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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Clearing out old paperwork, I came across this print, which I must have either bought or more likely been given as a barely-teenager (the 10s selling price was quite a lot of pocket money in 1965!).

Looking at it again for the first time in decades, I noticed the 'high class varieties" on offer at the Wood Green Empire, and I presume from its number that this route was simply replaced by buses at some later point (maybe 1952 when the last London trams ran).

I'm also amused that the original drawing is credited to "Vernon E Prescott-Pickup Esq"; you got a good class of artist even in the 60s....

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A very high-tech tram, it's got a VHF aerial.

Wi-fi at every seat perhaps? No reception problems with the open top.

The location given on all of them, Gerry, is Acton Town.

Thanks to John, below, we now know that the 'location' on the image record is the storage location rather than the photo location. So, as John has said, yes, these images are of Wood Green (see my comment below)

Tram route 29 was originally an LCC (London County Council) route from Tottenham Court Road to Finsbury Park. It combined with an MET (Metropolitan Electric Tramways) route in 1912 to run from Tottenham Court Road to Enfield. It was replaced by trolleybus 629 in 1938 which lasted until 1961. Coincidentally there was also a 29 bus which ran from Victoria to Southgate and beyond and in 1977 this was diverted to Enfield and became the eventual replacement for the 29 tram. Subsequently the 29 was split leaving it to run from Victoria (now Trafalgar Square) to Wood Green and being replaced by the 329 from Turnpike Lane to Enfield.

The location the photograph was taken is Wood Green Tram Depot. Before it was reconstructed for trolleybuses in 1937 the tramshed was set back from Jolly Butcher's Hill with an open space in front. What is misleading is that the place the photograph itself is kept is at Acton Depot, the outlying store for the London Transport Museum. Everything not on show at Covent Garden is stored there, including archive photographs and posters, and public open days are held periodically. From the mid-1960s Prescott-Pickup were active in selling high-quality transport prints that could be stuck in albums. The enterprise, I believe, started with trams and the product was called 'Tramcyclopedia'. Roger Elliott, named on the print, was a noted maker of highly-detailed model trams.

Which is “the photograph” you’re referring to?

Sorry, I should have made that clearer. The photo copied for the print is LTM reference number 1999/8313, but 1999/20591 and 1999/10175 were also taken at Wood Green Depot.

Thanks John. For ease of Viewing, I'm adding those two images, below.

The first, I'm pretty sure now was shot from the tram yard across Jolly Butchrs Hill to the shops on the east side of the road.

This second photo was also taken in the tram yard looking towards the tramsheds.

This 1915 Ordnance Survey map extract helps with the geography.

The following two photos are already on HoL. The bell-tower is visible in both. In the first, it's towards the right of the image. In the second, it's towards the left, behind the tram.

I've just dug out and posted three more images that might help. The first is looking north up Jolly Butcher's Hill. The tram depot entrance is on the left, just as the buildings get lower.

 

The next photo shows the North Met tramway frontage and entrance on Jolly Butcher's Hill in 1910.

The last one shows the tram depot yard, shot from Jolly Butcher's Hill in 1929.

Hugh and others - thanks for the images and detail; I had no idea my loft investigation would lead to a whole local history thread.

On a related but different point, I was always sorry that Ken Livingstone's proposal for two new central London tram routes (Camden to Waterloo and beyond, and the West End to Ealing Broadway, I think) came to nothing. It would obviously be very hard to reinstall tram tracks on narrower London roads, but these routes seemed possible, given the relative width and straightness of the suggested routes.

Now there's a thing.... I used the 29 for years from the 50s on but never knew it had ever been a TRAM route! Thank you!

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