Reminiscing the Trolley in Wartime London
During the whole of the War I lived in Dalston, Hackney, London. E8. This was a district of East
London that was severally bombed during the Blitz Unlike most of my friends and children of my age I was never evacuated,
and as the schools were closed down or were requisitioned for use as auxiliary fire stations, I played on the bomb
ruins during 1940-41. This of course did nothing for my education, so it was decided in 1942 that I should attend a
private school, Clarkes Collage, at Stamford Hill.
This meant taking a 20 minute trolley bus ride from the Metropolitan Hospital, Kingsland Road, Dalston, through Stoke
Newington, to Stamford Hill. This trip I made four times a day, as I came home at lunchtimes. There was still occasional
bomb damage to be seen on the first trip in the mornings, but by lunchtimes any rubble on the road had been cleared away.
But during the course of 1942 the bombing had become very infrequent, and I cannot ever remember any of the overhead
wires getting damaged on my part of the routes, or again in 1944 when the V1s AND V2s came.
The fare was a penny child's for the trip each way. I had a choice of trolleys to catch as follows:-
647 from London Docks to Stamford Hill
543/643 Holborn Circus to Wood Green
649 Liverpool Street to Ponders End
I used to avoid the 647 although it went to Stamford Hill, it turned on the Stoke Newington side of the hill and
my School was on the Tottenham side of the hill, so I used to wait for one of the others that were always following.
The reason the 543 and 643 had different numbers was at Holborn. These buses had no turning circle there, instead
they went round a huge block formed by Theobalds Road, Grays Inn Road, Holborn and Farringdon Road. One bus number
went anticlockwise and the other went clockwise round this block.
At weekends the 649 extended it's route to Waltham Cross, which to the kids in Dalston was nearly in the country.
I spent many, many happy hours over the years on a front seat upstairs on these Trolley buses.
Geoff. Warwick
Gisborne
New Zealand