"How London Created The Tube" - A Talk with Christian Wolmar and Theresa Villiers

"HOW THE  TUBE CREATED LONDON"
Wednesday 22^nd February, 7pm-9pm

Where: London Canal Museum, 12-13 New Wharf Road , London N1 9RT
Tickets: £10 or £5 for concessions.

Speaker: Christian Wolmar (Transport Commentator and Writer)

This talk illustrated with over 50 images will focus on celebrating the fantastic achievement of the Underground’s pioneers who created a transport system that was not only unique in the world but also was vital in creating the London we know today. The development of the Tube was a great engineering achievement, but also responsible for stimulating the development of London as a city. The Tube allowed people to traverse the city in a way which would be impossible by any form of surface transport, and became a global icon of the city, in terms of its roundel ‘logo’, map design, station architecture, and also for its transport model, which in the 1930s became envied and studied around the world. After the war, London Transport changed the demography of the capital by recruiting directly in the Caribbean and Africa for cheap labour to run the Tube and buses at a time of full employment among the native population. Taken together, it is no exaggeration to say that the Underground helped build the London we know today.

Open question & answer session: Will the Tube make or break London?

·         Theresa Villiers MP (Minister of State for Transport) will be present to take questions from the audience.

Londoners seem to have a love-hate relationship with the tube - it is able to infuriate and enchant them in equal measure. To visitors it is both iconic and perplexing. Currently it is undergoing massive change with a hugely ambitious investment and renewal programme. At the same time it faces significant challenges – a burgeoning London population, rising demand and prices, combative industrial relations and the small matter of the 2012 Olympics. Will the renewal succeed and will the challenges be overcome? Is the tube going to get better or worse over the next decade? Will it still be of importance to London’s future, or should we all start getting on our bikes now?

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