Lost Tramways of England London South-West

LONDON had the most extensive tramway system in Britain, and four volumes of Graffeg’s growing series ‘Lost

Tramways’ are devoted to this network. This particular volume covers the area of the capital that lies south-west of the River Thames, an area stretching from Teddington to Hammersmith, London Bridge, Penge and Purley.

Prior to the creation of the unified London Passenger Transport Board

(LPTB) in 1933, there were numerous independent metropolitan tramway operators. The LPTB controlled 327 route miles for trams and 18 miles for trolley buses. The history of the pre-LPTB operators and their lines is dealt with in an interesting and detailed historical introduction that also covers the lengthy and complex conversion programme to replace trams with trolley buses and diesel-powered buses during the years 1933 to 1952.

The major part of the book is devoted to large monochrome photographs drawn from the Online Transport Archive Collection, which portray the very varied tram operations in this part of London.

All images include extensive and detailed captions.

This is a valuable and modestly priced addition to the series and will interest those fascinated by our tramway history or particularly the London area. Recommended strongly. RSS

Graffeg Limited, www.graffeg.com, 64 pages, hardback. £8.99