ABSTRACT
East Ham's swift elevation to county borough status was a reflection of its rapid growth in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1891 the population was only 32,713, but by 1901 it had tripled to 96,018, and by 1911 it had increased again to 133,487. Growth slowed after this, with the population totalling 143,304 in 1921, and actually falling slightly to 142,394 in 1931. The downward trend continued subsequently, with the population in 1938 estimated to have fallen to 129,500. The borough experienced a decline of 15 per cent of its population between 1931 and the year of the next census in 1951.2 This demographic pattern was determined by the massive expansion of London as a whole, with a wave of urbanisation radiating outwards from the metropolis and engulfing the borough by the 1890s, before surging further east into Barking and Dagenham, eventually leaving East Ham floundering in its wake.
