3-071-154 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Lord Mayor of London commencing works for extension of Inner Circle Railway, 1881. '...formal commencement of the works of the underground extension line ...The ceremony of turning the first earth was performed by the Lord Mayor...The work now initiated will continue the railway system...so as entirely to complete the circuit of communication between all parts of the metropolis, and with all the railways reaching London from the entire kingdom...The ceremony took place in Chequer-house Yard, Aldgate, opposite the Aldgate Metropolitan Railway Station. The Lord Mayor was here received by Sir Edward Watkin, M.P., the chairman of the Metropolitan Railway Company...The Lord Mayor took the handsome silver spade presented to him by Mr. Walker, the contractor of the line, and, having partially filled the ornamental wheel-barrow with earth from the excavation, rolled the barrow along a plank, and shot out its contents. The guests and workmen gave a round of hearty cheers, and the Lord Mayor spoke in answer to Sir Edward Watkin, with whom he quite agreed in perceiving the advantages which the working classes derived from the cheap and speedy communication furnished by the underground railway between their homes and their workshops'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.