His vision was to take the capital out of the steam and horse age into the electric era, and to cash in on rising property values by extending his lines into the rapidly expanding suburbs.Yerkes settled in the Waldorf hotel to drum up investment, while his 23-year-old mistress, for whom he had once bought a bed from the King of the Belgians costing $80,000, set up in the Savoy, where it is said that she became a model for more than one Henry James heroine.Yerkes electrified the loss-making District Line, ordered new carriages modelled on American trams and cut back on the seating to cram in more passengers. Tube carriages are still known by the American name “cars” because of their Yerkes origins. His power station built at Lots Road in Chelsea is the one that still supplies (and frequently cuts off) the entire London Underground today.He bullied and cajoled his backers into providing the cash to build the great Tube lines – the Bakerloo, the Piccadilly and the Northern line. The Piccadilly, opened in 1906, was his great glory – the longest in the capital and the first with an escalator.

A man with a wooden leg was paid to ride it all day long to prove to a sceptical public that it was safe.Before that the money had run out, and Yerkes did not live to see the heyday of the private Underground company, which eventually ran all the lines except the Metropolitan until nationalisation and merger with the buses in 1933.The cost of burrowing under the Hampstead hills to build the Northern line had proved too great and he died in 1905. His creditors reclaimed his house in Park Avenue, New York City, and the Yerkes Observatory on Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, which he had ordained should contain the largest telescope in the world.An eminent railway historian wrote of him: “His interest in railways as railways was absolutely nil. He neither knew nor cared about the day- to-day methods of operation, safety methods and such like. His sole and only concern was the accounts.” It is on to Yerkes’ railway, substantially unchanged in any of these respects, that MPs step every day at Westminster station as they make their way to and from the House.Tube linesThe tube system’s 11 lines carry more than 2.5 million people between 266 stations every day.There are several redundant or “ghost” stations including Down Street between Hyde Park Corner and Green Park on the Piccadilly Line which was used by Winston Churchill’s war cabinet.In 1994, a blind person’s guide to the Tube was produced by a veteran Underground traveller advising blind passengers to listen for specific wind noises and feel the sway of the train to pin-point their location.. “Abnormally high” childhood leukaemia cases near two nuclear establishments in Berkshire and new evidence showing lower than average radiation levels for the area have prompted Newbury council to call for a full government investigation.

Figures to be published in the British Medical Journal later this year are expected to confirm earlier research that in the west Berkshire area there are three childhood leukaemia cases per 60,000 children where one would normally expect two.
Dr Carol Barton, consultant haematologist at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, first reported on high levels of childhood leukaemia 10 years ago.She said that her research had looked at all the different factors, such as social class, but the only one which had any bearing was proximity to the nuclear establishments at Aldermaston and its sister site, Burghfield. Children under five were found to be particularly affected.Dr Barton said: “The only positive finding was that incidence was high in those children who lived near a nuclear establishment.” She called for more research to be conducted in order to establish conclusively that the leukaemia cases were being caused by the nuclear establishments.However, in the absence of hard evidence to prove a direct link between radiation from the sites and leukaemia cases, their cause remains a mystery.At a public meeting last night, Newbury council presented findings from their own independent survey, the most comprehensive into radiation levels in west Berkshire.The council’s report said levels of naturally occurring radiation were lower than the UK average, even at the former Greenham Common cruise missile base, but that higher than normal levels of unnatural radiation (from uranium and plutonium) had been measured along the perimeter fence at the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston.Scientists said last night they believed the high levels of unnatural radiation did not represent a risk to the public but warranted further investigation.The Newbury council survey, carried out at a cost of pounds 250,000 by Southampton University, was sparked off after it was alleged that the Government had suppressed details of a nuclear accident at Greenham Common more than 35 years ago.The council’s community information officer, Peter Gilmour, said the survey raised worrying questions and that the council would now call on the MoD to fund a major investigation into radiation in west Berkshire.”We are pressing for funding from central Government to do a much fuller study. This hasn’t done anything to enhance any link between the nuclear establishments and the leukaemia cases. There are a lot of people wanting a lot of answers still,” he said..

A hunt began yesterday for up to 500 people who may have been given inaccurate tests for HIV infection, sexually transmitted diseases and cervical cancer by an unregistered doctor. Health service executives urged clients of Iketam Clinical Laboratory Services in Balham, south London, to seek help immediately after Sir Kenneth Calman, the Government’s Chief Medical Officer, wrote to GPs warning that the laboratory’s diagnoses may be incorrect.
The health alert centres round inquiries which have established that Nigerian-born Godwin Onubogu, 56, who was practising at the laboratory, is not a registered medical practitioner.In a joint statement, the South Thames NHS Executive and the Merton, Sutton and Wandsworth Health Authority, alleged yesterday that Mr Onubogu ran Iketam as a private concern for nine years, offering testing and advice on “various conditions, including sexually transmitted diseases and HIV infection”.In his alert to doctors, Dr Calman said: “Some patients may need counselling. Others may need referral to sexually transmitted disease-genito urinary medicine clinics as they may have been inaccurately diagnosed as having gonorrhoea.”Others may have had HIV tests, the results of which may not be reliable, and may need referral to HIV services.” He said those affected may not be limited to the Balham area but could hail from other parts of London, the South-east or even abroad. Dr Sue Atkinson, director of public health at the executive, said: “We are concerned about the information that some people may have been given by Mr Onubogu and so we are trying to contact his clients and former clients to alert them to the need to seek professional medical advice. The best route for this would be through their GP.”Iketam is not an NHS laboratory, so we do not have details of the clients The police .. have the names and addresses of some clients.

We have given the police letters to enclose with the ones they are sending to these people. This still leaves many clients who we cannot contact and who may not live in the local area.”The NHS executive said only people who actually visited Iketam’s premises at Swan House, 207 Balham High Road, needed to seek further help as the laboratory did not conduct diagnoses on samples sent from other doctors.”We don’t want to cause a panic among people who have had HIV tests and may worry that their tests were sent off to this laboratory – they weren’t,” said Kate Wilcox, a spokeswoman for the NHS executive.”We only want to contact people who visited the premises. Obviously, this is going to be an anxious time for some people, but we would urge them to contact their GP as soon as possible.”The health authorities have set up a helpline – on 0800 174846 – for anyone who has received treatment, testing or diagnosis at the laboratory.. A national culture based on self-gratification and the decline of the Protestant work ethic are among the main reasons for poor educational standards, Chris Woodhead, the Chief Inspector of Schools, said last night.