East London Line Pre-1960's

Sorry James,but I really think this never existed.
I have maps of the area going back to before the Broad Street Line was built,so all stages of its development,and I have never seen a direct connection of any sort.
Ther are at least 3 vertical levels to consider,all of which had tracks on.
The highest level was the original Bishopsgate station,which was above street level,and a terminus on Shoreditch High Street.This became the Bishopsgate Goods station when Liverpool Street station opened.
The Broad Street viaduct is/was at approximately the same level.
Between the two is Shoreditch High Street and a block of buildings dating back to the turn of the century (which were demolished to build the ELLX link).Until this link was built,there was never a bridge over the road here.
At ground level there was a goods station storey which was reached by wagon hoists.
It was built in the arches below the old Bishopsgate station.It stopped just short of Shoreditch High street.
It had,until its demolition a few years ago,tracks set into the cobbles,and wagon turntables.
These tracks extended well to the East of the station above,and can be seen set in the road near Valance Road and Hemming Street.
Around Hemming Street there was a spur of viaduct off the GE serving a goods station in the Whitechapel area,this was also served at sub-surface level by a branch of the East London,which diverged to the right just North of Whitechapel,and I think this was another 3-storey-with-wagon-hoist style of depot.Is the ELL branch junction site still visible? I'll check if I get down there soon.
The ELL was at the same level (and had a junction with) the GE main lines to Liverpool Street.These diverged from the lines serving Bishopsgate around the Vallance Road area,diving down while the Bishopsgate tracks stayed at viaduct level.They thread (still) through the arches of Bishopsgate station,and had rail access to the third level of that station.They then pass UNDER Shoreditch High Street and into Liverpool St.station at subsurface level (they had a more-or-less level junction with the Circle line,to give an idea of their depth below street level).
The Broad Street viaduct,being built later,was fairly self-contained.It had its own goods depot,at high level,on the West side of the passenger station ie the wrong side to connect with the GE.
I'm ready to be corrected on these points,as old maps aren't always accurate when it comes to showing rail lines in detail,but I am prepared to bet there was never a direct connection between the GE and the NLL (if any) and certainly not as late as the 60s.

If you Google "Abandoned Stations Shoreditch" then click the 2nd result it will tell you all about Shoreditch Station and on the first map at the top there is a blue line depicting the link in question.

I don't think the reasons for not extending the tube South were geological! The Northern Line got built,and the Fleet/River lines test tunnels at New X didn't seem to have run into any problems.....at tube level I think the soils are similar North and South of the river (though there is some Chalk in the Greenwich area,according to the maps).
The common story (don't know if it's true) is that the SR and its antecedents blocked tube proposals as encroaching on its territory.
The story of the Fleet/River lines is a long one,but to cut it short,money ran out,and then the JLE was built instead.It was planned,inter alia,to go to New Cross Gate and Lewisham as two branches.It was probably this latter branch you heard of.
There were regular passenger services South off the ELL,and goods only ceased in the 60s,the connections being severed in 1966.

I think the way that this link was built could have been done better....demolishing the Bishopsgate undercroft wasn't necessary,and was a result of inflexible thinking....The old link to Liverpool Street could have been left as a passive provision....the link could have been built less arduous,to allow through night-time freights....hindsight is a wonderful thing,but,I suppose with MSTS you get to put things how they MIGHT have been....

<OT>

Yes indeedy; there were going to be three programme machines at Lewisham.

</OT>




There was indeed - I've seen some timetables. Can't remember at this remove if they were WTT or PTT.

The April 1910 Bradshaw includes Liverpool Street - New Cross (LBSCR)/East Croydon and Shoreditch - Peckham Rye services. These would have been withdrawn when the ELL was electrified in 1913.

In 1976 the proposal to run the ELL to Lewisham was back on the cards along with relinking the ELL with Liverpool Street. This along with a Fleet/River Line was part of the backbone of better transport along with the NLL improvement (ie electfication and more frequent trains to North woolwich).

Cor...What kind of school pass did YOU have?
My ILEA school passes (1976 to 1982ish) gave me travel between two specified stations on BR and two specified destinations on the buses.
That's not to say I didn't "explore" a bit....

Is it possible that if it wasn't geological, it may have been socio-economical? Reasons not to develop may have been because when the people typed the information into their statistical machines they may not have come out with a cost-beneficial number to develop down south east way?

The Northern Line goes to Clapham, Tooting and Wimbledon - not areas that are necessarily more affluent but places where more affluent migrants have since settled (e.g. Australian, South African, Kiwis), and many in the area before that were likely coming from affluent areas to commute into London (early 1900s). Perhaps it was decided by the authorities that extending the tube would cost too much for what it would add to the economy.

With regards to Shoreditch - seems like an area that could have benefited from a tube station, but in some ways the fact that it wasn't necessarily on the Underground map that it, ironically, has remained 'underground' as an area for where a certain type of people tend to spend their time now. Because it's not easily accessible has made it relatively elusive and exclusive.

'McGuinness