174 



The Growth of Cambridge 



eastwards upon the gravel forming higher ground between Hobson's 

 Brook and Coldham's Brook. The railway, built along the summit of the 

 ridge, was opened in 1845.' The railway fostered development in this 

 area; as early as 1851 the competition of railway transport was causing a 

 shift of population. The riverside parish of St Clement showed a dechne 

 in numbers, and the 1851 Census Report declared "many families have 

 left as the Eastern Counties Railway is absorbing the trade of the Cam". 

 Industrial enterprises were attracted to sites near the raUway ; and the strip of 

 Gault, appearing beneath the gravels in the area between Coldham's Brook 



1801 II 21 31 41 51 61 71 8! 91 1901 

 Fig. 44. 



Population curves for the outer parishes largely added to the Borough by the 

 Extension Acts of 191 1 and 1934 (see Fig. 46). 



and the Cam, was utihsed for brick and tile works. The parish of St 

 Andrew the Less grew rapidly (Fig. 43), and was subdivided repeatedly 

 during the nineteenth century. Much of this area became a district of 

 mean streets and small, crowded houses, forming in the twentieth century 

 one of the most densely populated areas in Cambridge (Fig. 45).' 



The other area with a density of more than thirty persons per acre at the 

 beginning of the twentieth century hes to the north of the river on the 

 Intermediate and Lower Terrace gravels which raise the ground above the 



' See pp. 132-4 above for the opening dates of the various railway lines. 



^ Fig. 45 has been constructed from the Census figures, using the wards before the 

 1935 changes as the unit areas. These units were chosen in preference to the existing 

 wards because they are smaller, and figures for three decades, 191 1, 192 1 and 193 1, are 

 available. 



