The middle circle

Information
The middle circle was a service in London between 1872 to 1905 operated by the Great Western Railway (GWR). The route was from Mansion house to Earls court, then via the West London Railway to Latimer road on to the Hammersmith and city railway and then on to the Metropolitan railway to the City of London to Aldgate.

Origins
The Great Western railway (GWR) opened the Hammersmith & city railway (H&CR) on 13th of June 1864, and from the 1st of July 1864 carriages from Kensington (Addison road) (now Kensington (Olympia)) were attached and detatched from trains at notting hill, through services between Kensington and the city of london beginning in april 1865. A station had been built on the curve linking the H&CR and the West london railway, but this never opened due to GWR objections. Following an agreement between the Metropolitan railway and the GWR in august 1868, Uxbridge road station, designed by the London and North Western railway (L&NWR) opened on the west London railway on the 1st of November 1869.

The circle itself
The middle cirlce service started on the 1st of August 1872 when the GWR's H&CR exended this service from Addison road over the the District railway to Earls court and onto Mansion house. The GWR provided most of the locomotives and carriages for the service. When the Metropolitan exended the north side of its railway eastwards from Moorgate, the Middle circle followed and Bishopsgate (now Liverpool street) became the terminus on the 12th of July 1875 and then Aldgate became the terminus from the 4th of December 1876. Trains ran once every 30 minutes. From the 1st of July 1900 the service was cut back to run from Earls court to Aldgate. The middle circle ended on the 31st of January 1905.

When the Metropolitan railway took over
From the 1st of February 1905 the service was temporarily replace by a shuttle from Addison road to Hammersmith & city Stations until the 5th of November 1906, when 4 electric trains an hour began running from Addison road to Aldgate with 1 continuing to Whitechapel.

All stations are now served by ethier the Circle, District or the Hammersmith & City lines. Exept for Uxbridge road (now Sheperds bush on the London Overground) which was closed in 1940.