Regents Canal and Railway Company (and related proposals)

[rebeltc130]

Have been trying to read up on the 1855 Regents Canal and Railway Company plan to convert the canal between Paddington and City Road basin into a railway as well as other proposals up (including one from Kings Cross to Limehouse) to 1883 with the Regent's Canal and City Docks Railway Company later the North Metropolitan Railway and Canal Company in 1892. Ultimately with no railway being built.

Have a few questions.

1) Were there any great differences on the planned routes proposed by the above?

2) Do any other more detailed maps exist besides the 1855 proposal below?

3) Apart from Paddington, Kings Cross, City Road and Limehouse. What other stations were envisaged over the years (beyond the 1855 map below) before the idea of a Regents Canal railway was abandoned in the 1890s? 

[quex]

Just a quick post which I'll hopefully flesh out with more details later, but if you can view a copy of the 1892 "District Railway Map of London", the Regent's Canal, City & Docks Railway (RCCDR) is shown with specific locations of passenger stations, and a different route for the City branch to the one shown on your 1855 map.

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edit: Fully zoomable version of said map available here [https://www.raremaps.com/gallery/detail/0001bm/the-district-railway-map-of-london-5th-edition-adams-sons]. Hope this help.

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It's interesting the way the 1855 plans take a circuitous route to get to the Thames - no doubt to use the mothballed Thames Tunnel, as-yet unused by the East London Railway.

[rebeltc130]

Dec 27, 2020 12:37:48 GMT quex said:

Just a quick post which I'll hopefully flesh out with more details later, but if you can view a copy of the 1892 "District Railway Map of London", the Regent's Canal, City & Docks Railway (RCCDR) is shown with specific locations of passenger stations, and a different route for the City branch to the one shown on your 1855 map.

--

edit: Fully zoomable version of said map available here [https://www.raremaps.com/gallery/detail/0001bm/the-district-railway-map-of-london-5th-edition-adams-sons]. Hope this help.

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It's interesting the way the 1855 plans take a circuitous route to get to the Thames - no doubt to use the mothballed Thames Tunnel, as-yet unused by the East London Railway.

Thanks for the 1892 map quex.

So the stop south of City Road was envisaged as Barbican, other proposed stations including Maida Vale (located where Blomfield Road meets Edgeware Road), St John's Wood Road / Lords, Camden Town, Primrose Hill (located around Prince Albert Road), Caledonian Road, Angel, New North Road, Kingsland Road, what appears to be South Hackney (similar proposals dub it Cambridge Heath Road) and Victoria Park. The 1855 proposal appearing to include stops at Globe Town and Mile End Road.

Did not realise there were grander ambitions envisaged for both maps, would it be correct to assume the stop to the south of City Road on the 1855 map was also planned to be Barbican and include a link to Waterloo?

[quex]

Dec 27, 2020 19:29:40 GMT rebeltc130 said:

Would it be correct to assume the stop to the south of City Road on the 1855 map was also planned to be Barbican and include a link to Waterloo?

My interpretation of the station south of City Road on the 1855 plan is that it would be in the Moorgate/Fore Street area. The link with the Eastern Counties Railway (from what was then its Bishopsgate terminus) to the Moorgate/Fore Street station to me suggests that they were anticipating some kind of grand "City Terminus", a bit like a German hauptbahnhof. This kind of idea was quite popular in London at the time, and indeed it was one version of it that would later go on to become the Metropolitan Railway we all know and love.

The link to Waterloo rang a bell in my head somewhere - at first I thought it might be part of Joseph Paxton's Great Victorian Way proposal of about the same time. However, having double-checked, this would follow a different route to Lambeth, so I'm not sure I can help you there.

Incidentally I've just come across a reference to an even later proposal (1903) to construct a Behr-style monorail along the Canal under the title of the North Metropolitan & Regent's Canal Railway, in Alan Jackson's "London's Termini". The Great Central bridge over the Canal into Marylebone includes an extra span to allow for the then-authorised RCCDR, and is probably the only tangible physical reminder of any of the various Regent's Canal Railway projects.

[rebeltc130]

Dec 27, 2020 22:36:51 GMT quex said:

Dec 27, 2020 19:29:40 GMT rebeltc130 said:

Would it be correct to assume the stop to the south of City Road on the 1855 map was also planned to be Barbican and include a link to Waterloo?

My interpretation of the station south of City Road on the 1855 plan is that it would be in the Moorgate/Fore Street area. The link with the Eastern Counties Railway (from what was then its Bishopsgate terminus) to the Moorgate/Fore Street station to me suggests that they were anticipating some kind of grand "City Terminus", a bit like a German hauptbahnhof. This kind of idea was quite popular in London at the time, and indeed it was one version of it that would later go on to become the Metropolitan Railway we all know and love.

The link to Waterloo rang a bell in my head somewhere - at first I thought it might be part of Joseph Paxton's Great Victorian Way proposal of about the same time. However, having double-checked, this would follow a different route to Lambeth, so I'm not sure I can help you there.

Incidentally I've just come across a reference to an even later proposal (1903) to construct a Behr-style monorail along the Canal under the title of the North Metropolitan & Regent's Canal Railway, in Alan Jackson's "London's Termini". The Great Central bridge over the Canal into Marylebone includes an extra span to allow for the then-authorised RCCDR, and is probably the only tangible physical reminder of any of the various Regent's Canal Railway projects.

The 1892 route's stop at Barbican seems to be curiously similar to another 1891 proposal traveling towards the northeast from Whitecross Street, the latter if one were to hazard a guess would have followed part of the 1892 route from Barbican / Whitecross Street before diverging from Kings Cross onto the Tottenham and Hampstead Junction Railway after Kentish Town towards Highgate Road / Junction Road?

Have read of previous plans for Waterloo running to London Bridge at one time, which had it been realized could have opened up the possibility for trains running from Waterloo to Blackfriars and Cannon Street (at the expense of Waterloo East). Which is what immediately came to mind with the 1855 map's link from Waterloo to Moorgate/Fore Street area (with what appears to be an additional stop around St Paul's).

Will look to check out Alan Jackson's London's Termini, does the 1985 edition have any addition content over the 1969 edition?

[quex]

Dec 28, 2020 11:42:52 GMT rebeltc130 said:

Does the 1985 edition have any addition content over the 1969 edition?

Don't have a Scooby I'm afraid, but generally I don't think you can go far wrong buying the later edition of a book.

[AndrewS]

Dec 28, 2020 18:31:38 GMT quex said:

Don't have a Scooby I'm afraid, but generally I don't think you can go far wrong buying the later edition of a book.

Red for Danger is sometimes mentioned as an exception to this!