London United Tramways Company Limited was an operator of trams and trolleybuses in the western and southern suburbs of London, UK, from 1894 to 1933, when it passed to the

London Passenger Transport Board The London Passenger Transport Board was the organisation responsible for local public transport in London and its environs from 1933 to 1948. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and brand was Lond ...

Origins

The company was formed in 1894 by the Imperial Tramways Company under the leadership of

George White George White may refer to: Politicians * George White (died 1584) (c. 1530–1584), MP for Liverpool * George White (Liberal politician) (1840–1912), British Liberal member of parliament, 1900–1912 * George E. White (politician) (1848–1935), ...

and Clifton Robinson to take over the assets of the West Metropolitan Tramways Company, which had gone into receivership and had operated a horse-drawn tram service from Shepherd's Bush to Acton and Chiswick, and from Hammersmith to the north side of

Kew Bridge Kew Bridge is a wide-span bridge over the Tideway (upper estuary of the Thames) linking the London Boroughs of Richmond upon Thames and Hounslow. The present bridge, which was opened in 1903 as King Edward VII Bridge by King Edward VII and Quee ...

via Chiswick. A short route ran from the south side of Kew Bridge to Richmond.

Electrification

LUT relaid the existing track, which was in a poor state of repair, and extended and electrified the system. Electric trams first ran on three routes on 4 April 1901 between Hammersmith and Kew Bridge, between Shepherd's Bush and Kew Bridge (via Chiswick), and between Shepherd's Bush and Acton, London's first electric tram service.

Richmond branch

Trams never ran across Kew Bridge – the second (stone) bridge, built in the 1780s, was far too narrow, and very steep on the approach from Brentford – which meant that there was an isolated length of single track of 1.53 miles, with passing loops, from the south side of the bridge, across

Kew Green Kew Green is a large open space in Kew in west London. Owned by the Crown Estate, it is leased to the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is roughly triangular in shape, and its open grassland, framed with broadleaf trees, extends to abo ...

, then south along the Kew Road to the Orange Tree public house in Richmond. LUT made repeated attempts to cross Kew Bridge after it was rebuilt in 1903 but these continued to be resisted by the Richmond Corporation Tramways Committee. Kew Road residents opposed two attempts in 1897 and 1898 to install a second track – which would have necessitated road widening – and any subsequent electrification using unsightly overhead wires seemed out of the question, locals favouring the underground

conduit Conduit may refer to: Engineering systems * Conduit (fluid conveyance), a pipe suitable for carrying either open-channel or pressurized liquids * Electrical conduit, a protective cover, tube or piping system for electric cables * Conduit curre ...

system.

Kew Observatory The King's Observatory (called for many years the Kew Observatory) is a Grade I listed building in Richmond, London. Now a private dwelling, it formerly housed an astronomical and terrestrial magnetic observatory founded by King George III. T ...

had concerns about the introduction of electric trams. So whilst the rest of London went electric, this little branch continued to use horse-drawn cars until well into the twentieth century – the interiors had red velvet seat cushions and were described as "comfortable, if not luxurious", and ran every quarter-hour (the full "end to end" journey costing 2d) – until 20 April 1912 after which it was replaced by part of a London General ( LGOC) motor-bus route. Richmond's tram-shed still exists as the former RACC Shaftesbury Centre in Kew Road, now part of The Falcons School for Boys, just north of the

A316 The A316, known in parts as the Great Chertsey Road, is a major road in England, which runs from the A315 Chiswick High Road, Turnham Green, Chiswick to join head-on the M3 motorway at Sunbury-on-Thames. Its initial London section Chiswick L ...

Extensions to the system

*1901: Chiswick to Brentford and

Hounslow Hounslow () is a large suburban district of West London, west-southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hounslow, and is identified in the London Plan as one of the 12 metropolitan centres in ...

, Acton to Ealing,

Southall Southall () is a large suburban county of West London, England, part of the London Borough of Ealing and is one of its seven major towns. It is situated west of Charing Cross and had a population of 69,857 as of 2011. It is generally divided ...

and Uxbridge *1902: Hounslow to Hounslow Heath, Brentford to Richmond and Twickenham. *1903: Twickenham to

Hampton Hampton may refer to: Places Australia *Hampton bioregion, an IBRA biogeographic region in Western Australia *Hampton, New South Wales *Hampton, Queensland, a town in the Toowoomba Region * Hampton, Victoria Canada * Hampton, New Brunswick *Ha ...

, Hampton Court, East Twickenham (just west of Richmond Bridge) and

Teddington Teddington is a suburb in south-west London in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. In 2021, Teddington was named as the best place to live in London by ''The Sunday Times''. Historically in Middlesex, Teddington is situated on a long me ...

. *1906: Richmond Bridge to Ham Common, Long Ditton, Malden,

Richmond Park Richmond Park, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, is the largest of London's Royal Parks, and is of national and international importance for wildlife conservation. It was created by Charles I in the 17th century as a deer park ...

Gates, Surbiton and

Tolworth Tolworth is a suburban area in the Surbiton district, Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, Greater London. It is southwest of Charing Cross. Neighbouring places include Long Ditton, New Malden, Kingston, Surbiton, Berrylands, Hinchley Wood, ...

. *1907: Malden to Raynes Park and Wimbledon. The LUT system was connected to the London County Council tram network at Hammersmith in 1908, Tooting in 1922 and Wandsworth in 1931; and to the Metropolitan Electric Tramways (MET) at Acton in 1909.

The LUT Company

The company's headquarters, depot and power station were in Chiswick. On 1 January 1913, LUT became a subsidiary of the

London and Suburban Traction Company London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

(LSTC), jointly owned by the Underground Group and

British Electric Traction British Electric Traction Company Limited, renamed BET plc in 1985, was a large British industrial conglomerate. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but was acquired by Rentokil in 1996, and the merged company is now known as Rento ...

. LSTC also owned the other two tramway companies in the London area, Metropolitan Electric Tramways and South Metropolitan Electric Tramways. In 1930, the London United Tramways Act was passed. This gave it powers to replace loss-making tram routes with trolleybuses. London's first trolleybus service started on LUT's Twickenham to Teddington section on 16 May 1931 and then to Wimbledon, working from Fulwell Garage. These first trolleybuses, nicknamed "Diddlers", which lasted until replaced in 1948, bore a striking frontal resemblance to the 'Feltham' trams, also built around this period. On takeover by the LPTB on 1 July 1933, London United had approximately 29 miles of tram track, 18 of trolleybus route.

Preservation

Only one LUT tramcar survives to the present day: no. 159, which has been restored to original condition and operates at the

National Tramway Museum The National Tramway Museum (trading as Crich Tramway Village) is a tram museum located at Crich (), Derbyshire, England. The museum contains over 60 (mainly British) trams built between 1873 and 1982 and is set within a recreated period vil ...

Crich Crich is a village in the English county of Derbyshire. The population at the 2001 Census was 2,821, increasing to 2,898 at the 2011 Census (including Fritchley and Whatstandwell). It has the National Tramway Museum inside the Crich Tramway V ...

, Derbyshire.

References

Sources

*''London's Trams and Trolleybuses'', John R. Day, published by London Transport in 1979 *''The History of British Bus Services'', Second Edition, John Hibbs, Newton Abbot, 1979 *''The London United Tramways – Origins to 1912'', Volume One, C.S. Smeeton, LRTA & TLRS, 1994 *''A Scientific Workshop Threatened by Applied Science: Kew Observatory to Be Removed Owing to the Disturbance Caused by Electric Traction'', The Illustrated London News, 8 August 1903

External links

LUT Car 135 at Shepherd's BushLondon's Transport History 1901-1913, LT MuseumHistory of LUT Fulwell Depot (Twickenham Museum website)The Maidenhead Story article on Chiswick's Trams
* ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNfqXL_0usg/Video - London's Diddler Trolleybus in Action {{Historic UK Trams Trams in London Trolleybus transport in the United Kingdom