London 1800

In 1829, Prime Minister Robert Peel established the Metropolitan Police as a police force in the entire urban area. This force earned the nickname of "bobbies" namedfor reference to Robert Peel.

The nineteenth century London was transformed with the arrival of the railroad. A new network of railways allowed the development ofsuburbs in neighboring counties, from which the middle and upper classes of society could travel to the center. While this fact drove out the huge growth of thecity, also exacerbated class divisions as the wealthier classes emigrated to the suburbs, leaving the poorest people in the city center.


Main entrance of the CrystalPalace in Hyde Park,
where they organized the Great Exhibition of 1851

The first railway line to be built in London was the line from London Bridge to Greenwich,which opened in 1836. This continued with the opening of major rail terminals linking London with almost every corner of Britain. These stations are Euston Station(1837) Paddington station (1838), Ferchurch Street Station (1841), Waterloo Station (1848), the King's Cross station (1850) and the station of St.Pancras (1863). From1863 he began to build the first metro lines.

The urbanized area of the city continued to grow rapidly, extending to Islington, Paddington, Belgravia, Holborn,Finsbury, Shoreditch, Southwark and Lambeth. By mid-century, the antiquated system of local government, which consisted of parishes and parish councils, struggled tocope with this rapid population growth. In 1855 he created the Metropolitan Board of Public Works to provide adequate infrastructure to London to meet its growth.