Streets of London Transport

In this album, Mick Webber gathers some beautifully evocative photographs showing buses, trams and trolleybuses of London Transport at work during the period from 1933, when the organisation was formed, until 1969. In doing so he shows changes not only to transport in the capital but to London itself. Whilst primarily a black and white album, there is also a 1950s colour section. Much of the period covered by this book is looked back with nostalgia as a golden age for transport interest, but the times were often far from golden to live in. As the 1930s progressed the threat of war increased, only to become reality at the end of that period. With Britain at war in the first half of the 1940s and struggling to recover in the second half, that decade was difficult to live through for most Londoners. Poverty and slum-dwelling was widespread and it was only in the 1960s that the country fully recovered from the damage suffered by war. This was a period of mass rebuilding - often in a style not appreciated today - and parts of London were to change their appearance dramatically from then on. Many of the places shown in this album are still very recognisable today but others have changed completely. See more