London Railway Atlas

Historically, more than a dozen main line termini as well as both surface and underground lines, the railway network of London is without doubt the most complex in the British Isles. From the 1830s onwards, when the first main lines to serve Greater London area were built, a vast network was constructed. In an era when private enterprise dominated the industry, it was inevitable that there would be competing lines but, as London grew both in prosperity and size, so the presence of these routes, that allowed for the growth of suburbs and the shipment of the vast amounts of food consumed by the city's population, became all the more important. Most of the main line railways terminated at the edge of the built-up area at the time they were constructed, leaving access to the very centre of the city to road transport. However, from the 1860s onwards, with the construction of the first part of the future Underground network, railways came to penetrate even the most densely constructed parts of the city. In the 21st century, although some lines and stations have disappeared, most notably termini such as Holborn Viaduct and Broad Street, the vast bulk of the London railway network continues to play a pivotal role in the daily life of the city. Moreover, as pressure on the road network expands, there is continuing investment in the railway infrastructure that serves London through, for example, expansion of the Docklands Light Railway. "London Rail Atlas" provides the reader with a straightforward and comprehensible study of the railways of Greater London. It shows all lines, both open and closed, stations, changes of station name and station opening and closing dates. It provides a comprehensive and authoritative study of the whole network of lines in the capital covering both ex-BR and London Underground tracks. The geographical relationship between the two is also easily ascertained from the maps.