Lost London: Trevithick’s Steam Circus
Whilst the name may conjure up images of ringmasters, acrobats and clowns all sporting a steampunk aesthetic, in reality, the Steam Circus was a circle of track built in the Bloomsbury area (the site is believed to now be under the UCL’s Chadwick Building) for demonstrating engineer Richard Trevithick’s fourth steam locomotive, named Catch Me Who Can. Opening in July of 1808, the Steam Circus was the first place in the world where a locomotive hauled fare-paying passengers.
Though his aim was to showcase steam locomotion to the public, Trevithick decided to enclose his Steam Circus inside a large wooden fence, and charged a fee of one shilling for viewing and riding the train. It was claimed that Catch Me Who Can could reach a top speed of 12 miles per hour on the circular track; Trevithick believed it could reach 20 miles per hour on straight track.
Operation of the Steam Circus did not go smoothly: the soft ground that the track was laid on led to the iron rails breaking shortly after demonstrations commenced. Even after costly reinforcements of the rails, they soon broke again, derailing the train. Having failed to generate enough income to cover the cost of more repairs, Trevithick closed the railway; it was his last attempt to show the advantages of steam locomotives. The financial failure contributed to his bankruptcy the following year, after which he moved on to other projects. Trevithick was just perhaps slightly ahead of his time - it would be another two decades before the potential of steam-hauled passenger railways was successfully demonstrated by George and Robert Stephenson and their locomotive, Rocket, and a further decade before trains arrived at nearby Euston.
