Work Starts on the New Towns and Estates

By 1951, the rate of house building was proceeding at pace. By December of the previous year, 3,000 houses had been constructed, with completion estimated for June 1953. By March 1951 3,854 houses had been built; 4,771 by November 1951; and 5,253 by January 1952 – which is a building rate of 193 houses a month. German POWs played a significant part in the early building programme, with all being sent back to Germany by 1948.

The structural foundations of much of the Harold Hill housing came from the bombed rubble left over from the destruction of the old London, with the early roads being built from demolished air raid centres. Quite literally, the new world was being built on top of the ruins of the old.