By and large the London transport system is pretty unremarkable in terms of names. Unlike the Paris metro on which stops are sometimes named after battles (like Sébastopol) or individuals (Franklin D Roosevelt) a line or a stop in the London network is normally noncommittal.
The Northern line, self-explanatory; the Metropolitan for the oldest line. The nearest anyone got to politicising the network was Waterloo station and the naming of the Jubilee line after the late Queen’s Silver Jubilee, and the Elizabeth line also after her.
That was, until now. TfL has named six of its hitherto anonymous overground lines – the twin objectives being to help passengers get round the system and ‘showcasing London’s rich diversity.’
So, what do we get? We’ve got the Lioness’s line, running through Wembley, to celebrate the women’s team winning the Euro Women’s final in 2022, an event that few can now remember but is somehow good enough to immortalise with a railway line. There were other events at Wembley… the 1948 Olympics and the 1966 England world cup match, say. But they didn’t make it.
Then there’s Weaver line from Liverpool Street to Walthamstow to celebrate everyone from the Huguenot silkworkers to Jewish clothworkers ‘fleeing anti-semitism in Eastern Europe’ to Bangladeshi textile manufacturers.
There’s something called the Liberty line to celebrate the status of Havering as a royal Liberty – think Passport to Pimlico and you’ll get an idea of the status of the place under Edward IV, with its own tax system and magistrates etc. It also celebrates the ‘independent spirit of the Havering community’, which somehow conjures up GK Chesterton’s Napoleon of Notting Hill.
The Mildmay line commemorates the hospital of that name, originally founded by an Anglican clergyman and his wife in the 1860s for the sick of the area, but more importantly in this context, it is better known as a hospital for people with HIV Aids which Princess Di visited no fewer than 17 times. So that ticks two boxes – it ‘cherishes the role of the NHS’ and references ‘a valued and respected place for London’s LGBTQ+ community.’
Still more diversity comes with the Windrush line – Islington to Crystal Palace – which runs through areas with ties to Caribbean communities, like Dalston. Often met with prejudice, ‘these communities played an important part in our vibrant, multicultural city that we celebrate today’ and contributed, we’re told, to the musical tradition of hip hop.
But the most contentious is possibly the Suffragette line, which frankly could have been situated everywhere, given that nowhere was safe from the WSPU militants in their heyday. But this celebrates the East London Federation of Suffragettes, including the long lived Annie Huggett, who lived in Barking. Trouble is, the movement’s bombing campaign included setting up explosives on or near trains, with one bomb nearly killing the driver of a passing locomotive. Today, we’re told, ‘women continue to campaign for equal rights’, so there’s another box ticked.
This exercise, which can’t have been cost free – there was an extensive consultation with stakeholders, staff, passengers and local communities – comes at a time when TfL has a black hole in its accounts, yet it serves to co-opt even the rail network into the equality and inclusion agenda. It’s a way for the Mayor to demonstrate his credentials in this important area ahead of the May election and it serves to raise the humdrum business of getting around London into an exercise in celebrating its vibrant diversity. It’s something you can’t get away from, these days.
Obviously selecting these names excluded other possibilities – engineering feats, military victories, arts, philanthropy – but what we’ve ended up with is a snapshot of the sensibilities of the political class in 2024. Me, if I’m going to be politically conditioned when I get on a train, I’d rather it were the Paris way, with the Metro immortalising writers (Dumas, Anatole France), artists (Pablo Picasso), statesmen (Clemenceau, Charles de Gaulle) and wars (Crimée). Lionesses? Doesn’t do it for me. Sorry.
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