried people into and out of London to other parts of the country via termini and it was in the interest of the railway companies to bring their lines into the centre of town. Yet the Royal Commission on Metropolis Railway Termini of 1846 decided on a circular boundary within which railways were not permitted to enter, so each new railway line that connected to the rest of the country ended on the edges of Central London. Anyone arriving from those termini had to use omnibuses, hansom cabs, or carriages, to complete their journey, adding to the slow-moving traffic.

A solution would be an underground railway that took passengers off the roads. An important figure in that respect was Charles Pearson, the solicitor of the City of London Corporation from 1839. He was a great campaigner on social and railway issues over many years and proposed an underground railway from King’s Cross to Farringdon. The City Terminus Company was created in 1852 for that purpose.

In the same year another group created the Bayswater, Paddington & Holborn Bridge Railway Company with a plan to construct an underground line from Paddington to meet the City Terminus Company line at King’s Cross. The company’s chairman, William Mallins, fully understood that London was so congested that it was becoming difficult for traffic to move around. That scheme received Parliamentary approval in 1853. In the meantime, the City Terminus scheme was rejected by Parliament but then merged with the Paddington to King’s Cross plan. A new Parliamentary Bill was submitted, with the route extended from Paddington to the General Post Office at St. Paul’s via Farringdon. The company name then changed to the Metropolitan Railway.

This new Act was passed in August 1854. It then took a further four years to raise the necessary capital, which was not easy during the Crimean War for an unproven concept. When they were on the point of giving up, the Corporation of the City of London provided £200,000 at Pearson’s insistence because, as he had long expounded, it would relieve traffic on their congested streets and allow workers to commute to and from their place of work. The Great Western Railway also made an investment so the line could bring people to and from its terminus at Paddington.

The City was London’s primary district for employment and to where people needed to commute. Before work commenced the route was shortened to Farringdon to save costs and reduce opposition, never reaching the General Post Office. After King’s Cross, the line followed Farringdon Road to Farringdon Street, close to the City at Smithfield, taking almost the same route as the first omnibuses three decades earlier. Although the eastern terminus would then be just to the north, the City was still easily accessible on foot or by omnibus. The Metropolitan would connect the railway termini at Paddington, Euston, and King’s Cross, and with intermediate stations at Edgware Road, Baker Street, Portland Road (Great Portland Street), and Gower Street (Euston Road).

The chief engineer for the work was John Fowler, who had previously created railways in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. Work commenced in the spring of 1860. It was built using the ‘cut and cover’ method whereby a channel was dug, the railway laid, and then covered over. The line passed just below the level of buildings and streets. The section eastwards from Bishop’s Road was dug under the New Road, today’s Marylebone and Euston Roads. The 700-yard eastern section, which passed along the Fleet Valley between King’s Cross and Farringdon, however, involved the demolition of perhaps 1,000 houses, displacing 12,000 people. Spoil from the tunnelling was taken to Stamford Bridge, the future site of the Chelsea Football Club stadium.

Inevitably there were issues caused by creating a tunnel through a built-up area and only just below the surface. The submerged River Fleet crossed the route three times through sewers. On one occasion in June 1862 it burst out due to heavy rain, causing flooding that created a delay of a few months and increased costs.

While construction was still in progress trial runs took place. It was important to allay fears amongst the public of travelling underground. In May 1862 it became possible to pass along the entire route with a train of distinguished guests including Chancellor of the Exchequer, William Gladstone.

The London & Blackwall Railway was one of the earliest lines in London. It was the first to enter the City of London, creating its terminus at Fenchurch Street and – literally – laid the foundations for today’s Dockland Light Railway. It worked using an extraordinary method by today’s standards, with trains hauled by cable instead of steam locomotives for the first nine years. It was also a hybrid business, operating both train and boat services.

During the 1830s steamboat services, both for pleasure and commuting, proliferated along the Thames. Popular downriver destinations were Gravesend and the nearby Rosherville pleasure gardens, as well as Southend, and Thanet. Many of those services made a stop at the East India Dock Company’s Brunswick Quay at Blackwall. The 6½ mile boat trip around the Isle of Dogs from Blackwall to London Bridge took about an hour, whereas a four-mile overland train journey into the City could be made in just 15 minutes. Additionally, several thousand workers commuted from their homes in East London to the docks each day and could more speedily reach their place of employment by railway.

John Rennie (the Younger) had seen the potential and proposed such a railway, with a route running from near Fenchurch Street, parallel with Commercial Road, and terminating at Blackwall. The Commercial Railway Company was formed with this route in mind. A competing group, the London & Blackwall and Steam Navigation Depot Company, then proposed an alternative, more northerly, route via Whitechapel High Street. In 1835 George Stephenson was asked to compare the two schemes and agreed that Rennie’s southern route was the most suitable. At the suggestion of a Parliamentary Committee the two groups joined forces in 1836. William Tite, the surveyor of the Commercial Railway, was employed as architect and surveyor. In January 1838 George Stephenson and George Parker Bidder were appointed as joint engineers.

The Act to create the line from Blackwall to the Minories, just on the edge of the City, was passed in 1837. The company subsequently changed its name to the London & Blackwall Railway Company.

Part of Brunswick Quay was purchased by the company and renamed Blackwall Pier. An elegant two-storey terminus building, designed by Tite, was constructed in Italianesque style. It faced the river and included railway and customs offices. Blackwall Pier had the distinction of having the first station bookshop, something which was copied on station platforms around the country.

It had been the company’s intension for the City terminus to be close to Fenchurch Street but there were strong objections from the City of London Corporation. A temporary station was therefore created at the Minories, now the site of the Docklands Light Railway Tower Gateway station. For the convenience of dockers there were intermediate stations at half mile intervals along the line at Shadwell, Stepney, Limehouse, West India Docks, and Poplar.

The line was the first to pass entirely through a densely built-up part of London. It had to cross many streets and the Regent’s Canal so, like the London & Greenwich and Eastern Counties railways, was built on a brick viaduct of arches as far as the West India Docks. Even so, trains would pass close to the windows of upper floors of buildings. There was the danger that hot cinders from the chimneys of steam locomotives would cause fires, especially to the various ropeworks along the route and barges in the Regent’s Canal Dock. George Stephenson and Bidder therefore recommended the use of rope haulage in place of steam locomotives. Each train would be hauled by a hemp rope of 5¾ inches diameter, powered by stationary engines at the Blackwall and the Minories ends of the line. The ropes reached to 350 yards before the end of the line at Blackwall. A slight gradient from there to Blackwall Pier allowed time for carriages to come to a halt, or to provide gravity assistance when departing. A speed of 30 miles per hour was possible along the route. It was not the first railway in London to use such a system. Robert Stephenson had devised such a method to haul trains on the London & Birmingham Railway for the first 1½ miles up the steep incline from the terminus at Euston as far as Camden before continuing their journey to Birmingham by steam locomotive. That continued at Euston until by 1844 more powerful locomotives were introduced.

The London & Blackwall initially used an unusual rail gauge of five feet. There were two trains, each of which always kept to one of the two tracks along the line. Both trains always left from opposite ends of the line at the same time, with 15-minutes between each service. Once each was in motion it would continue non-stop until reaching the far end of the line. Every coach had its own conductor on board. As the train reached a stop the conductor of the last carriage uncoupled it from the one in front and applied a brake, leaving it in the station. The process continued at each stop. When the direction was reversed for the return journey each carriage was separately hooked to the rope, arriving back individually and at different times to the terminus. Travel between individual stations was only possible by first going to one of the termini. Staff at each station could communicate using the recently invented Cook & Wheatstone telegraph system.

The first class carriages held up to 30 passengers, each sitting five aside within three compartments, while other travellers stood in the open coaches. The line gained the nickname ‘four-penny rope’ due to the cost of a ticket in the latter.

The development of the steam locomotive in the 1830s led to a period of ‘railway mania’ in Britain. Privately financed railways soon linked every town in the country. People could rapidly travel from one place to a distant other. No longer was it necessary to journey in slow and uncomfortable stagecoaches over poorly maintained roads. In 1838 the world’s first long-distance trunk railway linked London with Birmingham, Manchester, and Liverpool.

The Stockton & Darlington Railway opened in 1825 in the North-East of England to carry coal. The first passenger railway to link two major towns was the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, which opened in 1830. Three years later royal assent was given for the creation of the London & Greenwich Railway, the first line to bring commuters into the City. That same year an Act was passed for a railway that would link London to Birmingham and the North-West of England.

Unlike the Greenwich line, the one to Birmingham was planned from the beginning as a trunk route, without consideration for suburban traffic. Although London was Britain’s largest and most populous city it was nevertheless compact, as yet with few suburbs, and a train could reach countryside within just a few minutes. The preamble to the Act for the London & Birmingham Railway stated:

WHEREAS the making of Railway, with proper Works and Conveniences connected therewith, for the Carriage of Passengers, Goods, and Merchandize from London to Birmingham, will prove of great public Advantage, by opening an additional, cheap, certain, and expeditious Communication between the Metropolis, the Port of London, and the large manufacturing Town and Neighbourhood of Birmingham aforesaid, and will at the same Time facilitate the Means of Transit and Traffic for Passengers, Goods, and Merchandize between those Places and the adjacent Districts, and the several intermediate Towns and Places.

The first proposal to build a railway from London to Warwickshire was in 1820, even before the introduction of steam locomotives, and named the ‘Central Union Railroad’. It was planned to run from Paddington via Oxford to Stratford-upon-Avon, from where goods would be transported by canal to Birmingham. Nothing came of it.

The next plan came from the London & Birmingham Railroad Company who commissioned John Rennie Jnr. to survey a route, which was undertaken in 1824 and 1825. It began at the East and West India Docks, skirted the City and Westminster via Islington and Paddington, and at its northern end was to link with the proposed Birmingham & Liverpool Railway. The scheme was abandoned, perhaps due to its cost.

In 1830 there were two competing proposals: another with Rennie, and a second that “will commence in the open grounds at Islington, near London, and proceed by Hornsey, East Barnet, South Mimms, Hemel Hempstead (where it will be joined by a branch from the Edgware road)…” and continue via Coventry to Birmingham. With the prospect of competing Bills going before Parliament the two companies decided to merge. The joint venture appointed George Stephenson to review their respective plans and he favoured the Coventry option. The London & Birmingham Railway Company was formed, with Stephenson appointed as engineer, although he increasingly took a back-seat in proceedings, with his son Robert taking on the bulk of the work.

There was a great deal of opposition from interested parties such as stagecoach and canal companies, turnpike trusts, farmers, and influential owners of country estates through which the line would pass. The first attempted Bill was passed in the House of Commons but defeated by aristocratic landowners in the Lords. One of those who opposed it was Charles FitzRoy, Lord Southampton, who owned much of the land between Highgate, Camden and Euston.

Some changes to the planned route were then made to avoid the estates of opponents. At Birmingham the proposed line would link with the Grand Junction Railway from Liverpool, which Stephenson was also working on, both companies sharing a terminus at Curzon Street at Birmingham. Over five million pounds was raised in capital, mostly from Lancashire cotton manufacturers who saw the benefit of transporting their products to the London markets. Extremely large sums were then promised in compensation to many opponents and a second Bill was attempted.

The London terminus in the Parliamentary Bill of 1831 was to be just north of the present King’s Cross station, allowing transhipment of goods to the Regent’s Canal, which linked to the London docks. In the revised Bill the terminus was moved to Camden

…on the West Side of the High Road leading from London to Hampstead, at or near to the first Bridge Westward of the Lock on the Regent’s Canal at Camden Town in the Parish of Saint Pancras in the County of Middlesex.

There was by then much support in the country for the creation of the railway and royal assent was received in May 1833.

The great invention of the Victorian era was the railway. The main stimulus for its earliest development was the ability to move freight, particularly coal, so it was late to arrive in London compared with the industrial North of England. Most of the first passenger railways departing from the capital were created to carry people far around the country and had little impact on the city until the 1860s. But London’s first railway was a more local route.

The idea of transporting goods and materials in wagons along a track gradually evolved over an extended period. In the 17^th century tracks were simply wooden planks. In the following century they were replaced by wooden rails and larger wagons with iron wheels were pulled by horses. The first iron rails were introduced in around 1790.

The claim to be the first railway to operate on iron rails in the London area, perhaps also the first public railway anywhere in the world, can be made by the Surrey Iron Railway. It was authorised by an Act of Parliament in 1801, the first such Act for a railway. The line opened in stages between 1802 and 1803 along the Wandle Valley, from  Frying Pan Creek on the Thames at Wandsworth, via Merton, Mitcham and Waddon, to Pitlake Meadows at Croydon. Horse-drawn trains of ten wagons transported coal, building materials, and farm produce on a narrow-gauge, double-tracked line. The company charged a toll for carriers to run their trains on the tracks and the line remained open until 1846.

As the Surrey Railway was opening, the Cornish engineer Richard Trevithick was experimenting with static steam engines for pumping water from mines, based on the earlier machines produced by Matthew Boulton and James Watt. In 1801 he created the ‘Puffing Devil’ steam road vehicle but the surfaces of roads at that time were too poor for such a device to be successful. Drawings exist of a machine created for Trevithick by the Coalbrooke Iron Works to run on rails, which was probably the world’s first steam railway locomotive. Further experiments continued and in 1808 Trevithick publicised his work by creating the first passenger train. A locomotive named ‘Catch Me Who Can’ ran around a short circular ‘steam circus’ track at Euston Square in London. Passengers were charged one shilling for the novelty of travelling at up to 12 miles per hour. Unfortunately, the weight of the engine was too great for the rails and the ride closed after two months.

By that time railways had for long been used to carry coal or other materials for mines in the north and south-west of England, with wagons pulled by horses. From around 1812 pioneering engineers were creating new steam locomotives to replace horses. The earliest was the Stockton & Darlington Railway, which began operating in 1825 to transport coal from mines in the north-east of England.

A proposal had been promoted in 1824 for a passenger and goods railway from London across Kent to Canterbury, via Greenwich, Woolwich, Gravesend, and Chatham, with trains pulled by ‘locomotive machines’. The engineer was to be the canal and bridge builder Thomas Telford, but investors were unwilling to put up the necessary million pounds on a still unproven concept. A six-mile line did open between Canterbury and Whitstable on the North Kent Coast: the ‘Crab and Winkle line’. An attempt was made to pull wagons on that route using George Stephenson’s ‘Invicta’ locomotive but it had insufficient power to climb the steep hills so the line reverted to cable haulage using stationary steam engines.

But in September 1830 the Liverpool & Manchester opened, the world’s first passenger railway to connect two cities, with trains pulled by steam locomotives operating in each direction on two lines.

This idea of a passenger railway caught the attention of George Thomas Landmann. He had retired in 1824 as an officer in the Royal Engineers after a distinguished career, latterly in Canada where he had built forts to defend against an American invasion. In 1831 Landmann and George Walter made a proposal to create a 3½-mile railway from Tooley Street, Southwark on the south side of London Bridge to London Street, Greenwich. That same year the rebuilt London Bridge had opened, making it easier to cross the Thames into the City. Thus a railway to Southwark would be convenient for those travelling to and from London and the naval dockyards at Deptford, as well as the maritime town of Greenwich to which Londoners were attracted by its neighbouring park.

The Thames steam ferries and stage coach companies objected to the proposed railway, as did George Shillibeer, the originator of London’s first omnibuses. Nevertheless, it was sanctioned by Act of Parliament in May 1833. Importantly, the Act stipulated that the line should be the only one to enter the capital from the south.

There was scepticism regarding the financial viability of the enterprise, with some saying it would need to be extended to Dover before there would be sufficient passengers. Nevertheless, £400,000 was raised in £20 shares, later rising to £600,000. Negotiations then took place with 500 separate freeholders over whose land the railway would pass. Buildings in Southwark and Bermondsey, many of them slum dwellings, had to be demolished.

During his reign in the 16^th century Henry VIII created a large hunting park from different pieces of land. These evolved over the centuries into a series of large royal parks that are open to the public, which dominate the west side of Central London. The modern St. James’s Park and Green Parks were largely created during the 18^th and early 19^th centuries.

To form his hunting ground Henry confiscated the Manor of Hide from Westminster Abbey, which became Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. At the same time the ownership of the leper hospice of St. James the Less, to the west of Henry’s Whitehall Palace, was transferred from Eton College. Henry replaced the hospice with St. James’s Palace, initially with a hunting lodge, and the surrounding land became St. James’s Park.

The part of St. James’s Park immediately west of Whitehall Palace was landscaped for Charles II. A long canal was created the length of the park. Along the north side a track named The Mall was created, with Birdcage Walk to the south.

Whitehall Palace was largely destroyed by fire in 1698. By then the main royal residence was at Kensington Palace on the west side of Hyde Park. At the beginning of the 18^th century the Duke of Buckingham had the former Arlington House rebuilt on the western edge of St. James’s Park, close to St. James’s Palace, facing directly along The Mall.

Queen Caroline, wife of George II, who was making great changes to Hyde Park, also turned her attention to Upper St. James’s Park, the modern Green Park, which was still little more than a meadow. She created a path along the eastern side, which is still known as Queen’s Walk, and a library in a pavilion where she spent time after her daily promenade. A reservoir called the Queen’s Basin was formed alongside Piccadilly to supply water to St. James’s Palace and Buckingham House. The reservoir subsequently became part of the supply system of the Chelsea water company and at that time held 1,500,000 gallons.

Britain was at war for eight years as part of the War of the Austrian Succession, during which George’s territory of Hanover was vulnerable and even Britain was under threat of attack. The conflict ended in 1748 and to mark the occasion a grand event was organised in Upper St. James’s Park a year later, on the first anniversary. The Italian theatrical architect Giovanni Niccolò Servandoni was commissioned to create a Temple of Peace pavilion, 410 feet long and 114 feet tall. Tens of thousands of fireworks were ordered from Ruggieri & Sarti of Bologna for a pyrotechnic display, and George Frideric Handel composed accompanying music. Jonathan Tyers, creator of the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens took charge of illuminations. Special stands were erected for distinguished guests. The cost was £90,000. In the morning of the event the King inspected three regiments of Footguards under the command of the Duke of Cumberland. Twelve thousand people gathered to watch the spectacle. Music began as darkness fell and a hundred and one cannons were fired from Constitution Hill. However, part of the vast pavilion was set alight by a stray rocket and, while people scrambled to safety, most of the fireworks went off unnoticed. Three people died and the Queen’s library was destroyed.

The King had insisted that Handel should provide “martial music” for the event using brass, woodwind and percussion. The composer later re-worked his ‘Music for Royal Fireworks’ using strings, which is how it is performed today.

By the late 18^th century Upper St. James’s Park was a common venue for duels. One notable occasion was in 1771 between the English soldier Viscount Ligonier and the Italian dramatist Count Alfieri. Alfieri was having an affair with Ligonier’s wife, Penelope Pitt. On learning this, Ligonier sought Alfieri and found him at the Haymarket Theatre where he sat in a box with the Spanish ambassador and his wife. Alfieri excused himself and he travelled to Green Park where he entered a swordfight with Ligonier. Alfieri received a wound to his arm. Ligonier considered that to be enough to satisfy his honour and left the scene. Alfieri returned to the theatre to watch the last act of the play. News quickly spread and Penelope hastened to bathe his wound.

Part of the land on which Buckingham House was built had originally been taken from St. James’s Park under lease from the Crown. That complication allowed George III to acquire the entire site in 1761 from the Dukes of Buckingham, including the house. The King wished to use Buckingham House as a family villa following his marriage to Queen Caroline of Mecklenburg, as well as somewhere for his growing library. St. James’s Palace was then too antiquated for a family home. The transformation of Buckingham House then began that would turn it into the palace of today. The state rooms of St. James’s Palace continued to be used for official business.

In 1767 part of Upper St. James’s Park was appropriated to enlarge the garden of Buckingham House. In around 1772 Rosamond’s Pond, which pre-dated Henry VIII’s hunting ground, was filled in. What remained of Upper St. James’s Park was renamed Green Park. During the following decades The Mall became less fashionable for the aristocracy to promenade, moving instead to Green Park. The walks in St. James’s Park were left in a state of disrepair.

St. James’s Park is one of several royal parks that dominate the western side of Central London, all of which were once part of the hunting grounds of Henry VIII. In the 17^th century Charles II had the park landscaped and opened to the public.

In the Middle Ages leprosy was a common and contagious disease. Those who caught it were sent away to isolate in leper hospitals, known as lazar houses. One such hospice for women was to the west of the hamlet of Charing, between Westminster Abbey and its Manor of Hide. It was founded by the citizens of London in 1189 and named St. James the Less after the Bishop of Jerusalem. Over time, the surrounding 160 acres was bequeathed to the hospice, and Edward I granted the right to hold an annual fair in the fields. It was a marshy area, often flooded by the River Tyburn. Pigs were kept in the surrounding meadows and to the south-west of the hospice lay the water of Rosamond’s Pond. In 1449 custody of the hospice was granted to the newly-founded Eton College.

Henry VIII wished to create a large hunting ground to the west of his palace at Whitehall. Westminster Abbey’s Hide Manor was confiscated and in 1531 Eton College surrendered the hospice and its lands. A large deer park was thus formed from what would be the future St. James’s Park, Green Park, Hyde Park, and Kensington Gardens. An Act of Parliament of 1536 stated that the King had “made a Parke, walled and envyroned with brick and stone”.

The leper hospital was swept away, and in its place, between 1531 and 1536, Henry had a red-brick hunting lodge built that evolved to become St. James’s Palace. At that time Henry’s major palace was Whitehall and he used St. James’s as a retreat away from the formalities of the royal court.

St. James’s has continued as a palace into modern times, occasionally as the main London residence of monarchs. Queen Mary I died in the palace and Charles I spent his last night there before his execution. Charles II, James II, Mary II, and Queen Anne were all born at St. James’s.

The meadows that surrounded the leper hospice were known as St. James’s Fields. The first mention of the name St. James’s Park was in 1539 when 15,000 people from London came out to witness Henry VIII review the City’s militia. Queen Elizabeth used it to hold fetes. A garden was created in the north-east of the park, north of Whitehall Palace’s Tilt Yard, where there was a spring. (The garden has long gone but the street there still bears the name of Spring Gardens).

It was James I who began to bring St. James’s Park into vogue. He had the area drained and landscaped to form a park that was open for the upper classes to stroll. Pools at the east side were used for hunting ducks. The King was fond of exotic animals, which he kept in the park, including camels, crocodiles, and an elephant, sent by foreign monarchs and Britons abroad. Aviaries of exotic birds were kept, and there was a flower garden close to the palace. A physic garden was planted, where the diarist John Evelyn witnessed orange trees for the first time. An area close to Rosamond’s Pond was leased to William Stallinge to create a mulberry orchard in an attempt to grow silk-worms.

The park went into decline after the death of James. Charles I had other things on his mind. He spent his last night at St. James’s Palace and the following morning was led across the park to his execution at Banqueting House at Whitehall.

The experiment to produce silk-worms was abandoned and Lord Goring built a house on the site of the mulberry orchard. Goring House was destroyed by fire in 1675, replaced by a new house facing St. James’s Park for Lord Arlington later that decade. At the turn of the century it was purchased by the Duke of Buckingham who demolished the building and created the grander Buckingham House slightly closer to Green Park and centred on the Mall. In the 19^th century it would be transformed into Buckingham Palace.

St. James’s Park was a private ground for the royal family and invited guests until the reign of Charles II when members of polite society were admitted. During his time in exile Charles observed the elaborate gardens of the French royal family. When he returned to Whitehall Palace he had St. James’s Park redesigned by a French landscaper. Three hundred men worked on the project. A long, straight canal of 2,560 feet in length by 125 feet wide was created along the centre of the park, based on ideas from André le Nôtre, landscape gardener to Louis XIV who also provided designs for Greenwich Park. The canal was lined by an avenue of trees. During some winters it froze over and skating on the ice became popular, a recreation perhaps imported from Holland. The Doge of Venice provided a gift of two gondolas that were kept on the canal. For a time, two gondolieri and their families stayed in London but returned to Venice when Charles failed to pay their wages.

The wild animals had long gone but Charles had the park re-stocked with exotic birds. At the eastern end of the canal ‘Duck Island’, consisting of several small islands, was formed as a sanctuary for many species of waterfowl. In 1664 the Russian ambassador presented the King with a pair of pelicans and they continue to live in the park today. (They do not breed unless part of large flocks, so new pelicans are regularly introduced).

At the northern edge of St. James’s Park was a track, separated from the park by a single row of houses. Fields stretched to the north of the houses in what became the suburb of St. James’s. One of the houses was occupied by Charles’s mistress, Nell Gwynn. The King would stand at the edge of the park and talk with Gwynn in her garden. As John Evelyn noted in his diary, there was “a very familiar discourse between the King and Mrs. Nelly”.

In the 19^th century London was the capital of the world’s greatest empire, on which the British boasted “the sun never sets”. The country could celebrate Pax Britannica. Britain had fathered the Industrial Revolution and the Victorian era was a time of rapid progress in engineering and inventions. Manufacturing by machinery was still new and it excited the public imagination. Against this background it was decided to hold a ‘Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations’ in Hyde Park in 1851, a huge shop window to showcase the skills and products of the world. A great monument to free trade, it was the first time such a vast international event had been held anywhere in the world.

During the mid-19^th century Britain was in a period of transition, between the old world of farming and the future, consisting of cities and industry. Railways were linking the country. Coal and iron were fueling the nation’s industry. London was the manufacturing capital of, not just the country, but of the empire. There was boundless inventive flair. Britain was far ahead of the rest of the world in its industrial expansion. The country seemed peaceful, prosperous and secure. It seemed there was much to celebrate.

As far back as 1798 the French government had been organizing National Expositions to promote the works of industry. The first ‘Exposition des produits de l’industrie française’ was held on the Champ de Mars in Paris. It took place in a building constructed for that purpose by Jean-François Chalgrin who also designed the Arc de Triomphe. The expositions continued, although spasmodically due to national political upheavals, and they led to the foundation of the Société d’Encouragement for the cultivation of science and industry. In 1849 Henry Cole of the Royal Society of Arts visited the 11th Quinquennial Paris Exhibition but noticed there were no international participants.

Cole was a civil servant who fought passionately for a variety of reforms, including patent laws and the standardization of railways gauges. He assisted Rowland Hill in the introduction of the Penny Post in 1840, the world’s first pre-paid postage stamps. He is credited with creating the world’s first commercial Christmas cards three years later, and he edited the Journal of Design. As a member of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce he lobbied the government for support to improve standards in industrial design. Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, became the President of the society in 1845 and took a great interest in the subject. A royal charter was granted and it thereafter became known as the Royal Society of Arts.

It was not uncommon for provincial agricultural or trade shows to be held in Britain but in 1845 the Free Trade Bazaar of industrial and manufactured products was successfully held at the Covent Garden Theatre. In 1847 the Royal Society of Arts organized an exhibition with the patronage of Prince Albert. Larger events followed in the succeeding two years.

The idea of an international exhibition in London was formed from Cole’s visit to Paris. A meeting was held between Prince Albert and members of the society at Buckingham Palace in June 1849. In January 1850 the idea received a royal sanction from Queen Victoria. The ‘Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851’ was created that month, chaired by Albert and with twenty-seven commissioners including Prime Minister Lord John Russell, Sir Robert Peel, William Gladstone, engineer William Cubitt, architect Charles Barry, and sculptor Richard Westmacott. An executive committee consisted of Henry Cole as administrator, architect Matthew Digby Wyatt as secretary, and the railway engineer Robert Stephenson. A building committee included Barry, Cubitt, Stephenson, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and the architects Robert Cockerell and Thomas Leverton Donaldson.

The name for the event was to be ‘The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations’. Twenty-thousand pounds was set aside to be awarded as prize-money for the best exhibits. In March 1850 the Lord Mayor of London invited the mayors of cities, towns and boroughs to a banquet at Mansion House where the Prince explained the undertaking. At a banquet in York Albert announced: “our invitation has been received by all nations, with whom communication was possible, in that sprit of liberality and friendship in which it was tendered”. Lord Carlisle expressed the hope that the exhibition was “giving a new impulse to civilization, and bestowing an additional reward upon industry, and supplying a fresh guarantee to the amity of nations”. The promoter of international peace and free trade, Richard Cobden, stated: “the year 1851 will be a memorable one, indeed: it will witness a triumph of industry instead of a triumph of arms…tens of thousands will cross the Channel, to whom we will give the right hand of friendship”. Lecturers and agents were sent around the country to explain the objectives of the event.

The first obstacle was that no building could be found to house such an undertaking. Leicester Square was considered as the location because it “admitted of good access to high and low, rich and poor; and that those who went down in omnibuses would have equal facilities of approach with those who went in their private carriages” but it was eventually dismissed as too small and disruptive. The government offered Somerset House. But the Prince proposed an empty space on the south side of Hyde Park between South Carriage Drive and Rotten Row and that was settled.

Hyde Park is one of a group of parks on the west side of Central London. They have been royal land since their seizure by Henry VIII in the 16^th century to form a large private, rural hunting ground. For a long time entry was limited to the royal family, courtiers, and the upper echelons of society.

In the 11^th century the small Manor of Hyde was part of the larger Manor of Eia. Eia was granted by William the Conqueror to Geoffrey de Mandeville, who in turn bequeathed it to the monks of Westminster in exchange for masses to be said for his soul. It was then still some way distant from the City of London, and left as woods and meadowland through which the Westbourne Brook flowed.

Hyde was seized by Henry VIII in 1536 during the great transfer of lands that took place at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. He sold some of the manor but kept most to become part of a great uninterrupted private hunting ground, stretching west from Whitehall Palace to the village of Kensington. The brook was dammed to form watering holes for deer and royal hunts were organised for ambassadors and visiting dignitaries. Hunting continued during the reigns of Edward VI, Queen Elizabeth, and James I. In the centre of Hyde Park stood a banqueting hall to which everyone could retire after the hunt, which stood there until the creation of the Serpentine lake.

Hyde Park remained a private space exclusive to monarchs until 1637 during the reign of James I when limited access to the public was allowed. It soon became a place for high society to promenade, to see and be seen, and to show off the latest fashions. Charles I had a circular track created known as ‘The Ring’, sometimes referred to as ‘the Tour’, where members of the royal court could drive their carriages. It was situated north of where the Serpentine is today and partly obliterated with the creation of that artificial lake.

In the first decades of the 17^th century the aristocracy and affluent came to Hyde Park to take the air and socialise. Races on horse and foot took place at the Ring and crowds came to witness them. Ladies refreshed themselves at the ‘Cheesecake House’, with syllabubs made from cream whipped with sugar and wine.

The aristocracy’s jollity in Hyde Park temporarily vanished during the Civil War of the 1640s. Forts and earthworks were built there by the Parliamentarians to defend London against Royalist troops. All parks were closed on Sundays, as well as fast and thanksgiving days from 1645. After the defeat of King Charles the Long Parliament put Hyde Park up for auction in three lots totalling 621 acres. The part bounded by Bayswater Road was described as well wooded, and the Kensington side as chiefly pasture. The third part included the Ring, the lodge and banqueting house, and a wooded area. This latter section was valued at more than double the other two parts. It was purchased by Anthony Dean, a ship-builder, who probably wanted the trees for building ships. He let out the ground and his tenant levied a toll on carriages entering the park. In April 1653 John Evelyn complained in his diary:

Went to take the aire in Hide Park, when every coach was made to pay a shilling, and every horse sixpence, by the sordid fellow who had purchas’d it of the State, as they were call’d.

Oliver Cromwell was fond of riding in the park and crowds came to watch as he galloped around the Ring. There was at least one assassination attempt on him during those occasions. He was also lucky to survive when a horse presented to him by the Duke of Holstein bolted and a pistol went off in his pocket.

Hyde Park was reclaimed by Charles II immediately after the Restoration. Almost as soon as he regained the throne, he and his brother, the Duke of York, began taking walks there, where they could socialise with the beautiful ladies of the court. Hyde Park and St. James’s Parks became the places for the upper classes to meet. In fashionable circles, it was simply enough to say “the park” or “the Ring” when referring to them. In his diaries, Samuel Pepys often mentioned being in ‘the park’. He first writes of seeing the King there on 9^th June 1660, less than a fortnight after Charles arrived back in London from exile:

Found the King in the Park. There walked. Gallantly great.

The Frenchman Count Philibert de Gramont, living in exile in England, wrote:

Hyde Park, every one knows, is the promenade of London: nothing was so much in fashion, during the fine weather, as that promenade, which was the rendezvous of magnificence and beauty.

For almost 160 years Whitehall Palace was the centre of royal life in England, from where Tudor and Stuart monarchs, from Henry VIII in the 16^th century to William and Mary in the 18^th century, governed the country. In Henry’s reign it was the largest palace in Europe, yet it was never a single grand building. It was more like a royal suburb, a sprawling mass of buildings over 23 acres with no coherent design. Its history stretched back to at least the 13^th century.

When Cardinal Wolsey fell from grace, Henry VIII confiscated his substantial palace at Whitehall, just a short distance to the north of the former royal Palace of Westminster. During his reign he transformed it into a more magnificent palace complex. It became a residence for the royal family and courtiers, a venue for state occasions, and a place for royal leisure pursuits such as jousting, bowling, and cockfighting. Immediately to the west of the palace he created a vast hunting ground consisting of St. James’s and Hyde Parks. Queen Elizabeth continued to use the palace in much the same way as her father.

Elizabeth died in 1603. James IV of Scotland, the first of England’s Stuart dynasty, was proclaimed James I, King of England, on the Green beside Whitehall’s Tilt Yard on the same day as Elizabeth’s funeral at Westminster Abbey. By the time of his accession Whitehall was in a dilapidated condition and he hoped to rebuild on a more magnificent scale. Besides, unlike Elizabeth, he had a family that required accommodation. A tennis court was converted into a home for his daughter Elizabeth, new rooms were created on the riverside for the Queen, and lavish residences erected for royal favourites and courtiers. James had Elizabeth’s “old rotten slight-builded” Banqueting House replaced with a sturdier building, completed in 1609.

New stabling was constructed at what is now Trafalgar Square, and various lodgings rebuilt. James also had the Spring Garden created north of the Tilt Yard, named after the spring at that spot. (Although the gardens have long gone, the street at that point still bears the name Spring Gardens).

Following the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot to assassinate James at Westminster in November 1605, Guy Fawkes was interrogated at Whitehall. His reply when asked his intention, was: “To blow Scotchmen back to Scotland”.

Masques were a popular form of entertainment for the royal court during the reigns of Elizabeth, James and Charles I. They were generally plays performed in song and dance, usually based on a classical or allegorical theme, celebrating the host or a particular occasion. The performers were masked. At the performance end the audience joined the final dance, when the actors, often members of the royal court, would unmask to reveal themselves. Extremely large sums of money were spent on extravagant performances. The leading creators of masques were Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones.

Jones was a key figure in the history of Whitehall Palace during the reign of James. He made several trips to Italy where he was able to study classical architecture, as well as stage design. Under the patronage of James’s consort, Anne of Denmark, he designed scenery for masques performed in the Cockpit and Banqueting House at the palace, usually in collaboration with Jonson. In 1613, having completed various architectural commissions, he was appointed Surveyor-General of the King’s Works. He lodged at Scotland Yard, at the north end of the palace complex. Between 1616 and 1635 he designed the Queen’s House at Greenwich. In addition to the work for the royal household, Inigo Jones also undertook numerous other projects, including the creation of the new suburb of Covent Garden and a west front for St. Paul’s Cathedral.

In January 1619 some state apartments were destroyed by fire and the Banqueting House so damaged that it had to be rebuilt. Jones drew up plans for James’s magnificent new palace and work proceeded to create a new Banqueting House on the same site as the old. His design, as with the Queen’s House, was in the Palladian style he had studied in Italy and would have seemed quite magnificent within the surrounding old Tudor buildings. It was completed in 1622. The first masque performed in the new hall was Ben Jonson’s Masque of Augurs in that same year. Banqueting Hall was thereafter used for ceremonial occasions such as state banquets and the reception of ambassadors.

James’s son, the young Prince Henry, Prince of Wales, expanded the art collection started by Henry VIII, and his father had a gallery built by Inigo Jones, known as the Cabinet Room. It stood in the middle of Whitehall, from the Thames to Banqueting House and fronting the Privy Garden. His younger brother, Charles, later increased the collection, particularly with works by Van Dyke.

Despite James’s hope to improve the palace he had inherited most of Jones’s plans were never realised. In reality, they were beyond the financial means of the King. Other than the Banqueting House, the additions made during James’s reign were ad hoc and only rendered Henry VIII’s palace less coherent.