The stables on Tramway Terrace, at the northern end of Queen's Promenade, originate from 1877 when Thomas Lightfoot, the tramway's founder, bought a small property with a rear yard here near the original terminus of what would become the Douglas Bay Horse Tramway. He built a larger stables to the rear and a terrace of three plain, cement-rendered houses facing the road; the resulting "Lower Stables" could house up to 33 tram horses once a lean-to extension was added in the 1880s. In 1911-12 Douglas Corporation redeveloped the associated Upper Stables site, converting old shops into rentable premises with saddlers' workshops above and moving the blacksmithing operation into a rear lean-to. The tramway itself, begun in 1876, is the longest continuously operating horse tramway in Britain, having run every year except during the Second World War.