Railways

The majority of the rail network in East London was built within fifty years from 1839. The first through the area was the Eastern Counties Railway from Mile End to Romford, extended to Shoreditch in 1840.[6] The London and Blackwall Railway built a line from Minories to Blackwall the same year and the Northern and Eastern Railway connected Lea Bridge and Tottenham with the Eastern Counties at Stratford. The Eastern Counties and Thames Junction Railway started passenger service on their line from Stratford to Canning Town, Custom House and North Woolwich in 1847.[7] This made Stratford a significant railway junction and location of railway works. The East & West India Docks & Birmingham Junction Railway connected Kingsland with Bow and Poplar in 1850 and was renamed North London Railway in 1853.[8] In 1854 the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway connected Forest Gate on the Eastern Counties with Barking and Rainham. The East London Railway was opened in 1869. The Great Eastern Railway connected Lea Bridge with Walthamstow in 1870, and in 1872 built a connection from the Eastern Counties line at Bethnal Green to Hackney Downs. This was connected to the Walthamstow line in 1873 and extended to Chingford. The London and Blackwall built an extension to Millwall and North Greenwich on the Isle of Dogs in 1872 and the Eastern Counties and Thames Junction Railway was extended to Beckton in 1873, and Gallions in 1880. The London, Tilbury and Southend Railway connected Barking with Dagenham, Hornchurch and Upminster in 1885,[9] and Romford with Upminster in 189

.[10] The final piece of original railway works was the construction of the Great Eastern loop line to connect Woodford with Ilford via Fairlop in 1903. The Eastern Counties and Thames Junction Railway in east London connected the Royal Docks with the Eastern Counties Railway (ECR). Authorised in 1844, it opened in 1846, and was absorbed by the ECR in 1847. The ECR in turn amalgamated with other railways to form the Great Eastern Railway in 1862.The East London Line is a former London Underground line. It has now been incorporated into the London Overground line which runs north to south through the East End, Docklands and South areas of London. No current London railway map refers to this line as 'East London Line'. Built in 1869 by the East London Railway Company, which reused the Thames Tunnel, originally intended for horse-drawn carriages, the line became part of the London Underground network in 1933. After operating for nearly 75 years as part of the Underground network, the line closed in December 2007 for an extensive refurbishment and expansion project, reopening as part of the Overground network in April 2010.[5][6][7] Phase 2, which links the line to the inner South London Line with a terminus at Clapham Junction, opened on 9 December 2012, creating an orbital railway around inner London. The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern Railway in 1923.

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