BUSES & TRAMS
Horse drawn omnibuses were introduced to London in 1829
and soon became popular, being cheaper and quicker than
coaches. Omnibuses left Brentford for London every half
hour in 1853. By 1871, and probably a lot earlier the
London General Omnibus Co Ltd worked horse buses from
Hounslow via Brentford and Hammersmith to the City.
Messrs Reading & Blick of Ealing had by 1895, an hourly
horse bus service from Ealing Broadway via South Ealing
and Brentford high Street to the north side of Kew Bridge.
Horse buses began to be replaced by motorbuses at the end
of the 19th century. Brentford's no 65 bus route originated
in routes number 71 and 71a started by the London General
Omnibus Co in 1913. The 71 ran from Ealing through Brentford
to Surbiton, via Richmond, Teddington, Twickenham and
Kingston, and the 71A to Surbiton via Ham and Petersham.
The 71 route was abandoned in 1914 and the 71A renumbered
first as 71 then as 105 and the route extended from
Surbiton to Leatherhead, initially just on Sundays
in the summer but every day by 1921. In 1924 the route
was renumbered from 105 to65 there were no further
changes for 44 years until November 1968 when the route
was cut back from Leatherhead to Chessington Zoo. It
was further truncated in about 1986 from Chessington
to Kingston.

Trams came to Britain from America. Initially they
were drawn by horses, but horse-drawn trams were
not used in Brentford, their, western terminus was at
Kew Bridge. Lines for electric trams were laid in
Brentford High Street early in 1900, fifteen months
before they were opened for traffic and trams ran
first from Shepherds Bush to Kew Bridge in April
1901, with an extension from Kew Bridge to Brentford
and Hounslow opening in July of that year. Trolleybuses
replaced trams along Brentford High Street in October
1935 and from Hanwell to Brentford in December 1936.
These continued to run until May 1962 when the
Brentford routes were replaced by motorbuses.

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Last Updated: 21st NOVEMBER 2005