be accommodated in each carriage, which had longitudinal bench seating and sliding doors at the ends, leading onto a platform for boarding and alighting. It was reasoned that there was nothing to look at in the tunnels, so the only windows were in a narrow band high up in the carriage sides. Gate-men rode on the carriage platforms to operate the lattice gates and announce the station names to the passengers. Because of their claustrophobic interiors, the carriages soon became known as padded cells. Unlike other railways, the C&SLR had no ticket classes or paper tickets; when the railway began operations, a flat fare of two pence, collected at a turnstile, was charged. Despite the cramped carriages and competition from bus and tram services, the railway attracted 5.1 million passengers in 1891, its first year of operation. To alleviate overcrowding, the fleet of rolling stock was enlarged. Extensions to Clapham Common and Angel, 1890–1901 Shortly before it opened to the public, the C&SLR gave notice of its intention to submit another private bill to Parliament, to construct a new line from its northern terminus at King William Street towards Islington. Because of the awkward arrangement of King William Street station, the extension was not to be connected directly to the existing running tunnels but was to be linked via a pedestrian subway through which passengers could make interchanges between the separate lines. The bill was rejected on the grounds that the extension failed to make a connection to the existing line. In November 1891, the C&SLR published details of a revised bill for the extension to Islington. The company had recognised the deficiencies of its King William Street station and, just a year after the line had opened, planned to construct a new pair of tunnels to bypass the problematic northern section. Near Borough station the new tunnels would branch off via a new station to form an interchange with the SE&CR and the LB&SCR at London Bridge mainline station. The tunnels would then pass to the east of London Bridge, north through the City of London to Angel. Following a delay, during which a Joint Select Committee reviewed the proposals of several new underground railways, the City and South London Railway Act, 1893 received royal assent on 24 August 1893. The Act also incorporated another bill of 1893 to grant an extension of time to build the southern extension