1884: Thousands Turn Out for the Dedication of a First-of-a-Kind Tramway in London

May 29, 1884

Europe’s first cable-operated tramway was introduced to the public in north London. This .7-mile (1.1-kilometer)-long tramway ran on Highgate Hill in an area encompassing parts of both the Highgate and Archway sections of England’s capital city. While most of the line was double-tracked, about 1,000 feet (304.8 meters) of it was single-tracked.

The London-based Times reported that the Thursday afternoon debut of the Highgate Hill Cable Tramway took place “in the presence of thousands of spectators.” The inaugural duties were handled by Robert Fowler (1828-1891), lord mayor of London. The Times noted, “Having inspected the stationary engines and other machinery by which the cable is worked, the Lord Mayor declared the line open for public traffic.”

Notwithstanding the considerable fanfare surrounding its launch, the pioneering Highgate Hill Cable Tramway was plagued by quite a few major financial problems over the next quarter-century. The operation of this line was shut down once and for all on August 24, 1909.

Photo Credit: Simon Edwards Esq (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en)

For more information on the Highgate Hill Cable Tramway, please check out https://www.tramwayinfo.com/Tramframe.htm?https://www.tramwayinfo.com/Cards/Postc50.htm