Editing Epsom (section)

===Residential development===
Epsom is unusual among Surrey towns, in that it underwent considerable expansion during the [[early modern period]].<ref name=EUS_2003/> As the spa developed in the 1670s, merchants from London started to construct their own mansions on the outskirts of the town. These [[baroque architecture|baroque]] buildings were generally made from bricks produced at the [[brickfield]] on the Common. The demand for labourers brought incomers with new skills, who began to boost the local economy. The construction of a small row of shops at the junction of the High Street and South Street led to the establishment of a market in 1680 and, in 1692, two London [[goldsmith]]s developed the site further by building their own houses.<ref name=White_Harte_1992_intro/>

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By 1800, Epsom had over 400 houses and this number increased to 600 by the middle of the century.<ref name=EUS_2003/> In the 1860s, plans were put forward to improve the drainage on the Common and to build houses on it, but were dropped due to local objections. Following the enclosure of the common fields to the south of the town centre in 1869, housebuilding commenced along Burgh Heath, College and Worple Roads. At around the same time, houses for the working classes were constructed in the area between the two railway lines to Sutton and Wimbledon.<ref name=White_Harte_1992_intro/>

In the final decade of the 19th century, Epsom Court, to the north of the town centre, was divided and sold for development and, over the next twenty years, [[terraced house]]s were built on the land.<ref name=White_Harte_1992_intro/> Shops on Waterloo Road and houses in Chase Road were built from 1928 and the Copse Edge Avenue estate was begun in the same year.<ref name=Essen_1992_p7>{{harvnb|Essen|1992|p=7}}</ref> The award of borough status to the council in 1937, allowed it to take over running of 1500 council houses that had been built between 1920 and 1939.<ref name=Essen_1992_p8>{{harvnb|Essen|1992|p=8}}</ref>

The 1944 [[Greater London Plan]] designated land on three sides of the town centre as part of the protected [[Metropolitan Green Belt]], which severely limited the scope for urban expansion to the east, west and south.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://democracy.epsom-ewell.gov.uk/documents/s5660/Epsom%20Ewell%20Green%20Belt%20Study%202017%20Annexe%201.pdf |title=Epsom and Ewell Green Belt Study |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=February 2017 |publisher=Epsom & Ewell Borough Council |access-date=30 July 2021 |archive-date=1 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210801121725/https://democracy.epsom-ewell.gov.uk/documents/s5660/Epsom%20Ewell%20Green%20Belt%20Study%202017%20Annexe%201.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref> Since limited development of [[Langley Vale]] and the Epsom Wells estate had taken place in the early 1930s, these areas were not placed into the Green Belt and housebuilding continued into the 1950s.<ref name=Abdy_2001_p79>{{harvnb|Abdy|2001|p=79}}</ref> In the early 2000s, the [[Epsom Cluster]] of psychiatric hospitals in Horton was redeveloped to provide around 1850 new homes.<ref name=EEBC_Horton/>