Category:Brighton trams

Tram 52, scratchbuilt model by Ken Albon [image info]

Disappeared Brighton coordinates: 50.83872886, -0.12326509

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Postmarked 1908: A tram at Brighton Station [image info]

Brighton Trams at Victoria Gardens [image info]

1933: Trams rounding the Old Steine [image info]

1939: Brighton Corporation tram services, the last year of operation [image info]

Book, "Brighton Tramways" [image info]

Brighton's Trams and Trolleybuses ran from 1901 to 1939, with the first tram running in 1901 and the system basically being completed by 1904.

Brighton Corporation Tramways ("BCT")

Brighton Corporation Tramways ("BCT") ran the system, and had a headquarters/depot on Lewes Road, a red and cream horizontal-striped two-storey brick building with a small clock above the main facade (with a "civic" feel about it, like a tiny town hall, or perhaps a library) opposite a piece of open land. The building was repurposed slightly as a bus depot, and is apparently now earmarked for development for student housing.

The tram shelters

A couple of the original tram shelters can still be seen, by the Pavilion, near/on Old Steine. Although there's no real functional difference between these and modern bus shelters, the tram stops are rather more stylish and expensive-looking, cream-coloured with curved jutting art deco roof-ends, semicircular windbreaks at the ends, and rectangular panelled windows – somebody seems to have decided that waiting for a tram ought to be a pleasant architectural part of the day's experience.

Tram 53

Other than the main building and the last few tram shelters, the other main survivor of Brighton's tram period is Tram 53, the one and only surviving Brighton tram (a "Class F", and one of the last to be built). This was discovered in a shed on a pig farm, but has been undergoing renovation and repair by the Brighton Tram 53 Society, which was formed in 2010.

The toy museum has a small scratchbuilt model on display in its lobby of Tram 52, which is also a Type F.

1939 Brighton tram services: The final year

CORPORATION TRAMS

L – SEA FRONT (AQUARIUM) and MOULSECOMBE

via Marlborough Place, Gloucester Place, St. Peter's Church, Lewes Road.

E – SEA FRONT (AQUARIUM) and ELM GROVE and RACE HILL

via Route I to St. Peter's Church, Waterloo Place, Elm Grove.

Q – SEA FRONT (AQUARIUM) and QUEEN'S PARK

via Route E to Junction Elm Grove (Junction of Queen's Park Road) thence to Lower Rock Gardens.

D – SEA FRONT (AQUARIUM) and DITCHLING ROAD

via Route L to St. Peter's Church, Ditchling Road, Preston Drove (Municipal Golf Links and Hollingbury Camp).

B – SEA FRONT (AQUARIUM) and BEACONSFIELD ROAD

via Route L to St. Peter's Church, London Road, Preston Circus, Beaconsfield Road, and Villas, Preston Drove.

N – SEA FRONT (AQUARIUM) and DYKE ROAD

via Route B to Preston Circus, New England Road, Seven Dials, Dyke Road.

C – SEVEN DIALS and LOWER ROCK GARDENS and RACE HILL

via New England Road, Preston Circus, College, Elm Grove to Race Hill and Queens Park Road to Lower Rock Gardens.

S – SEA FRONT and CENTRAL STATION

via Marlborough Place, North Road, Queen's Road.

Routes D and B comprise a Circular Tour of over 4 miles, occupying 30 minutes.

— , -, , Brighton Official Handbook, , 1939