London County Council Tramways

Accordingly, in October 1891 the LCC decided to exercise its option to take over four and a half miles of route operated by the London Street Tramways Company.

The council purchased the lines, and the North Metropolitan was awarded a fourteen-year lease to operate them.

The next system to be acquired was that of the London Tramways Company in 1899, and from that date all lines taken over were operated by the county council itself.

On 15 May 1903 the first electrified section from Westminster to Tooting was opened by The Prince and Princess of Wales who rode the route in a specially decorated tramcar, and paid their fares with halfpenny coins minted for the occasion.

The tramways north and south of the River Thames were almost completely separate until the opening of the Kingsway Subway in 1908.