Saturday 9 January 2016

London trams

I recently watched a programme about the history of the tram.  I loved the London trams. In truth they were noisy and took up a lot of road space and you had to walk out to the centre of the road to board them but there was something about their clanging.  They could be driven and braked from either end.  On one occasion I was on a tram in Upper Street, Islington when a van came to a sudden halt in front of us.  Our tram hit the van and knocked it off the rails.  This damaged our brakes and the driver rushed through the careering tram to the rear and put on the brakes at that end.  A hair-raising experience!

I used the tram in April 1939 when I first went to work at 16.  The number 33 went from the end of our road, by St Thomas's Hospital, over Westminster Bridge along the Embankment to the Kingsway Tunnel which ran under the road to Southampton Row.  There was one stop in the tunnel and you then had to mount the stairs to reach the street.  My daily journey was to Holloway Road.  I think my stop was Manor Gardens where the Royal Northern Hospital was opposite the Post Office National Savings Bank building, where I worked at a very boring job as a clerk.

When war was imminent volunteers were asked for to work in Civil Defence.  I hastily applied and was accepted.  I then took the tram in the opposite direction to Brixton Hill.  This was a perilous undertaking.  Being on shift duties meant travelling in the blackout walking to the centre of the road to get on a tram when cars had no headlights!  In 1941, I got transferred to the Home Office in Whitehall, so I just had to walk across Westminster Bridge.  No more trams for me.

I was sad at the demise of the tram in London - although there are some areas now, such as Croydon, where the tram has been re-introduced.

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