wide. The clock tower, which separates the two arches in the street front, is 120 feet high. In connection with the station is a large and well managed hotel. LONDON BRIDGE.-On the south side of London Bridge is a cluster of stations, irregularly combined, and without any unity of plan or architectural beauty, forming the terminus of the following railways : Crystal Palace. This line is carried by a tunnel under Sydenham Hill to join the West-end and Crystal Palace line, which has its terminus at the Victoria Station, Pimlico. Many trains run throughout the day from one terminus to the other. Croydon; by Forest Hill, Sydenham, and Norwood; with a branch line through Nutcham to the South-Western Railway; and another branch through Epsom to Guildford on the London and Portsmouth line. Brighton. By this line, 55 miles in length, Brighton has been made a suburb of London. It has many branch lines, and from Brighton railways run east and west along the coast. South Eastern; branches from the Brighton line at the great station of Red Hill near Reigate, and reaches Dover by a roundabout course with a branch from Tunbridge through Tunbridge Wells to Hastings. The metropolitan extension of this line crosses the river by an iron bridge to the Charing Cross Station, built on the site of Hungerford market. Greenwich. This line is upon brick arches throughout, and is the earliest of the London railways. North Kent; by a tunnel under Blackheath to Woolwich, Gravesend, and Rochester, there branching to Maidstone in one direction, and to Canterbury and Dover in another. Mid-Kent; or the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway. The metropolitan extension of this line passes under the hill on which the Crystal Palace stands, by a tunnel 2000 yards long, cut through London clay. This tunnel is ventilated by seven shafts, penetrating vertically from the hill above. There are also 6200 yards of brick viaducts, including 600 arches, of 30 feet span. It is intended that this line shall cross the river at Blackfriars to a station at Farringdon Street. A temporary station has been built on the south side of the river. METROPOLITAN UNDERGROUND RAILWAY, for relieving the streets of London of part of their traffic, commences by a junction with the Great Western Railway at Paddington, and passes under Praed Street and the New Road to King's Cross, in an archway 28 feet wide, and from 16 to 18 feet high. The minimum thickness of the brickwork in the side walls and arches is 2 feet 5 inches. At King's Cross a junction is effected with the Great ABOUT the month of July the public may expect to find the railway from the South-Eastern station at London Bridge to Charing Cross completed. A few months later this line (itself an extension of the South-Eastern system) will have thrown out another branch, which, crossing the Thames between Southwark and London Bridges, will find its terminal station in Cannon Street, nearly opposite the end of Walbrook, or within a few yards of the Mansion House. Beyond this there is the more important continuation of the line to London Bridge, and its connection with the entire system of the North Kent, Chatham, Tunbridge, Hastings, Brighton, Ramsgate, Dover, and the whole of the Continental traffic. It may afford some idea of the extent to which the leading thoroughfares of the City will be relieved by this line if we state that about 13,000,000 passengers pass annually through the nest of stations at London Bridge, and of all this immense mass a very large proportion has to find its way west of Temple Bar. The heaviest portion of the work to be constructed was the bridge over the river at Hungerford, on the site of the Suspension Bridge. This is now so far advanced as to leave little doubt that it will be Canal, anu is covivse by ugu mans, suppo The cross hted. 863,' 1,000 on to the lway, hav Park, Road, Rail 'outh loop treet, e sta f the South Rail Com and wide. The clock tower, which separates the two arches in the street front, is 120 feet high. In connection with the station is a large and well managed hotel. LONDON BRIDan On the south side of London Bridge is a 4 THE HOTEL To be provided at Charing Cross is one capable of containing 200 rooms, and is to be constructed from designs of Mr. E. M. Barry. It will have one frontage of 234 feet, looking on to the Strand, and another of about 190 feet in Villiers Street. The grand entrance will be on the Villiers Street side of the station, and the main portions of the hotel will consist of three stories, an entresol, and a mezzanine over the booking-offices. The view from the back will overlook the busy station, beneath the glass roof of which will be seen the trains constantly arriving and starting, and beyond this the bridge and the river. The style of the hotel will be Italian, with decorations marked by good taste rather than by a desire for show or effect. In connection with this Charing Cross Railway, we may state that in a short time the completion of a railway by the South-Eastern Company from Lewisham to Tunbridge will have the effect of not only reducing by 13 miles the distance by rail from London to Dover, but the line will also traverse the central district of Kent, and give access to the charming country in the neighbourhood of Sevenoaks. A line is projected from Tunbridge to Eastbourne, and if this is carried out this pleasant and agreeable watering-place will be brought within the sphere of the towns for which the Charing Cross station will be a fitting London terminus.-Abridged from the Observer. ended that this line shall cross the river at tion at Farringdon Street. A temporary on the south side of the river. NDERGROUND RAILWAY, for relieving the part of their traffic, commences by a junction rn Railway at Paddington, and passes under Praed Street and the New Road to King's Cross, in an archway 28 feet wide, and from 16 to 181 feet high. The minimum thickness of the brickwork in the side walls and arches is 2 feet 5 inches. At King's Cross a junction is effected with the Great Northern Railway, and the Metropolitan Railway then proceeds in open cutting to Victoria Street, Holborn Bridge, and thence to Smithfield Market, the entire basement of which will be filled up as a railway depot. There are five intermediate stations in addition to those at the termini. By means of an extension half a mile in length, it is purposed to continue the line from Smithfield to Finsbury Pavement, within 400 yards of the Bank. The principal stations are covered with roofs of glass, extending across the line and platforms, and all the stations are well lighted. The line was opened for public traffic on 10th January 1863,` and the number of passengers has varied from 21,000 to 38,000 daily. The Company are now proceeding with the extension to Smithfield Market. THE NORTH LONDON RAILWAY is a line which connects the Blackwall Railway with the London and North-Western Railway, passing through the northern suburbs of the metropolis, and having stations at Stepney (at its east end), Bow, Victoria Park, Hackney, Kingsland, Newington Road, Islington, Caledonian Road, and Camden Town. Here the Hampstead and City Junction Railway commences, by means of which, and the North and SouthWestern Junction Railway, which passes near Acton, the loop line of the Richmond Railway may be reached at Kew. VICTORIA STATION, PIMLICO.—At the end of Victoria Street, Pimlico, a quarter of a mile from Buckingham Palace, a large station has been erected on what was formerly the basin of the Grosvenor Canal, for the use of the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway Company, the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway Company, the West End and Crystal Palace Railway Company, and the Great Western Railway Company. Ten acres and a quarter of ground have been covered by the station. The line on the north of the river follows the course of the old Grosvenor Canal, and is enclosed by high walls, supporting a roof of iron and glass half a mile long. It is then carried across the Thames by an iron bridge, which is in close proximity to the new Battersea Park Bridge. South of the river the line joins the West End and Crystal Palace Railway on the one hand, and the West London Extension Railway on the other. The iron bridge is 920 |