District Railway

To finance electrification at the beginning of the 20th century, American financier Charles Yerkes took it over and made it part of his Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL) group.

For the 1864 parliamentary session, railway schemes were presented that met the recommendation in varying ways and a joint committee composed of members of both Houses of Parliament reviewed the options.

The Met's chairman and three other directors were on the board of the District, John Fowler was the engineer of both companies and the construction works for all of the extensions were let as a single contract.

During the night of 5 July 1870 the District secretly built the disputed Cromwell Curve connecting Brompton (Gloucester Road) and Kensington (High Street).

[13] East of Westminster, the next section ran in the newly constructed Victoria Embankment built by the Metropolitan Board of Works along the north bank of the River Thames.

Struggling under the burden of high construction costs, the District was unable to continue with the original scheme to reach Tower Hill and made a final extension of its line one station further east from Blackfriars to a previously unplanned City terminus at Mansion House.

[16] From this date, the two companies operated a joint inner circle service between Mansion House and Moorgate Street via South Kensington and Edgware Road that ran every ten minutes.

This curve allowed, from 1 February 1872, the London & North Western Railway (L&NWR) to run a half-hourly outer circle service from Broad Street to Mansion House via Willesden Junction, Addison Road and Earls Court.

From 1 October 1872, the GWR also ran a half-hourly middle circle service from the Met's Moorgate Street station to Mansion House via Paddington and Earl's Court.

It opened on 9 September 1874 with one intermediate station at North End (Fulham) (renamed West Kensington in 1877) and a terminus at Hammersmith, and was served by through trains to Mansion House.

[27] From 1 May 1878 to 30 September 1880, the Midland Railway operated a circular service from St Pancras to Earl's Court via Dudding Hill, Acton and the L&SWR to Hammersmith.

From 1 October 1884 the District and Metropolitan began local services from St Mary's via this curve onto the East London Railway to SER's New Cross station.

On the same day the District extended its services to Whitechapel and over the ELR to New Cross, calling at new joint stations at Aldgate East and St Mary's.

[41] Several schemes to cross the Thames at Putney Bridge to Guildford, Surbiton or Wimbledon had been proposed and received approval from Parliament, although the District had been unable to raise the necessary funding.

The LT&SR and District jointly took over the company the following year and the line opened on 2 June 1902 with new stations at Stepney Green, Mile End and Bow Road.

[45] At the start of the 20th century the District and Metropolitan railways faced increased competition in central London from new, electric, deep-level tube lines.

A jointly owned train of six coaches successfully ran an experimental passenger service on the Earl's Court to High Street Kensington section for six months in 1900.

Tenders were then requested and in 1901 a Metropolitan and District joint committee recommended the Ganz three-phase AC system with overhead wires.

On 15 July 1901, Yerkes established the Metropolitan District Electric Traction Company with himself as managing director[50] and raised £1 million to carry out the electrification, including construction of the generating station and supplying the new rolling stock.

After modification the Met returned and electric trains took over on 24 September, reducing the travel time around the circle from seventy to fifty minutes.

[83] Powers were renewed in 1926 for the quadruple track from Hammersmith to be extended to west of Acton Town, with the concept of the Piccadilly running non-stop on the inner pair.

[90] To protect the UERL group's income, its chairman Lord Ashfield lobbied the government for regulation of transport services in the London area.

Ashfield aimed for regulation that would give the UERL group protection from competition and allow it to take control of the LCC's tram system; Morrison preferred full public ownership.

[99] In 1905 the District bought ten bogie box cab locomotives that looked similar to their multiple units but were only 25 feet (7.6 m) long.

[100] The locomotives were used to haul L&NWR passenger trains on the electrified section of the Outer Circle route between Earl's Court and Mansion House.

[101] From 1910 the locomotives were used on London, Tilbury and Southend Railway (LT&SR) trains extended over the District line, west of Barking.

A third of the vehicles were made in England, the rest in Belgium and France and electrical equipment was installed on arrival at Ealing Common Works.

After the District Railway became part of London Underground, similar cars were ordered to allow the Metropolitan line be extended to Barking and replace some of the rapidly deteriorating original wooden trailers.

[118] The 1935–40 New Works Programme fitted electro-pneumatic brakes and air-operated doors to most of the District line stock[119] and allowed the remaining wooden cars to be scrapped.

[121] As of March 2015[update] a driving motor car built in 1923 is a static exhibit at London Transport Museum at Covent Garden.

This crop of a poster shows an underground electric train below a railway terminus with carriages and steam locomotives.
Part of a UERL poster from 1914 shows the underground District Railway Embankment station under the South Eastern and Chatham Railway 's Charing Cross terminus
In this drawing the railway is shown on the left, underground in a rectangular tunnel. On the right is the Thames and between them is a wall and earth.
An 1867 drawing of the District Railway in the Embankment at Charing Cross station.
The railway line is in the shape of the letter C. The top of the C, between Kensington (High Street) in the west and Moorgate Street in the east was run by the Metropolitan Railway, and the bottom of the C, between South Kensington and Mansion House by the District. Between Kensington (High Street) and South Kensington the two railways overlap, the companies having their own track. Junctions with the Met are shown at Baker Street and east of Paddington and with the District near Earl's Court.
In 1871 the inner circle services began, starting from Mansion House and travelling to Moorgate Street via South Kensington and Paddington. The companies had their own pairs of track between Kensington High Street and South Kensington.
Richmond is shown on the bottom left and a blue line (L&SWR) is goes up the page then right until Hammersmith is reached. At Hammersmith the blue curves sharply north, travels through Hammersmith station and then curves around until it meets a north – south black line (WLR) in a southerly direction. Just before the Hammersmith station the District Railway is shown continuing straight on, through its own station, before continuing to Earl's Court.
The District Railway in the Hammersmith area in 1877 showing the route to Richmond over the lines of the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR)
This map shows the Hounslow branch starting from Mill Hill Park on the Ealing Broadway route before heading west through several stations. A short branch terminates at Hounslow Town; a route west runs through Heston Heathrow before terminating at Hounslow Barracks.
The District Railway in Hounslow in the late 19th century. In 1886 Hounslow Town was replaced by Heston Hounslow.
The joint railway is shown between Mansion House and Whitechapel. Continuing from an end on junction with the District at Mansion House it passes through stations and as it passes Aldgate a junction allows access to the station before the line to continues east. When it reaches Whitechapel the line curves south to join the East London Railway.
The joint line (shown in blue) that completed the inner circle in 1884 and gave the Metropolitan and District Railways access to the East London Railway. The Met's station at the Tower of London was closed soon after the line was opened. District services were extended east of Whitechapel over the Whitechapel & Bow Railway in 1902. [ 33 ]
A three-quarter black-and-white photograph of a train standing at a station, showing the end carriage with windows at the end.
The jointly owned experimental passenger train that ran for six months in 1900
A large red-brick building with a double-pitched roof stretches into the distance. Two cylindrical chimneys reach high into the sky.
Originally built with four chimneys, Lots Road Power Station provided electricity for all of the UERL's lines
A map titled "London Underground Railways" showing each of the underground railway lines in a different colour with stations marked as blobs. Faint background detail shows the River Thames, roads and non-underground lines.
The joint UNDERGROUND map published in 1908. The District Railway is shown in green.
A simple rectangular brick structure with four openings, glass above continues to the roof; the roof is a concrete slab that overhangs the walls.
When Sudbury Town was rebuilt in July 1931 it was the prototype developing Holden's architectural style.
District Railway locomotive No. 10
A black-and-white photograph showing a 6-car train at a station. There are detail differences in the carriages, the leading car, unlike the others, has its clerestory extended to the car end and the 3rd and 5th carriage sides are flared at the bottom.
A District line train at Gunnersbury in 1955. The leading car, with a clerestory roof, is one of the District Railway cars built in 1923.