Tramway closure representations as tools in critical urbanism

London and Glasgow on film, 1953–62

Bibliographic Data

ID10249210
AuthorsJason Finch (0000-0001-9315-6669, Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume45
Issue2
Pages337-364
Publication date2024-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Transport History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-5266 • E-ISSN: 1759-3999
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/00225266241262639
OpenAlexW4400902895
LanguageEN
References cited33

Film representations of transport networks’ closure events are valuable materials in a critical, comparative urban studies. Here, 1953 and 1962 films commemorating the last nights of the London and Glasgow tramways exemplify such use. The present study examines them as part of work towards an understanding of public transport as a type of contested public space, since publics can have them removed. On the one hand, both films manufacture consent for the removal of on-street electric public transport on rails at a time when internal combustion engine vehicles, both private and public, were becoming more and more widespread in the UK. On the other, the film-makers provide affectionate views of urban transport modes which in the late twentieth century were largely considered obsolete, thus paving the way for heritage discourses of transport and even anticipating sustainability-led positions on the city that would only gain traction decades after these networks closed

Archaeology · Art history · Closure (psychology · Media studies · Political science · Sociology · Urbanism · Architecture · Cinema and Media Studies · Engineering · History · Law · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Urban Planning and Governance

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