"I love a never-built railway way project" - so does every subscriber to this channel! Cracking video, as always. Thank you!

I often wonder what London would be like today if the railways had all been planned as a single project rather than a great many competing lines. I think Pearson had the right idea.

The infrastructure of a single grand station would have been epic in scale. Imagine the turntables, carriage sidings, steam sheds, coaling facilities, goods, parcels, inward and outward passenger platforms for all London's satellite termini, in one place. However big it was it would have been inadequate by the 1880s, leading to expansion or duplication.

Just to confirm: you have never made me angry. Calmed, included, pandered to with geeky knowledge about architecture and railways and generally educated; but never angry.

The concept behind the Farringdon super-station actually happened - albeit on a much smaller scale - in my hometown of Merthyr Tydfil. In the scramble to reach this coal & iron boomtown during the industrial revolution, 7 companies shared 1 station at one point. It also had an adjacent fruit, veg & meat market. All that remains now is a single platform, but at least the Pacers have been retired.

Thankful I don't have to imagine what an excellent channel about the underground would be like.

Just did some reading up on Charles Pearson. He was a involved in securing funds for the Metropolitan Railway, but sadly died four months before it opened. Thank you Jago for making me aware of this great man.

In many ways, though on a much smaller scale, with Thameslink running north from Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire to Kent, Surrey and Sussex in the south, and the Elizabeth running west from Berkshire & Buckinghamshire to Essex & SE London in the east, along with the Metropolitan, Hammersmith & City and Circle lines, Farringdon is now technically the London central station

A lot of these shots are outside my flat or outside my office! Odd, I may well have walked past you haha

As you were highlighting the locations around central London I couldn't help admiring one office building with pastel panels which made it stand out from its neighbors . Thanks again for posting.

So Charles Pearson was generally the opposite of the average person, who promoted railways in those days. Was this a vailed slant on our old friend Charles Tyson Yerkes?

Thanks

It was the Belgians that put a main line right through the heart of a major city, Brussels. Started before WW2, the line, 6 tracks, was finally completed in the early 50s and connected Brussels Nord with Brussels Midi, with Brussels Central in the centre of Brussels. All tracks are underground and the station is extremely busy with train following train hour after hour after hour. Now the station is too small for the traffic, and the 6 lines not enough, but so far, there has been reluctance to start an expansion project.

"I like never built rail." Will Crossrail be in that club?

I got off at Farringdon for serious drinking today for the first time since first lockdown. I have always loved Clerkenwell, and watching this little window into a unmade Farringdon world just adds a joyously soft filter to a good day. The Horseshoe in Clerkenwell and the Betsy Trotwood, just a short walk through the Peabody flats away, are well worth getting off at Farringdon for. If you go downstairs in the Betsy you can hear and feel the Thameslink trains passing underneath. I think you have shown an Illustrated London News engraving of the site of the pub as the railway was being built? The Jerusalem Tavern on Britton St is also worth a visit. I have done shows in all 3 pubs; and did not lose serious amounts of money at any of them. Hence my love.

Strangely enough Jago I suggested to Network Rail that they rename Farringdon to Farringdon Central since it will be the one station that you can take a train in any direction out of London. They rejected my idea as being too expensive! I bet it'll still happen though.

Please do Marylebone station and the London extension.

The guy dropping rubbish outside Euston is a real classic Euston moment.

Fascinating video, as ever - and what an interesting, far-sighted figure Pearson seems to have been!

Just love the videos..as a lover of history Jago makes my day with these fantastic tales..keep it up

love the cartoon at 1.37 - "I come to dine, I come to sup, I come I come to eat you up" - "Oh my beef and Oh my babies" - "Oh The Monster". I imagine that the cartoon might be from "Punch". Kudos to Pearson - a far sighted man and the Grandfather of Thameslink - and he was absolutely right as building a set of termini in a ring around London has created problems ever since and means hardly any through trains from the South East where I live to the Midlands, The North and Scotland.

7:41 can't believe you caught a litter-er in the act!

Always striked me that in London main stations are on the edges, same with Paris, but Berlin has the lines going through the layered hauptbahnhof, now we play catch up with crossrail to a degree.

Fascinating. You learn something new every day. Never heard of this proposal before. Love a never built or sadly closed line just to imagine what might have been...

Early shifts at work help me watch these early videos 😁 very interesting video this one!

Brilliant, as ever !London would not be the wonderful haphazard eclectic jumble that it is with central planning. Your work is absolutely superb sir, I salute you.

Great vid, Jago. Love Farringdon - aesthetically it floats my boat!

Careful! 0:45 is dangerously close to a full reflection :)

Seems you've managed to find a London terminus that's even more forgotten than Broad Street! Hard to believe that what was once London's busiest terminus is now virtually erased from public knowledge.

Brilliant film ! Always so informative , love the planned never built , northern heights started me off , thank you jago !

I miss the old Holborn Viaduct stn. Something sleepily-cool having almost a secret little railway terminus tucked away in the shadow of St. Pauls. It would be like having a railway terminus in Mayfair called Half Moon Street. Just quaint.

Brilliant my man

Another brilliant video. Cheers Jago. 👍🏼

This is a brilliant piece of work.

thanks again Jago. Always good to watch your shows.

Beautiful colors on that contemporary building you kept featuring. And great photos.

Wonderful history as usual..hats off to your research and presentation...

Another entertaining video from you, Jago!

An interesting reformer and a great story Jago.

Thanks for this - another informative story of mass transit development in London.

An absolutely fascinating way to end the week!

Hello from Kansas 🇺🇸

A great video. I'd imagine Farringdon Central would've been like or ended up like Birmingham New Street.

Fascinating to hear about Pearson and his vision of Farringdon as a 'London Hauptbahnhof'. Very far seeing and now we have a hint of this with Thameslink and Crossrail. I've always been fascinated with our dear old Metropolitan. To think it once went to Aylesbury with steam locos. I actually did this once - that dates me. I love your video and your sense of humour It reminds me of.my childhood as an Underground (not just Tube!) nerd. How about one on the Ongar line. I went on it in the 1950s. It was an amazing two coach Steam push pull. I know it's a heritage line now. They could have cracked it up as a Thomas the Tank Engine experience even then. LT missed an opportunity- they could have kept it open right till now!

I travel around London every day and keep hoping to spot myself in one of these videos!

Way to go Mr. J - another gem to savour. Oh, congrats on reaching the 120K subs! Roll on 150K...

Honestly if this was just a boring history video I would not watch but you provide free entertainment through your humour that keeps me wanting to watch and stay subscribed for more good job buddy

Keep up the good work fella and stay safe Always interesting and informative 🚂

0:43, we almost see what this Jags chap looks like. Such a tease. I think a video reviewing station pubs is needed.

What an interesting tale, and not one I have heard of before. Very informative.

These and your architecture videos are awesome! Well presented with great photography and interesting facts that I never knew about!

Thanks great lesson.😊

At 7:46 Litter being dumped by the SU stood in-shot outside King’s Cross!!!😀Welcome to London!!🤣🤣👍🏻

Another interesting Jago video. 🇬🇧👍🏻....

Thanks Jago Keep Safe and Well

Very interesting, thanks.

Very informative and interesting

1:35 "oh my beef! and also my children i guess"

God Damn son you've done it again Best one yet

So Charles Pearson was an all-round good egg and gave us the Underground. He should be way better known and appreciated.

Greetings from Slovenia XJ6. Another very interesting video. Not sure if you realise it but some anagrams of Charles Pearson MP are:- Acme Porn Splasher, Coppers Alarm Hens, Apes Chompsnarler, Camel Nosh Rappers, Herpes Canal Romps, Lemons Rasperchamp, Laser Mans Chopper and Posh Prams Cleaner. Fascinating stuff (along with many others no doubt). Do keep up the good work in the community. Kind regards as always

It's always been an annoyance of mine that London serves as a major interchange for through trains coming in from the north, south, east and west, for example Brighton to Bristol, Dover to Birmingham, Norwich to Southampton etc, yet each of those journeys requires an arduous trip on the Underground, often going up and down steps and negotiating crowded trains and corridors with your luggage. It would be so fantastic to have one gigantic terminus in the centre, on which all of the lines converged.

I actually subscribed after watching this video

Some interesting architecture, new & old

And yet the New York Central built Grand Central Depot & the two level classic Grand Central Terminal, which is about to get a two platform four track addition below & to the immediate west for the Long Island Rail Road in 2022.

That make two of us, I asked you for a mothballed line video many moons ago now and can I just say you’ve far exceeded my expectations 😎🤓😎✌🏾

Great video , people can't see the wood for the trees ( selfishness, greed) so good ideas are squashed, killing good ideas is what they do best.

Interesting that neatly every modern project can trace it's history back to some previous idea back in the day.

Such (as usual)an excellent and informative video but why oh why do three people (so far) hit the dislike button. Please Jago,can you make a video on the consequences of closing down the psychiatric hospitals in London. One of the psychiatric disorders is obsessive compulsion disorder which manifests itself with the patient unable to refrain from hitting the dislike button although they desperately don't want to. There is alas,no known cure for this affliction but one hospital did try a therapy which goes by the Latin name of Vicpipiumarshalldinium but unfortunately it just made matters worse!!

Brilliant !!!

Interesting. In NY of course the railroad goes to Center of town, underground, such as Grand Central

0:35 - 0:49 Hilarious. You have a great narrator voice. Your videos are always really interesting too!

This got a like in the first 45 seconds, hilarious 🤣 great video, interesting as always.

OMG, it was the similar experience to watching the BBC´s The Dark Charisma of Hitler´s series and Adolf shouting VERNICHTEN! - to sir Jago shouting UNSUBSCRIBE! Sort of old radio speaker manier going into right register of a micro(phone). It definitely gives a very fine and refine retro feeling thrill :)

I'm sure Fenchurch Grand Central Station was built in a parallel universe and in that same universe, Bank station does not exist. There is however, a channel (on whatever the equivalent to KZfaq they have there) called Jago Hazzard. Of that I have no doubt. His recent video was all about a plan for a station which would have been called Monument...

KZfaq is a great resource and obviously has a wealth of information. It's a shame you can't see Farringdon before it's renovation. It was always like going to Victorian London. The same is true of Liverpool Street where you would enter from Broadgate and have an overview of a dark, dank post war British railway station. Not better days... just lost days.

I was a fireman/second man @Hornsey Locomotive depot in the early 60's. we had a diagram known as Snow Hill banker, it involved pushing south bound freight trains from Farringdon up the hill onto Blackfriars Bridge so spent a lot of time at the station,night shift after 2am till end of shift was a real was graveyard turn! hated by all !

Always like it when you suddenly throw up (this sentence would have such different meaning if it stopped there 🤔) new information about schemes I feel I should have at least heard about at some point in the last 40 odd years 😜 Truly fascinating stuff! This chap was clearly a visionary on many levels and ought to perhaps be better remembered, so kudos for at least doing a little to put that right 👍 Also shows some things never change. Government having a great idea before them, then scuppering it because of their chums, then deciding "oh actually, we suddenly think it is a god idea and we'll claim we thought of it..." 🙄 Excellent way to start a long weekend! 🍻🍀😎

Nobody really talks about the Chessington South extension to Leatherhead it was similar to the Northern Heights project guess it might be a good video as it's an extension that we never got

Excellent video. This Pearson fellow sounds like a decent fellow - the reason why he had this rare superpower in the Victorian railway mania age? No moustache!

It strikes me as so peculiar that in this golden age of railways that no-one thought of consulting with the various companies and building a unified central station that they could all use, and passengers could easily transfer from one line to another. Even now, with our whizzbang Underground, it's still a bit of a nightmare if you're not 100% fit and mobile or, god forbid, you have *a suitcase*.

I believe Canon Street is built on the site of the Bridewell prison. An occasional mention of the builders would be nice. (Lucas Brothers). Keep up the good work! Loti (Lucas)

Transport Minister in the making 👍👍👍

And the former railway line that went to Moorgate from Farringdon. And used to serve Barbican before it was closed and the platforms extended at Farringdon as part of the Thameslink program. And City Thameslink which replaced Holborn Viaduct station. Also can I ask do you have other social platforms (ie-Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc).

Just brilliant as usual Jago, but this leaves me thinking 'if only' and that we would have an even better railway network/system than we do now? I love this type of subject, just don't mention the Great Central and HS2 in the same breath/sentence!

Is Charles Pearson related to the Pearson company that built the Blackwall tunnel? If so they are the family that now own The Cowdrey park and estate in Midhurst West Sussex, the head of the family is now Viscount Michael Pearson. The Pearson companies are still involved in publishing education and television amongst other things.

Like a bedtime mint leading to sweet dreams!:-) 👍🖖

Grand Central Terminal NYC? Chicago? No, Farringdon! Great proposal & a story so well told, sir.

Que Sera Sera. There's no doubt then that Pearson proposed naming his radical solution "City Thameslink" then? I thought not. It' just as well we have visionaries like Horace Cutler ready to pounce with catchy monikers like "Prince Leopold of Schleswig-Holstein Top Level Interchange". This is how our history is accreted....

This seems kinda similar to the Berlin Stadtbahn with the difference that in Berlin the companies cooperated and the kingdom of prussia was in on it. That Berlin is much less dense than London might have helped as well.

As an ex-colonial, I have a question. Why is the terminus for High Speed 2, placed several blocks away from the terminus of High Speed 1? Someone coming from say Brussels going North to whatever destination must now schlep their luggage, pets and small children several blocks to continue north. Was there no room at St Pancras? Do London dwellers take delight in watching the struggles of travelers? (Oh, wait; refer to Ankh-Morpork) Inquiring minds want to know.

When did the addition of the word 'Street' get dropped- was it when the rails were diverted c. 1968? (I still tend to add this word onto faringdon, Aldersgate and Moorgate, just as I add 'Midland' or 'Victoria' or 'Central' when there is now only one station remaining for a city).

As I'm sure we all know, there _was_ a London Central station. It's now Beckton Park on the DLR.

Interesting. I'd never heard of this proposal

Hello Jago, love your video and the wonderful delivery and dulcet tones, gush, gush. BUT, the old drawing of the proposal overlaid on a current map would have helped a bit, especiallyy for the non-Londoners. Even as a Londoner it would have been a good thing.

City Thameslink is on site of both Holborn Viaduct and Snow Hill

Ahh time for a sneaky break

I think we should do a Jago bingo card. Charles Yerkes can be the middle square obviously; and we must get the station architects in there. But I also think 'which would have been around where City Thameslink is now' should get a square.

Fine work sir. Anyone who can shoe horn disestablishmentarianism into a KZfaq video, let alone prefixing it with pro, deserves all the plaudits. I take my hat off to you

On a pedantic point of order, in your commentary you used the word 'predecessor' when, IMHO, 'precursor' would have been a better choice.