Metropolitan Railway and Connections Map

Perhaps not as immediately striking as some other early Metropolitan Railway Maps, this is nonetheless a special map. And it’s less because of what it shows about the Metropolitan, and more what it shows about the other railway lines (as the various underground lines were then known). In particular, this map has a very rare depiction of the proposed Central London Railway (today’s Central Line) ‘loop’. In a rather extravagant attempt to solve its slight reversing problem at either end of the line, the Central for 3 years proposed the construction of a separate return line, effectively creating a self-contained loop!