THESE electrical vans still look incredibly futuristic despite being photographed 76 years ago.

They are parked outside what is now the Quadrangle housing development on the corner of Vicarage Lane and Romford Road.

In 1930, the building was brand new and had just been opened as an electricity showroom for the old County Borough of West Ham.

It was the boom period for electricity across the country, with homes and businesses everywhere switching on to this easy and relatively clean source of power.

It must have felt like a new age was dawning, and soon everybody would be zooming about in silent, odourless vehicles such as these.

Standing alongside the vans are some rather fine service engineers from the West Ham electricity department. Viewed today, they bring to mind several of the characters from the 1970s children's TV favourite, Trumpton.

The borough used to generate its own electricity, starting in 1895 with a small power station in Canning Town. By 1930 the service had 15,000 users, and this expanded to 56,000 within the next decade.

Although served by electric trams from 1904, Romford Road was quieter in the early 20th century than it is now.

Our photographer tried to reproduce the original angle as closely as possible, but was unable to get a perfect match without standing at the centre of what is now an extremely busy crossroads.

The old electricity showroom is now used by Barratt Homes to advertise its Stratford Square development, at the rear of the Quadrangle.