Cable Tram on Brixton Hill 1905
Image Source : Lambeth Archives
The tram was first introduced into Britain by an American gentleman with the wonderful name of George Francis Train. Unfortunately, his trams rattled too many fashionable tea-cups and lasted no more than six months. They were revived ten years later, however, and became both fashionable and successful. Then came the electric trams. These were seen as highly glamorous and the transport to be seen in! But the motor bus and the Trolleybus were fast catching up on the inside lane. The old-fashioned, inefficient tram was abolished in the 1950s and the motor engine ruled the day. In 2001 the tram became the answer to all the ills of modern urban transport ... Confused? Read on....
With the underground already under construction, 1861 saw the introduction of a new system of transport on London's streets - the Tramway. It was introduced by the felicitously named George Francis Train, a gentleman from America where the tram was by then well established. Mr Train experimented with his system at Birkenhead, near Liverpool and finally convinced the authorities to allow him to lay experimental tracks on several routes in London. The first of these opened on March 23rd 1861 and was about a mile in length and ran along Bayswater Road between Marble Arch and Notting Hill. The second one followed on April 15th and ran down Victoria Street. The third opened for business on August 15th and ran from Westminster Bridge to the Horns public house at Kennington Park. The vehicles were drawn by a pair of horses and could accommodate twenty people sitting inside and another twelve "strap-hanging". With metal wheels running on smooth tracks in the road they were much easier to pull than carriages running on uneven road surfaces. This meant that two horses could pull a tram carrying 50 passengers, about twice the capacity of the horse bus, making trams dramatically cheaper to run.
There were many objections. Apart from the cab drivers who saw Mr Train as a potential threat to their own overcrowded market there was the noise. The rumbling of the steel wheels on the steel rails was not inconsiderable and no doubt rattled the afternoon tea cups in the households along the routes. Unfortunately for Mr Train, the routes ran through "fashionable" areas whose residents had considerable political influence. There was also a problem with the rails. The flange which retained the wheels of the car jutted above the road surface and therefore constituted a serious hazard to other vehicles. The experiment was abandoned by the authorities.
In 1868, Parliament authorised the laying of tramways in Liverpool and the pressure to do the same in London was enormous. Parliament relented in 1869 and authorised three tramlines in London - but outside the central area. On May 2nd 1870 the first new tramway was opened between Brixton and Kennington and a week later the second was inaugurated between Whitechapel and Bow in the East end. The third, between Blackheath and New Cross was in operation by December. The system soon expanded into a large network which covered all of London except the central area. In 1899, almost the entire network became the responsibility of the London County Council (LCC). They retained this control until 1933 when responsibility passed to the London Passenger Transport Board.
In 1901 all public road transport was horse-drawn. In this year more than 3,700 horse buses were on the streets and the London General Omnibus Company was reckoned to be the largest user of horse power in the metropolis. Each bus required 11 horses to service it during its average 60 miles a day. Generally, there was a class distinction: buses were used by the middle classes and trams, with lower fares, by the working classes. Also in this year, the last stretch of line built for horse trams was opened. This was in Agincourt Road, Hampstead, and provided a one-way track which enabled the terminus at South End Green to re-join the main route to Camden Town. Changes were on the way, however. On April 4th, the first electric trams appeared on a track between Shepherds Bush, and Kew. It was owned by London United Tramways whose full service running between Shepherd's Bush and Kew Bridge began in July 1901. These early tramways ran on rails set into the road surface and drew power from overhead electrified wires. Other tramways quickly followed and by 1906 ten municipal systems were in operation. Large number of passengers used the trams, and electric power was widely seen as being modern, clean, efficient - and glamorous.
This heralded a major expansion into electric tramways. The London County Council (LCC) began taking control of the horse tramways in London in 1896, and by 1899 had taken over the principal lines in south London. They now began an extensive programme of electrifying the old routes. For this they adopted the 'conduit' system of supplying power by means of a live rail buried beneath the road surface, rather than the cheaper, but unsightly, overhead lines. The first of these new electric-powered conduit lines opened on 15 May 1903. It ran from Blackfriars and Westminster to one of the LCC's new cottage estates in Tooting, south London. By 1910 the LCC had electrified 120 miles of tram routes, making it the largest tram operator in the country. Between 1900 and 1914 it developed a large, integrated tram system in London and its suburbs. Network expansion linked routes north and south of the Thames and tracks were laid over Westminster Bridge in 1906. Also in 1906 came the innovation of single-deck tramcars running in a tunnel beneath Kingsway down to Aldwych. These came into service on February 24th of that year and the line was extended in 1908 to the Embankment, where it connected with south-London services via the Westminster Bridge lines.
In 1913, London's three private tram systems were taken over by the Underground Group. The London County Council (LCC) was committed to a policy of subsidised low fares to encourage people to use the trams. They were quick, frequent and cheap to run. The policy was a success and by 1924 more Londoners were travelling by tram than by any other form of transport. Success grew on success and in 1930 the Kingsway tunnel was closed in order to allow it to be deepened. It reopened on January 14th 1931 with new double-decker tramcars. By now, London had the largest tram network in the country with 345 route miles being served by 2,600 tramcars, but competition was never far away. Motor buses had begun to appear on the streets and posed a real threat as they offered a more flexible level of service and greater comfort. In an attempt to attract passengers onto trams instead of buses, the LCC began to refurbish its fleet of E/1-type trams, offering upholstered seating and smart new red and cream livery. Then, in 1931 London United Tramways introduced the Trolleybus.
Trolleybuses were a cross between trams and buses. They were powered by overhead lines, and ran on pneumatic tyres instead of rails in the road. Conversion to a Trolleybus System was not difficult. Transformation of the existing equipment was easy, and it allowed for the use of much of the existing electrical power system. The economic argument rested on the savings made from not needing to replace the worn-out tram rails. They had been demonstrated as early as 1909 in London, and were first introduced in Bradford and Leeds in 1911. On 16 May 1931 the London United Tramways (LUT) started London's first Trolleybus service between Twickenham Junction and Teddington, replacing the tram service.
The glamour was fading. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s trams more and more came to be seen as noisy and dangerous to other road users and by the early 1930s the golden age of the tram was drawing to a close. The reluctance of Westminster and the City of London to allow trams on their streets was fundamental weakness in the system and resulted in the tram network primarily servicing the inner suburbs and not the central area. Following a failed push to modernise the system, a Royal Commission in 1931 recommended that trams be replaced by Trolleybuses. This was managed by the London Passenger Transport Board which had been formed in 1933. The process got under way in earnest in 1935 and by 1940 more than half of London's trams had been scrapped. The whole of the North London tram routes had been converted to trolleybus operation with the exception of two spurs to Highgate and Manor House via the Kingsway Subway.
The programme was interrupted during the war but plans to resume it were announced in 1946. It was carried out in eight stages. In October 1950 trams were abolished across London. In order to manage and dispose of the vehicles coming out of service, a large site was acquired at Penhall Road Charlton in South East London. This was laid out with a number of parallel tracks on which the displaced trams were stored. After stripping them of all useful parts the bodies were burned. In every case, except one, the changeover from trams to buses was made on a Saturday night, the buses taking over on Sunday morning. Last Tram Week was an emotional Celebration and Wake1952 was the year of the last London tram. The tunnel beneath Kingsway and Aldwych was closed on April 5th and the last trams ran in July on Routes 44 and 46 in Woolwich and Lewisham. The much-loved trams were honored with a week-long farewell celebration Last Tram Week and the final tram ran from Woolwich to New Cross on 5th July. The Kingsway tunnel remained unused until the authorities were persuaded to open it for motor traffic in 1964. The era of the trolleybus was brief. The need for expansion of routes into the growing suburbs, cheap oil fuels and the cost of maintaining overhead wires began to make the trolleybus less viable. The replacement with motor buses began in 1959, and London's last trolleybus ran from Wimbledon to Fulwell on 9 May 1962.
Then, at the end of the 20th century, the concept of trams for London was dramatically revived. It all began in Croydon, South London. In the 1980s it was suggested that the dire public transport system resulting from traffic congestion in the area would be improved by the introduction of a tram system. A bill to enable the scheme to go forward was introduced in Parliament in 1991 and the Croydon Tramlink Act finally received Royal Assent on 21st July 1994. In 1997, work began on 28 kilometres of a light rail transport network linking Croydon with New Addington, Beckenham, Elmers End and Wimbledon. The 28 kilometres tram network is served by 38 tramstops located along the route, each providing local access to the centre of Croydon. The first tram to run under its own power on the streets of Croydon was 2535, which had a test run early on June 16th 1999. The official opening took place on 10th May 2000 at New Addington when Route 3 opened to the public. Route 2 to Beckenham Junction opened on 23rd May 2000 with the Route 1 from Elmers End to Wimbledon opening a week later on 29th May. Tramlink's red and white trams come are modelled on the Austrian system and manufactured in Vienna. The maximum speed is 80 km/h (50 miles per hour) but is restricted in the centre of Croydon and is much less in pedestrianised areas.
The �200m scheme has been a huge success. In the six weeks after its introduction, car parking in the centre of Croydon had been reduced by 9%. After a year in operation 40,000 passengers were daily using the tram and 20% more people were coming into central Croydon. The stunned politicians mooted a new scheme. Ministers now effect to believe that people are more attracted to light rail projects rather than buses. Their popularity is said to be such that they can move large flows of passengers quickly, comfortably and reliably. The �300 million cross-river London Tram scheme now proposed would link Camden in the north with Peckham in the south, crossing the Thames at Waterloo Bridge. Trams could run every few minutes at peak times, with an estimated 72 million passengers a year expected to use the system. The new link could halve journey times on some stretches of the route, with typical estimated journey times being 12 minutes from Camden to Aldwych, 25 minutes from Peckham to Euston, and 22 minutes from Brixton to Holborn. The plans are being pushed through by the Cross River Partnership, which is made up of the Corporation of London, Railtrack, the London Tourist Board and affected local authorities. Tom Franklin, Labour leader of Lambeth Council, had this illuminating observation to make:
"Trams have not run in central London since 1952 and a modern light transit network would be a major step in giving London a world class-public transport network."
The European-style trams would cross central London either in designated tram lanes or by being given priority over road vehicles on shared road space. If approved, the first trams would not start running before 2007 at the earliest. Under the Transport and Works Act there would have to be a public enquiry before a three-year construction programme could begin, possibly in 2004. It is funny how the world can go quite deliciously topsy-turvy in the space of fifty years.
John Prentice has very kindly given permission to use some text, from his excellent and very interesting Tramway Information website. We are also most grateful to Mr Prentice for the permission to use the images taken from his extensive collection of historic tram postcards. The above image is reproduced by the kind permission of John Prentice and the excellent and very interesting Tramway Information website. The view is in the Lambeth Palace Road, as the Prince of Wales (later to become King George V) is about to board the car. The opening ceremony took place on 15th May 1903 at 3.30 pm. Prior to this there had been a seated banquet for 2,334 people in a huge marquee set up in the grounds of the adjacent St. Thomas' Hospital. The first tram was started by the Prince of Wales and was then driven to Tooting by the Tramways Manager, Alfred Baker. Mr John Williams Benn, the Chairman of the L.C.C. Highways Committee, acted as conductor collecting the halfpenny fare and issuing special tickets printed blue and gold. Also present on the tram were the Princess of Wales, her two small sons Edward and Albert, Mr Gerald Balfour - President of the Board of Trade, and Lord Monkswell - Chairman of the L.C.C. At Tooting the party visited local workmen's housing built by the L.C.C. and then they returned to Westminster on the top deck of the tram. The vehicle was number 86 of class A. This was one of a batch of 100 ordered from Dick Kerr of Preston. The bodies were built by the Electric Railway and Tramway Carriage Co. Ltd. They had Dick Kerr DB1 form D controllers, and a pair of Brill 22E bogies, each with a 30 horsepower Dick Kerr 3A4 motor. One bogie in each pair was modified to take the plough for the conduit current collection used by the L.C.C. The cars seated 66, 28 inside and 38 on top. As built the trams were open topped, but within the first few years had received top covers. Special car 86 was painted white and was decorated with evergreen and fern. Inside, the wooden seats were replaced by pale blue and pink armchairs and, to complete the luxury, blue and white curtains and blue carpet had been fitted.
John Prentice
 The above image is reproduced by the kind permission of John Prentice and the excellent and very interesting Tramway Information website. The tram is of the London County Council Tramways, being car 320 of their class D. The class was built in 1904 by the Brush Electrical Engineering Company at Loughborough, running on maximum traction bogie trucks made by the McGuire Company. These trams were originally open topped and the top covers, built by Milnes Voss, were added one or two years later. Between the rails in the foreground of the view, the slot of the conduit system of current collection can clearly be seen. Instead of using overhead wires, which the L.C.C. thought were unsightly for the centre of London, the electricity was picked up from two conductor rails beneath the road surface by means of a device (known as a plough) attached to the tram and which ran in the slot.
John Prentice
 The above image is reproduced by the kind permission of John Prentice and the excellent and very interesting Tramway Information website. Car 186 was one of a batch of 100 4-wheel trams of class B ordered from Dick Kerr at the commencement of electric tramways and delivered in 1903. They had the standard "Preston" type three window body built by the English Railway and Carriage Co. Ltd., seating 22 passengers on the lower deck and 34 on the upper, with Dick Kerr DB1 form D controllers and two DK25A 25 horse power motors. They were mounted on Brill 21E trucks of 6ft. 6in. wheelbase with the plough carrier fixed midway between the axles. As built, these cars were open top with reversed stairs but from 1904 onwards they were fitted with top covers, at first open balcony and later with enclosed upper decks as in our postcard. The reversed stairs were replaced by direct stairs from 1906 giving a better driver's view and allowing the police restriction of a top speed of 12 m.p.h. to be raised to 16 m.p.h. They were painted in the L.C.C. livery of purple lake and cream (primrose). (Note the tram's upper deck advertisement has been retouched to read "Star Post Cards".) The electric tram service from Blackfriars to New Cross and Peckham commenced on 17th January 1904. The terminus at Blackfriars had three tracks with the passenger shelter in in the middle of the road. Blackfriars Bridge was too narrow for tramways but was widened and the tracks were extended over the bridge and onto the Embankment opening on 14th September 1909, from which time the normal use of the Blackfriars terminus was discontinued and the shelter removed, although the third stub track remained until the closure of tramways in 1952.
John Prentice
|