The full impact of railways on Victorian society is undoubtedly beyond all the devices of strict social accounting. What is more, precise quantitative assessment of subtle social changes can frequently be quite meaningless. This is not, however, entirely the case with one category of measurable data which has hitherto been ignored in computing the costs of railway construction in Britain. This is the series of figures available from 1853 in the demolition statements which were furnished by railway promoters all over the country before the first reading of bills involving the displacement of thirty or more houses in the same parish occupied by the ‘labouring classes’. An illustration of the use to which this class of record may be put in depicting the consequences of the building of particular lines, and an indication of where these statements may be found, have already been given. The purpose of this essay is to comment upon the nature of this historical material, and to append the details for the London railways between 1853 and 1901.

The historical validity of these records is not strictly in direct proportion to the accuracy of the figures they contain. Quite clearly few of these statements - if any - were accurate in the sense that they corresponded minutely with the actual clearances. Indeed, there are good reasons for supposing that not all were even accurate estimates of proposed demolitions.