Electric trams were introduced to East Dulwich in 1906, with a service along Lordship Lane terminating at Barry Road.
In 1907, a branch from Goose Green along East Dulwich Road terminated at Peckham Rye. A further extension from Barry Road along Lordship Lane to Forest Hill was operational at the end of 1908.
Lilian Burden, a local resident who died in 1999 aged 98, remembered seeing a horse helping to pull electric trams up the steep Dog Kennel Hill, a fact not recorded in London's Transport Museum Library at Covent Garden.
The tracks on Dog Kennel Hill were quadrupled in 1912 so that the service could be improved and safety maintained.
No trams were allowed to follow each other on the same line.
Although other instances of four-line tracks occurred in the British Isles, Dog Kennel Hill was the only permanent arrangement which has earned it a place in transport history.
This extract is taken from Southwark Remembered, from the Changing Times series, compiled by John S Beasley, published by Tempus, Stroud, at £10.99.
April 30, 2003 11:00
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