Ian F. Finlay

This book contains a small map of Electric Tramways in the London Area and an even smaller map of Gorse Tramways in the London Area, an historical introduction to trams in London and to postcards in general followed by 114 postcards of London featuring trams.

The author writes that the geographical spread of London postcards featuring trams is not at all even. The emphasis has been to show scenes where the tram is an important feature of the photograph, but that was not always possible. There are no postcards from Camden Town or Kentish Town, for example. Nevertheless, each photograph is captioned and, overall, the book presents a picture of London during the 'Golden Age' of the picture postcard in Britain, 1900-1918.

Some of the captions could have been much improved. The author writes of a number of postcards as being 'postally used' but, surely, post-marked (postmarked) would have been better a phrase. He sometimes suggests the reader 'notes' this or that but does not say why it might be of interest, A little more inquisitiveness on the part of the author would have been good!

For those really interested in trams, more information about the trams would have been of interest, such as the numbers of them, their speed, there passenger capacity and more.

No index but a simple index of the photographs and tram companies is essential.… (mehr)