Editing History of London (section)

===20th century===
====1900 to 1939====
{{main|History of London 1900–1939}}
[[File:Cheapside 1909.jpg|thumb|right|[[Cheapside]] pictured in 1909, with the church of [[St Mary-le-Bow]] in the background]]
London entered the 20th century at the height of its influence as the capital of one of the largest empires in history, but the new century was to bring many challenges.

London's population continued to grow rapidly in the early decades of the century, and [[public transport]] was greatly expanded. A large tram network was constructed by the London County Council, through the [[London County Council Tramways|LCC Tramways]]; the first [[bus|motorbus]] service began in the 1900s. Improvements to London's overground and underground rail network, including large scale electrification were progressively carried out.

During World War I, London experienced its first bombing raids carried out by German [[zeppelin]] [[airship]]s; these killed around 700 people and caused great terror, but were merely a foretaste of what was to come. The city of London would experience many more terrors as a result of both World Wars. The largest explosion in London occurred during World War I: the [[Silvertown explosion]], when a munitions factory containing 50 tons of [[Trinitrotoluene|TNT]] exploded, killing 73 and injuring 400.

The [[Interwar|period between the two World Wars]] saw London's geographical extent growing more quickly than ever before or since. A preference for lower density suburban housing, typically [[semi-detached]], by Londoners seeking a more "rural" lifestyle, superseded Londoners' old predilection for [[terraced house]]s. This was facilitated not only by a continuing expansion of the rail network, including trams and the Underground, but also by slowly widening car ownership. London's suburbs expanded outside the boundaries of the County of London, into the neighbouring counties of [[Essex]], [[Hertfordshire]], [[Kent]], [[Middlesex]], and [[Surrey]].

Like the rest of the country, London suffered severe unemployment during the [[Great Depression]] of the 1930s. In the [[East End of London|East End]] during the 1930s, politically extreme parties of both right and left flourished. The [[Communist Party of Great Britain]] and the [[British Union of Fascists]] both gained serious support. Clashes between right and left culminated in the [[Battle of Cable Street]] in 1936. The population of London reached an all-time peak of 8.6&nbsp;million in 1939.

Large numbers of Jewish immigrants fleeing from [[Nazi Germany]] settled in London during the 1930s, mostly in the [[East End of London|East End]].

The [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] politician [[Herbert Morrison]] was a dominant figure in local government in the 1920s and 1930s. He became mayor of Hackney and a member of the London County Council in 1922, and for a while was Minister of Transport in Ramsay MacDonald's cabinet. When Labour gained power in London in 1934, Morrison unified the bus, tram and trolleybus services with the Underground, by the creation of the [[London Passenger Transport Board]] (known as London Transport) in 1933., He led the effort to finance and build the new [[Waterloo Bridge]]. He designed the [[Metropolitan Green Belt]] around the suburbs and worked to clear slums, build schools, and reform public assistance.<ref>George W. Jones and Bernard Donoughue, ''Herbert Morrison: Portrait of a Politician'' (1973) pp. 189–210.</ref>

====In World War II====
{{main|London in World War II|The Blitz}}
[[File:Blitzaftermath.jpg|thumb|250px|Firefighters putting out flames after an air raid during [[The Blitz]], 1941]]

During [[World War II]], London, as many other British cities, suffered severe damage, being bombed extensively by the ''[[Luftwaffe]]'' as a part of [[the Blitz]]. Prior to the bombing, hundreds of thousands of children in London were evacuated to the countryside to avoid the bombing. Civilians took shelter from the air raids in underground stations.

The heaviest bombing took place during [[The Blitz]] between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941. During this period, London was subjected to 71 separate raids receiving over 18,000 tonnes of high explosive. One raid in December 1940, which became known as the [[Second Great Fire of London]], saw a [[firestorm]] engulf much of the [[City of London]] and destroy many historic buildings. [[St Paul's Cathedral]], however, remained unscathed; a photograph showing the cathedral shrouded in smoke became a famous image of the war.<ref>Maureen Hill, ''The Blitz''. Marks and Spencer, 2002</ref>

Having failed to defeat Britain, [[Adolf Hitler]], the [[dictator]] of [[Nazi Germany]], turned his attention to the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern front]] and regular bombing raids ceased. They began again, but on a smaller scale with the "[[Operation Steinbock|Little Blitz]]" in early 1944. Towards the end of the war, during 1944/45 London again came under heavy attack by pilotless [[V-1 flying bomb]]s and [[V-2 rocket]]s, which were fired from Nazi occupied Europe. These attacks only came to an end when their launch sites were captured by advancing Allied forces.

London suffered severe damage and heavy casualties, the worst hit part being the [[Port of London|Docklands]] area. By the war's end, just under 30,000 Londoners had been killed by the bombing, and over 50,000 seriously injured,<ref>[http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/homefront/arp/arp4.html Air Raid Precautions] homefront website</ref> tens of thousands of buildings were destroyed, and hundreds of thousands of people were made homeless.<ref>Amy Helen Bell, ''London was ours: Diaries and memoirs of the London Blitz'' (IB Tauris, 2011)</ref>

====1945–2000====
<!--This section is linked from [[Modern London (from 1945)]]-->
{{Anchor|London 1945–2000}}
[[File:London , Piccadilly Circus looking up Shaftsbury Ave , circa 1949 ,Kodachrome by Chalmers Butterfield.jpg|thumb|250px|[[Shaftesbury Avenue]], {{Circa|1949}}]]
Three years after the war, the [[1948 Summer Olympics]] were held at the original [[Wembley Stadium (1923)|Wembley Stadium]], at a time when the city had barely recovered from the war. London's rebuilding was slow to begin. However, in 1951 the [[Festival of Britain]] was held, which marked an increasing mood of optimism and forward looking.

In the immediate postwar years housing was a major issue in London, due to the large amount of housing which had been destroyed in the war. The authorities decided upon high-rise [[tower block|blocks of flats]] as the answer to housing shortages. During the 1950s and 1960s the skyline of London altered dramatically as tower blocks were erected, although these later proved unpopular. In a bid to reduce the number of people living in overcrowded housing, a policy was introduced of encouraging people to move into newly built [[New town#United Kingdom|new towns]] surrounding London.<ref>Richard Quentin Donald Hornsey, ''The Spiv and the Architect: Unruly Life in Postwar London'' (U of Minnesota Press, 2010).</ref> Living standards also rose, with real earnings rising by approximately 70% in the 20 years after the end of the war.<ref>London The Biography by Peter Ackroyd, P.758</ref>

Through the 19th and in the early half of the 20th century, Londoners used coal for heating their homes, which produced large amounts of smoke. In combination with climatic conditions this often caused a characteristic smog, and London became known for its typical "London Fog", also known as "Pea Soupers". London was sometimes referred to as "The Smoke" because of this. In 1952, this culminated in the disastrous [[Great Smog of 1952]] which lasted for five days and killed between 10,000 to 12,000 people (according to modern estimates; government estimates at the time put the death toll at 4,000).<ref name="EHP_112_1">{{cite journal |author1= Bell, M.L. |author2=Davis, D.L. |author3=Fletcher, T. |date=2004 | title = A Retrospective Assessment of Mortality from the London Smog Episode of 1952: The Role of Influenza and Pollution | journal=[[Environmental Health Perspectives|Environ Health Perspect]] | volume = 112 | issue = 1; January | pages = 6–8 | doi = 10.1289/ehp.6539 | pmid=14698923 | pmc=1241789}}</ref> In response to this, the [[Clean Air Act 1956]] was passed, mandating the creating of "smokeless zones" where the use of "smokeless" fuels was required (this was at a time when most households still used open fires); the Act was effective.<ref>Devra L. Davis, "A look back at the London smog of 1952 and the half century since". ''Environmental health perspectives'' 110.12 (2002): A734.</ref>

[[File:Londons Carnaby Street, 1966.jpg|thumb|250px|Young people in [[Carnaby Street]] in 1966]]
Starting in the mid-1960s, and partly as a result of the success of such musicians as [[the Beatles]] and [[the Rolling Stones]], London became a centre for the worldwide [[youth culture]], exemplified by the [[Swinging London]] subculture which made [[Carnaby Street]] a household name of youth fashion around the world. London's role as a trendsetter for youth fashion continued strongly in the 1980s during the [[New wave music|new wave]] and [[Punk rock|punk]] eras and into the mid-1990s with the emergence of the [[Britpop]] era.

From the 1950s onwards London experienced an increase in immigration, largely from [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]] countries such as [[Jamaica]], [[India]], [[Bangladesh]] and [[Pakistan]]. However, the integration of the new immigrants was not always easy. Racial tensions emerged in events such as the [[1981 Brixton riot|Brixton Riots]] between 10 and 12 April 1981 in the early 1980s.<ref>Matt Cook, "'Gay Times': Identity, Locality, Memory, and the Brixton Squats in 1970's London". ''Twentieth Century British History'' (2013) 24#1 pp: 84–109.</ref>

From the beginning of "[[The Troubles]]" in [[Northern Ireland]] in the early 1970s until the mid-1990s, London was subjected to repeated [[List of terrorist incidents in London|terrorist attacks]] by the [[Provisional IRA]].

The outward expansion of London was slowed by the war, and the introduction of the [[Metropolitan Green Belt]]. Due to this outward expansion, in 1965 the old [[County of London]] (which by now only covered part of the London conurbation) and the [[London County Council]] were abolished, and the much larger area of [[Greater London]] was established with a new [[Greater London Council]] (GLC) to administer it, along with 32 new [[London borough]]s.

Greater London's population declined steadily in the decades after World War II, from an estimated peak of 8.6&nbsp;million in 1939 to around 6.8&nbsp;million in the 1980s. However, it then began to increase again in the late 1980s, encouraged by strong economic performance and an increasingly positive image.

London's traditional status as a major port declined dramatically in the post-war decades as the old [[London Docklands|Docklands]] could not accommodate large modern container ships. The principal ports for London moved downstream to the ports of [[Port of Felixstowe|Felixstowe]] and [[Port of Tilbury|Tilbury]]. The docklands area had become largely derelict by the 1980s, but was redeveloped into flats and offices from the mid-1980s onwards. The [[Thames Barrier]] was completed in the 1980s to protect London against tidal surges from the [[North Sea]].

In the early 1980s political disputes between the GLC run by [[Ken Livingstone]] and the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]] government of [[Margaret Thatcher]] led to the GLC's abolition in 1986, with most of its powers relegated to the [[London borough]]s. This left London as the only large metropolis in the world without a central administration.

In 2000, London-wide government was restored, with the creation of the [[Greater London Authority]] (GLA) by [[Tony Blair]]'s government, covering the same area of Greater London. The new authority had similar powers to the old GLC, but was made up of a directly elected [[Mayor of London|Mayor]] and a [[London Assembly]]. The first election took place on 4 May, with [[Ken Livingstone]] comfortably regaining his previous post, becoming first elected mayor of London.<ref>{{cite news |title=Official: Livingstone wins |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2000/may/05/londonmayor.london2 |work=The Guardian |date=5 May 2000}}</ref> London was recognised as one of the nine [[regions of England]]. In global perspective, it was emerging as a [[World city]] widely compared to [[New York City]] and [[Tokyo]].<ref>Greg Clark, ''The Making of a World City: London 1991 to 2021'' (John Wiley & Sons, 2014)</ref>