ABSTRACT
This chapter examines both the factors drawing industry to new industrial centres beyond London's borders and the attractions of industrial estates – which constituted the main foci of industrialisation in the rapidly expanding areas of outer-London. Industrial estates offered a number of advantages to manufacturers. One important benefit was a reduction in start-up costs, by converting the fixed cost of the factory into a rental stream. The modern, clean, image of industrial estates was cited by Welwyn's industrial development manager, in private evidence to the Federation of British Industries, as a major attraction for firms. Estate developers provided factories of a significantly more efficient design than those which firms transferring to estates typically vacated. Industrial estates played an important role in fostering location externalities for the new and, initially, often small firms that characterised many of the dynamic growth industries of the 'second industrial revolution'.
