Editing Erith (section)

===Industrial era===
In 1797 [[Edward Hasted]] described Erith as "one small street of houses, which leads to the water side", and mentions annual fairs at [[Ascension Day|Ascension]] and [[Michaelmas]].<ref name="hasted">{{Cite web |title=Parishes: Erith - British History Online |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=62813 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903013445/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=62813 |archive-date=3 September 2014 |access-date=7 May 2018 |website=www.british-history.ac.uk |df=dmy-all}}</ref> In 1831 Erith's population was 1,533. It was composed in 1840 "chiefly of two streets, one leading down to the water side, the other branching off to the left towards the church."<ref name="pigots">{{Cite web |title=RootsWeb.com Home Page |url=http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~shebra/pigots_1840_-_crayford,_erith_&c_.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080205235812/http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~shebra/pigots_1840_-_crayford%2C_erith_%26c_.htm |archive-date=5 February 2008 |access-date=7 May 2018 |website=freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com |df=dmy-all}}</ref>

[[File:28 and 30 Erith High Street (II).jpg|thumb|right|28 and 30 Erith High Street, a building with eighteenth-century origins in Erith.]]

By 1849 Erith was enjoying a short spell as a riverside resort. Its pier and nearby hotel gave hospitality for [[day-tripper]]s arriving on Thames pleasure boats or by rail.<ref name=erithhistory/> An [[arboretum]] with extensive pleasure grounds was opened to attract visitors.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Blanchard |first=Edward Litt Leman |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7htbAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA104 |title=Adams's Pocket Descriptive Guide to the Environs of the Metropolis, etc |date=1850 |publisher=W. J. Adams |page=104}}</ref>

The [[Local Government Act 1894]] brought into existence Erith Urban District, which became the [[Municipal Borough of Erith]] in 1938. It included [[Northumberland Heath]] and [[Belvedere, London|Belvedere]].

Erith Iron Works was established in 1864 on a riverside site at Anchor Bay, east of Erith's centre, by [[William Anderson (engineer)|William Anderson]].<ref name="anderson">[http://www.bexley.gov.uk/localstudies/local_history/guide_pdfs/66_sir_william_anderson_1834-1898.pdf Bexley Local Studies Note 66 'Sir William Anderson']{{dead link|date=December 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Accessed 6 June 2008.</ref>

On 1 October 1864 a 46½-ton [[Embanking of the tidal Thames#The Erith explosion|gunpowder explosion]] blew out the river wall, exposing large areas of South London to flooding at high tide. A crowd of navvies and soldiers directed by a local engineer managed to plug the gap just before high water.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Moore |first=Lewis |year=1865 |title=On the Erith Explosion, and the Repair of the Thames Embankment |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101049914268&view=1up&seq=209&q1=erith |journal=Society of Engineers Transactions for 1864 |location=London |publisher=E & FN Spon |pages=183–199 |access-date=16 November 2020}}</ref>

From 1881 an area north-west of Erith's centre was the site of a cable works founded by William Callender. This became [[British Insulated Callender's Cables]] (BICC) and eventually [[Pirelli]], which announced its partial closure in 2003. The remainder became [[Prysmian]].