Mobilising Housing Histories

Historical Overview

PETER GUILLERY

The essays in this book investigate aspects of London’s recent history from 1850 to the present day, a period during which the city’s physical boundaries were much extended to accommodate massive population increase. London was already Europe’s biggest city (and among the world’s largest) in 1800 when its population was around one million. That had doubled by 1850 to make London the most populous city the world had known. The next half century saw a trebling, before further growth to a high around eight million in the 1930s. There was then gentle decline through the later twentieth century. That has turned back, for the figure to rise again to more than eight million by 2011. Here it must be remembered that ...