The East and West India Docks and Birmingham Junction Railway was incorporated by an act of Parliament, the '''''' (
9 & 10 Vict. c. cccxcvi), on 26 August 1846. It was empowered to construct a railway from the district of
Poplar and the docks to
Camden Town in north London. The railway's headquarters and
locomotive works were initially in
Bow. The '''''' (
16 & 17 Vict. c. xcvii) renamed the company to the North London Railway. At first, it ran trains from Bow Junction on the
London and Blackwall Railway (L&BR) to
Islington, starting on 26 September 1850. The line was extended to
Camden Town railway station from 7 December 1850 and to Hampstead Road station (later renamed
Primrose Hill) from 9 June 1851. Another extension via the L&BR was opened on 1 January 1852, from Bow Junction to
Poplar railway station, and from there to
Blackwall and the East India Docks; a connection at Bow allowed trains to run to
Fenchurch Street. This arrangement lasted until 1865, when an extension from
Dalston Junction to
Broad Street was opened; Broad Street became the main terminus, and the Poplar line became a branch. In the meantime, in 1864, a banker on a train from Fenchurch Street to Chalk Farm became the
first victim of a murder on a British train. In 1869, the line was extended along the
North and South Western Junction Railway (a joint enterprise by the LNWR, Midland Railway and the NLR) from
Willesden Junction to a
London and South Western Railway branch to
Richmond. A bypass line from Camden to Willesden Junction via
Gospel Oak and
West Hampstead opened in 1860. Meanwhile, at the eastern end, a spur line connecting the NLR to
Stratford from
Victoria Park opened in 1854 but was not used by passenger services. The line between Camden Town and
Dalston Junction was quadrupled in 1871. The company still existed until 1922, with its own board of directors and shareholders, when it was absorbed by the LNWR. The last board meeting and last shareholders meeting were both held on 23 November 1922, the latter giving the shareholders' approval of amalgamation. The board minutes were signed by A Holland-Hibbert, the chairman, who added "Goodbye!". Beneath this was typed, "This was the last Board Meeting of the North London Railway Company, the Undertaking being absorbed under “The London and North Western Railway (North London Railway and Dearne Valley Railway) Preliminary Absorption Scheme 1922” by the London and North Western Railway Company as from 1 January 1922." The LNWR, which half-owned Broad Street station, was responsible for electrification of the Broad Street to Richmond and Kew Bridge lines in 1916. ==Legacy==