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The London Necropolis Railway was a railway line opened in November 1854 by the London Necropolis Company (LNC), to carry cadavers and mourners between London and the LNC's newly opened Brookwood Cemetery in Brookwood, Surrey. At the time the largest cemetery in the world, Brookwood Cemetery was designed to be large enough to accommodate all the deaths in London for centuries to come, and the LNC hoped to gain a monopoly on London's burial industry. The railway mostly ran along the existing tracks of the London and South Western Railway (LSWR), but had its own stations at both London and Brookwood. Trains carried coffins and passengers from a dedicated station in Waterloo, London, onto the LSWR tracks.
The company failed to gain a monopoly of the burial industry, and the scheme was not as successful as its promoters had hoped. While they had planned to carry between 10,000 and 50,000 bodies per year, in 1941 after 87 years of operation only slightly over 200,000 burials had been conducted in Brookwood Cemetery. On the night of 16–17 April 1941 the London terminus was badly damaged in an air raid and was rendered unusable. The London Necropolis Railway was never used again and soon after the end of the Second World War the surviving parts of the London station were sold as office space, and the rail tracks and stations in the cemetery were removed. (Full article...)
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Sir Leslie Patrick Abercrombie (6 June 1879 – 23 March 1957) was an English town planner. After training as an architect, he became Professor of Civic Design at the Liverpool University School of Architecture, and later Professor of Town Planning at University College London. He was closely involved in the founding of the Council for the Preservation of Rural England (CPRE). After its formation in December 1926, he served as its Honorary Secretary. He was knighted in 1945. In 1948, he became the first president of the newly formed International Union of Architects or UIA (Union Internationale des Architectes).
Abercrombie is best known for the post-Second World War replanning of London and other British and international cities. He created the County of London Plan (1943) and the Greater London Plan (1944) which are commonly referred to as the Abercrombie Plan. The two plans proposed widespread reconstruction and replanning of the city and the urban areas of the surrounding counties and road and rail infrastructure including the construction of a series of concentric ring roads and underground rail loops to connect main line stations below ground to replace surface routes. (Full article...)
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Image 1TX4 London Taxi at Heathrow Airport.
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Image 2Original stations on the Metropolitan Railway from The Illustrated London News, 27 December 1862.
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Image 6Clapham Common Underground station north and south-bound platforms on the Northern line.
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Image 7Southern approach to the Rotherhithe Tunnel that runs under the River Thames in east London between Rotherhithe and Limehouse.
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Image 8Tram 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 11A tram of the London United Tramways at Boston Road, Hanwell, circa 1910.
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Image 12Albert Bridge, opened in 1873, crosses the River Thames between Chelsea and Battersea.
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Image 13London 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 15Central London Railway poster, published in 1905.
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Image 17The New Routemaster built by Wrightbus has three entrances, two staircases and is designed to be reminiscent of the Routemaster.
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Image 18Woolwich Ferry boats "John Burns" and "James Newman" on the River Thames, 2012.
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Image 19Hammersmith Bridge, opened in 1887, crosses the River Thames in west London.
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Image 20The 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 21The 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 22London 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 24Qantas Boeing 747-400 about to land at Heathrow Airport, seen beyond the roofs of Myrtle Avenue, Hounslow.
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Image 25"Boris Bikes" from the Santander Cycles hire scheme waiting for use at a docking station in Victoria.
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Image 26Planes waiting at Heathrow Airport's Terminal 4.
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Image 28Rail, road and river traffic, seen from the London Eye.
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Image 30Hornsey Lane Bridge, Archway, more commonly known as "Suicide Bridge".
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Image 31Day (left) and Night (right) sculptures by Sir Jacob Epstein on the London Underground's headquarters at 55 Broadway.
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Image 32Helicopter landing at London Heliport, a jetty constructed in the River Thames in Battersea.
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Image 33Sailing 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 34The south façade of King's Cross railway station London terminus of the East Coast Main Line.
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Image 35Early style tube roundel in mosaic at Maida Vale Underground station.
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Image 3655 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 37The Circle routes of Victorian London, comprising the Inner Circle, Middle Circle, Outer Circle and Super Outer Circle.
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Image 38Ruislip Lido Railway's 12-inch (300 mm) gauge locomotive "Mad Bess" hauling a passenger train.
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Image 39Preserved AEC Routemaster coaches in London Transport Green Line livery.
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Image 40View of Old London Bridge, circa 1632 by Claude de Jongh.
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Image 41Arguably 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 42Archer statue by Eric Aumonier at East Finchley Underground station.
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Image 43Escalators 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 44The western departures concourse of King's Cross railway station.
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Image 45Vauxhall Bridge across the River Thames opened in 1906 and features sculptures by F. W. Pomeroy.
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Image 46London 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 49The original Hampton Court Bridge in 1753, the first of four on the site.
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