One Hundred and Twenty Years of Regeneration, from East London to the Thames Gateway: Fluctuations of Housing Type and City Form

Since the establishment of metropolitan government in 1888, 120 years ago, it has been a guiding principle for those governing London that the East End is in need of regeneration. The symptoms have varied between social, environmental and economic ills, and the physical cures implemented have ranged from dispersal to concentration and from low to high density – until, in time, ills and cures have blurred. With the promise to repair degraded environments and lift disadvantaged communities, the Thames Gateway follows this lineage, but with public sector attentions spread over an area of unprecedented size.