January 2013 Archives

Did you know that the Metropolitan line was not only the first underground line in London but also the first in the world? Way back in 1868 the route between Paddington and Bayswater opened, great news for everyone, everyone that is apart from the residents of  23 and 24 Leinster Gardens.

There was a time around 20 years ago when you could smoke on the Tube, there was a time around 100 years ago when the Tube itself smoked. Strange as it may seem the first underground trains were steam powered and if you think that sounds insane you'd not be alone, The Times of the day described the whole idea as "an insult to common sense". However, the engineers had one trick up their Victorian sleeves, condensers.

Condensers diverted steam from the exhaust pipes into water tanks on the train, it didn't mean that the Tube at the time was steam free but at least it made the experience bearable, just. However there was one small problem with condensers, at regular intervals the pressure and heat which built up in the water tanks had to be released, a process known as venting-off. Now obviously you couldn't vent-off underground, instead the engineers built in venting-off points along the route which were open to the elements, bad news for 23 and 24 Leinster Gardens.

J. M. Barrie, Winston Churchill, Alexander Fleming, Mariella Frostrup, Keira Knightley and Stella McCartney  are just some of the past and present residents of Bayswater, it's a fairly well to do kind of place and Leinster Gardens is right in the middle of it. Back in 1886, the site of numbers 23 and 24 was pinpointed as the best venting off point on that section of the line. But, this being a fairly swanky area, the idea of knocking down the mid section of a Victorian terrace was out of the question, or was it?