The featured image above shows two No. 33 trams using Kingsway Tunnel which was closed in the early 1950s, © Stories of London. [6]

Robert J. Harley begins his chapter on 1950 with these words:

“The dawn of 1950 brought new hope to Londoners. It was an important psychological divide – hardship, war, destruction, austerity and the harsh winters of the 1940s seemed to belong to a more distant age. Prosperity was returning, and the advent of antibiotics, the National Health Service and new employment laws had begun to exorcise the scourges of disease and poverty which had characterised pre-war years. People could look forward to the future, and to the new showcase of British achievement, the Festival of Britain, which was due to open in 1951 on the South Bank opposite Victoria Embankment.

The trams were still running, and indeed the rumble of cars over Westminster Bridge had a deceptive air of permanence. But the reality of tramway abandonment was just round the corner, and the planners at London Transport intensified their efforts to complete the programme within the allotted timespan.” [1: p50]

January 1950 saw the closure of Thornton Heath Depot with trams diverted across Croydon to Purley Depot. Tram Scrapping sidings were laid out next to Penhall Road, Charlton and we’re in use by 12th February.

In February, London Transport (LT) heralded the arrival of 259 new buses to take the place of the first four tram routes, promising shorter queues and more comfort. The closed routes served Wandsworth, Clapham, Battersea and Vauxhall.

New Tramroads, were still being built! It was recognised that the 1951 Festival of Britain would require the diversion and improvement of tramways in the vicinity of County Hall. Harley says that:

“Throughout February, the preliminary works in connection with the Festival of Britain roundabout at County Hall were continuing. It was noted that, on a bombed site between Addington Street and Westminster Bridge Road, conduit track and points were taking shape. The opportunity of witnessing the construction of new conduit tracks was not lost on many enthusiasts, and the progress on this, London’s last tramway extension, was subject to much scrutiny. Construction work of another kind had, by 14th February, lowered Wandsworth Depot’s fleet strength to a mere 36 trams.” [1: p53]

In March 1950, damage to Battersea Bridge by an errant coal barge closed the bridge to all but pedestrian use. The result was the early abandonment of that length of Route 34.

As March progressed,

“speculation about proposed fare rises was never far from the surface. Public relations people at LT preferred the expression ‘fare adjustments’, but whatever the terminology, it became increasingly obvious that it would be more expensive to ride on a bus or a tram. These changes were set to start on 1st Octo- ber and included, amongst other things, the complete abolition of workmen’s fares. On 7th March, F. K. Farrell wrote: ‘The national press report that London Transport fares are to be increased next October to offset the cost of conversion from trams to buses.’

Local authorities and other organisations representing community interests were also concerned about the issue, and doubts were raised whether passengers would get a fair deal on the replacing buses. It was calculated that those who travelled to work in London would pay another £3.5 million a year for transport. On 22nd March, the TUC joined in the fight and its Special Economic Committee broached the topic of the 4.5 per cent fare rise in a meeting with Sir Stafford Cripps, the Chancellor of the Exchequer.” [1:p54]

The first batch of motormen left Wandsworth on 12th June to train as bus drivers. Those at Clapham depot soon joined them. Most ex-tram men ultimately passed muster for their new roles.

In July it was announced that the first phase of closures would happen on 1st October with a rolling programme of closures following with the last closure expected to take place in October 1952.

A temporary closure of immediately adjacent tram routes allowed the construction of a Bailey Bridge across the Thames to allow better access to the Festival of Britain site on the South Bank.

As a publicity stunt, LT invited the press to a funeral on 28th July 1950. It was actually a cremation. Car 1322 was burnt at Penhall Road. Penhall Road was known locally as the ‘Tramatorium’! Harley says: “It was calculated that almost two trams a day could be disposed of by this method. … Throughout September the tramatorium was made ready. On 6th September, cars 020, 1383, 1385, 1654 and 1762 were noted in the yard. Car 1385 was burnt on the afternoon of 26th September. On the next day, cars 1727, 1744 and accident victim 1396 appeared at Penhall Road.” [1: p57]

At the end of September fare rises were publicised. They came into effect on 1st October 1950. “In general, fare rises look moderate by modern standards; for instance ticket values below 7d went up by a halfpenny, and in the range from 7d to 1s 2d, by a penny. The real blow fell on transfer, workmen’s and return fares, which were abolished. … The last link with the old regime was severed when crews were instructed not to use the word ‘WORKMAN’ on the destination blinds.” [1: p59-60]

Late in October 1950, the new trackwork close to County Hall and St. Thomas’ Hospital was commissioned while contractors were at removing rails in the Wandsworth/Battersea areas. Harley tells that:

“As an interim measure tramlines were filled with an asphalt mixture, but the conduit slot was left visible. Depending on the work load, a gang would arrive days or sometimes weeks later to cordon off one side of the carriageway so that either the up or the down track could be lifted. Many frontagers complained about the noise of pneumatic drills as they sliced into large chunks of the road surface. Granite setts were normally lifted with the old surface, but at certain locations track, conduit and setts were all buried under a new asphalt layer. Rails were generally cut up on site and then carted away by lorry to be sold as scrap metal. Pointwork which contained large amounts of recoverable steel was particularly valuable. Wood blocks were sold as logs for open fires. Well tarred, they burnt well! Wandsworth Borough Council was quoted as needing to spend £428,000 on removing 11.5 miles (18.4 km) of track and reinstating the carriageway.” [1: p61]

Late in 1950, LT began their preparations for the second round of closures due in early January 1951. “The process of abandonment had acquired a lethal momentum, and 1951 would see a substantial proportion of the remaining system swept away.” [1: p61]

The final night for routes 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 20, 22, 24 and all night service no. 1 (between Streatham Library and Victoria Embankment) came on 6th January 1951. 101 trams in total were withdrawn and 20 miles (32km) of track removed. Routes 2 and 4 ran between Wimbledon and Victoria Embankment (via Westminster Bridge and Blackfriars Bridge respectively). Route 6 ran between Tooting and Southwark Bridge. Route 8 was a circular from Victoria Station through Clapham and Streatham.  Route 10 ran from Tooting Broadway to Southwark. Route 20 was the reverse of Route 8. Routes 22 and 24 ran from Tooting Broadway to Victoria Embankment (via Balham/Clapham and Streatham/Brixton respectively.

As the year continued, Harley tells us that February and March saw a number of minor permanent way renewals. 7th/8th April saw the next round of closures, this time in the Croydon area – Route 16 (Purley to Victoria Embankment via Westminster Bridge), Route 18 (Purley to Victoria Embankment via Blackfriars Bridge) and Route 42 (Croydon (Coombe Road) to Thornton Heath).

The Festival of Britain was opened by King George VI on 4th May 1951. Harley tells us that:

“London Transport had putout much publicity for visitors, but the men- tion of tram services was only very cursory. The emphasis was now firmly on the bus side and eight special bus routes were inaugurated in connection with the Festival. It was obviously a hectic time for King George and Queen Elizabeth, because on Tuesday 8th May, the King and Queen of Denmark paid a state visit. The processional route caused some disruption to tram traffic, but trams continued to use Vauxhall Bridge Road. In order to shift the crowds afterwards, trams were despatched, fully loaded – 74 seats per car, four at a time. Also at times of street closures for state visits, cars could be turned short on the new County Hall roundabout. This was not without its dangers, as an official notice to drivers explains: ‘Several accidents have occurred recently where Addington Street, Lambeth adjoins Westminster Bridge Road. A Tram Pinch sign has recently been erected in this vicinity, but all drivers, particularly those operating tramcars, are requested to exercise special care when traversing this thoroughfare’.” [1: p80]

The next tranche of tram-route closures took place on Tuesday 10th July when Route 68 (Greenwich Church to Waterloo Station) and Route 70 (between Greenwich Church,  Bermondsey and London Bridge Station) were closed. After these closures, the system had shrunk to 65.5 route miles (104km) and 129 track miles (206km).

Harley tells us that The Star on 2nd August 1951 maintained that, “that the removal of London’s trams had given rise to more congestion, because to match the seating capacity of the trams, more buses were needed. At the same time London Transport had issued a set of figures showing the average speed of trams, including stops, to be 10.25 mph (16 kmh) – just one mile per hour short of the central bus average. [The] Modern Tramway noted that, even under adverse conditions imposed by track layout and age of the rolling stock, London’s trams still held their own in the face of LT propaganda about the alleged greater speeds of the replacing buses.” [1: p82]

Harley comments further that, “On the face of it, the conversion scheme seemed to be going well, and London Transport was in self congratulatory mood, when in the October issue of London Transport Magazine it published a leader on the half way mark of Operation Tramaway. Headed A First Class Job, it mused on the fact that 200 miles (320 km) had been abolished in a year and that everything reflected ‘the high standard of efficiency that London Transport has set for such major traffic operations’.” [1: p85] He says that there were, of course, contrary views. A letter to The Modern Tramway expressed those sentiments:

“The buses on service 185 run every ten minutes in off peak periods, whereas the trams had a four minute headway … A London Transport regulator remarked that people are sometimes unable to board vehicles at midday, a state of affairs hitherto unprecedented. A tramcar, he said, acts like a dredger and eliminates the queue. . .’ It would seem from this letter that the RT and RTL type diesel buses were still lacking in their ability to transport crowds and to clear the queues.” [1: p85]

Over 1951, the number of trams operating on the network reduced from 650 at the beginning of the year to 323 by 31st December 1951. [1: p85]

On 5th January 1952, Routes 48 (between West Norwood and Southwark via Elephant & Castle), 52 (Grove Park Station to Southwark), 54 (Grove Park Station to Victoria Station), 74 (Grove Park Station to Blackfriars), 78 (West Norwood to Victoria Station) and night service 5 (between Downham and Victoria Embankment) were withdrawn with the loss of 109 trams. [1: p93]

The state funeral of King George VI took place on 15th February 1952. Later in February, “Lewisham Borough Council revealed that it was having some qualms about tram track removal. John Carr, the Lewisham Borough Engineer, was quoted as saying that it cost £10 to tear up every yard of disused double tram track. He also estimated that the council might have to pay £10,000 for the removal of tramlines in London Road, Forest Hill. Although he went on to state that payment by London Trans-port plus money from the sale of scrap steel would cover the £168,000 Lewisham was obliged to spend on track lifting in the borough, he intimated that the council was still concerned that it would be have to fund any shortfall.” [1: p95]

On Sunday 2nd March LT imposed a further fare increase. April 1952 saw the closure of the Kingsway Subway and Routes 33 (between West Norwood and Manor House Station) and 35 (between Highgate (Archway Tavern) and Forest Hill), including the 35 night service (Highgate (Archway Tavern) to Bloomsbury and Westminster).

The remaining routes were lost at the beginning of July 1952. A schedule of route closures is kindly provided on yellins.co.uk/transporthistory, the table is reproduced below:

London’s last tram week, the last full week of operation of London’s first-generation street tram system, from 29 June to 5 July 1952. Wikipedia tell us that “it was the culmination of the three-year programme, known as Operation Tramaway, that saw the replacement of south London’s entire tram network with a fleet of modern diesel buses, at a cost of £10 million. The trams had been very popular among Londoners, and in south London they accounted for the majority of local journeys by public transport. Many people regarded their demise as a particularly momentous event. On the last day of operation, large crowds gathered to see the last trams in service and to take a final ride. On arrival at its depot, the very last tram was ceremoniously received by a group of dignitaries, watched by a large number of spectators.” [2]

“Many Londoners regarded the disappearance of the trams as a particularly momentous event. On the final day, the trams were crowded with passengers wanting to take a last ride, with many more people lining the routes to say goodbye to the vehicles. Souvenir hunters stripped everything that could easily be removed from the cars.” [2][3]

The very last tram was car no. 1951, running on the five-mile Route 40 from Woolwich to New Cross via Charlton and Greenwich. From New Cross to Greenwich it was driven by Driver Albert Fuller. At Greenwich, the Mayor of Deptford, Mr F. J. Morris, took over the controls. And John Cliff, a former tram driver from Leeds who was now deputy chairman of London Transport, drove the car for the final leg of the route into the New Cross depot. The journey was delayed by crowds of cheering spectators (20,000 of them, according to one report) who surrounded it along its route and followed it to the depot.” [2][3][4]

What is, perhaps, surprising about the Wikipedia article is that it talks relatively positively about the removal of the first generation trams with little in the way of caveats. So, the article says, “The withdrawal of tram services in London was generally considered successful in reducing traffic congestion, at least in the short term. According to various press reports, traffic now flowed freely at what had previously been the worst bottlenecks. Some journeys by public transport were also noticeably faster. Lord Latham wrote, ‘The changes in traffic conditions at a number of key points are little short of dramatic.’ A decrease in road accidents was also reported.” [5: p101-103]

Our recent look at articles from editions of ‘The Modern Tramway‘ from the 1950s suggests that the benefits were far from clear, that proper statistical measurement and analysis was not respected by LT not by the press of the day, and that the costs of the transition were probably under-reported. It is also evident that, had LT chosen to invest in trams as part of postwar modernisation of transport in the capital, some considerable benefits to the urban environment would have accrued.

We have discovered, no doubt with the benefit of hindsight, that the change was a relatively ill-conceived decision based on the prevailing dogma of the times that individual freedoms were paramount and that the car was the future. It is also possible that these decisions were made by those who had little understanding of the general public’s needs and who did not depend on public transport for their daily lives.

No doubt some change was necessary and public opinion demonstrated a frustration with the trams (resulting primarily on underinvestment in the network). The conduit system may well have been a significant issue. However, most of the difficulties and objections could have been resolved with a political will to do so.

The demise of trams elsewhere in the UK could be seen as, perhaps, a greater injustice/travesty, partially in places were reserved tracks were in use.

In further articles in this series we will looked at the renamed ‘Modern Tramway‘ of the 1960s which was published jointly by Ian Allen and the Light Railway Transport League.

References

1. Robert J. Harley; London Tramway Twilight: 1949-1952; Capital Transport Publishing; Harrow Weald, Middlesex, 2000.
2. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/London%27s_last_tram_week, accessed on 17th July 2023.
3. London’s Last Tram; The Times, London, 7th July 1952; https://go.gale.com/ps/anonymous?id=GALE%7CCS35999463, accessed on 17th July 2023.
4. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/6/newsid_2963000/2963092.stm, accessed on 17th July 2023.
5. James Joyce; Operation Tramaway; Ian Allan Publishing, 1987.
6. https://www.strandlines.london/2021/08/18/kingsways-ghost-station, accessed on 17th July 2023.
7. https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/kingsway-tram-tunnel-to-start-public-tours-in-august-45111, accessed on 17th July 2023.
8. https://www.timeout.com/london/news/the-london-transport-museum-is-doing-an-underground-tram-tunnel-tour-030822, accessed on 17th July 2023.
9. http://www.yellins.co.uk/transporthistory/trolley/ltw.html, accessed on 17th July 2023.
10. https://shop.memorylane.co.uk/mirror/0100to0199-00199/tram-run-london-21484067.html, accessed on 17th July 2023.