During the 19th century the population of London grew quickly. The centre became crowded and many people moved out to the suburbs. So how was everyone going to get back in to the city?
GIDDY UP
Travelling by stage coach or river taxi was expensive back then. The question was, how could large numbers of people travel at a low cost? The first solution was the Omnibus. This was a horse-drawn vehicle with space for over twenty passengers. The omnibuses were expensive to run though, so extra seats were added to the roof. Brilliant!
About 100 years ago, there were about 50,000 horses in the city centre. That meant about 1,000 tonnes of horse poo! Collecting and dumping the stuff was quite a task – imagine the size of the pooper scooper…
GO ELECTRIC
When electricity came to the city, trams were all the rage. The new system was powered by overhead wires and the network of electric trams expanded rapidly. By 1910 there were over 120 miles of electric tramlines – cheap to use, and cheap to run. Fast modern transport was available to everybody.
MOTOR BUS
At the same time that trams came in, horse-drawn buses were on the way out and being replaced by motorized versions. In 1933, all the London bus companies joined together under the name London Transport. This was the biggest bus fleet in the world at the time. The Routemaster, the double-decker bus introduced in the capital in 1956, became a symbol of London.