Geography 5.2.3 Challenges and Opportunities

Urban Decline

  • London has experienced periods of decline and growth

Deindustrialisation

  • Between 1960 -1980 there was a rapid decrease in industry in London

  • Containerisation led to larger ships which could not be accommodated in the London Docks

  • The last docks closed in 1981

  • Manufacturing across London relied on the goods coming in through the docks

    • The closure of the docks led to decline in manufacturing in areas like Lea Valley, Tottenham and Stratford

  • Between 1966-74 almost 400,000 manufacturing jobs were lost in London

  • In 1971 one million people were employed in manufacturing by 2004 it was only 245,000

  • The unemployment rate in 1981 was almost 18%

  • Over 60% of the Docklands area was derelict or vacant in 1981

Depopulation

  • The population of the Docklands area fell by 20% as people moved away to seek work

  • London's population in 1961 was 8 million

  • By 1991 it had fallen to 6.8 million

Decentralisation and suburbanisation

  • People were able to move to the suburbs of London due to:

    • Improvements in transport - underground network completed by 1930

    • Increased bus network

    • Increased car ownership

  • People were attracted by: 

    • Nicer environment

    • Less pollution

    • Less traffic and congestion

    • Larger homes with gardens

    • More space

  • Businesses, retail and industry followed leading to increased decentralisation

  • Examples of decentralisation from London include:

    • Shopping centres such as Bluewater, Dartford and Centrale, Croydon

    • Retail parks such as Cork Tree, Tottenham and Grove Farm, Ilford

    • Business parks such as Uxbridge Business Park and Riverwalk Business Park in Enfield

  • The businesses are attracted by:

    • More space

    • Cheaper rents

    • Nicer environment

    • Customers and workers living nearby in suburbs

    • Greater accessibility 

    • More parking space

E-commerce

  • There has been an increase in online shopping, particularly since the Covid 19 pandemic

  • This has led more businesses to locate outside the city as they do not need to be located near to customers 

Urban Growth

  • London has experienced growth in recent years

  • The population has increased to 8.8 million in 2021

  • The growth is not even, most has occurred on the west and east edges

london-growth

Population change across London 2011-2021

  • This has led to urban sprawl

  • Growth has been limited by the green belt 

  • This has led to growth outside the green belt of towns such as Reading and Maidstone

Re-urbanisation

  • The movement of people back to the urban areas

  • There are a number of reasons for this in London:

    • Clearance of industrial areas has created space for new developments on brownfield sites

    • Gentrification means that high earners now want to live in the city to be close to work, culture and leisure

    • Investment by TNCs has created jobs in their headquarters such as HSBC and Unilever, many TNCs have their European headquarters in London such as Bloomberg and Starbucks

    • Culture and leisure also attract people back to live in the city:

      • The 2012 Olympic Games

      • Large numbers of museums and galleries

      • West End for theatre

      • O2 Arena