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The A1 in London is an A road in North London. It runs from the London Wall to Bignall's Corner, where it crosses the M25 motorway and becomes the A1(M) motorway, continuing to Edinburgh. The London section passes through four London boroughs: the City of London, Islington, Haringey and Barnet. Whilst the route of the A1 outside London closely follows the historic route of the Great North Road, the London section for the most part does not.
The current route of the London section of the A1 road was mainly designated as such in 1927. It comprises a number of historic streets in central London and the former suburbs of Islington, Holloway and Highgate and long stretches of purpose-built new roads in the outer London borough of London Borough of Barnet, built to divert traffic away from the congested suburbs of Finchley and High Barnet.
The London section of the A1 is one of London's most important roads. It links North London to the M1 motorway and the A1(M) motorway, and consequently serves as Central London's primary road transport artery to the Midlands, Northern England and Scotland. It also connects a number of major areas within London, and sections of it serve as the High Street for many of the now-joined villages that make up north London. (Full article...)
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Charles Tyson Yerkes (25 June 1837 – 29 December 1905) was an American financier. He played a major part in developing mass-transit systems in Chicago and London. Yerkes was born in the Northern Liberties, a district of Philadelphia, the son of a banker. At 17 he became a clerk in a grain brokerage and at 22 set up his own firm and joined the Philadelphia stock exchange. By 1865 he had moved into banking and specialized in selling municipal, state, and government bonds. A large speculative trade with Philadelphia public money ended disastrously, and he was left insolvent and narrowly avoided being jailed. Having moved to Chicago in 1881, Yerkes became involved in public transportation when his consortium began taking over street railway companies. His aim was to achieve a monopoly of public transport in the city and he used bribery and blackmail in order to further his ambition. Following an unsuccessful attempt to bribe the city council and state legislature into granting him a 100-year franchise for the tramway system, Yerkes sold his transport stocks in 1899 and moved to New York.
In September 1900, he became involved in underground railways in London, buying the unbuilt Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway. In 1902, he established the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL) which bought a number tube railway companies which had not been able to find finance. Money was quickly raised using complex financial instruments and the UERL built and opened four tube lines by 1907. Yerkes died in December 1905 shortly before the first of these, the Baker Street and Waterloo Railway, opened in March 1906. Through subsequent acquisition and expansion, the UERL became the core of the London Underground and London's main bus operator.
In addition to his railway's in London and Chicago, Yerkes is remembered through the Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin and the Yerkes crater on the Moon. (Full article...)
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- ...that Sir Jacob Epstein's statute Day on the Underground's headquarters at 55 Broadway caused controversy when it was unveiled due to the length of the penis on one of the figures? Epstein later reduced the length.
- ...that the longest continuous tunnel on the London Underground is 27.8 km (17.25 miles) long, between Morden and East Finchley stations?
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Image 1Rail, road and river traffic, seen from the London Eye.
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Image 2The south façade of King's Cross railway station London terminus of the East Coast Main Line.
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Image 3Archer statue by Eric Aumonier at East Finchley Underground station.
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Image 5Preserved AEC Routemaster coaches in London Transport Green Line livery.
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Image 6The newly constructed junction of the Westway ( A40) and the West Cross Route ( A3220) at White City, circa 1970. Continuation of the West Cross Route northwards under the roundabout was cancelled leaving two short unused stubs for the slip roads that would have been provided for traffic joining or leaving the northern section.
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Image 7Central London Railway poster, published in 1905.
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Image 8Day (left) and Night (right) sculptures by Sir Jacob Epstein on the London Underground's headquarters at 55 Broadway.
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Image 10London Underground A60 Stock (left) and 1938 Stock (right) trains showing the difference in the sizes of the two types of rolling stock operated on the system. A60 stock trains operated on the surface and sub-surface sections of the Metropolitan line from 1961 to 2012 and 1938 Stock operated on various deep level tube lines from 1938 to 1988.
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Image 11The western departures concourse of King's Cross railway station.
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Image 12The Circle routes of Victorian London, comprising the Inner Circle, Middle Circle, Outer Circle and Super Outer Circle.
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Image 13Sailing ships at West India Docks on the Isle of Dogs in 1810. The docks opened in 1802 and closed in 1980 and have since been redeveloped as the Canary Wharf development.
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Image 14Albert Bridge, opened in 1873, crosses the River Thames between Chelsea and Battersea.
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Image 1555 Broadway, headquarters of the UERL and its successors, is a Grade I listed building in Westminster designed by Charles Holden.
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Image 18View of Old London Bridge, circa 1632 by Claude de Jongh.
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Image 19Escalators at Westminster Underground station descend between beams and columns of the station box to reach the deep-level Jubilee line platforms.
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Image 20Woolwich Ferry boats "John Burns" and "James Newman" on the River Thames, 2012.
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Image 21The New Routemaster built by Wrightbus has three entrances, two staircases and is designed to be reminiscent of the Routemaster.
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Image 22Arguably the best-preserved disused station building in London, this is the former Alexandra Palace station on the GNR Highgate branch (closed in 1954). It is now in use as a community centre (CUFOS).
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Image 25The multi-level junction between the M23 and M25 motorways near Merstham in Surrey. The M23 passes over the M25 with bridges carrying interchange slip roads for the two motorways in between.
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Image 26Vauxhall Bridge across the River Thames opened in 1906 and features sculptures by F. W. Pomeroy.
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Image 27Ruislip Lido Railway's 12-inch (300 mm) gauge locomotive "Mad Bess" hauling a passenger train.
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Image 28London General Omnibus Company B-type bus B340 built in 1911 by AEC. One of a number of London buses purchased by the British military during World War I, this vehicle was operated on the Western Front.
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Image 29Planes waiting at Heathrow Airport's Terminal 4.
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Image 30London Underground Battery-electric locomotive L16 designed to operate over tracks where the traction current is turned off for maintenance work.
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Image 31Helicopter landing at London Heliport, a jetty constructed in the River Thames in Battersea.
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Image 33Southern approach to the Rotherhithe Tunnel that runs under the River Thames in east London between Rotherhithe and Limehouse.
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Image 34Original stations on the Metropolitan Railway from The Illustrated London News, 27 December 1862.
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Image 35A tram of the London United Tramways at Boston Road, Hanwell, circa 1910.
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Image 36Qantas Boeing 747-400 about to land at Heathrow Airport, seen beyond the roofs of Myrtle Avenue, Hounslow.
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Image 37Hammersmith Bridge, opened in 1887, crosses the River Thames in west London.
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Image 38"Boris Bikes" from the Santander Cycles hire scheme waiting for use at a docking station in Victoria.
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Image 39TX4 London Taxi at Heathrow Airport.
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Image 41Clapham Common Underground station north and south-bound platforms on the Northern line.
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Image 43Early style tube roundel in mosaic at Maida Vale Underground station.
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Image 46Hornsey Lane Bridge, Archway, more commonly known as "Suicide Bridge".
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Image 47Tram 2548 calls at Arena tram stop. This is one of the trams on the Tramlink network centred on Croydon in south London.
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Image 48The original Hampton Court Bridge in 1753, the first of four on the site.
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