20th Century London

THE 20th CENTURY In the early 20th century Hendon and Finchley became built up. Growth also spread to Harrow and Wealdstone, Twickenham, Teddington and Kingston Upon Thames. Wimbledon and Surbiton also became suburbs of London. Furthermore in the early 20th century London County Council began to build estates of council houses on the edge of the city. In 1903 the first ones were built at Tooting. Later estates were built at Norbury, Tottenham, Roehampton, at Downham near Catford and at Becontree. Other estates were built at Watling and Morden. Despite these new council house estates 75% of houses built in London between 1919 and 1939 were private. The population of London rose from 6 million in 1900 to 8.7 million in 1939. In the early 20th century the old industries (brewing, Sugar refining, flour milling, engineering) continued by new industries grew in the suburbs such as aircraft building, vehicle manufacturing and making electrical goods. When the blitz began in September 1940 Londoners started sleeping in the underground stations and soon 150,000 people were sleeping there overnight. In the blitz about 20,000 people were killed and 25,000 were injured. The first blitz ended in May 1941 but in 1944 Germany began firing missiles at London and killed about 3,000 people. In 1944 a plan for post war London was published. The authorities felt the city was overcrowded and they planned to create a ring of satellite towns 20-30 miles from London. But the new towns attracted the skilled workers away from London. The new towns had modern industries who wanted skilled workers. The unskilled and the old were left behind. As well as building new towns the council began building flats. The first were built in 1948. At first they were low rise but from 1964 high rise flats, up to 24 storeys high, were built to replace slums. Unfortunately rehousing slum tenants in high rise flats broke up communities. Then in 1968 came the Ronan Point disaster when a gas