Editing History of London (section)

====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>