ABSTRACT
Trams and motorbuses not only provided the first convenient means of moving from one suburb to another across the radial routes, but linked the suburbs with the older industrial zones and retail centres. In middle-class suburbs the electric tram was opposed as an agent of working-class dispersal and also because its overhead wires were considered unsightly. Even then, co-ordination of housing and transport development remained unsatisfactory, and the Board had no jurisdiction over the main line railway companies' suburban services. Transport services sponsored by builders were of course not unknown before 1914, and the horse-bus to Cranbrook Park has been mentioned. As a large proportion of the new house owners required good transport facilities to their employment in central London, railways remained of first importance in the outer suburban zone. Landowners and developers had occasionally encouraged suburban railway extensions by donating land or selling it well below the market price.
