The
underground first opened in 1863 and operated between Paddington and Farringdon
Street. In order to solve transport problems such as traffic and congestion in
London, the underground railway system was introduced. London needed a solution
to link the main railroad stations to the city’s centre, in order to allow
people to move further out into the city and to reduce slums. The first steam
railway was running in 1825. 25 years later, Kings Cross, one of London’s
largest stations, was a depot for steam trains arriving in London. London in
the 1850’s was one of the world’s largest cities. It was a very crowded and
busy city, which was massively growing into an industrial city. Houses were
built in a medieval style which meant people lived very close to each other.
Many Victorian writers disliked the idea of the underground system and saw it
as being destructive and deadly for the people travelling on it. I will discuss
how the underground system was perceived in the Victorian period and how
writers portrayed it in the novels News from
Nowhere by William Morris and The Time
Machine and The War of The Worlds by H.G. Wells. As a user of public
transport myself, I will also share my thoughts on the tube, and the ways in which it has developed since the 19th century.
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| Bayswater Station 1866 |
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| Bayswater Station 2013 |
Towards
the end of the first chapter of The War
of The Worlds, Wells provides the reader with a description of the
railways:
“From
the railway station in the distance came the sound of shunting trains, ringing
and rumbling…My wife pointed out to me the brightness of the red, green, and
yellow signal lights…It seemed so safe and tranquil.” (73)
According
to the OED, the phrase ‘shunting’ meant “ moving
a train into a siding, or on to another line of rails.” This
implies that the train station created a lot of noise and that the trains moved
roughly and swiftly. The word ‘shunting’ is also repeated in chapter eight, as
Wells writes “In Woking junction, until a late hour, trains were stopping and
going on, others were shunting on the sidings” (89). This emphasises the narrators’
memory of the underground system, and its noisiness. The chapter then ends with
“It seemed so safe and tranquil” (73) which is ironic, as later on the reader
finds out nothing and no one is safe, as the Martians have come to invade the
earth. Wells is very descriptive in The
War of The Worlds and many train stations are mentioned throughout the
text, specifically in and around London. The narrator then talks about the people
at the station. He says that there were “Excited men came into the station
about nine o’clock…and caused no more disturbance than drunkards might have
done” (89) this emphasises the loud, chaotic surrounding of the underground,
informing readers that the underground system was disliked by many, including
the narrator himself. Although the narrator explains that these men were excited,
he compares them to drunkards, emphasising the annoyance and inconvenience.
Another Victorian novelist who portrays his hatred of the
underground is William Morris. In his novel News
from Nowhere he exemplifies how the trains were forced upon the people of
the 1800’s as he writes:
“Took his way home by
himself to a western suburb, using the means of travelling which civilisation
has forced upon us like a habit. As he sat in that vapour-bath of hurried
and discontented humanity, a carriage of the underground railway, he, like
others, stewed discontentedly, while in self-reproachful mood he turned over
the many excellent and conclusive arguments which, though they lay at his
fingers’ ends, he had forgotten in the just past discussion.” (2)
Morris creates an image of a stuffy train, full of unhappy people
who are experiencing a time when railways have just newly been built. He also
emphasises the fast-moving, industrialised society, which was once just a rural
landscape, and that the people have just accepted the construction of the
railways and the advances of technology. However, without the construction of
these railways, the problem of congestion and overcrowding would have sustained,
and as London’s population continued to grow, problems would have increased and
gotten worse. It can also be interpreted that the “discontented humanity” is
present even today, as there is hardly any interaction with others when
travelling on the tube as due to the rise of mobile phones and modern day
technology, people are constantly peering onto their smart phones, and
neglecting verbal communication with others.
The stuffy, airless imagery is juxtaposed with the pleasing, lovely
and refreshing air “It was a beautiful night of early winter, the air just
sharp enough to be refreshing after the hot room and the stinking railway
carriage.” (2). Here Morris compares the beauty of the weather with
the smell of the carriage, but also how the pure, freshness of nature differentiates
from the urbanisation and industrialisation. It also shows that when stepping
out of the carriage, you are out into a different world and that the air relieves
you from the foul smells of the train. In Neverwhere
by Neil Gaiman, Gaiman also describes the underground as a new world, “They
crossed an iron bridge in the darkness, while Underground trains echoed by
beneath them. Then they entered what seemed like an endless network of
underground vaults that smelled of damp and decay, of brick and stone and time.”
(100) this idea of a strange new place, and the association with a whole new
world, is recurrent even in 20th century novels such as this.
Dickens
was also one of many Victorian writers who disliked the underground system. In Dombey and Son, Dickens uses his classic
technique of listing, which was usually written to emphasise his displeasure
on something.
“There were railway patterns in its drapers'
shops, and railway journals in the windows of its newsmen. There were railway
hotels, office-houses, lodging-houses, boarding-houses; railway plans, maps,
views, wrappers, bottles, sandwich-boxes, and time-tables; railway
hackney-coach and stands; railway omnibuses, railway streets and buildings,
railway hangers-on and parasites, and flatterers out of all calculation. There
was even railway time observed in clocks, as if the sun itself had given in.” (Chapter 15)
This is also similar to how the tubes are even today…we all know
that feeling of the rush hour! But as technology progresses as the years pass,
our travelling underground experiences are improving. We now have advertisements
on the underground, which give people something to look at, rather than just a
dark, gloomy black tunnel wall. The advertisements also monopolize space, and
add to the marketing world as most of London is dominated by finance. People nowadays
can also use Wi-Fi underground at some stations, which is really convenient for
tube goers as they are able to access the internet and communicate with others
without having to worry about getting no network connection. However, as much
as the technological world has developed, prices are also increasing and tube
fares go up every year, which shows London as a financial district and a
consequence for regular underground travellers.
Texts/Archives:
Morris,
William. News From Nowhere. London: Longmans,
Green, and Co., 1908. Web. Project
Gutenberg. 22nd March 2015 < http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3261/3261-h/3261-h.htm>
Wells,
H.G. The Time Machine and The War of The
Worlds. USA: Starling and Black Publications, 2013. Print
Gaiman,
Neil. Neverwhere. Web. http://cdn.preterhuman.net/texts/literature/books_in_PDF/Neverwhere%20by%20Neil%20Gaiman.pdf
Dickens,
Charles. Dombey and Son. London:
2014. Web. Project Gutenberg. 22nd
March 2015
Pictures:
<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2388642/Fascinating-archive-pictures-reveal-transport-network-keeps-millions-Londoners-day-built.html>
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