London trams 1952
London’s Trams
It's difficult to envision London roads without thinking about vehicles, motorcycles, black taxicab, and red double-decker buses. But the London’s thoroughfares have not really seemed this way; once upon a time, it was the tram that was king.
The tram has made its last appearance in London after nearly a century of service. In the early hours of the morning, the very last tram to rumble through the capital's roads landed at the New Cross depot in south-east London. It was driven by John Cliff, the London Transport Executive's vice chairman, who started his career as a tram driver.
When a horse tramway began operating along Victoria Street in Westminster, the first generation of trams in London was born. George Francis Train, a slightly eccentric American, ran the first line. Several efforts to run motor-powered trams on London tramlines were made in the early 1900s: In 1873, John Grantham tested an experimental 23-foot steam tramcar in London, but it was withdrawn due to poor performance.
It took decades for the electric tram to gather momentum in London. An electric tram was tried on the West Metropolitan Tramways route between Acton and Kew shortly after the storage battery was created. Electric trams quickly gained popularity after a sluggish start.
When the first complete electric tramway system was discontinued - at Sheerness - hundreds of cities and towns had ‘last car' memorials, with some cheering the departure of what they deemed abominations and others watching in quiet and, maybe, grief. Trams, on the other hand, were pleasant vehicles that, in their prime, were a source of community pride.
LTE chairman Lord Latham greeted the tram at New Cross depot. "In the name of Londoners, I say goodbye, old tram". The rattly old trams, formerly a much-loved element of the capital's transportation system, were judged uneconomic to rebuild after WWII, and were replaced by buses.
Trams were said to generate traffic congestion because their set paths made it difficult for other vehicles to circumvent them. Trams were regarded as being disruptive and perhaps risky to other road users. It was excluded from the city due to concerns about the city's development and environmental damage. However, now there is a tram network that runs from Wimbledon to Beckenham, and it has proven to be a popular means of transportation.
Those who have seen the trams in London must be telling their children and grandchildren about them; “We used to use Trams to work/office and to many locations. I adored the trams not just for their sound and movement, but also because I was aware that they were a "living" legacy of a bygone era. I can still recall how sad I was when we took the last Tram across London only hours before the trams were to stop running. The streets were vacant where I was used to seeing trams, with only the tracks showing where they had been.”
"Last Tram Week" banners have been displayed on trams all week, and special tickets with the same message have been printed. People drove or cycled beside the tram for the length of the ride, while conductors punched souvenir tickets.
Even though that beloved vehicle is no longer in existence, its legacy lives on in the hearts of many people. Many people may have sighed and said, "Once upon a time, this town had a tram." Many people's memories have been broken by the removal of this vehicle from the city. These unforgettable emotions of running the trams will remain forever.
(Jobayer)
This is not my video, I collected and uploaded it only for education purposes.
Пікірлер: 94
I was only four when the trams went but I remember the trips my father took me on vividly.
Yes, we’ve all seen this lovely film. It’s still brilliant.
@lovelondon4348
3 жыл бұрын
Thank you
From Terence Wise....I was eleven years old when the last Trams ran in South London.I missed them then and I miss them still.
I'm a tram lover. I liked the film but feel a pity for London tram which was unique and made the city much alive and still brighter
@lovelondon4348
2 жыл бұрын
Tah nk you for watching
What a fascinating film, thanks for posting it! Amazing to catch a glimpse of the tramway emerging from the Kingsway tunnel onto the Embankment, & also the old shot tower across the river. Seeing these wonderful old trams in action makes me wonder whether we should have kept the network intact, given the pollution / CO2 concerns we have today!
@lovelondon4348
2 жыл бұрын
Thank you for watching
@alexandrau6096
2 жыл бұрын
I bet they took them of the streets because of WW2, such trams are unlike the subways out in the open and vulnerable to dropping bombs, mainly cuz they couldn’t dodge to the side, like a car or bus or carriage could...
@glennadams3395
Жыл бұрын
The trams in London lasted til July 1952
Wonderful work! Our Forefathers did a wonderful job.
I live in a Polish city called Olszyn and until 1965 we had a metre gauge tram network, there still is a short length of track with one of the old trams to remind everyone of it. 50 years later in 2015 the network was rebuilt to the standard (4' 8 1/2") gauge and reopened though a bit longer and going in an entirely different direction. Now in 2021 there's another line being built to the Pieczewo area.
@lovelondon4348
2 жыл бұрын
Thank you for watching
@brianlumber
8 ай бұрын
Gary steam
The flip over seats, when backwards became forwards and vice a versa 😆
@lovelondon4348
2 жыл бұрын
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Very sad old trams were gone. But Croydon have new trams on 4 routes. I rode one when I was six. Going Kingsway subway tram still in my memory never forget. Now I am 76 in June.
@johnjephcote7636
3 жыл бұрын
The subway was one route my Dad missed out. We alighted at Savoy Street. I think the subway route had closed the year previously.
Nice overhead shot of Woolwich Market at 7:10 with the gates to the Royal Arsenal (yes, that Arsenal) just visible at the top. I remember dodging the busses here in the 70s when I was a nipper.
@lovelondon4348
2 жыл бұрын
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Bring them back.
@lovelondon4348
2 жыл бұрын
💕
@warmike
2 жыл бұрын
They did bring them back to Croydon, but they have to bring them back to Elephant & Castle (there were such plans but they were cancelled). The elephant had waited for too long.
East Anglia Transport Museum in Norfolk have these old trams running on their private track, great place to visit if you love this stuff.
I would have been 6 when they finished , but I can still remember vividly going along the embankment in a London smog ,and the copper directing the traffic as he loomed up torches or lanterns in hand . Some things stick in your mind .. likewise getting the trolley bus from dalston up to the posh cinema at Stamford hill , we had our own flea pits the savoy and classic cinemas but the posh one a odeon I think on the corner was bigger
@lovelondon4348
2 жыл бұрын
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@martinphilip8998
2 жыл бұрын
In America after the war GM bought up the trolleys and interurban rail lines. They closed them and communities had to buy their buses if they wanted mass transit. I was born in 1954. My family lived for a year in England in 1970. We stoked a coal fire then.
Ah, another amenity that succumbed to the dominance of cars
Great xoxo. 11 months to early for me as I wasn't born. Do remember the trolleybuses though..
@lovelondon4348
3 жыл бұрын
Thank you
@johnjephcote7636
3 жыл бұрын
Yes, I was old enough in the trolley days to go all over London with a Red Rover and my school friends, collecting numbers and visiting the depots.
3:23 I was just whisteling the song all the time, until the exact same song came up in the video. Its call „riding on top of the car“ as far as I know.
@lovelondon4348
2 жыл бұрын
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Trams are the future now and cars the past. I drive and way too many cars on the road. We need to do something about this.
Just amazing footage - I almost can't believe much of this was filmed in my lifetime and in my 'manor', New Cross, southeast London.
My great-aunt lived on Downham Way and, five years old, I'd watch the trams for hours. Catching a tram was hair-raising even then as it would stop in the middle of the road and you would have to brave the traffic to get to it.
What a sight you see you see when crashing them all and changing then to all busses and waiting.at each stop but it but have been very sad I would have love to have seen them
Three years old when they disappeared, bummer.
In America after the war GM bought up the trolleys and interurban rail lines. They closed them and communities had to buy their buses if they wanted mass transit.
@lovelondon4348
2 жыл бұрын
Thank you
@martinphilip8998
2 жыл бұрын
@@lovelondon4348 I lived in Bristol twice. I loved the green double deckers. You could smoke upstairs and the views were great! That was in the 1970s.
Thank you.🌠
If you ask an average European nowadays whether there are trams in London, they will probably say no. I think during the late 1940s they would have been more aware with many trams enriching the city centre back then as shown in the beautiful video above.
@samanli-tw3id
Жыл бұрын
There are in Croydon but it’s well away from Central London.
London trams wow this tram rocks this tram has good sound it's a shame it's got withdrawn in the 90s it's too old to come back but we can call it TFL trams London
I remember the trams well as a kid. But it would certainly be hazardous boarding & alighting London trams in today’s traffic.
Ein eindrucksvoller und auch etwas wehmütiger sehr guter Bericht. Ich wusste bis dato gar nicht das in London früher einmal Straßenbahnen verkehrten. Dazu noch als Doppelstockwagen. Woher auch, denn 1, war das vor meiner Zeit und 2. lebe ich in "Good old Germany". Deshalb: Chapeau !!!
@lovelondon4348
2 жыл бұрын
Thank you
@alexandrau6096
2 жыл бұрын
In Deutschland haben ja auch nicht alle Städte eine Straßenbahn und noch weniger eine U-Bahn, wenn man nun zusätzlich bedenkt, dass England in den Städten überbesiedelt war, kann man verstehen, dass Doppeldecker notwendig waren. Berlin hat übrigens auch Doppeldecker Busse im öffentlichen Straßenverkehr im Einsatz. Warum es die Straßenbahn in England nicht mehr gibt und alles heute nur noch per Bus und U-Bahn läuft könnte an den Kriegen gelegen haben. Eine U-Bahn station kann als Bunker dienen, während eine Straßenbahn den Bombardierungen aus der Luft hilflos ausgeliefert wäre, weil durch die Beschienung kein ausweichen möglich gewesen wäre.
@samanli-tw3id
2 жыл бұрын
In London gibt es Transport Museum wo man alte Busse, Straßenbahnen und U-Bahnen sehen kann. Und auch die nördliche Einfahrt des Kingsway-Strassenbahntunnels steht immer noch. Und in Croydon, südlich von London, gibt es einen modernen Strassenbahnnetz aber leider nicht doppelstöckig.
@samanli-tw3id
2 жыл бұрын
@@alexandrau6096 Das war nicht der Grund warum Straßenbahnen ausgemustert wurden. Auch sind Busse hilflos gegen Luftangriffe aber sie fahren noch.
@ChinaTwinCat
2 жыл бұрын
@@samanli-tw3id aber ein Bus hat die Möglichkeit auszuweichen, eine Straßenbahn kann wegen der Schienen ja höchstens auf den Schienen vorwärts oder rückwärts. Es war ja auch nur ein "könnte" also eine Möglichkeit, nicht dass es zu 100% deswegen so ist.
First time seeing this - so sad 😢
It would be fantastic to travel back to those days so i could experience riding on a tram for myself, It was very short sighted of London transport too get rid of them as they off road and under it,
Her trains😊😊😊
Hello, I was very interested in this historical film. As the operation of the trolley is a puzzle to me, do you have a map or photo of this system when it is out and under the tram to see the connection. Thank you for your information
@lovelondon4348
3 жыл бұрын
no I have not map or photo.
@EricLDunn
3 жыл бұрын
Do you mean the ploughs? dewi.ca/trains/conduit/ploughs.html
@miclo6916
3 жыл бұрын
@@EricLDunn Thank you very much for the explanations and the diagrams. My colleagues and I appreciate this history miclo69 - Lyon France
In Washington DC our trams, which we called streetcars, ran until 1956 through most of the city and downtown...and until 1962, on the west side of the city. Now, we have newer trams made in the Czech Republic that have a short 2.5 mile route on the east side of town. Honestly, the streets are too narrow for them and they are a nuisance I'm sorry to say.
everything was better then. Central London is quite empty now and outside of the congestion zone its bumper to bumper.
nice
@lovelondon4348
2 жыл бұрын
Thanks
As a music hall fan I love the song halfway through, but I find it quite depressing to watch, losing a very large part of our history
Hong Kong is still using. BUT only you can see it in Hong Kong Island.
Jetzt wollen sie wieder alles auf elektrik umbauen 😂😂😂😂
@lovelondon4348
2 жыл бұрын
Thank you
@samanli-tw3id
2 жыл бұрын
Bei 50er war Benzin billiger als Wasser and niemand hatte Ahnung über Globalerwärmung.
Why whenever their is something beautiful their is someone who wants to destroy it?
And now we weep as we are now in a world clamoring to fix our envirnoment impact on the planet, trams seem perfect as they are all electric with no pesky hazardous batteries to contend with.
@lovelondon4348
3 жыл бұрын
Thank you
How we could destroy our cities for cars? 😢
Thanjavur Maris karner.
@lovelondon4348
2 жыл бұрын
💕
F for the trams because they are oh wait they are actually back in London
New bus stand
@lovelondon4348
2 жыл бұрын
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What a pity they were scraped. Would have done for nice dwellings to many needy people.
@IssacLHunt
Жыл бұрын
trams were for the poor.
It's funny how the loss of trams was actually lamented at the time. One of the few instances of nostalgia that was spot on. They could have modernized them and avoided the ongoing insane uk love affair with the motor car. Getting rid of trams across Britain was one of the two greatest transport mistakes. Along with Beeching. 3:29 is fascinating - the building of the Festival Hall for the imminent Festival of Britain.
@samanli-tw3id
Жыл бұрын
In 50s, trams were seen obsolete and cars were symbols of progress.
Почему трамвай сожгли?На металлолом ?
@lovelondon4348
3 жыл бұрын
I dont know!
@warmike
2 жыл бұрын
да, там говорится, что их продали на металлолом (правда не все, самые новые на тот момент успели ещё поработать в Лидсе, но через несколько лет трамвай закрыли и там)
Thanjavur oriental tower to new busy and.
@lovelondon4348
2 жыл бұрын
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