Charles Pearson
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Charles Pearson (October 1793 - September 1862) was Solicitor to the City of London and an early promoter of the need for an underground railway in central London.
Pearson was born in the City of London, the son of an upholsterer and feather merchant. He qualified as a solicitor in 1816 and shortly afterwards was elected as a councilman of the Corporation of London. He became City Solicitor in 1839 and held the office until his death.
Despite his comfortable upbringing and his social status, Pearson was something of a radical and throughout his life he fought a number of campaigns on progressive and reforming issues including the removal from the Monument of the inscription blaming the Great Fire of London on Catholics and the overturning of the ban on Jews becoming brokers in the City.
[edit] Campaigning for an underground railway
Recognising the increasing congestion in the City and its rapidly growing suburbs, in 1845 Pearson published a pamphlet calling for the construction of an underground railway through the Fleet valley to Farringdon. The proposed railway would have been an atmospheric railway with trains pushed through tunnels by compressed air. Although this proposal came to nothing (and would almost certainly have been a failure if it had been built, due to the shortcomings of the technology proposed), Pearson continued to lobby for a variety of railway schemes throughout the 1840s and 1850s including a central railway station for London akin to Grand Central Terminal later built in New York.
In 1854 a Royal Commission was set-up to examine a number of new proposals for railways in London. Pearson made a proposal for a railway connecting the London Termini and presented as evidence the first survey of traffic coming into London which demonstrated the high level of congestion caused by the huge number of carts, cabs and omnibuses filling the roads. Many of the proposed schemes were rejected but the Commission did recommend that a railway be constructed linking the termini with the Docks and the General Post Office. A parliamentary bill for a railway between Praed Street in Paddington and Farringdon received assent in 1854 establishing the Metropolitan Railway.
Although not a director or significant shareholder of the new company, Pearson continued to promote the project over the next few years and use his influence to help the company raise the capital needed for the construction of the line. He even persuaded the City of London to invest on the basis that the railway would alleviate the City's congestion problems.
By 1860 the funds had been collected and the final route decided. Work on the railway started; taking less than three years to excavate through some of the worst slums of Victorian London and under some of the busiest streets.
Pearson died in September 1862 and did not live to see the opening of the Metropolitan Railway on 10 January 1863. In recognition of his role in lobbying for the railway, a grateful company gave Pearson's widow an annuity of £250 per year.
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[edit] Further reading
- Christian Wolmar. The Subterranean Railway: How the London Underground Was Built and How It Changed the City Forever. Atlantic Books. ISBN 1-84354-023-1.
