The Imperial Tramways Company Ltd (1878 to 1930) was created to bring under common management a number of street tramways. Originally based in London, its headquarters moved to Bristol in 1892 and from then on it shared its senior management with Bristol Tramways under the chairmanship of George White.
In 1878 Imperial acquired the street tramway systems in Middlesbrough and Stockton-on-Tees, Dublin (Southern District), Gloucester and Reading, plus the Corris Railway in Wales. The Gloucester system was sold in 1881, the Dublin system in 1898, and Reading was taken over by the town council in 1901. The Darlington system was added in 1898 and taken over by its local council in 1902.
In 1894, Imperial formed London United Tramways to develop the moribund West Metropolitan system and, under the energetic leadership of Clifton Robinson, much of the system was electrified. Control of LUT passed away from Imperial in the 1900s (it was later acquired by the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933), and thereafter Imperial served more as an investment vehicle for the White family than as a developer of tramway systems.
The Middlesbrough system was taken over by the local council in 1921, and with the sale of the Corris Railway to the Great Western Railway in 1930 the Imperial company had outlived its purpose and was wound up.
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