INTRODUCTION

The reality of London has never been easy to grasp – the character of this vast city has been shrouded in uncertainty and ambiguity and much has depended on the perspective of the observer. Most obviously, there have been the contradictions arising from London's various, overlapping spatial contexts – London has operated and has been experienced at sub-metropolitan, metropolitan, regional, national and international levels. Each of these arenas has generated a particular ‘London view’, and much of London's history since 1750 can be seen as a series of conflicts arising from the associated interests and tensions. Yet despite its ‘chinese box’ character, a fundamental feature of London has been its stability and continuity.

The basis of London's orderliness has, paradoxically, been its continued dynamism, driven by a particular type of physical and economic growth that permitted both interdependence and autonomy. The two centuries between 1750 and 1950 can be regarded as the benchmarks of this inherently stable, though expansionist era for London – after 1950, changed economic and political conditions accentuated the fragility of London, forcing previously hidden and unresolved contradictions in metropolitan life to the centre of the social and political stage.

The prism through which London is viewed in what follows is that of the impact of the metropolis on the Home Counties – that is, its expansion from the old core cities of London and Westminster, through Middlesex, and later Surrey, Essex, Kent and Hertfordshire. The nature of that impact, its causes and consequences cannot, however, be comprehensively assessed.