File talk:London Underground 1890.jpg

Disputed description

The photo is not of a 1890's underground station. Up until the Central London Railway (CLR) opened, all underground stations were gas lit and consequently too dark to photograph using the photographic materials of the period. CLR introduced electric arc lighting making photography possible. Tne station depicted is Queens Road (later renamed Queensway in 1946).

The photo has been compared to a photo known to be Queensway taken in early 1900 before the line opened. Apart from the missing advertising on the walls, the following features are identical; the passenger 'bridge' over the track and platform; the position of the station name board under the bridge; the position and style of the "Way Out" sign over the passenger exit and (most telling) the three conduits along the wall and the manner in which they pass under the bridge. The bright electric lighting is clearly evident in both pictures.

I note that someone has tagged the picture as Marble Arch station, and although all underground CLR stations were similar, the passenger exit is in the wrong position for Marble Arch and it did not have any bridges as the lifts served the exits directly.

A copy of the photo known to be Queens Road can be found in The Central Line, A Short History by M.A.C. Horne (ISBN 1-870354-01-X) Page 16 –LiveRail < Talk > 16:42, 25 July 2013 (UTC)

Station Name

The Station name-board behind the seated man's head clearly ends in in the word "Arch". This would argue for the station depicted being Marble Arch, and not Queen's Road. Pemboid (talk) 11:34, 2 February 2021 (UTC)