London Tramways Company double deck horse tram No 284, built by John Stephenson & Co New York

Much of the development of the tram took place in America. Tramways became established in London from the 1870s. Here is an example of an early design of horse tram, built in New York and imported to Britain. This tram operated on the service from Waterloo to Greenwich until it was replaced by an electric tram service in 1910. After that it was sold to a farmer who kept it in a large barn for many years and used it as an office. Later in the 1950s it was used for storage outside, but had an iron roof added to protect it from bad weather. In 1974 it was bought for the London Transport collection and restored.