Explain the social changes in London which led to the need for the underground railway. Why was the development of the underground railway criticised?

 

 

The social changes in London that led to the need for the underground railway:

(i)Between the two World Wars (1919-39) the responsibility for housing the working classes was accepted by the British state, and a million houses, most of them single-family cottages, were built by local authorities.
 
(ii)The city had extended beyond the range where people could walk to work, and the development of suburbs made new forms of mass transport absolutely necessary. 

(iii)The London underground railway partially solved the housing crisis by carrying large masses of people to and from the city

The development of the underground railway was criticised:

(i)Many felt that the ‘iron monsters’ added to the mess and unhealthiness of the city.

(ii)To make approximately two miles of railway, 900 houses had to be destroyed. Thus the London tube railway led to a massive displacement of the London poor, especially between the two World Wars.

A variety of steps were taken to clean up London. Attempts were made to decongest localities, green the open spaces, reduce pollution and landscape the city. Large blocks of apartments were built, akin to those in Berlin and New York – cities which had similar housing problems. Rent control was introduced in Britain during the First World War to ease the impact of a severe housing shortage. The congestion in the nineteenth-century industrial city also led to a yearning for clean country air.

(a) Public Life: The widespread use of coal in homes and industries in nineteenthcentury England raised serious problems. In industrial cities such as Leeds, Bradford and Manchester, hundreds of factory chimneys spewed black smoke into the skies. People joked that most inhabitants of these cities grew up believing that the skies were grey and all vegetation was black! Shopkeepers, homeowners and others complained about the black fog that descended on their towns, causing bad tempers, smoke-related illnesses, and dirty clothes. By the 1840s, a few towns such as Derby, Leeds and Manchester had laws to control smoke in the city. Moreover, the Smoke Abatement Acts of 1847 and 1853, as they were called, did not always work to clear the air.

(b) Private Life: Calcutta too had a long history of air pollution. Its inhabitants inhaled grey smoke, particularly in the winter. Since the city was built on marshy land, the resulting fog combined with smoke to generate thick black smog. High levels of pollution were a consequence of the huge population that depended on dung and wood as fuel in their daily life. But the main polluters were the industries and establishments that used steam engines run on coal. Many pleas were made to banish the dirty mills from the city, with no effect. However, in 1863, Calcutta became the first Indian city to get smoke nuisance legislation.

Reasons for major expansion of Bombay population in mid-nineteenth century:

(i) Bombay became the capital of the Bombay Presidency in 1819, after the Maratha defeat in the Anglo-Maratha war. The city quickly expanded.

(ii)With the growth of trade in cotton and opium, large communities of traders and bankers as well as artisans and shopkeepers came to settle in Bombay. The establishment of textile mills led to a fresh surge in migration

(iii) Bombay dominated the maritime trade of India till well into the twentieth century. It was also at the junction head of two major railways. 

(iv)The railways encouraged an even higher scale of migration into the city. For instance, famine in the dry regions of Kutch drove large numbers of people into Bombay in 1888-89.

(v)Bombay was at the junction head of two major railways. The railways also encouraged migration into the city.

The forms of entertainment that came up in nineteenth century England to provide leisure activities for the people:

(i)For wealthy Britishers, there had long been an annual ‘London Season’. Several cultural events, such as the opera, the theatre and classical music performances were organised for an elite group of 300-400 families in the late eighteenth century. 

(ii)Meanwhile, working classes met in pubs to have a drink, exchange news and sometimes also to organise for political action. Many new types of large-scale entertainment for the common people came into being, some made possible with money from the state.

(iii)Libraries, art galleries and museums were established in the nineteenth century to provide people with a sense of history and pride in the achievements of the British. 

(iv)Music halls were popular among the lower classes, and, by the early twentieth century, cinema became the great mass entertainment for mixed audiences.

(v)British industrial workers were increasingly encouraged to spend their holidays by the sea, so as to derive the benefits of the sun and bracing winds. 

Baron Haussmann, the Prefect of the Seine was the chief architect of the new Paris. Haussmanisation stands for the forcible reconstruction of cities to enhance their beauty and impose order. The poor were evicted from the centre of Paris to reduce the possibility of political rebellion and to beautify the city.

Letter to the Editor to support this form of Development:

Straight, broad avenues or boulevards and open spaces were designed, and full-grown trees transplanted. In addition, policemen were employed, night patrols were begun, and bus shelters and tap water introduced. Public works on this scale employed a large number of people: one in five working persons in Paris was in the building trade in the 1860s. Paris became the hub of many new architectural, social and intellectual developments that were very influential right through the twentieth century, even in other parts of the globe.