This film nearly didn’t get made . In the BBC4 documentary on the BTF film unit head Edgar Anstey called Bob Paynter and Bob Krish into his office and said the tram is coming off the road next week. We haven’t got hardly any library pictures of these teams we must record it. Bob said let’s film it. Edgar said No No there’s no film in it nothing there to record just go and take a photograph of the chairman shaking hands. Luckily the went out and recorded this film with additional dialogue. When Edgar found out about this film then called Bob Krish into his office and sacked him. LT were not happy about the film as they knew the public would be up in arms about the trams going . Edgar Anstey still put his name on the film tho and the rest as they say is history..

I was seven years old, living in Croydon, in July 1952. I had seen the trams in High Street Croydon, until they disappeared in 1951. I begged my Dad to take me to those Last Tram Week celebrations, and he did. We went up to New Cross Gate and rode backwards and forwards on the 36, 38, 72 for most of the day. That could be me in the film, writing down tram numbers in a booklet. I must have seen the “Elephant Will Never Forget” film a dozen times, and it still brings tears to my eyes. It all seems a long time ago, but in many ways a simpler and warmer time...

That made me sniffle, and I don't even live in London . good job...

It's a lovely film. What I find fascinating, as a Londoner (but far too young to have known London's trams in operation), is seeing scenes of places I know well from well before my time, eg the South Bank when it was brand new and a window on a world that seems like a foreign country; even the accents have changed (think of Lord Latham's speech at about 9 mins 50 sec), let alone dress styles and street furniture. There is a book about the end of London's trams that also covers the making of the film and apparently the elderly couple featured in the film (starting at about 3 minutes) were a couple of "volunteers" from a pensioners' club in Lewisham. The song "Riding on Top of the Car" is so redolent of a vanished and more innocent era; have a search on You Tube as there are a number of recordings of the full song. "Spooning" apparently, was 1910s slang for kissing and cuddling. The footage at about 8 min 20 sec is far from London; it is the Wearmouth Bridge in Sunderland.

"The trams and the rain and the streets of South London" A line which somehow brings the past to life for me more than any other. I'm on the cusp of starting a new job as a conductor on a heritage tramway, and I have this beautiful film to thank for inspiring my love of first generation trams.

What a wonderful film. I love the music hall singing which brings tears to my eyes, as most of the singers will have done their courting "on top of a car". The film clips representing the early days of the trams show London horse buses, then a horse tram crossing a Sunderland bridge, then Leeds City Square. Still, it was the thought that counted.

Thanks Rob for sharing Elephants will never forget as I was born in London in 1957 and never saw the trams. It's too bad London managers did not have the foresight to keep the tram system as in San Francisco which remains a gem and a eco friendly, and efficient form of people transport .

When Archie Harradine starts singing with the Lewisham Darby and Joan Club I just cry so much because the message is so lovely and it is a beautiful melody.

Excellent video. I was born in August 1952 only a month after the London tram system closed.

very nice and nostalgic movie ! great thanks for posting !

Wonderful BTF doc, beautifully shot and edited, with a great commentary. John Krish was famously sacked by Edgar Anstey for making this.

😥😥😥 Fabulous video, I watched it after it was mentioned in ‘Seats of London’, a fantastic book about moquette on London transport over the years. So sad that the trams were long gone before I arrived in London! 💗

This is rhe fineat London Transport film ever made.

The proliferation of the automobile and the planning of cities around it has been far more damaging to European cities than the blitz.

It still angers me to this day when I see a feat of subterranean engineering like the Kingsway tram subway and it's just doing nothing apart from the southern end of the subway which was rebuilt to become the one-way Strand Underpass in 1964.

The end of the trams, very nice video!

A classic amoung so many BTF gems

Lovely film.

Thanks for that.

Question: why were the trolley poles offset on these cars?

What is playing at around the 7th minute? Anyone knows?

2:34 an elephant never forgets 9/11

Terrible eyesore. Thank god they got rid of them.

Too bad they didn't have any diesel trams..