East End Trolleys

"By popular demand" (yes, that's you Yarmouth Boy!), some of the East End routes covering Chingford, Walthamstow, Stratford and the Royal Docks

[@stevecedar4664]

My dad drove one of those taxis that appear. Pre-fab housing. Remarkable east end footage

[@VauxhallVictorMan]

I drove a black cab in the early 80's. Stratford, Plaistow, West and East Ham, Ilford, Barking, Dagenham etc. wow this brings back memories. I know almost every street in this film. memory going now but after watching this , its all coming flooding back. thanks so much for posting.

[@smelgy]

This always brings a tear to my eye. I was born in Stratford, lived in Plaistow, but wouldn't live there now rent free. The whole place has changed beyond recognition. I always think of my dear late Mother when I watch this. She used to take me on the 669 from Grange Rd to Stratford Broadway when I was a child and over the ensuing years I developed a fascination for the trolleys. I dearly wish these days could come back, but they won't. But we do and always will have memories.

[@barrybradshaw675]

The Roads and Streets look so uncluttered of vehicles and people. It's so easy to forget what it was once like.

[@derekhalliday1542]

can't stop watching your wonderful videos - the old days!

[@RickInDorset]

a most relaxing journey down memory lane revealing, for me, how they switched the 'points' (at 8:18 to 8:40)

[@shadyninja1]

Even though I'm not that old I remember lots of parts in the video including pier rRd @ north woolwich, silvertown, East ham, Upton park, Stratford, and hermit rd canning town.

[@robtyman4281]

Great video. They should never have got rid of Trolley buses - they were ideal as they didn't need tracks in the road like Trams did, but were cleaner than buses.

[@speedozx10]

wonderful video. The 699 went past the house I grew up in. Loaded with punters for West Ham Stadium, silently swishing past the plane trees, was a marvel of engineering

[@albion2742]

Always made me.late for work when the poles came of the wires.

[@dannywhite3538]

Some great tunes as well, as a great video of late 50s or early 60s thanks

[@pilotgeoff]

A great piece of old film and thank you for all those wonderful tunes we used to get on the wireless in those days.

[@Juscz]

As a US citizen growing up in the Chicago area in the 1960s and 1970s, I only got to see single level trolley buses. It is great to see the double decker trolley buses of the UK here. These we knew of only through Matchbox Lesney toy vehicles. Wow! That bus at 4:57 has to make a very wide turn and just barely clears the fence on the street. Well done, as the Britrs say. Thanks for posting!

[@rarmstead]

I was born in Queen Mary's Hospital, Stratford, moved to plaistow, then back to Stratford, spent a while in Burnham then Custom House, now Silvertown. Great to see my old town again! Nostalga is only for the old. Love this video!

[@chrisg1947]

brilliant film, to be totally honest it made me cry straight up, thinking back to when l was a nipper living in Ilford in the early `50s now l`m an old duffer in my late sixties l too remember the music from radio shows like `top of the form` and the Cliff Mitchell Singers when l listen to music like this and shut my eyes l think back to my Nan listening to the radio, life was so much bloodier easier then even if we didnt have a lot of money

[@charlesregan4576]

Fantastic video with a perfect contemporary musical accompaniment; a great view into the fairly recent past. It's telling to see how clean the streets were back then and how neat the buildings were, all the more since this was not long after WW2 during which the East End was heavily bombed. Look at the same area now; dirty rundown buildings, litter strewn streets and filth.

[@spiritoveradversity1]

I can't stop watching this film, it make's me feel happy and sad at the same time.

[@twoslices]

I remember riding on those as a small child

[@neilstone4226]

As a youngster, I remember the Old Trams travelling along Southall Broadway on their way to Uxbridge. They were huge and we're always bringing the traffic to a standstill. Good old days, alas gone forever.

[@drmichaelknight]

Every day to school on the 689/690 along Plashet Road and Portway between 1951 and 1958 - great memories. Thanks for posting

[@ianburnett7333]

Trolleybus wires are a work of art.

[@nevidev]

I remember catching the 669 at the corner of Hermit rd and Grange rd right next to the Beaconsfield pub . I t was later changed to number 69 when the Routemasters came in . A few pals and myself would all climb aboard and end up in Chingford Mount and spend a day exploring Epping Forest ..............Happy happy days

[@dorishowick4126]

Great film. Do you know what the conductors do when they get off and on at low speed?

[@stevetaylor5933]

Thanks for this time travel 10 minutes, I grew up in East London in the 60 and although I don't remember trolleybus, I recognised an awful lot of the places, Stratford Broadway for one, Silvertown, the prefabs, oh dear, whatever happened to our country?

[@rickysorhaindo1359]

It's called progression mate, its nice to see nostalga, but don't get it twisted it was a bombed out wreck, not long after ww2,

[@jean_mollycutpurse_winchester]

I was born in Queen Marys Hospital in West Ham Lane in 1952 and remember so much of this. I lived next to Leyton Station, in Calderon Rd. The film made me cry! Many of my novels are set in this period and place. Thank you so much for this film.

[@zippymo672]

Molly Cutpurse Which number Calderon Rd did you live in? My nephew lives in no.36.

[@MarcosJ-mq4lk]

Do you know Mile end? had a great drinking session in the Bancroft arms back in 2009....one of the best times i'd ever had!...maybe 1/2mile down from the blind beggars going east

[@AmberPanda]

I remember my grandfather taking me on a "trolly" as they were called, it was as they were being phased out and he told my mother he wanted to make sure I had been on one. Happy days.

[@Juscz]

Obviously you had an intelligent and insightful grandfather. Lucky you!

[@brianmicky7596]

Hi it's always good to see the good old days thanks All the best Brian 😂

[@kevinedwards5442]

I keep watching this, i cant get over theres hardly any cars on the road, i just remember the trolly buses being born 1955. once again thank you for posting this love the songs as well.

[@Kohl423]

I have vague childhood memories of the Trolley Buses. Perhaps memories play tricks but I seem to recall they were fairly quiet and certainly comfortable. As well as enjoying seeing the buses the background scenery is also of interest showing some places I knew which of course are nothing like that now and you could almost say it was a different country.

[@Tuckaway]

Fantastic to see these trolleybuses on your film. I wish I had a Time Machine.

[@richardstonhold2615]

Thanks for Trolleybus film. In the 1950s used to go to secondary school on 660 (if I remember its route number correctly) from Temple Fortune to Cricklewood Lane. A pity that London, and other towns scrapped them. The electric motors were less polluting than diesel engines. And how London has changed, much of it not for the better!

[@zeeteavathepipe3184]

Route 660 runned from North Finnecly to Hammersmith.

[@tileajb1]

I have to say what an excellent piece of film, this was my stamping ground during my teen years (1960's) and to see it like that is like time travel, I drove buses out of West Ham garage during the early to mid seventies and to see so many familiar streets is nothing short of amazing, thanks for saving this iconic piece of film and thanks for posting, well done.

[@kevin39632]

Thank you for posting this, i used to live in barking before emigrating to canada in 76 watching this and listening to the music brings back a lot of memories.

[@juliansaul7560]

Fantastic pictures from long ago. Wish I had a time machine.

[@LivingWalks]

How enjoyable and informative. We make hires gopro walk through's of contemporary London on youtube and it's great for us to see others. London is still pretty spectacular. Thank you for adding it, we've subscribed.

[@gerrykandler]

Lovely video, thanks. My parents came from the East End and this is an evocative portrayal of a time and place. I was brought up in Portsmouth, which had a fabulous trolleybus system with many complicated junctions. Sadly, all swept away on the 27th July 1963.

[@PERISLIP]

Wow brings back memories. I live in Chingford and my dad was a bus conductor on the buses and worked from Walthamstow Bus Garage which is in the film. He had a bad accident. He jumped off the bus to pull the `frog` which changed the poles onto a different line and slipped under the the two back wheels of the bus and the bus went over is leg. Miraculously although it broke his leg it could have been far worse. He recovered and carried on working until the last day of the trolley buses.

[@delticbob6993]

Fantastic - Brought back good memories.

[@twoslices]

some of the music is from 'workers playtime' on BBC light program aired at 12-1pm weekdays through the 50s

[@HQBProductions]

What a lovely film and as regards date, it is certainly after October 1959 and yet not far into 1960. You can spot this from the various cars including a 1959 model Wolseley 1500, a 1958/9 Standard Sportsman, a 1958/9 Ford Zephyr Six and an early Triumph Herald. What brings it back to early 1960 is that there is not one Morris Mini Minor/Austin Se7en to be seen so as they were introduced at the October 1959 Motor Show, they would be appearing early 1960. My guess.March 1960!

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

I grew up in this part of the East End (West+East Ham) along with generations of my family. It seems strange to see it how used to look compared to the chaos of it all now, very little road traffic and some actual industry!

[@lionelalberts2650]

Such memories, such memories

[@michaelnewman1920]

Thanks for the memories,great buses

[@postwar46]

Thanks for sharing this: The street scenes and backing music are a wonderful reminder of how things were in postwar London. Looking at the cars I would date this footage as being around 1958. London was certainly a huge shipping hub at the time: The biggest in the world in fact. Thanks again.

[@henrysimpson6964]

Good old London.

[@TonyBanks21]

Wow what a video,of all those trolleybuses in East London !

[@jamescranfield2204]

I wish they were still here

[@dhtelevision]

Some of these trolleybuses are at The east Anglia Transport Museum is Lowestoft

[@hauskalainen]

6:50 Nice parking Doctor!

[@DGN1950]

Brings back memories of 1960 in londons west ham. Great days have gone forever

[@617617ify]

Pure Nostalgia !!

[@aaroncohen7712]

I remember the trolley bus in Stratford going past Maryland station or somewhere along the Broadway in 1960.

[@ianbuchan1793]

I remember going on these in London and Cardiff

[@christinemessenger2561]

I was born in 1947, Bethnal Green. My mum's sister lived in Leyton. We would get the trolley bus from Hackney Road through to Leyton. Where it started and ended I don't know. I do remember going round the corner from Hackney Road into Cambridge Heath Road the trolley pole would frequently come off the overhead lines, making a terrific crash onto the top of the bus!

[@jacksainthill8974]

+Christine Messenger Roger Messenger any relation, perchance?

[@christinemessenger2561]

Sorry, I am a Messenger by marriage. Don't know of a Roger in my husband's family - but there are quite a lot of them.

[@jacksainthill8974]

Christine Messenger Kind of you to answer. Best wishes. :)

[@nadim2769]

Christine Messenger I go school near Bethnal green. A moped snatched a phone from a pedestrian recently. Wish I was alive in the 70s

[@Abdul.M.]

this look Eco Friendly better what we using today . everything was elecrtic we need them back

[@soundnicetome]

Great video...on one of the best types of bus...the Trolleybus...remember them well,fast comfortable...and a great turn of speed too? Sadly all gone but not forgotten,your video takes me back to when things seemed `normal` Like the music,goes well with this era...used to listen to this music while going off to work in the mornings...great days. Our country is sadly missing all the great innovations back then.Thanks again for posting,Im off to seek out the purchase of a Trolleybus model..youv`e started me off again ha ha?

[@handyboy5332]

If you're ever near Doncaster (!) there's a good museum @ Sandtoft.

[@peterlong1738]

Handy Boy uf

[@tolkny]

Thanks - qnd with the rendition of "Sing something sinful (sic) I was nearly eight again in my Grandparents big old kitchen!

[@405liner9]

Lovely music too! Many thanks.

[@Threadbone]

I remember these well though mine were down the Edgware Road, 666 and 645 and maybe 660 from memory. Loved riding the trolleys. Never should have been scrapped nor the trams. I remember stealing into Colindale when they were being scrapped and 'borrowing' some destination blinds. Wish I had kept them.

[@dhtelevision]

Threadbone Wait a min, There was a route number called 666

[@tdonovan4735]

Funny how when you do it it's "borrowing" but anyone nowadays and they are criminals

[@davidingram363]

Hear hear..never had many South side..used to love upstairs onn a 654 as it bombed down Anerely Hill 🤣 also round Wimbledon and Mitcham but most s.london lacking.. bring em back om main roads st least on main roads at least

[@zeeteavathepipe3184]

@@dhtelevision Yes, there was 666 route.

[@ronboy51]

Just discovered this video this morning when my brother told me about it. He's now living in Canada and I'm in the USA. I was just a kid at the time. For a while, you took us back to our childhood. Thank you so much!

[@euanelliott3613]

RIP Bob Grant and Reg Varney.

[@andywi1969]

My grandad as a mechanic on trolley buses at West Ham garage in the 50's, so he may well have worked on many of this in the video.

[@zeeteavathepipe3184]

Did he told you stories about the trolleybuses?

[@dhtelevision]

1:37 Damn, that's absolutely beautiful

[@brianindge3558]

The routes 689/690 as described in the video are wrong. They went from Stratford Broadway via Plashet Road turning right into Green Street. Then one route turned left into Plashet Grove to East Ham High Street, then to Barking Road where it turned right back to Green Street, left into Plashet Road and back to Stratford. The other route instead of turning left at Plashet Grove carried on along Green Street to Barking Road and basically did the trip in a anti-clockwise direction.

[@Barbara1940s]

That was lovely! Seeing the prefabs around Forest Lane took me back to my childhood. Thank you.

[@simonprice8737]

Instead of the Boris bus we could do with the modern version of these in London now !!!

[@oldwebshooter]

I am curious to know if you could re-upload this video in the higher quality that KZbin allows us these days? Are you in position of the original film?

[@jred6531]

This would be so great as I was so delighted to see some things here I have never seen film of and to see them a little clearer would be wonderful if it's possible.

[@GreenmanXIV]

I can remember going from Stepney east to Chrisp street market on the trolley. I can still smell them even now, the whiffs of electrical ozone magic.

[@Laura55sere]

I’ve got vague memories of a trolley bus at east India dock road which had come off its track or was being changed over by a chap with a pole must have been about 5 at the time

[@MrDaiseymay]

SPOT THAT TUNE ! You haven't missed much out from that long lost era. I can name them all, and most of the TV and radio progs they introduced. Although I grew up in Brum during this time, I loved the street scenes and other familiar things which are familiar, like the cars ( always a good pointer) the shops, adverts, and fashions of the period. Great film, well done.

[@HQBProductions]

As regards the music, this is clearly taken from BBC Radio programme theme tunes..Harry Worth, Top of the Form, Sportsview (TV), Sing Something Simple, Does the Team Think, In Town Tonight etc...most written by the wonderful Eric Coates. They are easily found and my guess is that this is a compilation CD of BBC Radio music....and all wonderful stuff filled with memories for me certainly. Happy listening!

[@MetropolitanSoul]

Nice. I hope I'm not getting nostalgic in my old age. I was born in Barking in the last 18 months of the 50's and was brought up in Walthamstow. My Dad had Docks connections through work so I used to go with him (we always had a car) and briefly he had a shop at Chingford Mount. The cars and locations are familiar but I have no memory of trolley buses at all so they must have all gone either before I was born or before my memory kicks in !

[@nostromoau]

Hi, I was born in Dagenham in 53 and only just remember travelling on trolleybuses. Wish I remembered more about what routes we used to take and where we went on them….shame they're gone really

[@jacksainthill8974]

Metropolitan Soul Chestnut Avenue, Walthamstow, is where you'd have found me. (Road now renamed Chestnut Avenue North.)

[@robclark4626]

I do remember the 277 trolley bus in Well Street in Homerton/Hackney. In particular I remember the rather evocative 'whining' noise they made as they sped along.

[@spiccybaby]

Cracking. The music is very evocative. It's the theme music of those times; while pop songs came and went, those tunes were an unchanging background.

[@scopex2749]

Calling All Workers ! SUPERB wow lovely shot of a steam train and the trolley passing! Could you list the tunes used in you marvellous soundtracks please, my old brain cannot keep up, so far I think i have found Hancocks Half Hour? Thats about it !

[@m222rjr]

Keyboard Krazy : The opening march is "Calling all Workers" written by Eric Coats from Hucknall near Nottingham of "Dambusters" fame. This was the signature tune of the BBC Light Programme morning and afternoon music programme "Music While You Work" which was introduced during the second world war. It was good to see s uch good colour film of the trolleys. Here in Nottingham they were sometimes called "Trackless" which, as they were introduced to replace trams, that's exactly what they were - Trackless Trams! As a child I saw my first female bus driver - driving a 6wheeled 72 seater trolleybus. Women were not permitted to drive the smaller diesel buses, not being considered strong enough to cope with the heavy steering but the trolleys had electrically assisted steering so that was o.k.! Sorry to ramble on a bit. Hope this helps.

[@robharding5345]

I wonder why it is, that I love all these old clips of London town, yet I have no time for the present ?.I spend much of my spare time enjoying these wonderful time capsules, and find myself short tempered with much of the mad goings on of today. Something isn't quite right, and its not me ! maybe its this modern life carry on, where every-ones face is connected to a smartphone,😄

[@24sweetroller7]

I never knew London had trolley coaches. I'm used to seeing shots of the underground trains and the old surface buses that are on the streets in downtown London. But seeing double decked trolley coaches is an undiscovered treat for me. I hope to visit London during the underground's 150th anniversary celebration. Good looking video that captures a rare form of public transit.

[@zeeteavathepipe3184]

Great Britain was full with trolleybuses. Last system was closed in 1972. Last double decker trolleybus service was in Porto, Portugal (1994 I think). They where Italian made.

[@rogerhudson9732]

When I visit Sarajevo (BiH) I get to see modern , new, trams and trolleybus' . London needs to re-think it's public transport.

[@robtyman4281]

Too right!. If I was Mayor of London I'd double the Congestion Charge. Bring back Trolleybuses and have a suspended (or hanging) railway running the entire length of Oxford Street.........from Marble Arch to Holborn. We need to think outside the box. Our transport policies aren't bold enough and the political will just doesn't seem to be there to make London greener, or the air, cleaner.

[@citroeno]

I always think it clever how those trolley bus drivers always kept the panto-graph on those tracks .

[@tomkent4656]

They often slipped off, especially at junctions. It was a palaver to reset them with a long pole!

[@zeeteavathepipe3184]

Those where trolleys, not pantographs. Pantographs look verry different.

[@consul1957]

Thanks for posting, really enjoyed it!

[@DSVOP]

Excellent stuff...sharing to my Facebook, Thank you for your hard work and sharing it.

[@ice401557]

Is that a manual switch setting at 8:20 ?

[@DSVOP]

@taffy402 . Those types of switches changed the overhead junctions to allow a Trolley to take a different route, much like a signal box changes the points on a railroad. I remember seeing it done in North London back in the 1950's, and the conductor,when asked, told me he was 'changing the frogs' if I recall correctly, he clarified it by saying 'the points'. Hope this tit-bit pleases :-)

[@mungofitz]

Great. The 687 used to take to work in the docs

[@Hughjarce153]

Where do you get this stuff? its fascinating, not just the trollys but the old cars (not that they were old then) even the conductors changing the points, love it. I'd forgotten all about that stuff. More please :)

[@davidnew4630]

London Transport made a big mistake by withdrawing the Trolley buses from London in the sixties.

[@frostye11]

Lovely!!!. Its a window back on a vanished ( totally ) East London. I remember it like that when I was small. My Grandmother used to take me from Walthamstow to Stratford Broadway to visit Boardmans department store. She would be horrified and possibly fascinated by what has changed!. All the Health and Safety stuff would put a stop to the conductors jumping off while the bus was moving.......

[@rogerkearns8094]

03:29 You're supposed to stop the traffic before you play the theme to In Town Tonight! ;)

[@lfewell2161]

Ultra low emission zones- electric vehicles -zero emission vehicles -pollution from diesel engines, all current topics, a lot of these problems were solved almost sixty years ago, so how as far as busses goes did we get where we are now?

[@brainsmith3931]

Those days and now all Londoners have hailed to Essex .

[@Bevoin1970]

What an absolutely brilliant video, we live in a totally different world today compared to this, Im from Birmingham and can't relate to any of the streets, but I remember the scene well, as a young lad, my mom would drag me off all over the place, usually the hairdressers by trolly bus, can still picture it now. You also forget just how quiet these buses were, you wouldn't hear these roaring up the street... What a gem. 5*

[@transporter49]

4 dislikes? What's to dislike? Brilliant post, thank you.

[@QED_]

Torture. Pure torture to see how things used to be . . ..

[@bingola45]

Imagine... Having to ride on BUSES.

[@lelboy]

Beautiful..... Correct my failing memory, perhaps, but do I remember 663 trolleys going down the Romford Rd (I come from Manor Park E12)? I'm sure I do - was it late 50's or early 60's that they finished, I wonder. This music takes me back to the British Relay Wireless service - before "cable" proper. All we had was "Light", "Home", "Third" and "Radio Luxemburg". A delight watching and listening to your posts - thanks very much, Les.

[@alexmckenna1171]

Still the best video on KZbin :-)

[@TIMBOWERMAN]

Yes just as I remember it as a child, Plaistow (BTW that is pronounced PLAH-STOW not PLAY-STOW) station which was a proper train station, though I mistook it for a tube station as the names were white on a blue background just like the tube, British Railways Eastern Region had signs that color. The tunes like "The Archers and Childrens Favorites" and the football (soccer) results on the wireless (radio) and Frenlite flour which was ground in windmills ; and the trollybuses (trackless trollies) sadly gone like everything else.

[@j43ms]

thanks Richalflo. great stuff, this!

[@adriangstern]

Never mind the nostalgia of the trolley buses - the music!

[@MrPeteperry]

As a lifelong environmentalist, I reckon they should never have got rid of the trolleybuses.

[@dhtelevision]

Pete Perry If we made those trolleybuses nowadays, we’d have fewer pollution on our public transportation

[@rogerdoger3347]

Every single local left London to Essex which is the new London these days.

[@shadyninja1]

No parking attendants sticking tons of tickets. No residential parking bays.

[@CaptBubble]

Nice footage! Lovely trolleys, half empty steets, and even a Heinkel Trojan Bubble Car at 7 mins; I have one, possibly the only one in Central London!