The Rush Hour

In this watercolour Grace Golden depicts the London 'rush hour'. Here commuters in a busy London street queue for trams to take them home from work while others surge forward, eager to board the trams and bus at the stop. The location is thought to be the tram terminus in Queen Street Place at the north end of Southwark Bridge. Grace Golden knew the area well, as she grew up in the vicinity during the early 20th century.

By the 1920s London had the largest tram system in the world. Many routes served London’s working class suburban areas. London’s ‘rush hour’ gave the streets a distinctive rhythm but public transport was intolerably crowded at these times.