Brixton’s Long-Gone Cable Tram 

"There's a knock at the door. Its the rozzers." Truly spine-chilling narration Jago, I was at the edge of my seat for that sponsor

"Well that's ruined that ending." Please... never change Jago!

"it's the rozzers!"

This spells the end of the horse drawn zeppelin.

Jago who? I have never heard of Jago Hazzard? Nor have I watched any of Jago Hazzard's vast entertaining RU-vid Library! Officer

Only 4 years life expectancy for a horse that could easily live for 30 years. Shocking to hear these days.

Usual mix of informative and irreverent humor Keep up the ace work dear boy. !!!!!

Fascinating. Elsewhere in the world, trams are still being used. In Bochum and Essen they have even been taking the trams underground to "free" up the streets above. Allegedly, re-using old mine workings to provide some of the tunnels. In this country, we are now spending loadsamoney to re-introduce trams (albeit reusing old rail infrastructure in some places). Could have been so different. Instead, London is just as slow and congested today (even with congestion charge areas) as it was 100 years ago.

Not "I hope you enjoyed this GRIPPING tale?" These fancy sponsors are dulling your wit!

Thank you for this - I have lived in Brixton for 42 years this month, and never knew we had once had a cable-hauled tramway! I knew about the electric trams, of course, quite hard not to, but the cable one was news to me!

If you ever find your self in SF the cable house is free to go into and has a small museum. You can even go under street level and see the cables leaving the building.

As a local of Brixton, I'll give you a small fact: The tram lines at the Brixton Hill tram shed still extended right up to Brixton Hill itself as recent as the late 00's/early 2010's until it was paved over with the bricked section seen right outside the tram shed

A good subject; and yes, please let's have more tram videos. There were other cable trams in the UK as well. By far the biggest network (around 25 route miles at its greatest extent) was in Edinburgh, where the first cable route opened in 1888, and the last one to be electrified went in 1923. There are a few relics to be seen there including a short length of cable car track. The system worked quite well where the route was a simple end to end one, but things got complicated when there were junctions to negotiate.

The dummies self esteem gag. I'm still giggling.

Give the difficulty of tunneling south of the river I would have imagined that the tram system would have flourished. Presumably a well established rail network by this time reduced the need for trams long before the rise of the internal combustion engine.

5:23 "We're gonna rock down to Electric Avenue And then we'll take it higher..."

Trams are a great and easy way to use public transport. I lived in Melbourne for years and used the tram network all the time. I still find it extraordinary that so many cities got ride of the trams from the 60s onwards only to now reinstall them now. Love your London history vids. I lived in London for 7 years and the tube was such a great way to travel. The info you pass on about the underground fascinates me. Thank you from a POM that now lives on the other side of the world in Australia but still misses London. Please keep posting and I love your irreverent humour!

Another excellent video - I’m surprised there’s as much about considering the network was finally shut down 70 years ago... There were a number of other schemes recently in the pipeline if I remember. There was the cross river tram which I thought would have been excellent and then the mayor at the time, a Mr B Johnson (wonder what happened to him) cancelled it due to lack of funding; but then built a cable car 🤷‍♂️

Ha ha. You must be psychic Jago. Only yesterday I swear, I was wondering if you were going to do anything on the old London trams and whether I should mention it. And here you are, one day later, with a great video. My Dad took me on one of the last London trams in around 1950 or so. I vaguely remember it and recall it was VERY rattly. Thanks for the content and the memories.

Excellent video Jago as always. But minor point of correction, especially if you are going to do more on London's trams. You were just a year previous on the London's trams ending. It was in July 1952. Would be interesting perhaps to do something on the Kingsway Subway, a lot of which survives, including the totally untouched entrance near Covent Garden. Just a thought. Cheers

Tramways are the Anglo-Saxon huts of the infrastructure world just post holes and a few items left behind unlike the Romans and their stone buildings and flue and roof tiles. Spot who's been watching old episodes of Time Team recently?

The Glasgow Underground was cable operated when it opened in 1896 and the technology was reputed to have come from shifting coal in coal mines. There is a largely unseen relic of the London Trams, a buried cable duct network that supplied power to the electricity substations, a small part of it still used for fibre optic cables, etc.

from Fraser, husband of Leslie My father went to school from Putney to Wandsworth on the tram. It used overhead trolley-pick -up at Putney, but as Wandsworth approached, there was a "change pit" where the tram converted to conduit pick-up. This also used a conduit between the rails like the cable trams, but instead this contained two busbar-like rails one for +ve and one for -ve. At the change pit the tram took on a thing called a plough that picked up the electricity on the +ve rail and returned it via the -ve rail. There was a cafe there called the Change Pit Cafe, and even when the line was converted to trolleybuses in the 30s the name stayed the same. He also used to go out at weekends on the tram with a friend using the Shilling All Day ticket.

Light on infrastructure, and excepting the initial disruption, fairly quick and easy to build. Capable of providing an efficient, economical and environmentally sound service. We could build tramways on every mile of road 100 years ago, but now it's too difficult for all but a handful of British cities to achieve. Not exactly progress, is it?

Jago you are a genius, I usually skip through paid ad with silent grumps (and sometimes not so silent, ask my occasionally worried two cats and a dog) but you manage to make it fun, entertaining and witty... Hat off to you Sir!

Everything I know about London trams I learnt from The Goon Show episode 'The Last Tram From Clapham'. The driver of the last tram was called Norris Lurker.

Now then. I never knew that Highgate Hill had the first cable tram! Close to home as was. Now in exile in sunny York (who am I kidding?) I can walk to the site of the tram depot on Fulford Road. Conveniently sited opposite the Imphal Barracks so the soldiers could take a ride, but now a branch of Aldi - the tram depot not the barracks. The only remains I know about are the steel kerbs aside Skeldergate Bridge made from recycled tram rails. Room for one more on top?

When I lived in London I lived directly across the road from the Brixton Hill Depot. Thank you so much for posting this! Great memories!

See the Great Orme Tramway in Llandudno for the UK's only surviving cable tramway.

Keep up the good work fella and stay safe.

Odd bits of tram track survived well into the 70s., usually where the line ran on a bit of bundu next to the ra.Much of the line between The Green Man roundabout and Whipps Cross roundabout on Whipps Cross Rd. were still there in the 70s, but becoming buried by the passage of time. I'd heard that there was a saarf London, but before Jago we called it "the outer darkness"..... Thanks JH.

Thanks for that. I did wonder where this was going with the intro. But my fears were trampled on ( sorry )

Great see my old home of Brixton Hill, nostalgia has kicked in and I miss my old home. You even showed my old bus stop on an unremarkable stretch of the A23 Just before the depot on Christchurch Road. I knew some of the history of the trams but have learnt a lot, I even remember looking down at the manhole covers and wondering what they were for (this was before I could read). Who knew the church in oval was a tram depot. Thank you. Love your work but this one is very special to me.

I can’t believe I never figured out why ‘electric’ naming was used. I’m amazed sometimes at how things like that pass me by! You’re thoroughly educating me every week! More trams please and all the other wonderful stuff too!

Trams , fantastic My dad and my uncle told me a lot about them and yes it’s amazing how many old buildings and pieces of infrastructure are still around Even some of the electrify poles still exist in situ but fulfilling a different purpose There’s a tram garage around the corner from me but only a very few people would know that’s what it used to be In Sutton I’d be really interested in this as it’s not mentioned much Considering the modern tram networks that exist today it’s a lovely comparison and questions why did we get rid them back then? There’s trams all over the world, so were they really that bad?😊

A leisurely breakfast accompanied by a new JagoHazzard video... another great start to Sunday! 👍 I didn't know that London used to have cable cars / cable pulled trams - every day is a school day. Thanks! 🤓

Excellent. Been waiting for this! There'd been a hint that a cable car video was on its way and I had had a quick google and discovered that there had been at least a couple of London cable routes and thought Perfek!, can't wait, but did and it was well worth it. Yep- get into trams. Well worth an explore! There's all this middle conduit +ve feed stuff between the rails that horses and people were not advised to pee into. I think the problem of the issue (er...) was that overhead cables looked ugly. But wasn't there normal overhead too in London? Anyway, that's why Edinburgh had a very large cable car network, the largest in the UK, what with all the hills, exhausted horses and proud city fathers a bit up themselves, yet pragmatic places like the town and port of Leith on the shore at the bottom of all the hills, where the sea is, went straight from horses to electric trams that could zip along at any speed they felt like. However, people had to change to cable trams half way up Leith Walk at the town & city boundary. There were some quite unique scenarios due to cable cars. One was the noise of the gubbings in the street, especially at quiet times. People tuned it out subconsciously and were that used to it that they were somewhat surprised to find themselves mildly disorientated when it ceased in 1923. Another was kids' amusement at sticking things in the slot and watching it go wheee! down the road- a stick with something round in front, balanced across the slot- a mechanised gird and cleek- could get up a fair old whack and had no brakes, thus causing miles of internet free larks. Then there was the story of the drunk- probably apocryphal - with a walking stick getting himself led down the road, home, but he stuck his stick in the wrong slot and ended up at the wrong stop in the wrong direction. At the terminus, cable trams stopped in the exact middle of the road. They had to. Both lines, up and down, converged via a set of Y- points to a short single track because there was no way of reversing the cable car except by grabbing the cable when it went round a pulley wheel and came back in the opposite direction.

Hah! By 1885, here in Melbourne, (Oz) we had cable trams running at 13mph... And we still have The Biggest tram network In the World. "The Cable to my Hill" I like that... 😘

Thanks for the video.. More on trams please! There are a lot of remains about, In many places the rails were just covered in tarmac - least cost option. Any road works expose the rails and concrete base.

Genuinely happy to see you’ve got some promotion Jago! I love your videos, so it’s good to see you get some recognition.

well done on 100k jago keep it up

Yesterday was my birthday and we’ve had two Jago videos this weekend. It’s truly a good birthday.

Another great video. I look forward to pointing out all the old tram manholes to mates the next time I'm in Brixton.

well now I have the remnants of my memory playing Eddy Grant's ' Electric Avenue ' in my head. lol.

Uncoupling the horses and attaching a dummy every time you got to a hill must have been such a drag.

Living in the city that once had the worlds biggest cable tram network, it's interesting to see that London only ever had one short line. But Melbourne's last cable tram ran in 1940 and ever since we've only had those new-fangled electric trams.

:-) well! I’ve worked on antique trams for years, and found this video a welcome addition to my knowledge :-) well done - i assume no visuals survive of the old cable mechanism? Nice one!

I never saw the end of the tramways. When my mother and I went shopping we would walk along Uxbridge Road to Shepherd's Bush, surrounded by an astounding mix of traffic including errand boys on bicycles, all the way up to the bright-red LT omnibus. Tucked in there was my favourite mass-transport vehicle - the miraculous trolley-bus.

I live in Seattle, which had an extensive streetcar network up until the 1940s when the trackbeds were paved over, but on a few streets they used asphalt which left clues to where the tracks were, some of which are still visible to this day

Brilliant as ever, not something I ever thought to look into, but it's on the RADAR now.

About 100 years ago seattle used to have cable pulled trams. The Seattle road department still finds tracks and giant underground rooms with gargantuan pulleys to this day. Just 15 years ago they were digging an station for the light rail and found a huge room with a 2 meter diameter pulley and several hundred feet of cable and track going up a hill they did not even know had a tram. Lost records from a giant fire had lost all the records of where the trams went. Seattle just paved over the top of all it's coble stones and track as it was growing. At the beginning of summer they started putting up a new building a block from my house. When they broke ground in the street for utilities they found cobble stone, tracks and cable that they did not know they would have to deal with.

Sidebar: I had no idea that Bon Marché was such an old brand.

Please venture further East to Tramway Avenue in Stratford. I believe Tram lines are exposed in parts where the tarmac needs replacing.

100k will be well deserved. I think I've finally watched all your vids, every one is a gem. Even the Thomas The Tank Engine one. Actually, especially that one :)

A great topic Jago about the trams. Looking forward to more videos on the trams. I've a lot to learn.

Not long after Brixton's cable cars had got under way, there was an extensive cable-car network in Edinburgh. Unlike in Brixton, these didn't use the cable merely to assist the horses, but were fully cable-driven. The system was in operation throughout the city until the 1920s. You can still see some remnants of it. At Waterloo Place, a section of the duct that carried the cable is still visible. And part of the winding gear has been preserved at a building in Henderson Row which is at the site of the offices and works of the North Edinburgh Tramways Company. And, by the way, Andew Hallidie - of San Francisco cable-car fame - was I believe Scottish. He went to California for the gold rush, but realised he could make more money manufacturing equipment for the miners than he could by searching for gold. He set up a company to manufacture wire rope. It seems likely that he developed the concept of cable cars as a means of selling the rope and cables that he produced - at least, that's my theory.

Loved that thank you Because as a newly created Apprentice I used to leave Welling Kent(on the A2) to travel to Mitcham in Surrey(Midway between the A23 and the A24)not an easy journey But by help of a Suzuki product therefore negating the existence good ole' Route Masters I traversed most of the route you described and on a wet day on a lightweight motorbike could by the end of winter tell you exactly where those tracts lay ;-))

The Tram system in the London area was vast, and there are many remnants discovered by utility companies who dig the roads up and discover the tramlines still in the roads where they were just tarmaced over at the cessation of the tram system in 1952. The outer limits were worked on the overhead electrical system, whilst the inner central area was worked by an underground conduit system running centrally between the running rails. The electrical power to the trams was supplied by underground conductor rails, and picked up by a 'plough' engaged underneath the tram. There were 'change - over' pits at numerous transition points between the overhead and conduit system where the plough would be fitted under the tram as it arrived at the change over point, the roof mounted pick up lowered and the tram continued on. The conduit and changeover equipment are also found by utility companies trying to get to burst water mains, gas or electricity supplies, where their quest is often thwarted by discovering a ton of iron-work buried in the road! All fascinating stuff, and trams are the oft forgotten part of London's transport system and has an evolutionary history of its own, also including of course, the successor - the trolley bus which used a lot of the electrical overhead infrastructure. Never tire of these videos, there's always something new. 👍

My living experience with Trams, runs to 1950's. Where we had Trolley Buses. Dodn't take too long to lose that infrastructure.. then. Used to be an 'experience" to be remarkable. Running along Edgware Road...then

How wonderful to see the 'Crown & Sceptre' pub in shot this location along Brixton Hill to Streatham Hill is a part of my Balham Extension life Jago. Pity i was not about for the Tram Era i had left London before the Victoria Line had opened but many a walk up Palace Road to Hillside Avenue in the 60's. I do vaguely recall Tram/trolley bus going To Holloway road very early 1960 but could be wrong & its was another city!!! Another good Vlog Marc In Bletchley Towers G6XEG

Another fact filled program ! Many thanks , didn't no about the Highgate trams I'll look into that ! Catch you in the next gripping installment !

Haha, the ad at the beginning was brilliant!

Awesome....got to love trams, old school trams that is! 🤜🏻🤛🏻🍻

Double deckered trams with stairs on the outside wow

Watching your videos reduces my Anxiety, thankyou!

I never suspected that church on Brixton Road of being a tram station but now it seems blindingly obvious. Need to go and look again with fresh eyes. Thanks.

Thanks for the modern day location shots. My Grandmother used to live in Christchurch House, so the whole thing was a bit emotional for me!

Thanks Jago.

Within those junction boxes the old DC cables are still there. I work on the London Electricity distribution network and some of those cables are still in use to this day.

Please give us more on the trams of London. Also thanks for showing us images of two places I loved living in when I was in London, Streatham/Brixton and Highgate ! Nearly at 100,000 ! WOW !!!

Dog kennel hill south London had a cable in the central reservation. The tram going down pulled the one going up .The center island is still there.

The Surfshark promotion is the best I have seen to date.

this is probably gonna be jago's last video before he reaches 100k good luck!

Congrats on 100k🥳🥳

Fun fact as you go along Brixton road from Oval towards Brixton, the older buildings on the left have particularly long front gardens ,. This is because when they were built the River Effra flowed along the road side. It was about 6 ft wide and the ditch was about 6ft deep. Each house had its own little bridge . It was covered over in 1906 and explains whythe road was originally called the Washway due to the flooding that often occurred and still does after heavy rain . I'll get my coat......

The Trams in London sadden but fascinate me. I remember another Bus Station with Tram lines (perhaps Hornsea or Wood Green its 30+ year ago) and I have a postcard of the St Johns Church in Chipping Barnet with the "Tram Terminus" in front of it and in the middle of the road. It explains why the road is so wide at that point. Also I think there there was a Tram manufacturer in Lancaster Road, Barnet.

Congratulations on the 100,000

You are almost at 100k... Congrats 🍾

As always , pre like and get breakfast ready for the watch ! Thanks jago

I love trams old and new. 😊

Time to watch this and eat breakfast !

Loved the ending. Quite liked the start once the advert had been skipped, and the middle had its moments. All in all quite a nice video.

Real trams!!! Love it. ❤️

Excellent and very interesting. You may be interested to know, that as a child I remember Carshalton Road being resurfaced (as it went over the railway), and there below the tarmac were the old tram lines. Im assuming they are still there. All the best.

That would certainly be something, if the police showed up on my doorstep with a brass band.

Very much liked. Especially the Surfshark skit.

Pulling rail vehicles by cable goes back a very long way. In fact the system was looked at seriously by the Liverpool to Manchester Railway, when they were building it. But George Stephenson was totally opposed to it. He being a builder of Locomotives, as well as railway infrastructure. He called it at the time "The tyranny of cables". Although when the mainline railways made it to London at Euston. The gradient into the station is so steep, that a stationary engine & cable was used to pull trains out of the station & up the hill. I believe this was still used up to the early 20th century, when more powerful Locomotives were available.

Lovely video, as always, and you even made the sponsorship part entertaining. And you got all the relevant details off nice and swiftly, so that you could tell us about the trams. Nice one. One of my very favourite bits of London is the Kingsway Tram Tunnel, on Southampton Row. Will you be featuring this, in a future episode?

I'd often wondered what that building near Oval was (the one with the mosaic of Christ). It's a strange building that doesn't seem to relate to others in the near vicinity but the idea it could be an old tram shed fits nicely. Fascinating, thank you

Thanks again for researching out some south London content.

5:23 Eddy Grant loved this street, he even wrote a song about it.

Another interesting and entertaining video. In the UK and the USA the trams were got rid of and the oil industry reigned supreme. It was thought that we would never run out of this source of fuel and that there were no down sides. It was one of the worst decisions ever made. Elsewhere in Europe a lot of the trams were kept and modernised. It is interesting to see how many new tramways have appeared in the last few decades.

Bon Marche and The Empress, Brixton, cannot get better than that. The Kennington Depot is New to me, thanks for the learning. I think the original depot was at the Telford Avenue Site, OR I have heard one depot was down the roadway to the Prison. And you have told me I was wrong about Telford Avenue- with it coming later, I must re-read my directory of British Tramway Depots book !!

lol, simply the best advert for Surfchark :)

Those were the days! 😍 Never knew there were two Hills, Brixton & Streatham. Thought it was one big Streatham Hill even though commuted through it for 1yr+

Trams will take you on your journey to 100k subs. Another interesting video.

Oh and you can still ride and see preserved london trams that ran on the brixton services at Crich.

The cable system is still used on the Great Orme Tramway in Llandudno, if you go further afield at some point :)

For the more discerning tram entrepreneur in the Brixton / South London area, there is a book called 'The Wheels Used to Talk to Us', by Ed Cooper - ISBN 0.9505458.05 published in 1977 by Tallis Publishing of Sheffield, and explains a great amount of detail on the system and its workings, as well as some of the history. Also includes a written record by one of the last tram drivers who drove the final working tram in that area when it all shut down.

Another excellent video. I could only have wished for a better map, showing clearly the route, location of power house and auxiliary depots, any separate cable loops (I understand the south London system eventually had two?) etc.