London Street Tramways
The London Street Tramways Company (LST) was a public transport company in London . The company operated from 1871 to 1897 standard-gauge horse - drawn railway lines in north London as part of the larger network of the London tramway with a total length of 21.6 kilometers.
history
The London Street Tramways were licensed on August 10, 1870, the day after the British Tram Act was passed . The concession included the construction and operation of horse-drawn trams on Hampstead Road, Camden High Street and Camden Road to Holloway Road and a stretch from Kentish Town Station through Great College Street (now Royal College Street) to King's Cross Station . The two routes intersected at the "Eagle", the intersection of Camden Road / Great College Street. They were opened until October 1872.
In 1871 the concession was extended to include numerous routes. The network planned at that time would have stretched from Holloway in the north to Borough in the south and from Kensington and Westminster in the west to London Bridge in the east, thus providing almost complete access to what was then the northern part of the city. However, the concession expired due to a lack of money for the construction. Only the extension from Kentish Town to Highgate was built in 1874. Later concession extensions only affected routes in these areas and in Hampstead. In 1878 a line went into operation on Caledonian Road, Hampstead was reached in 1880 and Islington in 1883. In the years 1886 to 1889, additional extensive new lines went into operation, especially in Camden and in the northern inner city.
In detail, the LST routes were opened as follows:
| date | route |
|---|---|
| November 27, 1871 | Hampstead Road / Euston Road - Hampstead Road - Camden High Street - Mother Redcap (Camden High Street / Camden Road) - Camden Road - Eagle - Great College Street - Kentish Town Road - Kentish Town Railway Station |
| January 29, 1872 | "Eagle" - Camden Road - "Brecknock Arms" (Camden Road / Brecknock Road) |
| March 21, 1872 | King's Cross Station - Pentonville Road - Euston Road - Pancras Road - Great College Street - "Eagle" |
| October 1, 1872 | Brecknock Arms - Camden Road - Parkhurst Road - Holloway, "Nag's Head" (Holloway Road / Parkhurst Road) |
| April 23, 1874 | Kentish Town Station - Kentish Town Road - Fortess Road - "Boston Arms" (Fortess Road / Brecknock Road) |
| May 28, 1874 | Boston Arms - Junction Road - Highgate, Archway Tavern (Holloway Road / Junction Road) |
| September 28, 1878 | King's Cross Station - Pentonville Road - Caledonian Road - Caledonian Road / Camden Road |
| May 10, 1880 | Kentish Town Road / Prince of Wales Road - Prince of Wales Road - Malden Road - Southampton Road - Hampstead, Circus Road (approximately at Kingsford Street) |
| June 25, 1883 | Pentonville Road / Caledonian Road - Pentonville Road - Islington, "Angel" (Pentonville Road / Islington High Street) |
| May 26, 1886 | "Mother Redcap" - Kentish Town Road - Kentish Town Road / Great College Street |
| June 17, 1886 | Southampton Road / Circus Road - Southampton Road - Fleet Road - Hampstead, South End Green (terminus in Fleet Road) |
| August 16, 1886 | Caledonian Road / Camden Road - Camden Road - Holloway Road / Camden Road (there connection to the North Metropolitan Tramways (NMT)) |
| December 16, 1886 | Pentonville Road / King's Cross Road - King's Cross Road - Farringdon Road - Farringdon Road / Clerkenwell Road |
| June 16, 1887 | Fortess Road / Highgate Road - Highgate Road - Parliament Hill Courts (Highgate Road / Swains Lane) |
| June 16, 1887 | short extension in Hampstead across the South End Green |
| September 28, 1887 | Mother Redcap - Camden High Street - Chalk Farm Road - Ferdinand Street - Malden Crescent - Malden Road / Prince of Wales Road |
| May 16, 1889 | King's Cross Station - Gray's Inn Road - Holborn, Gray's Inn Road / Theobald's Road |
From May 16, 1883 to August 14, 1888, a Mekarski type compressed air car drove on the Caledonian Road line. Although it proved its worth, it had failed to renew the operating license, which had only been granted for three months in 1883. It was not until 1887 that the supervisory authority noticed this and requested that a new permit be applied for, which was granted on February 14, 1888 for six months. Probably because of the high bureaucratic effort including a mandatory inspection by the supervisory authority, no further extension was applied for after this permit had expired and the car was decommissioned.
The line opened in 1886 in the southern Kentish Town Road from the "Mother Redcap" to the confluence with Great College Street was only in service for a short time. It became an operational line as early as 1887 and was later the only line in the LST network that was not to be electrified. However, even in the era of the electric tram, the track remained in the street for many years.
Also in 1886 a rail link to the neighboring NMT was opened and a community line ran from Finsbury Park station via Holloway and along Caledonian Road to King's Cross station. It was operated with LST vehicles. The line was discontinued around 1895 and it had to be changed again between the LST and the NMT. At the other four points of contact between the two route networks, track connections were not installed until 1898, after the LST was taken over by NMT.
According to the Tram Act of 1870, the London County Council was able to take over tram routes in the city and operate them under its own authority 21 years after the concession was granted. The first two routes came under this rule in 1891. However, since they formed the core of the network and the operation of the other routes would have been difficult and would have required a financially expensive back lease of the routes, the LST protested against the takeover and took legal action against it. The dispute dragged on until 1894. Eventually the House of Lords ruled the case for the city on July 30, 1894. The city was now allowed to buy the affected routes and operate or lease them itself. Since the city of London had no way of maintaining a tram service at that time, they initially let the LST continue to operate the routes. In January 1895, she put the routes out to public for lease. LST won the tender and leased the lines on August 1, 1895 for continued operation.
On January 27, 1897, the city bought the line to Highgate and also leased this line back to the LST. Finally, on May 27, 1897, NMT took over these leases retroactively to June 24, 1896 for 14 years. The remainder of the LST network was bought by NMT on October 14, 1897 and now operated as part of its network. The LST now only existed on paper and was only dissolved in 1906 when the London County Council terminated the leases with the NMT.
Vehicles and depots
The initially procured double-decker wagons were very similar to those of the other horse-drawn railroad companies in London. Until the network was taken over by NMT in 1897, the fleet had grown to 139 vehicles.
The LST operated seven depots in its network. In 1872 a depot was opened on Parkhurst Road as the first real depot of the railway. Until this facility was completed, the vehicles were temporarily stored at a location that has not been handed down. In 1874 a second depot was added on Junction Road. Another depot for the line on Caledonian Road was opened on Warlters Road in 1878. When the line to Hampstead opened in 1880, the fourth depot opened on Upper Park Road. Another depot was later built in Hampstead on Cressy Road, which then also served as the main workshop for the railway. At the terminus in Islington a depot was opened in 1883. Finally, a final depot was opened in York Street (now Lorenzo Street) in 1886, accessed from the King's Cross Road route.
Line network
The following lines were in operation on May 27, 1897:
| Line course | Body color | Number of cars | Cycle density (min) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clerkenwell , Farringdon Road - King's Cross - Caledonian Road - Holloway , Holloway Road / Camden Road | Light Blue | 7th | 9 |
| Holborn , Gray's Inn Road - King's Cross - Caledonian Road - Holloway , Holloway Road / Camden Road | red | 7th | 9 |
| King's Cross - Caledonian Road - Holloway , Holloway Road / Camden Road | ? | 5 | 6-11 |
| Euston Road , Hampstead Road - Camden Town - "Eagle" - Camden Road - Holloway , "Nag's Head" | green | 20th | 3-5 |
| Euston Road , Hampstead Road - Camden Town - "Eagle" - Kentish Town Station - Highgate , Archway Tavern | red | 23 | 3-6 |
| Holborn , Gray's Inn Road - King's Cross - Eagle - Kentish Town Train Station - Parliament Hill Fields , Swains Lane | yellow | 10 | 9 |
| Islington , "Angel" - King's Cross - "Eagle" - Prince of Wales Road - Hampstead Heath | blue | 13 | 5-6 |
| Islington , Angel - King's Cross - Eagle - Prince of Wales Road - Hampstead , Malden Road / Prince of Wales Road (afternoons only) | ? | 10 | 6-11 |
| Holborn , Gray's Inn Road - King's Cross - "Eagle" - Prince of Wales Road - Hampstead Heath | brown | 5 | 20th |
| Euston Road , Hampstead Road - Camden Town - Chalk Farm - Hampstead Heath | yellow | 13 | 5-7 |
The two lines from Islington to Malden Road / Prince of Wales Road and from King's Cross to Holloway were discontinued in the same year after the NMT took over operations and replaced by more frequent lines on the other lines.
literature
- ER Oakley: London County Council Tramways, Vol. 2 - North London . London Tramways History Group, Bexleyheath 1991, ISBN 0-9513001-1-3 (English).