Next to Farringdon tube station, and part of the old Metropolitan Railway
buildings, is a "Parcels Office". Anyone tell us how long the underground was
used to send and carry parcels, and how succesful was this?

On 12 Apr 2004 09:50:31 GMT, (CharlesPottins)
wrote:

Next to Farringdon tube station, and part of the old Metropolitan Railway
buildings, is a "Parcels Office". Anyone tell us how long the underground was
used to send and carry parcels, and how succesful was this?

Not sure about the Met, but the Central London Railway operated such a
service between 1911 and 1917, the reason for closure being the
extreme manpower shortage towards the end of WW1.
--
Nick Cooper

[Carefully remove the detonators from my e-mail address to reply!]

The London Underground at War:
http://www.cwgcuser.org.uk/personal/...ra/lu/tuaw.htm
625-Online - classic British television:
http://www.625.org.uk
'Things to Come' - An Incomplete Classic:
http://www.thingstocome.org.uk

(Nick Cooper) wrote in message ...
On 12 Apr 2004 09:50:31 GMT, (CharlesPottins)
wrote:

Next to Farringdon tube station, and part of the old Metropolitan Railway
buildings, is a "Parcels Office". Anyone tell us how long the underground was
used to send and carry parcels, and how succesful was this?

Not sure about the Met, but the Central London Railway operated such a
service between 1911 and 1917, the reason for closure being the
extreme manpower shortage towards the end of WW1.
--
Nick Cooper

I wonder if the Post Office has given any thought to sending
lower-priority intra-London mail & parcels regularly during off-peak
periods by tube. You could just carry the box onto the train or the
bag of letters and no one would probably care. (Except LU of course).

Brad

In article ,
(CharlesPottins) wrote:

Next to Farringdon tube station, and part of the old Metropolitan
Railway
buildings, is a "Parcels Office". Anyone tell us how long the
underground was
used to send and carry parcels, and how succesful was this?

I'm not sure of the details when the parcel services ran, but don't forget
that the original "underground" - i.e. the District and Metropolitan lines
as they are now - formed part of a much larger network with trains running
all over the place and going to places such as Southend. What is now the
circle line was effectively a link that joined the various lines together.
Special day(?) trips often ran such as from the Metropolitan Line stations
(not sure where from) to Great Yarmouth via the junction with the main
line station at Liverpool Street. The Met line was really like a main line
railway with all the trappings, and this included goods traffic -
especially in the outlying areas. I suppose that, at the time, a parcel
service to / from London was probably the most natural thing. It would
certainly have been the quickest way of getting parcels to / from London.

Roger

Paraphrasing 'Mails Under London' by L.C Stanway ISBN 09535398 1 4 Chapter
4 Other Underground Railway Mails.
I can reccomend this book covering post office railway, pneumatic railway
and touching on other mail services.

Metropolitan railway had an experimental service to inner London addresses
within 3/4 mile of a station from 1st Feb 1882- March 1983 by F. Flack, a
Metropolitan employee, the company sharing receipts 50:50 with Mr Flack.
With Metropolitans own service starting from 8th July 1889
LPTB taking over the former Metropolitan Railway from 1st July 1933

Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway closed to regular passenger services in
1935 provided a railway letter service from 1st Feb 1891, The bankrupt line
was taken over by the Metropolitan on 1st July 1891

District Railway
Started by 1892 a parcel service for the 'convenience of shoppers'

East London Railway
Started March 1891

City and South London
Operated from 1891 to 1918 provided a parcels service.

Central London Railway
Provided a 'Lighning Parcels Service' from 1911 to 1917


Martin
wrote in message
...
In article ,
(CharlesPottins) wrote:

Next to Farringdon tube station, and part of the old Metropolitan
Railway
buildings, is a "Parcels Office". Anyone tell us how long the
underground was
used to send and carry parcels, and how succesful was this?

I'm not sure of the details when the parcel services ran, but don't forget
that the original "underground" - i.e. the District and Metropolitan lines
as they are now - formed part of a much larger network with trains running
all over the place and going to places such as Southend. What is now the
circle line was effectively a link that joined the various lines together.
Special day(?) trips often ran such as from the Metropolitan Line stations
(not sure where from) to Great Yarmouth via the junction with the main
line station at Liverpool Street. The Met line was really like a main line
railway with all the trappings, and this included goods traffic -
especially in the outlying areas. I suppose that, at the time, a parcel
service to / from London was probably the most natural thing. It would
certainly have been the quickest way of getting parcels to / from London.

Roger