EPW037928 ENGLAND (1932). Beal Modern School and environs, Ilford, 1932

Ilford Tram Car Sheds. Built by Ilford UDC and opened on 14 March 1903. The depots claim to fame being the first depot in London to run top covered trams with 9 in service from July 1903. Ilford opposed the forming of the LPTB in 1933, but to no avail. So too was the proposal to replace the trams with diesel buses directly instead of being part of the conversion to trolleybus programme. As trams can be driven from both ends there was no necessity for turning facilities, however, to allow the trolleybuses to run in and out of the depot an exit had to be knocked into the wall on Perth Street. The building was adapted to accommodate 34 trolleybuses. Routes 691 and 693 commenced running on 6th February 1938 and like the trams before them were purely local services. A third route, the 692, ran on Saturdays only, but lasted less than a year. As The Ilford system had no railway bridges to negotiate the trams were taller than other parts of London. This also led to the area being chosen to allow trolleybuses that should have been exported to South Africa to run, allowing gaps in the fleet caused by war damage to be filled. These buses were wider and taller than the standard trolleybuses running in London. 43 SA's were allocated to Ilford depot the first arriving in November 1941. The depot did not become a garage in the conversion to diesel bus programme , instead closing on 18th August 1959.