Acquisition of Tramways
Under the Tramways Act 1870 local authorities were permitted to acquire privately-operated tramways in their area after they had been operating for twenty-one years. 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 Streetways Company. The company disagreed with the price offered by the council, and the sale did not go through until 1 March 1895. As the LCC had no powers to operate tramways itself, it put the operation of the line out to tender, which the incumbent London Streetways won, being the only applicant.
In 1896 the London Street Tramways offered the rest of their network for sale to the county council, as did the North Metropolitan Tramways Company. The council purchased the lines, and the North Metropolitan were awarded a fourteen-year lease to operate them.
The council succeeded in having the London County Council Act 1896 passed which gave it powers to operate trams. The next system to be acquired was that of the London Tramways Company in 1899, and from this date on all lines taken over were operated by the county council itself. By 1909 most of the tramways in the county had been taken over, with the LCC operating 113 miles (182 km) of tramways.
Read more about this topic: London County Council Tramways
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