Middle Circle

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File:The Circle Routes of Victorian London.png
The Middle Circle (coloured gold) and other circular routes

The Middle Circle was a Great Western Railway service in London that operated from 1872 to 1905. The route was from the District Railway station at Mansion House to Earl's Court, then via the West London Railway to Latimer Road on to the Hammersmith & City Railway and then via the Metropolitan Railway to the City of London. Although not a complete circuit, it was one of several 'circle' routes around London that opened at the same time, such as the 'inner circle' that is today's Circle line.Template:Sfn Trains would run once every 30 minutes. In 1900 the service was cut back to run from Earl's Court to Aldgate, and ended in 1905.

History

Origins

The Great Western Railway (GWR) opened the Hammersmith & City Railway (H&CR) on 13 June 1864, and from 1 July 1864 carriages from Kensington (Addison Road) (now Kensington [Olympia]) were attached and detached from trains at Notting Hill; through services between Kensington and the City of London beginning in April 1865.Template:Sfn A station had been built on the chord linking the H&CR and West London Railway, but this never opened due to GWR objections.Template:Sfn Following an agreement between the Metropolitan Railway and GWR in August 1868,Template:Sfn Uxbridge Road station, designed by the London & North Western Railway (L&NWR), opened on the West London Railway on 1 November 1869.Template:Sfn

Middle Circle

The Middle Circle service started on 1 August 1872 when the GWR extended this service from Addison Road over the District Railway to Earl's Court and onto Mansion House.Template:Sfn The GWR provided most of the locomotives and carriages for the service.Template:EfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn When the Metropolitan extended the north side of its railway eastward from Moorgate, the Middle Circle followed suit and Bishopsgate (now Liverpool Street) became the terminus on 12 July 1875 and then Aldgate took the role from 4 December 1876.Template:Sfn Trains ran once every 30 minutes.Template:Sfn

From 1 July 1900, the service was cut back to run from Earl's Court to Aldgate, and the Middle Circle service ended on 31 January 1905.Template:Sfn

Metropolitan Railway

From 1 February 1905 the service was temporarily replaced by a shuttle from Addison Road to Hammersmith & City stations,Template:Sfn until 5 November 1906, when four electric trains an hour began running from Addison Road to Aldgate, one continuing to Whitechapel.Template:Sfn This service appears on the 1908 'London Underground' map as a Metropolitan Railway service.[1]

Passenger services on the West London Railway were ended on 19 October 1940 following bomb damage to the line, and the link between Latimer Road and the WLR closed.Template:Sfn The curve was demolished in the 1960s to make way for the construction of the West Cross Route motorway.Template:Fact

With the exception of the Uxbridge Road, today the stations are served by the Circle, District and Hammersmith & City lines. Uxbridge Road station closed with the line in 1940Template:Sfn and Template:Rws opened on the same site in 2008.[2]

List of stations

The following stations were served by the Middle Circle:

Station Comments
Aldgate After 4 December 1876.
Bishopsgate (now Liverpool Street) After 12 July 1875
Moorgate Street (now Moorgate)
Aldersgate Street (now Barbican)
Farringdon Street (now Farringdon)
King's Cross (now King's Cross St Pancras)
Gower Street (now Euston Square)
Portland Road (now Great Portland Street)
Baker Street
Edgware Road
Paddington (Bishops Road) (now Paddington)
Royal Oak
Westbourne Park
Notting Hill (now Ladbroke Grove)
Latimer Road
Uxbridge Road Closed 1940. Shepherd's Bush station opened on the same site in 2008.
Addison Road (now Kensington (Olympia))
Earl's Court
Brompton (Gloucester Road) (now Gloucester Road) Service withdrawn 1 July 1900
South Kensington
Sloane Square
Victoria
St James's Park
Westminster Bridge (now Westminster)
Charing Cross (now Embankment)
Temple
Blackfriars
Mansion House

Notes and references

Notes

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References

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  1. For the 1908 London Underground Map see File:Tube map 1908-2.jpg.
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Sources

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External links

Template:Great Western Railway Template:Circle line navbox