February 18, 2009 issue
Arts & Entertainment
Georgetown trip on a tram down memory lane
How would you like to take a tramcar ride with me in old Georgetown? We will go back, way back to the roaring twenties, down to Guyana and the Caribbean, to the era of our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents.
My father who was born in 1910 in Georgetown, was the first person I heard talking about tramcars. The first tramcar service was started by the Georgetown Tramways Company, reportedly in 1877, It was a mule drawn tram and ran on rails.
My father who was born in 1910 in Georgetown, was the first person I heard talking about tramcars. The first tramcar service was started by the Georgetown Tramways Company, reportedly in 1877, It was a mule drawn tram and ran on rails.
Mule drawn tramcar running on rails
In 1901 a Canadian firm purchased the Georgetown Tramways Company and the British Guiana Electric Company and the Demerara Electric Company was formed. By then the mule and horse drawn tramcars had changed to electric.
Our 1920’s tram ride will begin at the offices of the Demerara Electric Company on Water Street, opposite where Sandbach Parker once stood. Their offices were on the bottom floor of the building which housed at the time the Royal Agricultural and Commercial Society, the Reading Rooms and the Colony Museum. This building and many others were destroyed by the great fire of February 23, 1945, in the week in which I was born.
Having paid about six pence to buy a ticket from the conductor, one travels down Water Street (south) and passes the Royal Bank of Canada on the left, and the recently erected Colonial Bank (Barclays Bank) on the right.
Past Smith Brothers store on the right, one comes to Stabroek Market, an iron structure with a clock tower. On the left are the Public Buildings containing the Court of Policy Hall, the Colonial Secretariat, the Treasury, the Customs House and the Administrative offices of Government.
By the Stabroek Market, the tramcar line branches, one line going south through Lombard Street and Charlestown, and the other running east up Croal Street – the Bourda line. Going down Lombard Street, there used to be a hive of small shops and minor industries prior to destruction by the great fire in December 1913, the result of an explosion in a factory making fireworks. I guess they got more fire than they bargained for. In any case there was little rebuilding in that area at that time, owing to stringent building bylaws, enacted by the City Council.
Beyond Charlestown – the Chinese quarters – there can be seen in the yard of the small Anglican Church, the grave of Pierre Louis de Saffon, after which Saffon Street is named. He was remembered for his perpetual educational bequest to ten orphans. Ancestry on my mother’s side had a salt goods shop in Charlestown, after they emigrated from Medeira in the 19th century. They lived above the shop.
Past Saffon Street one goes along the East Bank Road, past La Penitence and Houston, and on to Peter’s Hall, four miles from the city. This is the end of that line and the conductor flips the seats around for the ride back.
Taking the Bourda line from the Stabroek Market, one goes eastward along Croal Street with St. Andrews, the principal Scottish Presbyterian Church on the right. The Police Magistrate’s Court House and the Victoria Law Courts come into view. Offices contained in the Law Courts included the Administration of Justice, the Department of Lands and Mines, the offices of the Surgeon General, and the Local Government Board. A marble memorial statue of the late Queen Victoria stands in front of the Law Courts, facing High Street.
At Camp Street, the Bourda line going east, cuts across the line going north and south at Collier’s Corner (Camp and Croal Streets). Collier’s Corner store, located at the north-west junction, was a thrift shop that sold a variety of items including school books like the Royal Readers and Shilling Arithmetic. At that junction there was a trench – South Road canal – with a bridge.
I was told by a late uncle that my maternal great grandfather (Ferreira) went to work at Collier’s Corner Store after his split from the Portuguese firm of Ferreira and Gomes, around the turn of the century. He died not long after, a destitute man, leaving behind a wife and six daughters.
As we continue eastward on the Bourda tram, also called the Bel Air tram, and the Bourda Beltline (it went around in the shape of a belt), we go past the Bourda market, through Queenstown to New Garden Street. At the end of Croal Street, at the top of Brickdam which runs parallel to Croal Street, one can see the large Queen’s College buildings and playground.
View of Georgetown looking south from Water and Church Streets. The tower on the left belonged to the Royal Agricultural Society (RACS). The tower in the distance, at the other end of Water Street, is at Stabroek Market. An electric tramcar is opposite the RACS.
Leaving the cricket ground, the tramcar passes the junction of the North Road/Church Street line, and across a Lamaha canal by a low bridge. Turning again to the left, one enters Third Street (Crown Street) and a residential area of Queens-town. In the distance the Moravian Church can be seen on the right (Anira and New Garden Streets). Needless to say, every time the tram screeches to a halt, one or more stray dogs rush out barking at it.
At Waterloo Street, along Middle Street, one comes to the Promenade Gardens. Christ Church may be seen on the right with the old hitching post for the horses of worshippers of an earlier generation. Opposite the Promenade Gardens is the old Parade Ground once famous for cricket matches played there (before the Georgetown Cricket Club ground was opened).
Passing Carmichael Street, the Railway Station is on the right to the north and Government House and the St. George's wooden Anglican Cathedral to the south. Going across Main Street, the Bourda line joins the Seawall line going north, Through Bentick Street, one is once again on Water Street.
At the junction of Bentick and Water Streets, one can see the tall iron chimney of the Electric Light and Tramway Power Station. The large concrete building obliquely opposite is the Ice Factory and Cold Storage Warehouse.
Showing one’s transfer at this point, could put you on the Seawall line going north along Water Street, Bentick Street, Main Street and High Street. This route was very popular with nannies taking babies, prams and children for some fresh air on the Seawall every afternoon around four o’clock, as the sun was cooling off.
One terminus of the Seawall line was near the Band Stand on the Seawall. The other end of the Seawall line (not connected) was about four hundred yards eastward by Camp Road. At the Seawall one could listen to the B.G. Militia Band playing in evening concerts at the Band Stand. The Band Stand was erected by public subscription in 1903 as a memorial to Queen Victoria, who died in January, 1901. At the Seawall one can cool off by buying ginger beer from vendors selling their products from buckets and stands.
As you go down Camp Road (south) from the Seawall, you can see the quarters of the officers of the police force and the parade ground (Eve Leary) on the right. On the left is Thomas Road which runs past Longden Park (Thomas Lands) and some of the smaller cricket grounds and clubs.
One then crosses the railway line with the buildings of the Public Hospital visible to the left and the railway station on the right (Lamaha Street). The tramcar then goes along Camp Street, one of the best residential quarters in Georgetown, as far as the Waterworks where the “bush water” brought by canal from the Lamaha Conservancy, is pumped into the street mains.
Beyond the Waterworks, along Camp Street, the Seawall tram crosses the Croal Street trench and the Bourda line at Collier’s Corner. It goes past the Brickdam Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on the right. This edifice of reinforced concrete is one of the first buildings of this composition to be erected in the colony. It’s erection began in 1915 and it was over ten years under construction.
Going along past the Cathedral, one sees the Georgetown Gaol on the left surrounded by a large fence of corrugated iron. One is now entering a less desirable part of town. The slums of the city lie largely to the south of Brickdam.
At last, the tramcar turns westward into Broad Street where to the left may be seen one of the entrances to La Repentir Cemetery which covers 135 acres. It is divided into denominational blocks.
On the way down Broad Street, one passes the headquarters of the Department of Science and Agriculture on the right, a large block of buildings. A little further on, the Peter’s Hall line joins the Seawall line.
At the west end of Broad Street, the streetcar line turns right (north) at a point where another branch runs past Sproston’s Office and Works at the La Penitence store and stelling – the wharf to which the Harrison Line of Steamships run.
Going along Lombard Street, one arrives back at the Stabroek Market, passing the Telephone Exchange on the way. By leaving the tramcar at Lombard Street, one can reach St. Philip’s Anglican Church, the oldest city church.
The tramcars played a great part in the transportation system of Georgetown. They went by different names – Bourda, Bourda Beltline, Bel Air, Vlissengen… and numbers.
The electric trams held 18 or more passengers (9 sets of seats) and they ran about 14 miles, in and around Georgetown. Each tramcar had a motorman/coachman/driver and a conductor. The trams were clean, orderly, and efficient. All classes, colours and groups of Georgetowners rode the trams. There was no segregation to front or back of the tram for different ethnic groups as was prevalent in the southern United States in public transport at that time.
You could wear your best, white, gabardine suit or silk dress, and arrive at any Ball around town, including the Assembly Rooms and Georgetown Club, and look spanking clean. The tram service ran seven days a week, 24 hours a day. It took folks to work, to play, to church, to sport, to a date, to the Seawall, to the Bandstand, cricket, horse races at Bel Air, and to two cinemas in Georgetown, one by the Brickdam Cathedral.
Passengers waited by a painted post at regularly scheduled stops. They pulled a cord or rang a bell to alight. The trams went regularly to a place called the Barn by Lombard and Sussex Streets to be cleaned, greased, washed, repaired and serviced.
It was a sad day when the Georgetown Tramways closed in 1930 after 29 years in operation. There was great disappointment felt by the people of Georgetown. Trams ran in Trinidad until 1950. The reported cause of closure was that the service became uneconomical to run. Another explanation was that the streets of Georgetown were starting to be paved at that time, Brickdam being the first. However, the talk around town was that the drivers and conductors were ‘lining’ their pockets and that that brought about the demise of the service. Again, how much of this is true, I do not know. What I do know is that many Guyanese people like to gossip.
The trams were part of our historic past – nostalgic and romantic, Like the donkey and dray cart, like the horse drawn carriage, like the steam train, they have faded into the sunset. Some would argue that the bus service, taxis, and maxi taxis that replaced them, did a better job but that is debatable.
I would have loved to ride the tram on a moonlight night, up to the Seawall and around, taking in the breeze blowing in, the cool trade winds off the Atlantic. Those days are done, gone forever, but like my wife says, I remain a dreamer – an Aquarian – a man not of this generation. I think she is right. Ah gone tuh celebrate my 64th birthday! If the creeks don’t rise and the sun still shines I’ll be talking to you.