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The Great Depression of 1930s (Economic Effects (London in some parts…

- - - - The north was hit so hard in the Great Depression because of the structural decline in British industry.
      - Between 1929 and 1932 ship production declined by 90%, and this in turn affected all the supply industries such as steel and coal.
        
        By the mid-1930s there were also signs of recovery in the heavy industries which had been hardest hit by the depression. Steel production, which had fallen to 5·2 million tons in 1932, rose to 7 million tons in 1933, and went through a prolonged expansion to reach 13 million tons by 1937. (Stevenson and Cook)
        
        The main sources of expansion were the new steel plants set up to make use of the low-grade ironstone ores of Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire.
      - The basis of the country’s prosperity in the years before the First World War was from coal-mining, textiles, iron and steel. (John Stevenson and Chris Cook)
  - - - It was not until the first year of the Second World War that unemployment fell below a million.
  - - - Finally in 1931 the pound was devalued by 25 per cent, helping exporters by making their goods cheaper abroad, and helping to start the recovery.
  - - - The London area provided the largest market in the country for a wide range of light industrial and consumer goods.
      - Growth in the new industries which provided the basis for a revival of the British economy in the mid-1930s.
      - Between 1932 and 1937, four fifths of the new factories in Britain were sited in Greater London, including two-thirds of new employment. Stevenson and Cook
        
        Ford, for example, employed 7,000 People at its Dagenham factory by 1932
        
        Marks and Spencer, for example, one of the most successful of the clothing retailers, opened 129 stores from 1931 to 1935
        
        Job opportunities were expanding for shop-workers, clerical staff, transport employees and the professional and managerial salariat.
    - - 'Giant cinemas and dance-halls and cafés, bungalows with tiny garages, cocktail bars, Woolworths, motor coaches, wireless, hiking, factory girls looking like actresses, greyhound racing and dirt tracks, swimming pools, and everything given away for cigarette coupons.' Priestley
    - - The inter-war period saw the completion of over 4 million houses, 2 1/2 million for private sale, and the rest for rent by local authorities. The bulk of this housing boom came in the 1930s when nearly 3 million houses were built, mainly for private sale.
- - - - As late as 1951 the Labour Party campaigned with the election slogan of ‘Ask your Dad!’ an illustration of the way in which the emotive image of the ‘hungry thirties’ had become part of the repertoire of political cliché. Stevenson and Cook
  - - - Using the mass production methods of assembly lines and large modern factories, the number of motor vehicles produced each year rose from 95,000 in 1923 to over 500,000 in 1937.
      - The location of the industry was strikingly different from that of the old heavy industries, being primarily concentrated in the Midlands and the London area, especially in Coventry, Birmingham, Luton, Oxford and Dagenham.
- - - - They brought with them increased opportunities for travel, greater leisure time and a widening range of consumer goods. By the middle years of the decade, Britain was on average better paid, better fed, better clothed and housed, and healthier than it had ever been.