Book Review

Bennett, D. Metro: the story of the underground railway. London: Mitchell-Beazley, 2004, ISBN 1-84000-838-5, £20

The author is a chartered engineer who has written widely, including several books on bridges, buildings, and other structures. Here he turns his attention to the underground railway. This has become an essential component of the passenger transport system of many cities, where it provides a subterranean 'bypass', avoiding the congested streets above.

The book is laid out in four sections. The first, on the rise of the metro, begins with the achievements of the early tunnelling pioneers. This inevitably includes an account of the struggles to construct the Thames Tunnel in London, eventually opened in 1843 and the first major tunnel of modern times, which involved much effort by the Brunels, father Marc and son Isambard. We are reminded that this was not conceived for railway use, but as a road and foot crossing to link the then thriving dock traffic on both sides of the Thames, well to the east of the lowest downstream crossing at London Bridge. It was purchased by the East London Railway in the 1860s, and became the very convenient cross-Thames rail link that it remains today.

The simpler precursor of today's tunnelling shield was developed by James Greathead and used for the 1870 Tower Subway located just west of the Tower of London. An early purpose-built underground railway tunnel, today it carries water pipes. Landmark tunnelling developments from then until the present day are described, followed by a brief account of underground trains and traction. The first section ends with a closer look at some of the seminal metro systems worldwide.

The second section comprises short studies of the station art and architecture of fifteen metro systems. The excellent illustrations allow comparison and contrast of differing approaches. For instance, the sumptuous and monumental stations of the Moscow system, deliberately if surprisingly conceived to be enjoyable as well as functional under Stalin's regime in 1930s Communist Russia, can be interestingly looked at against the more austere stations of the same era designed by Charles Holden for the Piccadilly Line extension in London. Some systems are almost psychedelic, for example the dazzlingly colourful stations of Line A in Prague - the author advises the visitor to "take sunglasses and prepare to be stunned".

The third section embraces aspects of underground culture: tickets, poster art, graffiti art [sic], decorated trains, and system maps. The author deplores the proliferation of advertising posters on some systems (including London's), while acknowledging that they generate advertising revenue; he prefers decorated trains, a more recent innovation to the same end. Due credit is given to the clarity of the schematic map of the London Underground first devised in the 1930s by Harry Beck, and since adopted for other systems. A short account here of the development of that essential feature of an underground railway system, the escalator, might perhaps sit better in the first section covering technical developments. The lift - still a key feature of many London Underground stations, and now being introduced in others to provide mobility-impaired access to platforms - gets only a very brief mention.

The final section is a gazetteer giving summary details of systems in over a hundred cities around the world. There is a substantial index.

This book provides a broad overview of its subject, and should appeal to both the general reader and the structural engineer not seeking a detailed technical account. It is very readably written, brightly printed (in China), and crams a large number of illustrations - mostly in colour and of generous size - into the 176 pages between its hard covers. Very good value at the price.

Michael Bussell