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The mighty Royal Commission on London Traffic that was set up to report on "the means of locomotion and transport" in the Metropolis and to report on the better organisation, development and inter-connections between the various methods of mechanical transport. The Commission was pertinent given the rapid shift to electric operation of tramways at the time as well as the many, opposing, plans for additional deep level tube lines. Volume 5 contains dozens of plans and maps illustrating the current situation in London, relating to congestion, population, workplaces as well as the contemporary transport network and proposals. The information comes from a variety of sources who were asked to give evidence to the Commission.

The volume includes a series of photographs taken in 1903 and submitted by the Assistant Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis, Sir Alexander Carmichael Bruce. Several of the photos show the congestion at tramway termini and interchanges; many of these, on the 'boundary' of the Cities of London and Westminster, were effectively created by these two inner local authorities who resolutely opposed tramways meaning that interchange to horse bus or the infant tube system was necessary thus causing much congestion. In 1906 some of this on the south side was partially solved by the London County Council who 'breeched' the cordon sanitaire by dint of finally extending their tramways across Westminster and Blackfriars Bridges, along the Embankment and through the Kingsway tram subway that they built and operated. However in many other places the edge of city termini persisted even into trolleybus days.

These two plates show busy streets in West London; High Street in Brentford, Middlesex, and King Street, one of the main thoroughfares in Hammersmith. As well as electric tramcars of the relatively new London United Electric Tramways an array of horse drawn vehicles can be seen - open top horse buses and various delivery and goods wagons.

The mighty Royal Commission on London Traffic that was set up to report on "the means of locomotion and transport" in the Metropolis and to report on the better organisation, development and inter-connections between the various methods of mechanical transport. The Commission was pertinent given the rapid shift to electric operation of tramways at the time as well as the many, opposing, plans for additional deep level tube lines. Volume 5 contains dozens of plans and maps illustrating the current situation in London, relating to congestion, population, workplaces as well as the contemporary transport network and proposals. The information comes from a variety of sources who were asked to give evidence to the Commission.

The volume includes a series of photographs taken in 1903 and submitted by the Assistant Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis, Sir Alexander Carmichael Bruce. Several of the photos show the congestion at tramway termini and interchanges; many of these, on the 'boundary' of the Cities of London and Westminster, were effectively created by these two inner local authorities who resolutely opposed tramways meaning that interchange to horse bus or the infant tube system was necessary thus causing much congestion. In 1906 some of this on the south side was partially solved by the London County Council who 'breeched' the cordon sanitaire by dint of finally extending their tramways across Westminster and Blackfriars Bridges, along the Embankment and through the Kingsway tram subway that they built and operated. However in many other places the edge of city termini persisted even into trolleybus days.

One tram terminus that stayed resolutely a terminus, even surviving for electric street traction until the end of trolleybuses in 1962, was that at Shepherd's Bush in West London. Here, from 1901, the tramways of the London United (Electric) Tramways fed vast numbers of passengers to and from the then terminus of the Central London Railway that had opened in 1900. This facility was useful, with 'through fares' available, and much used but meant there were often serious crowd control issues on both the station and the roadway outside the station as can be seen here. The single storey station building, in a light colour faience, designed by Harry Bell Measures to a generic design across the CLR, survived over a century before demolition in 2005/8 as part of the Westfield development. The various trams seen are all open top and include examples of the LUT 'W' class built by G. F. Milnes with the turnback staircases.

The mighty Royal Commission on London Traffic that was set up to report on "the means of locomotion and transport" in the Metropolis and to report on the better organisation, development and inter-connections between the various methods of mechanical transport. The Commission was pertinent given the rapid shift to electric operation of tramways at the time as well as the many, opposing, plans for additional deep level tube lines. Volume 5 contains dozens of plans and maps illustrating the current situation in London, relating to congestion, population, workplaces as well as the contemporary transport network and proposals. The information comes from a variety of sources who were asked to give evidence to the Commission.

This plan, of a proposed Hammersmith, City & North East London Railway, was one of many tube railways that were considered in the early years of the Twentieth Century for London, so many that it kept not only this Royal Commission but various other Committees and the Houses of Parliament busy considering them. Some were more 'definite' than other, more developed and had a possibility of capital - but many were not. Such various proposals that neither got beyond the starting blocks or fell at various hurdles, legislative or financial, also had to face an increasingly charged political scene along with the machinations of two opposing American interests; the Yerkes group and the Speyer group. In simple terms, the former largely won out over the other and although the core of the city's Underground lines were in place by 1907 many areas as can be seen on this map lost out. Possibly the biggest loss was North East London; partially finally served in 1969 with the Victoria line but Hackney, whose 'latest' hope had been Crossrail 2, still waits.

The plan was 'handed in' by a Mr. R. Elliott-Cooper of the Institute of Civil Engineers and Mr. A. F. Hills, chairman of the Thames Ironworks Company who perhaps saw some engineering opportunities. I think the HCNER fell due to a failure to pay the Parliamentary deposit.

The mighty Royal Commission on London Traffic that was set up to report on "the means of locomotion and transport" in the Metropolis and to report on the better organisation, development and inter-connections between the various methods of mechanical transport. The Commission was pertinent given the rapid shift to electric operation of tramways at the time as well as the many, opposing, plans for additional deep level tube lines. Volume 5 contains dozens of plans and maps illustrating the current situation in London, relating to congestion, population, workplaces as well as the contemporary transport network and proposals. The information comes from a variety of sources who were asked to give evidence to the Commission.

The volume includes a series of photographs taken in 1903 and submitted by the Assistant Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis, Sir Alexander Carmichael Bruce. Several of the photos show the congestion at tramway termini and interchanges; many of these, on the 'boundary' of the Cities of London and Westminster, were effectively created by these two inner local authorities who resolutely opposed tramways meaning that interchange to horse bus or the infant tube system was necessary thus causing much congestion. In 1906 some of this on the south side was partially solved by the London County Council who 'breeched' the cordon sanitaire by dint of finally extending their tramways across Westminster and Blackfriars Bridges, along the Embankment and through the Kingsway tram subway that they built and operated. However in many other places the edge of city termini persisted even into trolleybus days.

The photo of Elephant and Castle shows a landscape so much changed by WW2 bombing and post-war redevelopment by the LCC. The scene shows both horse trams and the early conduit electric system that the LCC introduced in 1903 a few months before this photograph was taken. Even in this local authority opposition to the streetscape impact of overhead cables forced the LCC into the complex and expense under road conduit system in large areas of inner London. The new electric conduit trams can also be seen in the photo of Westminster Bridge Road. As far as I can see there are no motorised vehicles in either scene, something that would soon start to change.

The mighty Royal Commission on London Traffic that was set up to report on "the means of locomotion and transport" in the Metropolis and to report on the better organisation, development and inter-connections between the various methods of mechanical transport. The Commission was pertinent given the rapid shift to electric operation of tramways at the time as well as the many, opposing, plans for additional deep level tube lines. Volume 5 contains dozens of plans and maps illustrating the current situation in London, relating to congestion, population, workplaces as well as the contemporary transport network and proposals. The information comes from a variety of sources who were asked to give evidence to the Commission.

This plan of the Paris Metro was referred to by J. H. Lukach of the Traction & Power Securities Company and supplied to the Commission by none other than M. Fulgence Bienvenüe, the man usually referred to as the "Le Père du Métro" (Father of the Metro) and whose titles in the structure of Paris transport is shown in his title. The plan shows the Parisian system, the extensions underway and those proposed. The Commission would have noted that there was a stronger degree of central control as to the planning of the Paris system as against London.