Subject: MN: The Circle Line

From: kevan@d...
Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 12:27:23 -0000

Mildly amusing to note that my reaction to London Transport's recent decision to close the Circle Line until August, and of the general public's resultant outrage to it, was "Oh, come on, it's only been Power-Failed, not Electrified."

On a related note, I was a little puzzled to find Iris Murdoch's excellent "A Word Child" casually referring to the Circle Line as "the Inner Circle", more than a few times (the main character often passing the time by taking a train around the line a few dozen times, alighting at random) - did it used to be known as this, back in the seventies, or something?

Kevan

--
kevan@d...
http://members.xoom.com/asabove

------------------------------------------------------------------------

eGroups.com home: http://www.egroups.com/group/l-nomic-d
http://www.egroups.com - Simplifying group communications

---

From: Dunx <dunx@d...>
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 07:43:07 +0100

At 12:27 21/06/99 +0000, you wrote:
>Mildly amusing to note that my reaction to London Transport's recent 
>decision to close the Circle Line until August, and of the general public's 
>resultant outrage to it, was "Oh, come on, it's only been Power-Failed, not 
>Electrified."

Ah, the perspective of the seasoned player...

>On a related note, I was a little puzzled to find Iris Murdoch's excellent 
>"A Word Child" casually referring to the Circle Line as "the Inner Circle", 
>more than a few times (the main character often passing the time by taking a 
>train around the line a few dozen times, alighting at random) - did it used 
>to be known as this, back in the seventies, or something?

>From Clive's Underground pages (which I will link to when I finish my MC
resources page, but for which I have temporarily mislaid the URL - this
text is quoted from a local copy):

------------------------------------- 8< ------------------------------------
Readers will note the name "Inner Circle", still used by many Londoners.
"Inner" simply referred to the central position of the route with respect to
London and its railways; the name was in use by 1869, well before the actual
completion of the circuit. In fact, over the following decade, three other
services, each in the form of a horseshoe and, in two cases, sharing track
with the Inner Circle, were given names obviously modelled after it:
* Middle Circle
Hammersmith & City Line from Moorgate via Latimer Road to Kensington
(Olympia), then District Line to Mansion House. This service ran from 1872
to 1905, though from 1900 onwards the latter terminus was cut back to
Earl's Court. The service was operated by the Hammersmith & City and
District Railways.
* Outer Circle
NLR from Broad Street to Willesden Junction, then WLR to Kensington
(Olympia), then District Line to Mansion House. The route started
operating on 1867-09-01 from Broad Street to Kensington (Olympia), was
extended on 1869-01-01 to Victoria, and then diverted to Mansion House
on 1872-02-01. It was then cut back to Earl's Court in 1909, reduced to
a Willesden-Earl's Court shuttle in 1912, and finally abandoned in 1940
after bomb damage to the track at Kensington (Olympia). This was
essentially a LNWR service; though the District provided the locomotives
on its section and operated the shuttle from 1914-07-01 to 1914-11-21
inclusive (while the LNWR obtained electric trains).
* Super Outer Circle
Midland Railway from St.Pancras to Cricklewood, then Midland & South
Western Joint to Acton Central, then NLR to Acton Lane Junction (see
the District Line) via a chord (since removed), then District Line to
Earl's Court. This was operated by the Midland Railway from 1878-05-01
to 1880-09-30.
------------------------------------- 8< ------------------------------------

So there you go.

I wouldn't be surprised if, in Iris Murdoch's case, the term "Inner Circle"
is also a reference to Dante.

--
Dunx
Ceci n'est pas un .sig