| rdfs:comment | - Although the company had permission to construct the railway, it still had to raise the capital for the construction works. The BS&WR was not alone; four other new tube railway companies were looking for investors – the Waterloo and City Railway (W&CR), the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway (CCE&HR) and the Great Northern and City Railway (GN&CR) (the three other companies that had been put forward bills in 1892) and the Central London Railway (CLR, which had received assent in 1891). The original tube railway, the C&SLR, was also raising funds to construct extensions to its existing line.includeonly> Only the W&CR, which was the shortest line and was backed by the London and South Western Railway with a guaranteed dividend, was able to raise its funds without difficulty. For the
- The Baker Street and Waterloo Railway (BS&WR), also known as the Bakerloo tube, was a railway company established in 1893 that built a deep-level underground "tube" railway in London. The company struggled to fund the work, and construction did not begin until 1898. In 1900, work was hit by the financial collapse of its parent company, the London & Globe Finance Corporation, through the fraud of Whitaker Wright (Wikipedia page [1]), its main shareholder. In 1902, the BS&WR became a subsidiary of the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL) controlled by American financier Charles Yerkes. The UERL quickly raised the funds, mainly from foreign investors.
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| abstract | - The Baker Street and Waterloo Railway (BS&WR), also known as the Bakerloo tube, was a railway company established in 1893 that built a deep-level underground "tube" railway in London. The company struggled to fund the work, and construction did not begin until 1898. In 1900, work was hit by the financial collapse of its parent company, the London & Globe Finance Corporation, through the fraud of Whitaker Wright (Wikipedia page [1]), its main shareholder. In 1902, the BS&WR became a subsidiary of the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL) controlled by American financier Charles Yerkes. The UERL quickly raised the funds, mainly from foreign investors. Now the Bakerloo Line Further details on the Wikipedia page [2]
- Although the company had permission to construct the railway, it still had to raise the capital for the construction works. The BS&WR was not alone; four other new tube railway companies were looking for investors – the Waterloo and City Railway (W&CR), the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway (CCE&HR) and the Great Northern and City Railway (GN&CR) (the three other companies that had been put forward bills in 1892) and the Central London Railway (CLR, which had received assent in 1891). The original tube railway, the C&SLR, was also raising funds to construct extensions to its existing line.includeonly> Only the W&CR, which was the shortest line and was backed by the London and South Western Railway with a guaranteed dividend, was able to raise its funds without difficulty. For the BS&WR and the rest, and others that came later, much of the remainder of the decade saw a struggle to find finance in an uninterested market.includeonly> Like most legislation of its kind, the act of 1893 imposed a time limit for the compulsory purchase of land and the raising of capital. To keep the powers alive, the BS&WR announced a new bill in November 1895, which included an application for an extension of time. The additional time was granted when the Baker Street and Waterloo Railway Act, 1896 received Royal Assent on 7 August 1896. In November 1897, the BS&WR did a deal with the London & Globe Finance Corporation (L&GFC) a mining finance company operated by mining speculator Whitaker Wright and chaired by Lord Dufferin. The L&GFC was to fund and manage the construction; taking any profit from the process.includeonly> The cost of construction was estimated to be £1,615,000 (equivalent to approximately £ today). The L&GFC replaced the BS&WR's directors with its own and let construction contracts. Wright had made fortunes in America and Britain by promoting gold and silver mines and saw the BS&WR as a way of diversifying the L&GFC's holdings.includeonly> In 1899, Wright fraudulently concealed large losses by one of the corporation's mines by manipulating the accounts of various L&GFC subsidiary companies.includeonly> Expenditure for the BS&WR was also high, with the L&GFC having paid-out approximately £650,000 (£ today) by November 1900. In December 1900, Wright's fraud was discovered and the L&GFC and many of its subsidiaries collapsed.includeonly> The BS&WR struggled on for a time, funding the construction work by making calls on the unpaid portion of its shares,includeonly> but activity eventually came to a stop.includeonly> In March 1902, Charles Yerkes' consortium came to the rescue of the BS&WR when it purchased the company for £360,000 plus interest (£ today).includeonly> American financier Yerkes, who had been lucratively involved in the development of Chicago's tramway system in the 1880s and 1890s, had come to London in 1900 and purchased a number of the struggling underground railway companies. The BS&WR became a subsidiary of the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL) which Yerkes had formed to raise funds to build the tube railways and to electrify the Metropolitan District Railway. The UERL was capitalised at £5 million with the majority of shares sold to overseas investors. Further share issues followed, which raised a total of £18 million by 1903 (equivalent to approximately £ today) for use across all of the UERL's projects.
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