News / Transport
Remembering Bristol’s tram network
Bristol once possessed an extensive electric tramway network with routes radiating out from the centre to places like Westbury-upon-Trym, Brislington and Bedminster.
With a history that stretched almost to the dawn of the tramway age and with one of the earliest electric tramways in the country, Bristol was once at the forefront of the development of this type of transport.
“One of the oldest electric tramways in the country, dating back to October 1895, Bristol’s trams were increasingly anachronistic as modernisation elsewhere left them in a time-warp,” said Peter Waller, author of Lost Tramways of England: Bristol, which is published by Graffeg on October 16.
is needed now More than ever
“Despite this, they were to survive until the destruction wrought by the Luftwaffe in World War Two.”
Old Market was a key hub in Bristol’s tram network
There used to be more trams and pedestrians than cars on the Portway
Waller’s book also promises to provide an intimate glimpse into the social history of Bristol and life as it was lived from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries, a time of immense growth and change when travel by tram was commonplace.
As a result of enemy action, Bristol’s final trams operated on April 11 1941, but questions remain as to why buses were chosen to replace them and what options the city’s tram network provide us with in the present day.
A photo of a tram in Nottingham was also tantalisingly used in a recent tweet by Bristol City Council:
All photos courtesy of the Barry Cross Collection
To buy Lost Tramways of England: Bristol, visit www.graffeg.com/product/lost-tramways-bristol
Read more: 35 photos of Bristol’s former tram network
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