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Westminster is a London Underground station in the City of Westminster, close to the Palace of Westminster and Westminster Abbey. The station is located beneath Portcullis House at the corner of Bridge Street and Victoria Embankment.
The station was opened as Westminster Bridge in 1868 by the District Railway when the company opened the first section of its line from South Kensington.
As part of the Jubilee Line Extension the station was completely reconstructed to designs by Michael Hopkins & Partners. During the reconstruction, a 39 metres (128 ft) deep void was excavated underneath the old station to house the escalators, lifts and stairs to the deep-level Jubilee line platforms. This made it the deepest ever excavation in central London. One of the most difficult problems the engineers faced was to construct the station around the Circle and District line tracks, which continued in service throughout the construction. The tracks had to be lowered by 300 millimetres (0.98 ft), an operation achieved a few millimetres at a time during the few hours each night that the system was closed. Nothing of the old station remains. (Full article...)
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Selected biography
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Charles Pearson (4 October 1793 – 14 September 1862) was a solicitor to the City of London, a reforming campaigner and briefly a Member of Parliament for Lambeth constituency. He was involved in many campaigns and reformations including overturning the ban on Jews from being stockbrokers. He also fully supported universal suffrage and electoral reform to balance the sizes of parliamentary constituencies.
Recognising the growth in the outer suburbs of London and inner city congestion, he proposed the construction of an underground railway through the Fleet valley to Farringdon. His first proposal was that of an atmospheric railway, which was ridiculed, but he continued to campaign throughout the 1840s and 1850s. Various other schemes included a rejected plan for a central railway station to be shared by multiple railway companies. In 1854, a private bill for the Metropolitan Railway between Paddington and Farringdon received assent. Although not a director or shareholder, Pearson's publishing of a pamphlet and continued support eventually convinced the City of London to support for the project.
Pearson died of dropsy on 14 September 1862 at his home at West Hill, Wandsworth, and so was not alive to see the opening of the Metropolitan Railway on 10 January 1863. Pearson had refused the offer of a reward from the railway company, but, shortly after the railway's opening, his widow was granted an annuity of £250 per year. (Full article...)
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- ...that an estimated half a million mice live on the Underground system, and can often be seen running around the tracks?
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Image 1Tram 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 4Ruislip Lido Railway's 12-inch (300 mm) gauge locomotive "Mad Bess" hauling a passenger train.
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Image 5A tram of the London United Tramways at Boston Road, Hanwell, circa 1910.
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Image 6The south façade of King's Cross railway station London terminus of the East Coast Main Line.
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Image 7London 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 8The 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 9View of Old London Bridge, circa 1632 by Claude de Jongh.
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Image 10Qantas Boeing 747-400 about to land at Heathrow Airport, seen beyond the roofs of Myrtle Avenue, Hounslow.
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Image 12Vauxhall Bridge across the River Thames opened in 1906 and features sculptures by F. W. Pomeroy.
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Image 13The western departures concourse of King's Cross railway station.
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Image 14Escalators 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 15Sailing 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 16Early style tube roundel in mosaic at Maida Vale Underground station.
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Image 18The Circle routes of Victorian London, comprising the Inner Circle, Middle Circle, Outer Circle and Super Outer Circle.
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Image 20Arguably 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 23Hornsey Lane Bridge, Archway, more commonly known as "Suicide Bridge".
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Image 24Original stations on the Metropolitan Railway from The Illustrated London News, 27 December 1862.
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Image 25TX4 London Taxi at Heathrow Airport.
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Image 26Hammersmith Bridge, opened in 1887, crosses the River Thames in west London.
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Image 27Archer statue by Eric Aumonier at East Finchley Underground station.
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Image 29Day (left) and Night (right) sculptures by Sir Jacob Epstein on the London Underground's headquarters at 55 Broadway.
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Image 31"Boris Bikes" from the Santander Cycles hire scheme waiting for use at a docking station in Victoria.
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Image 32Southern approach to the Rotherhithe Tunnel that runs under the River Thames in east London between Rotherhithe and Limehouse.
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Image 33Helicopter landing at London Heliport, a jetty constructed in the River Thames in Battersea.
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Image 34Preserved AEC Routemaster coaches in London Transport Green Line livery.
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Image 35The New Routemaster built by Wrightbus has three entrances, two staircases and is designed to be reminiscent of the Routemaster.
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Image 36Rail, road and river traffic, seen from the London Eye.
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Image 3755 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 38The original Hampton Court Bridge in 1753, the first of four on the site.
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Image 39Clapham Common Underground station north and south-bound platforms on the Northern line.
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Image 40London 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 42Planes waiting at Heathrow Airport's Terminal 4.
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Image 44Albert Bridge, opened in 1873, crosses the River Thames between Chelsea and Battersea.
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Image 45The 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 46Central London Railway poster, published in 1905.
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Image 47London 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 48Woolwich Ferry boats "John Burns" and "James Newman" on the River Thames, 2012.
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