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London - History 2

History continued

During , , as many other British cities, suffered severe damage, being bombed extensively by the as a part of The Blitz. Prior to the bombing, hundreds of thousands of children in were evacuated to the countryside to avoid the bombing. Civilians took shelter from the in underground stations.

The heaviest bombing took place between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941. During this period, was subjected to 71 separate raids receiving over 18,000 tonnes of high explosive. Less intensive bombing followed over the following few years as Hitler concentrated on the Eastern front. Towards the end of the war, during 1944/45 came under heavy attack again by pilotless V-1 and V-2 rockets, which were fired from Nazi occupied .

suffered severe damage and heavy casualties, the worst hit part being the area. By the war’s end, just under 30,000 Londoners had been killed by the bombing, and over 50,000 seriously injured,[5] tens of thousands of buildings were destroyed, and hundreds of thousands of people were made homeless.

[edit] 1945–2000

Immediately after the war, the 1948 Summer Olympics were held at the original , at a time when the had barely recovered from the war. ’s rebuilding was slow to begin. However, in 1951 the Festival of was held, which marked an increasing mood of optimism and forward looking.

In the immediate postwar years housing was a major issue in , due to the large amount of housing which had been destroyed in the war. The authorities decided upon high-rise blocks of flats as the answer to housing shortages. During the 1950s and 1960s the skyline of altered dramatically as tower blocks were erected, although these later proved unpopular. In a bid to reduce the number of people living in overcrowded housing, a policy was introduced of encouraging people to move into newly built new towns surrounding .

Through the 19th and in the early half of the 20th century, Londoners used coal for heating their homes, which produced large amounts of smoke. In combination with climatic conditions this often caused a characteristic smog, and became known for its typical “ Fog”, also known as “Pea Soupers”. was sometimes referred to as “The Smoke” because of this. In 1952 this culminated in the disastrous Great Smog of 1952 which lasted for five days and killed over 4,000 people. In response to this, the Clean Air Act 1956 was passed, mandating the creating of “smokeless zones” where the use of “smokeless” fuels was required (this was at a time when most households still used open fires); the Act was effective, though the nickname is still used sarcastically.

Starting in the mid-1960s, and partly as a result of the success of such musicians as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, became a centre for the worldwide youth culture, exemplified by the Swinging subculture which made a household name of youth fashion around the world. ’s role as a trendsetter for youth fashion was revived strongly in the 1980s during the New Wave and Punk eras. In the mid-1990s this was revived to some extent with the emergence of the Britpop era.

From the 1950s onwards became home to a large number of immigrants, largely from Commonwealth countries such as Jamaica, India, Bangladesh Pakistan, which dramatically changed the face of , turning it into one of the most diverse cities in . However, the integration of the new immigrants was not always easy. Racial tensions emerged in events such as the Brixton Riots in the early 1980s.

From the beginning of “The Troubles” in in the early 1970s until the mid-1990s, was subjected to repeated terrorist attacks by the Provisional IRA.

The outward expansion of was slowed by the war, and the Green Belt established soon afterwards. Due to this outward expansion, in 1965 the old County of (which by now only covered part of the conurbation) and the County Council were abolished, and the much larger area of Greater was established with a new Greater Council (GLC) to administer it, along with 32 new boroughs.

Greater ’s population declined steadily in the decades after , from an estimated peak of 8.6 million in 1939 to around 6.8 million in the 1980s. However it then began to increase again in the late 1980s, encouraged by strong economic performance and an increasingly positive image.

’s traditional status as a major port declined dramatically in the post-war decades as the old could not accommodate large modern container ships. The principal ports for moved to the downstream to the ports of Felixstowe and Tilbury. The area had become largely derelict by the 1980s, but was redeveloped into flats and offices from the mid-1980s onwards. The Barrier was completed in the 1980s to protect against tidal surges from the North Sea.

In the early 1980s political disputes between the GLC run by Ken Livingstone and the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher led to the GLC’s abolition in 1986, with most of its powers relegated to the boroughs. This left as the only large metropolis in the world without a central administration.

In 2000, -wide government was restored, with the creation of the Greater Authority (GLA) by Tony Blair’s government, covering the same area of Greater . The new authority had similar powers to the old GLC, but was made up of a directly elected Mayor and a Assembly. was also recognised as one of the nine regions of England.

[edit] 21st century
An icon of 21st century : the Eye.
An icon of 21st century : the Eye.
Some of the modern landmarks in the of today. From left to right are the Gherkin, the former Natwest Tower and the new Broadgate Tower under construction.
Some of the modern landmarks in the of today. From left to right are the Gherkin, the former Natwest Tower and the new Broadgate Tower under construction.

At the turn of the 21st century, hosted the much derided Millennium Dome at Greenwich, to mark the new century. Other Millennium projects were more successful. One was the largest observation wheel in the world, the “Millennium Wheel”, or the Eye, which was erected as a temporary structure, but soon became a fixture, and draws four million visitors a year. The National Lottery also released a flood of funds for major enhancements to existing attractions, for example the roofing of the Great Court at the British Museum.

The Plan, published by the Mayor of in 2004, estimated that the population would reach 8.1 million by 2016, and continue to rise thereafter. This was reflected in a move towards denser, more urban styles of building, including a greatly increased number of tall buildings,[6] and proposals for major enhancements to the public transport network. However, funding for projects such as Crossrail remained a struggle.

On July 6, 2005 won the bid to host the 2012 Olympics. However, celebrations were cut short the following day when, on July 7, 2005, was rocked by a series of terrorist attacks. More than 50 were killed and 750 injured in three bombings on Underground and another aboard a double decker bus near Russell Square in King’s Cross.

[edit] Population

1AD — a few farmsteaders
50 — 50–100
140 — 45–60,000
300 — 10–20,000
400 — fewer than 5,000?
500 — over a few hundred
700 — a few thousand in the new of Lundenwic
900 — a few thousand in the re-established of Lundenburgh
1000 — 5–10,000
1100 — 10–20,000
1300 — 50–100,000 (according to research by Derek Keene)
1350 — 25–50,000 following the Black Death
1500 — 50–75,000
1600 — 200,000
1650 — 350,000
1700 — 550,000 (nearly 10% of the population of England and Wales)
1750 — 700,000
1801 — 959,300 (at the time, ’s largest )
1831 — 1,655,000 (most populous in the world)
1851 — 2,363,000
1891 — 5,572,012
1901 — 6,506,954
1911 — 7,160,525
1921 — 7,386,848 (soon to be overtaken by New York as most populous in the world)
1931 — 8,110,480
1939 — 8,615,245 (population peak)
1951 — 8,196,978
1961 — 7,992,616
1971 — 7,452,520
1981 — 6,805,000
1991 — 6,829,300
2001 — 7,322,400 (revised mid year estimate; [1] original census count was 7,172,091)
2006 — 7,657,300
2016 — 8.2 m (forecast in ‘’s Place in the Economy’ of Corporation Sept. 2002)

The first Census was in 1801, so early dates are estimates based on archaeological density of sites compared with known population of the of between 1600–1800 (i.e., 50,000). Dates from 1300 onwards are based on what is probably better evidence, from historic records.

Figures for 1891 onwards are for Greater in its 2001 limits (Greater did not exist until 1965). Figures before 1971 have been reconstructed by the Office for National Statistics based on past censuses in order to fit the 2001 limits. Figures from 1981 onward are midyear estimates (revised as of 2004), which are more accurate than the censuses themselves, known to underestimate the population of . ’s urban area now extends beyond the boundaries of Greater , and it had an estimated population of 8,505,000 in 2005[7].

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