London trams 1952

[Music] um [Music] it was one day not long ago london had to say goodbye to her last tram sometime someday it had to come and some people were glad to see the back of them and some of us were sorry they were going for we'd be missing a site as friendly as a pressure steamer though not quite so silent [Music] one last week to clatter through the streets streets that will never be the same now the tram is gone now all the paraphernalia that was only theirs is in the attic those stops for the change from the middle rail to the overheads where the conductor aimed the arm and got it up first time most times a hundred yards away the plummet on their own little island out would shoot the plow for the trams going the other way under it would go the fork to help it slide in down would come the arm and the change was complete and that's how it was every day give and take like an old married couple the drivers conductors the department and linesman and the plumbing and the pointsman share with some of us an affection for the old ladies we'll remember the rattle and the clang and the sway and how snug it was to be inside when it was raining outside it's a funny thing really but the trams and the rain and the streets of south london all seem to belong together not that anyone likes getting wet not that now the trams have gone the weather will be brighter it's just that they belong together and to see them going by those corners that haven't been built on since the bombing now they seem a long way off now those days of the blitz that sound of the first morning tram used to be a comfort all right then you'd hit it long before they all clear sometimes and the people who welcome the tram then and miss the most how they are gone are the cockneys they'll remember the shilling all day and what a lovely ride it was right round london and underneath before that is the kingsway tunnel was closed oh the trams were theirs all right and 50 years ago they even used to sing about them in the musical [Music] the sea so so small and there's not much to pay you sit close together and spoon all the way and many of this will be misses someday through riding on top of the car we climb on the car when the journey begins and we make for the first vacant seat for all other people we don't care to pin so long as their comfort's complete and when the conductor comes up for the fails he punches our tickets then goes but gives us a wink as he pops down the stairs like an overgrown cupid in clouds [Music] someday through riding on top of the car we get to the end of the journey all right or at least to the end of the track but while all the others prepare to alight we remain on the car and go back and when we get married now boys is a tip that ought to be useful to you we shan't spend too much on the honeymoon trip for we've made up our minds what to [Music] do [Music] [Music] through riding on top of [Applause] [Music] this is their last but one night 24 hours from now the tram would be dead and when the daylight of that last day came the old trams were blinking in the sun and standing like mourners at their own funerals they weren't to know that londoners were that night going to give them a send-off the american president might envy in the day though the children were having their money's worth the tram spotters turned out to the last man backwards and forwards round and round they were riding just to get as many numbers as they possibly could [Music] the motorist who every day cursed every time he had to stop cursed but little and looked forward to [Applause] tomorrow past the pawn brokers and through the street markets but now only for a few more hours and what was the tram driver thinking that man who stood with his back to us and whose face we probably never saw remembering and thinking thinking of the day after tomorrow when the trams will be picked clean of all their value and the shells sold to the scrappers who'll start the breaking up perhaps he's remembering the days before yesterday when the first tram ever appeared the stories his father used to tell or how he himself started as a conductor in 1910 punching tickets at night by the flickering light of an oil lamp it all started a long time ago and now it's the finish the way they burn them till there's nothing left but a charred skeleton you'd think they were afraid of ghosts ghosts of old trams running the rails at night oh well in 36 hours he'll be a bus driver and for the first time in 42 years he'll be sitting down [Applause] [Music] oh what a night that was london hung onto its last tram like a dog with an old boat and at new cross depot lord latham the chairman of london transport could only wait and wait until at last london let go said goodbye and allowed it into the depot for the triumphant and ceremonial very last run-in and the man who drove it in john cliff the deputy champion who 52 years ago started as a tram woman [Music] and so in the name of londoners and london transport i say goodbye old [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Music] [Applause] the party was over and londoners 20 000 of them somehow made their way home it was too early in the morning for the buses and the next tram had gone [Applause] you

Channel: Love London

Views: 6,764

Rating: 4.9663863 out of 5

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Id: GX1x0iGM9CY

Length: 10min 57sec (657 seconds)

Published: Wed May 06 2020