Metro-land

The Metropolitan Railway was a passenger and goods railway that served London from 1863 to 1933. The company ran several lines, for instance the Metropolitan District Railway to Richmond -now the District line. Its mainline was to become the railway heading north from the capital's financial heart in the City to what were to become the Middlesex suburbs around Harrow and Wembley. To remove steam and smoke from the tunnels in central London, the Metropolitan Railway purchased electric locomotives; this electric traction was introduced in 1905. At that time the Metropolitan Railway operated services between Uxbridge, Harrow-on-the-Hill and Baker Street. To improve services, more powerful electric and steam locomotives (at Harrow the electric engines were exchanged for steam locomotives) were purchased in the 1920s. A short branch opened from Rickmansworth to Watford in 1925. After WW2, the 4-mile (6.4 km) long Stanmore branch was built from Wembley Park.

Unlike other railway companies, which were required to dispose of surplus land, the Metropolitan Railway was in a privileged position, allowing it to retain such land that it believed was necessary for future railway use. Initially, the surplus land was managed by the Land Committee. In the 1880s, at the same time as the railway was extending beyond Swiss Cottage tracts of land were developed for housing. At Neasden a workers' estate was built by the railway company. Roads and sewers were built at Willesden Park Estate and the land was subsequently sold to builders for development. Similar developments followed at Cecil Park near Pinner and several plots were sold at Wembley Park.

In 1912 the General Manager Robert Selbie felt that some professionalism was needed to develop estates near the railway and suggested a company be formed to take over from the Surplus Lands Committee. However, World War I delayed these plans. On 5 August 1914 the company was made subject to government control. It wasn't until 1919 before the Metropolitan Railway Country Estates Limited (MRCE) was formed. The MRCE went on to develop estates at Kingsbury Garden Village near Neasden, Wembley Park, (the extended) Cecil Park and Grange Estate at Pinner and the Cedars Estate at Rickmansworth and create places such as Harrow Garden Village.

The term "Metro-land" was coined by the Metropolitan Railway's marketing department in 1915 when the Guide to the Extension Line became the Metro-land guide. This booklet promoted the land served by the railway for the walker, visitor and later the house hunter. Published annually until 1932, the guide extolled the benefits of "The good air of the Chilterns". The dream promoted was of a modern home in beautiful countryside with a fast railway service to central London. Land development also occurred in central London when in 1929 a large, luxurious block of apartments, "Chiltern Court" opened at Baker Street, designed by the company's architect Charles W. Clark, who was also responsible for the design of a number of station reconstructions in outer "Metro-land" at this time.

This Metro-land comprises of not only housing developed by the MRCE but also of numerous private developments like Northwick Park. The Metro-land guide insisted that Metro-land was "a country with elastic borders that each visitor can draw for himself". The principal features of Metro-land were not unique to the housing developed along the Metropolitan Railway, the term can be used more generically. One only has to think of the several housing estates developed in Haringey en Enfield along the Picadilly Line extension, High Barnet on the Northern Line (Northern Heights), Gunnerbury Park in Brentford and Loughton (on the Central Line). Most however regarded Harrow as the heart of Metro-land, while some describe Wembley as its epitome.

Metro-land in the broadest sense on the map of present-day London. The City of London is shown in the centre (1) with the lines to the suburbs starting at an older station: Baker Street (a), Kings Cross (b) and Stratford (c). In deep purple the Metropolitan Railway which opened up the area around Harrow (2), Wembley (3), Ruislip (4), Kingsbury (5) and Edgeware (6) for suburban development. The housing estates shown in lighter purple are part of the true Metro-land. Other railway lines lead to similar suburbanisation. In dark blue the Picadilly line with the sprawling estates of Muswell Hill, Haringey (7), Southgate (8), East-Barnet (9) and Enfield (10). Similarly in Essex along the Central line we see suburban sprawl in Loughton (11), Chingford (12), Woodford (13), Barkingside and Hainault (14) and Epping (15). Note that the earlier Victorian urban development was confined to the former County of London (now Inner London).