Becontree

About

Becontree ( or ) is an area of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, England, 11 miles (17.7 km) northeast of Charing Cross. It was constructed between 1921 and 1935 as the largest public housing estate in the world. The Housing, Town Planning, &c. Act 1919 allowed London County Council to build housing outside the County of London and Becontree was designed to cottage estate principles in Barking, Dagenham and Ilford, then in the administrative county of Essex. The official completion of the estate was celebrated in 1935, by which time the estate had a population of around 100,000 people in 26,000 homes.

The building of the estate caused a huge increase in population density, which led to demands on services and reforms of local government. An additional 1,000 houses were added in later phases. The estate had no industrial and very little commercial development until the May & Baker and Ford Dagenham sites opened nearby, and a shopping area was built at Heathway. The estate has formed part of Greater London since 1965, when the Barking section was combined with Dagenham, and has been within a single London borough since boundary changes caused the Ilford section to be transferred from Redbridge to Barking and Dagenham in 1994.