The old Bristol tram on Cheltenham Road

Step back to interwar Bristol with this evocative street scene on Cheltenham Road, featuring one of the city’s iconic single‑deck electric trams. Painted with an advert for George’s Beers, the open‑top car glides beneath the stout brick arches of the railway viaduct, its overhead trolley pole drawing power from the catenary above. To the right, a horse‑drawn dray and a 1930s lorry share the roadway with the tram, while pedestrians in tweed caps and cloche hats pause beside the kerb.

Historical Context
By 1937, Bristol’s tramway network—first established in the 1890s—had reached its apogee, carrying workers and shoppers across suburbs such as St Andrew’s, Montpelier and Bishopston. The Cheltenham Road route linked the city centre at Old Market to Filton via Horfield, offering an affordable and reliable service long before buses became dominant. Yet within a decade, rising bus competition and wartime pressures would see Bristol’s trams phased out (the last ran in 1941), making this photograph a poignant reminder of the city’s golden age of electric traction.

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