The Victorian Era

Transport in the Victorian Era

Article · Science & Invention · The Victorian Era, 1837–1901

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The Victorian era saw the transformation of British transport, with the railway and the steamship at the centre of the change. The period was defined above all by the rise of the railway and the steamship, alongside the gradual improvement of the roads, the slow eclipse of the canals, the construction of the great stations, bridges, tunnels, viaducts, harbours, and docks that served the new traffic, the development of the London Underground, and the slow emergence of the motor car and the bicycle at the very end of the period. The history of transport is examined in Victorian Science, Invention, and Technology, and the context of the period is set out in The Victorian Era: A Complete Historical Overview.

The Railway

The railway was the most important transport development of the Victorian period, and the railway transformed the British landscape, the British economy, and British society. The first public railway to use steam traction exclusively, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, was opened in 1830, only seven years before the start of the Victorian era, and the railway mania of the 1840s saw the construction of thousands of miles of new track. By 1870, the railway network of the United Kingdom had reached over 15,000 miles of track, and by 1900 some 22,000 miles. The railway was the principal form of long-distance passenger and goods transport. The history of the railway is examined in Railway Boom in Victorian Britain and in When did the first steam train run?.

The great railway companies of the Victorian period included the Great Western Railway, the London and North Western Railway, the Midland Railway, the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, the North Eastern Railway, the South Eastern Railway, the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, the Great Northern Railway, the Great Eastern Railway, the London and South Western Railway, the Caledonian Railway, the North British Railway, the Glasgow and South Western Railway, the Highland Railway, the Great North of Scotland Railway, the Midland Great Northern Railway, the Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford Railway, the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway, and the Cork, Bandon and South Coast Railway. The history of these railway companies is examined in Railway Boom in Victorian Britain.

The great railway termini built in London during the period were themselves substantial buildings. London Bridge was opened in 1836 as the capital’s earliest terminus, rebuilt in 1850 to the design of George Gilbert Scott. Euston (1837) opened with Philip Hardwick’s celebrated Doric arch of 1839. Paddington (1838) was rebuilt by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1854 as the terminus of the Great Western Railway. Waterloo (1848) was the terminus of the London and South Western Railway. King’s Cross (1852) was designed by Lewis Cubitt for the Great Northern Railway. Victoria (1860), Charing Cross (1864), and Cannon Street (1866) were the West End and City termini of the South Eastern Railway. St Pancras (1868) was designed with William Henry Barlow’s vast train shed and George Gilbert Scott’s Midland Grand Hotel. Liverpool Street (1874) was Edward Wilson’s terminus for the Great Eastern Railway. Marylebone (1899) was the last of the great London termini, opened by the Great Central Railway. The history of St Pancras Station is examined in How was St Pancras Station built?.

The Steamship

The steamship was the second most important transport development of the Victorian period, and the steamship transformed British trade, the British empire, and the British world. The steamship had been developed in the early nineteenth century, and the steamship was gradually improved over the Victorian period, with the development of the screw propeller, the compound engine, the triple-expansion engine, the steel hull, the water-tube boiler, and, at the very end of the era, the steam turbine. The great steamship companies of the Victorian period included the P&O Line, founded in 1837 by Arthur Anderson, the Cunard Line, founded in 1839 by Samuel Cunard, the White Star Line, founded in 1845 by Henry Threlfall Wilson, the Inman Line, founded in 1850 by William Inman, the Allan Line, founded in 1854 by Hugh Allan, the Anchor Line, founded in 1856, the Guion Line, founded in 1866 by Stephen Guion, the National Line, founded in 1863, the North German Lloyd, founded in 1857 by Hermann Henrich Meier, the Hamburg America Line, founded in 1847, and the Holland America Line, founded in 1873. The history of the steamship is examined in How did Victorian ships change trade?.

The Road

The road transport of the Victorian period was dominated by the horse-drawn vehicle. The horse-drawn vehicles of the period included the private carriage, the public carriage, the hackney carriage, the hansom cab, the brougham, the landau, the barouche, the phaeton, the gig, the dogcart, the wagon, the cart, the dray, the waggonette, the omnibus, and the horse-drawn tram. The roads themselves were gradually improved on the macadam and Telford systems. The first omnibus in London, started by George Shillibeer in 1829, ran from Paddington to the City, and the first horse-drawn tramway, the Birkenhead Street Railway of 1860, was followed in 1861 by the first London tramway, the Brixton to Kennington line. The first hansom cab, designed by the architect Joseph Hansom and introduced in London in 1834, was the most common form of hired transport in the Victorian city. The history of the road transport is examined in Victorian Cities, Transport, and Entertainment and in How did hansom cabs work?.

The Bicycle and the Motor Car

The bicycle and the motor car were the last of the great Victorian developments in personal transport. The boneshaker, developed from the French vélocipède of the 1860s, was followed in the 1870s by the penny-farthing, and the Rover safety bicycle of John Kemp Starley, patented in 1885, made the bicycle safe and practical for the ordinary rider. The Coventry machinists, James Starley, John Kemp Starley, and the Hillman, Humber, and Rudge companies, were the great names of the British cycle industry, and the National Cyclists’ Union, founded in 1878, was the first organisation of the new sport. The motor car was a German invention of 1886, Karl Benz of Mannheim and Gottlieb Daimler of Cannstatt both produced workable cars in that year, but the British motor industry grew rapidly at the end of the period. Frederick Lanchester, working in Birmingham from 1895, produced the first British motor car, the Lanchester of 1895, and the Daimler Motor Company, founded in Coventry in 1896, and the Humber, Wolseley, and Rover companies, were the first British motor manufacturers. The Motor Car Act of 1896 raised the speed limit for motor cars to 14 miles per hour and abolished the requirement for a man to walk in front of the vehicle with a red flag.

The Canal

The canal was an important transport development of the early nineteenth century, and the canal continued to play a role in the Victorian period, although the role of the canal was gradually diminished by the rise of the railway. The great canals still in commercial use during the Victorian period included the Bridgewater Canal, completed in 1761 by James Brindley; the Grand Junction Canal, completed in 1805 by William Jessop; the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, completed in 1816; the Trent and Mersey Canal, completed in 1777 by James Brindley; and the Oxford Canal, completed in 1790. The Manchester Ship Canal, completed in 1894 by Edward Leader Williams, was the one new canal of the Victorian period, and it was the largest navigation project of the era. The history of the canal is examined in The Victorian Economy and Industrialization.

The London Underground

The London Underground was a Victorian invention. The Metropolitan Railway, the world’s first underground railway, opened on 10 January 1863 between Paddington and Farringdon Street, using steam locomotives and gas-lit wooden carriages. The line was extended to Hammersmith in 1864, to Moorgate in 1865, to Richmond in 1877, and to Harrow in 1880, and the District Railway, opened in 1868 between South Kensington and Westminster, was extended in a series of openings to form the Inner Circle by 1884. The first deep-level tube railway, the City and South London Railway, opened on 4 November 1890 between King William Street and Stockwell, using electric locomotives and a deep-level shield-driven tunnel. The Central London Railway, the second deep-level tube, opened in 1900 between Shepherd’s Bush and Bank, and the Waterloo and City Railway, opened in 1898, completed the Victorian underground. The story of the London Underground is told in What was the London Underground like in Victorian times?.

The Postal Service

The postal service was an important transport development of the Victorian period, and the postal service transformed the communication of the British people. The postal service had been developed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the postal service was gradually improved over the Victorian period, with the introduction of the penny post by Rowland Hill in 1840, followed by postal orders, the Post Office Savings Bank, registered post, and the parcel post. The history of the postal service is examined in What was the impact of penny postage?.

Conclusion

Transport was transformed over the course of the Victorian era. The railway and the steamship overcame old barriers of distance, reshaped the British landscape, economy, and society, and bound Britain to its empire and to the wider world. The London Underground, the bicycle, the motor car, and the omnibus changed the experience of the city, and the penny post, the telegraph, and the telephone connected the country as never before. The history of transport is examined in Victorian Science, Invention, and Technology and in The Victorian Era: A Complete Historical Overview.