The Impact on Borough Market of the Arrival of Railways up to 1885

This thesis considers how the arrival of the railways affected Borough Market for the fifty years preceding 1885. Borough Market was the only authorised London market located on the southern bank of the Thames and had enjoyed the benefits of good communications into London before the arrival of trains. It was also located only a few yards from the first London train terminus which was built at London Bridge and thus Borough Market was uniquely placed to discern the changes caused by this revolutionary, new form of transportation. This work examines how London underwent extensive changes in land use and demographics caused by railways and interrogates if Borough Market shared the same experience through examination of the marketplace. The research also considers how railway transportation affected the range and volume of goods available for sale in Borough Market by analysing its accounts and porterage data recorded in the Trustee Minute Books. Whilst the data is specific to Borough Market this work also increases the body of knowledge about the impact of railways on the food distribution system of London, of which markets were an important facet. The same information also helps to explain why Borough Market moved into wholesale trading, a trend reflected by other major London markets during the second half of the nineteenth century. By focussing on the small geographic area of Borough Market it is possible to identify how local influences could vary the impact of the railways on different communities and areas. Furthermore, Borough Market provides a powerful example of the unexpected benefits that railways could endow on a specific location: in this case, through a life-saving injection of cash from the South Eastern Railway Company.