Chapter IX.). It is authorised to report:--

(1) As to the measures which they deem most effectual for the improvement of the same (the street traffic) by the development and interconnection of railways and tramways on or below the surface, by increasing the facilities for other forms of mechanical locomotion, by better provision for the organisation and regulation of vehicular and pedestrian traffic or otherwise; and

(2) As to the desirability of establishing some authority or tribunal to which all schemes of railway or tramway construction of a local character should be referred, and the powers which it would be advisable to confer upon such a body.

THE L.C.C. AND REHOUSING

The tramway policy of the L.C.C. is so connected with the housing, or, rather, with the rehousing question, that although this book is purely on the subject of electrical traction, I cannot avoid making some reference to it.

For fifteen years, since, under the Local Government Act of 1888, the Council was constituted, it has slowly been winning the confidence of Londoners. Aggressive at first, it has relinquished the altruistic theories of youth, and it now realises the fact that it is a body of trustees acting not for one class only, but that it must administer its heritage in the interests of the community at large. Jealousy of its powers is dying out, and by comprehensive and energetic action it justifies itself as the one central privileged body able to deal with the highway, and with the housing problem of Modern Babylon.

One of its provinces, in fact its statutory obligation, is to provide new accommodation--not necessarily in the same locality--in place of all houses destroyed as unfit for human habitation. It also takes upon itself voluntarily (where no such legal obligation exists) in certain instances to provide for rehousing, and, wherever possible, this is effected in the same districts. But this cannot as a rule be done when rehousing is compulsory, and to meet the difficulty, estates have been acquired, and blocks of houses and cottages erected at Croydon, Wood Green, Brixton Hill, Holloway, Hammersmith, and other more or less suburban spots. The Model Dwellings built on the site of Millbank Prison, and inspected by the King and Queen on February 18th last, accommodate 4,500 men, women, and children. At Tooting, the L.C.C. scheme provides for 8,600 people; at Norbury, for 5,800; while at Tottenham there will be quite a new town of 40,000 artisan inhabitants.

Encouragement is given by the Council to the idea that working-men and women--since they cannot, in so many cases, live chock-a-block with their employment--should be provided with homes upon, or a little beyond, the Council’s boundaries, and be brought backwards and forwards by train, for the popular 1_d._ Being practical men, the Councillors know that any transference on a large scale of London factories to the country, however desirable, cannot be effected yet awhile. And even if they could acquire sites in the centres of industry, and erect gigantic lodging-houses, the cost would be prohibitive. They have to deal with the present necessity. Their ideal is probably the workshop as it exists in London, with the heads of firms at Belsize Park, Bayswater, and Dulwich, the clerks at Wandsworth, Chelsea, and Fulham, and the workmen at Tottenham, Wood Green, and Hammersmith.

On the other hand, figures quoted by Mr. Troupe, of the Home Office,[5] show to what a large extent it might be possible to relieve congestion by the removal of factories to the country. He said that there were 748 factories in London classified, in the following proportions, viz. 50 for machine-making, 30 for bread and biscuit-baking, 14 for cabinet-making, 11 for turning out fruit preserves, 16 breweries, 47 book-binding establishments, 72 printing houses (not including newspapers), and 19 saw-mills. In these 748 factories close upon 200,000 people were employed, representing with their families some 600,000 human beings, and if, following the recent example of the largest cabinet-makers in London, the bulk of these removed into the country, which they might do if suitable railway arrangements could be made, a considerable number of the 600,000 men, women, and children would be rehoused amidst “fresh woods and pastures new,” greatly to their benefit.

This is a dream at present, as factories cannot without great loss be summarily transferred from suitable urban quarters where water-frontages and locomotive facilities exist. They have grown up with, and in many cases created the district in which they are situated. Bermondsey has for years been the home of the leather trade, Lambeth of the pottery industry, and although Mr. Justice Grantham instances Doulton’s as an awful example of an uneconomical delinquent London manufactory--their clay in Dorsetshire, their coal in the Midlands, their salt in Cheshire, and their works on the banks of the Thames--it is no light matter to break with long business ties and take up with fresh ones, not so easy to leave the old love and take up with the new.

It will be granted, however, that Mr. William L. Magden was right when he maintained that “no manufacturer about to commence business at the present day would fix upon London as a suitable position. He would choose rather a district in which land was cheap, and in which he could obtain cheap power for his machinery and transport for his goods. He should not in future be limited to the colliery districts or to the main lines of railway. Light railways serving as feeders to the main lines, and the supply of electrical energy over large areas from main power stations, could provide for both these requirements, giving the manufacturer ample assurance that his works could be run cheaply, and that the raw material and manufactured products could be efficiently handled. By such means electrical science is capable of opening up thousands of square miles in England for manufacturing purposes, the native population of which has been languishing under the chronic complaint of agricultural depression.”

THE L.C.C.’S TRAMWAY SYSTEM

Whether, as regards tramways, the L.C.C. will be the central authority recommended by the Royal Commissioners, time will show; but meanwhile it has already established its tramway system, which can be seen at work in our midst. In order to understand it the more easily, it should be assumed that all the lines, including those of the London United Tramways Company, are in the hands of the Council, that they are more or less linked together, that powers for new lines have been granted, and that electrical traction in some form has been adopted throughout.

On studying a tramway map, one is struck by the fact that, starting from the central area of London, all the tram-lines meander towards the Council’s boundaries, where they will eventually no doubt join and interchange through traffic with the vast light railway or rural tramway systems of various companies in the direction of north and south, north-east, south-east, north-west, and south-west; but that “through” (or cross-country) communication from west to east, practically does not exist.

In the north-west there are huge areas of brick and mortar as destitute of tram-lines as Central Australia, so that anyone living in the Regent’s Park districts has to “train” it eastward, or, if he be bent on “tramming” it, has to go by an inconvenient and awkward route to Hackney or Bow.

Another notable feature of the map is that, although there are almost as many tramways on the south as on the north side of the river, there is no access from one to the other, the bridges being looked upon as sacred thoroughfares, along which tramcars--certainly not as unæsthetic as omnibuses, or waggons laden with vegetables--may not pass, although Westminster is the widest bridge in the world, 85 feet; Blackfriars, 80 feet; and Vauxhall and Lambeth will be equally wide, and broad enough to accommodate the trams without inconvenience.

At present the lines are painfully disunited, without starting-point or terminus. The gaps in the lines require to be filled up, and where this is impracticable, shallow underground tracks should be made use of. The great defect, however, would at once disappear if the lines could cross the Thames at Westminster and Blackfriars; but if this be persistently refused, light bridges or tubes ought to be specially provided at convenient points with four tracks for the use of tramways only.

The history of the London County Council’s work towards the improvement of metropolitan highways dates back to the early nineties, when the Council began to acquire tramway companies. A most important step was taken in 1897, when the whole of the lines and depôts belonging to the North Metropolitan and London Street Tramways Companies in the County of London were purchased, the purchase-money being £800,000. In 1899 the Council acquired the South London Tramways at a cost of £882,043, and still more recently the control of the South Eastern Metropolitan Tramways Company and the South London Company has been effected. Negotiations for other acquisitions are pending, and, as a matter of fact, there are now not a dozen miles of tramway lines within the county which the Council has not already purchased.

The North Metropolitan lines have been leased by the Council to the Company for fourteen years from 1896. The South London lines are worked directly by the Council, and in the year 1901-2 no fewer than 119,880,559 passengers were carried over the system, 53,639,489 being at halfpenny fares and 50,913,036 at penny ones. The traffic receipts for the year amounted to over £439,000, and the mileage run was over 10,000,000. About 4,500,000 workmen’s tickets were issued during the year.

Thus our metropolitan Councillors have, after due deliberation and much searching of hearts, launched a prodigious undertaking. Whether it will or will not prove too costly is another matter. Dr. Alexander B. W. Kennedy, their consulting engineer, in his report, said: “I hope, therefore, that the Committee will find themselves able to believe that the enterprise in which they are about to embark is one which will not only be for the benefit of Londoners generally, but one also which will pay its way, and on which, therefore, there would seem to be no reason for grudging such expenditure as to make the whole scheme one of a kind suitable for and worthy of the greatest city in the world.”

Not long ago the Council decided to adopt electrical traction on all their lines, involving an ultimate cost of £9,000,000 which will include the necessary generating stations, rolling-stock, purchase of smaller undertakings, and extensions. The result attained will be a splendid system, equivalent in length to two hundred miles of single track, though not larger than that of some big provincial cities. Wherever possible the system will be that of the conduit underground; more expensive than the trolley method, but in the crowded streets of London--where every inch of space is valuable--advantageous, and from a severely æsthetic point of view, preferable, because it dispenses with poles and wires. But on lines acquired by the Council where already exists the overhead principle, there will be no difficulty in arranging the cars so that they can be run from one system to the other, either with no stopping at all at the point of change, or with a delay of but a second or two. The cars, except the trucks, will be made in England by British firms, and are to be double-decked, double-bogied, and thirty-two feet long; they are to hold twenty-eight passengers inside, and forty-two on the roof, and will be in two compartments. They will resemble the Liverpool cars, described in Chapter XIII, and will be painted a chocolate colour. The speed will be a maximum of twelve miles an hour, with an average of about seven.

Supposing, therefore, that all the L.C.C. parliamentary Bills are carried through, and that all the disunited lines are properly and harmoniously linked together, and through communication established in every direction, it will be feasible to take some such day’s business journey within the Council’s boundaries as that of Benjamin Short which I am about to relate. But before doing so I think the very important decision of the Lord Chancellor in an appeal case, November 27th, 1902, on the subject of the maintenance of tramway tracks should be recorded:--

THE MAINTENANCE OF TRAMWAY TRACKS

On March 4th, 1900, Mr. Fitzgerald was driving a horse and Ralli car in Grafton Street, Dublin, when the horse stumbled and fell, and the respondent was flung out of the cart and sustained serious injuries. On the ground that the surface of the paving at the place where he was driving was unsafe for horses and in a condition which was a danger and annoyance to the ordinary traffic, he brought an action against the tramway company, and was awarded £1,000 damages, the jury holding that the part of the roadway for which the company was responsible was at the time slippery and unsafe, and that this was the cause of the horse falling. They, at the same time, found that the misfortune was not caused by the fabric of the pavement being improperly constructed or maintained.

The Lord Chancellor, at the conclusion of the arguments, moved that the appeal should be dismissed. The tramway company had been permitted the use of the public highway subject to certain obligations, which practically meant that while they were to use it they must take care that the safety and convenience of the public were consulted. They were not to have a monopoly of the highway, and it was their duty to take care of the public convenience in respect to that part of the roadway over which they were permitted to exercise a kind of subordinate dominion. It was not denied that the surface of the roadway became, in certain states of the weather, a danger and a nuisance to the public, and it was a strong contention to say that, having received instructions from the road authority to do that which would have prevented the accident, there should be no liability upon them. The obligation, as he read the statute, was to keep the pavement in a fit and proper condition for public traffic. How that was to be done was a question of mechanical engineering, and neither the Legislature nor the Court was called upon to enter into the question as to how it could best be done. All the judges without exception seemed to agree that the best and most proper mode of doing it was to do what the road authority directed them to do, and that they had deliberately disobeyed.

A BUSINESS JOURNEY BY L.C.C. TRAMS

Benjamin Short was born and brought up in London, and if any man living knew its ins and outs he did. He was a jovial-looking little man, always called Ben, for, said his father, “We christened him Benjamin for long, but as he grew so slowly, we called him Ben for short; for _short_ he is, and short he always will be--except of cash!”

Short the elder was a small tobacconist in the days when the fragrant weed was first put up and sold in packets--a paying idea, as he soon discovered--and to effectually put it into practice, he used a fast-trotting mare and a roomy, comfortable trap.

Ben, as he grew up, was allowed to accompany his father on these journeys, and having abundant powers of observation and natural quickness, he came to know more about Greater London than most men of double his age. He was cut out for a commercial traveller’s career, and a traveller, in due course, he became, inheriting from his father a snug bit of capital.

At the time of which I am writing, Ben lived at Stamford Hill, close to the London County Council boundary, in a well-built house with a bit of land at the back, in which he had invested his inheritance. He called it “The Watchmaker’s Rest,” and it faced the tramway line. Its front garden was the envy and admiration of the neighbours. There appeared in their season the choicest bulbous flowers, lovely annuals, herbaceous plants, chrysanthemums, and asters, all of irreproachable quality, for Short, being a sober and steady man, devoted his spare time to horticulture, at which he was an adept.

Ben Short travelled for a large wholesale firm of watchmakers and jewellers in Clerkenwell, whose ware-house was not far from the junction of Goswell Road and Old Street. Thither Short went to business every day at eight o’clock from Stamford Hill, not by a Tube (“Toob” he called it), but by the tram which passed his door. He was a first-rate salesman, working on salary and commission, as active and enduring as a bee, but as no travelling expenses within the London district were allowed him, he had to get about as cheaply as possible.

Hitherto he had been in the habit of working a single section of town until it was exhausted, and then taking up another. But one July morning the head of the firm asked him if he could vary the plan and take the pick of several districts in one day as an experiment. This was done to test Short’s capacity as against that of an English-speaking German traveller, a protégé of his partner, who had already tried his best by train and ’bus to cover a large area in one day, but had blundered over the job. Ben Short, who had noticed a “foreigner” hanging about the place a good deal, drew his own conclusions therefrom, and promptly acquiesced in the proposition, and replied that he was quite willing to show how much could be done in twelve hours by one who knew his London well and how best to make use of its locomotive facilities. Ben intended to make a record!

To save time he took home with him from the sample-room his bag, an inconspicuous, well-worn old companion. It was easily carried, as the contents, though valuable, were light. Next morning at 7.30 to the minute he was at breakfast, clean as a new pin, thoroughly well groomed, a man of peace, but if you had put your hand into the side pocket of his coat you would have found a smooth ivory handle, suspiciously like that of a neat six-shooter--in case of accidents! At eight o’clock he was in a comfortable electric tram bound on his first stage to far-off Hammersmith.

The route was _viâ_ Stamford Hill, High Street, Stoke Newington Road, and Kingsland Road, and, branching off at Hackney Road, by way of Old Street and Clerkenwell Road, to the western end of Theobald’s Road. Thence, a long stretch by way of Hart Street, Bloomsbury, along part of New Oxford Street, into Oxford Street, past the Marble Arch, along the Uxbridge Road, past Notting Hill Gate, and down the beautifully paved, broad incline towards Shepherd’s Bush, then to the left through Brook Green, and so to the Broadway, Hammersmith--one of the most interesting rides in London, and but recently added to the London County Council system, after tremendous agitation and opposition on the part of the “Tube” and others, but absolutely necessary to complete the linking of other and disjointed sections.

Here, at Hammersmith, Ben Short transacted some very satisfactory business in King Street. It was early; his “clients” had just finished their breakfasts, their shops had been but a few minutes opened, and they had leisure to attend to his persuasive arguments. He was a favourite wherever he went, and as he carried exactly the kind of goods to attract, he quickly booked orders and was free to proceed.

On board once more, at good speed Ben was rolled along Fulham Road, leaving on the right the big convent jealously guarded by high walls, which made Ben fall to wondering how any sane young woman could voluntarily cut herself off from a world about which she probably knew practically nothing. On went the tram, past the big buildings of the Fulham Workhouse, past the entrance to Fulham Palace and the Bishop’s Park, along the widened High Street of Fulham, over Putney Bridge, and by way of Putney Bridge Road and West Hill, Wandsworth (a new route), to Lower Tooting--altogether a pleasant trip at that time of the year, for gardens, at which he critically and eagerly gazed, greeted Ben in every direction.

Wasting no time, Short called upon all the most likely customers, and again he was in luck, for whether they wanted watches and jewellery or not, orders were booked.

Now the energetic little man had to get to the “Elephant and Castle.” Along the Balham Hill Road, with its pleasant shops and lively pedestrians, was plain sailing enough, past umbrageous Clapham Common on the left, edged with sedate and comfortable mansions recalling the old days when prosperous Evangelicism dwelt exclusively in Clapham; then by way of Clapham Road and Kennington Park Road to the far-famed “Elephant and Castle.” Here a less sharp-witted man than Short might well be bewildered by the wonderful concentration of tram lines converging from Walworth Road, New Kent Road, Newington Causeway, London Road, St. George’s Road, and the road he had come by. Here, if anywhere, as at the Mansion House, well-arranged passenger subways are needed.

Our “commercial” did much business round about, for it was one of his best districts for cheap goods, and then he thought it was time to refresh the inner man. In a neighbouring cool, clean little crib--“a close borough of his own,” he called it--he rested, and made intimate acquaintance with a noble piece of silver-side, some crisp lettuces, and any amount of piccalilli--he was a lover of cold meat and pickles--but, in accordance with a rule he never broke in business hours, he restricted himself to coffee as a beverage.

Short, braced up by his luncheon, was now ready to set out for the wilds of Plumstead--a somewhat long journey. He started by train from the “Elephant and Castle” _viâ_ the New and the Old Kent Roads, New Cross Road, Greenwich Road, Trafalgar Road, Greenwich and Woolwich Lower Roads to Woolwich, and by the Plumstead Road to Plumstead itself. He worked the two districts together, but his luck had deserted him, and orders were fewer and farther between than he altogether liked; but he was not going to “chuck the thing up” yet. He would do a bit of the East End, and thus complete the circuit of London.

He took the same route back from Plumstead as far as Blackwall Lane, then _viâ_ the Blackwall Tunnel to East India Dock Road, Burdett Road, and Mile End Road to its junction with Cambridge Road. In this neighbourhood he did his only extensive bit of walking. The district, though poor, was large, and he did a fair amount of business, but as time was getting on he decided to return home; so by Cambridge Road, along Cambridge Heath, Mare Street, Lower and Upper Clapton Roads, he got back to Stamford Hill, and was put down almost at his own house.

He had travelled by electric tramway some fifty miles at a cost of about 2_s._ 1_d._ (or a halfpenny a mile). He had done a lot of business, and had been absent just twelve hours!

In the bosom of his family he found ample compensation for his exertions. A hearty welcome and a savoury supper, accompanied by something that was _not_ coffee, awaited him, and the following day the firm received him with acclamation. The Teuton was not “in it,” and Ben Short reigned supreme as its chief and highly appreciated traveller.

LONDON UNITED TRAMWAYS COMPANY

Want of space forbids more than the mere mention of the South Metropolitan and the London Southern, the Woolwich and South Eastern, the West Ham, and the Northern Middlesex Tramways. But this chapter would be incomplete without some reference to the useful and popular organisation, the London United Tramways Company, that takes up the running at the London County Council’s boundary.

Forty million passengers were conveyed last year over its original route of twenty-two miles, extending from Shepherds Bush and Hammersmith to Southall, Hounslow, and Twickenham. In one week alone over a million were carried.

Last April an important extension was inaugurated from Twickenham, which brought the trams through Teddington and Hampton Wick right to the gates of

Hampton Court Palace, and from Richmond Bridge to Hampton Court. In the near future these extensions will be connected with new lines running to Uxbridge, Thames Ditton, Surbiton, Hook, Kingston, New Malden, Wimbledon, and Tooting; while eventually these western and southern tracks will, by the system of tubes, rejuvenated underground railways, and the L.C.C.’s electric tramways, be joined to those of northern and eastern London. In three years’ time, when its extensions are completed, the London United will have 100 miles of tram lines in operation.

The gauge is the standard 4 feet 8½ inches. Throughout the route the overhead trolley system has been adopted. At Chiswick is the power house, and the mains convey the electricity to sub-stations, six miles apart, where rotary converters change the alternating into direct current, and transform down the high voltage of 5,000 into the Board of Trade limit of 500. In the fine boiler-room T. and T. Vicars’ automatic stokers are used, and very interesting it is to watch the machines continually pushing small charges of coal into the furnaces without any direct human agency.

Mounted on two four-wheeled bogie trucks, with two 25 horse-power motors, the handsome cars seat thirty-nine passengers outside and thirty inside. On the Sunday after the opening of the extension no fewer than 200,000 people journeyed from Hammersmith, Shepherd’s Bush, and Richmond, to Kew, Twickenham, Teddington, and Hampton Court; and on Whit Monday, 1903, the number reached 400,000, thus establishing a record. So great was the rush during some part of those days that a two minutes’ service of cars had to be provided.

The extension from Twickenham to Hampton Court was opened by Mr. C. T. Yerkes, the Chairman, and author of the happy alliance of train, tube, and tram, which may possibly enable many toilers in the East End to live in the country. At the least, it will give them the chance, when possessed of a little leisure and a few pence, to quickly exchange their sordid environment for one of the numerous sylvan spots which surround London, especially in the west.

Alluding to this, Mr. C. T. Yerkes, at the inauguration, significantly remarked that it was a strange fact that London was particularly behind in transportation, being the most backward of all cities. Though during the last twenty years in London, 900 miles of streets had been made, and 340,000 houses had been built, it was only within the past few years that intramural transportation had been even spoken of. The London United Tramway Company, he said, expected to join very intimately with the Metropolitan District, forming a continuous line to Hampton Court from the City; and they anticipated connecting with the Great Northern, Brompton, and Piccadilly Circus Railway. People would be carried very cheaply, and when the District was electrified the mileage rates would be abolished in favour of uniform fares, which were far the best. Poor people who were living in an unenviable condition should have the chance of getting into the country.

On the much-debated question of American capital and American enterprise in Great Britain,[6] Mr. Speyer spoke no less to the point. He said that those who undertook to provide the metropolis with an up-to-date system of locomotion should be encouraged, for they performed a task that should have been done twenty years ago. English capital had had every opportunity of investment in underground lines, and if only half of the five millions had been subscribed in this country it was not the fault of the promoters. They would have preferred that the Underground Company should have English shareholders only, but unfortunately they had had to allot half of the shares of the Company to Americans and foreigners. One would have thought, he said, that there would have been more keenness in London to build its own underground railways, which would so materially add to the well-being of the masses. If either of the proposed lines were situated in South Africa, Australia, or Klondyke, London investors would have been tumbling over each other to subscribe. But the fault of these lines was that they were at our own doors. It was a fact, incredible though it might seem, that the richest city in the world did not appear able or willing to provide the funds for what was really a public necessity--_quicker transit_. So let them hear nothing more of American invasion, if people here stood with folded arms and allowed others to do the work which they ought to have done themselves; for while they persisted in this _non possumus_ attitude, no one could blame the Company if they went elsewhere.