ABSTRACT
The fact that the railway companies were uprooting the working classes in the centre served to stimulate the demand that they make amends by helping the working man to start life anew in the suburbs. From the beginning the railway companies had operated in London, as elsewhere, as semi-public bodies under statutory privileges and regulations, and it had long been acknowledged that they had special obligations to the public. Self-generating growth and other factors make it difficult to relate suburban growth directly and explicitly to railway facilities. The working classes were mobile over short distances and often changed their houses, but the more distant removal to the unknown lands of the outer suburbs was a daunting business, and required considerable planning and courage. The incredible growth of the northeastern working-class suburbs owed more perhaps to tramline connections with the City and East End than to the splendid service provided by the Great Eastern.
