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If one had to elect the person who has had the single
most influence over the shape of London's Underground system, there
would be a strong argument for this man from Chicago. |
| Yerkes owned one of the larger art collections in the
United States and was reputed to buy ‘old masters’ as others would
buy books. The combination of his mastery of financial manipulation
and his love of the arts, was instrumental in bringing together this
unlikely partnership on a railway network. |
| London was ripe for the skills of Yerkes at the turn
of the century with the Baker Street & Waterloo Railway virtually
moribund in 1901 when its own financiers, the London & Globe, went
into administration. Yerkes soon formed a holding company, the Underground
Electric Railways of London Ltd, and the Bakerloo was soon joined
by, what are now, the District and the then unbuilt Piccadilly Line
and west end branch of the Northern Line (the Hampstead Tube). |
| See Pre-Yerkes Underground Map
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