Transport for London
Construction Materials Group: The history of the London
Underground
 With
Christmas only two weeks away and the start of a New Year
beckoning, the Construction Materials Group ended 2005 on
a high note. Stephen Halliday, author of Underground to everywhere,
delighted over 100 listeners with his talk ‘Fraud, suicide,
bankruptcy and transportation for life: the controversial
history of the London Underground railway’.
From Paxton
to Pick, Halliday illustrated the colourful history of the
London Underground from the Victorian age to the present day.
With the opening statement ‘Ken Livingstone is a pussycat
compared to his predecessors’, the audience were introduced
to the many characters who contributed to the conception and
realisation of our underground network.
This fascinating lecture highlighted the forward thinking
needed to establish a system that transports over three million
commuters a day. The talk highlighted the work of many innovators,
from Sir Joseph Paxton, creator of the Crystal Palace, who
envisaged a pneumatic railway encased in glass, to Marc Brunel
whose rotary excavator is still used as the basis of tunnelling
technology.
It embraced key contributors such as Charles Tyson Yerkes,
who funded the completion of four tube lines through embezzled
money, and Frank Pick, who established the corporate image
by commissioning works by artists such as Graham Sutherland
and Mabel Lucie Atwell.
Halliday spoke of particular factors that hindered progress,
including the issues of cost and safety, political influence
on management decisions (delaying the Victoria line for 20
years), under investment and ‘annuality’, which
in turn led to privatisation. We were also reminded of the
sanctuary the underground provided during the Blitz.
It was a double celebration for the Construction Materials
Group as committee member Iren Jasko (above) was awarded the
Distinguished Service Award in recognition of her invaluable
contribution to SCI. Presented by Ed Metcalfe, Chairman of
Council, and surrounded by family and friends, Jasko spoke
of the important role SCI had played in her life and looked
forward to the continuing growth and prosperity of the Society.
Clemency Christopherson, SCI Communications
Executive
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