INDUSTRIAL LONDON

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIV, Issue LIV, 16 October 1920, Page 8

INDUSTRIAL LONDON

Twenty years ago ho would not, have been considered a bold man who.prophesied that London would soon cease to bo a manufacturing city, says the Daily Mail Then one firm alter another was moving out of London into the country or In tlu> roast and the north, Yarrow's and Thornycrolt's Jolt the Thames_ the London and Soldh-Western Halfway moved its car riage and engine works to IvasHeight, and many engineering businesses wine iakt-u to distant I owns. .fjOiuh.nl, it was said, was played out a« an engineering centre. It is true enough that there are more factories and work;; in the northern half of England than in the southern, and that London, in proportion to her size, is not an industrial city to the extent that some other great towns are. lint the south is hemming in cream ugly industrial, an ( ] London ift more of, a manufacturing city to day than ever she has been. The' centralising of industry in the eoa!fields lias ceased. Lack of room, perhaps as much as anything else, had led manufacturer's to place their works in the green del do rather Hum among (he colliery dumps. And [hanks fo new sources of power. 1 here is no longer the old. dependence’ noon the near, by pit. So 'industry is going south, into- the counties that wo t bought sleepy though more pleasant to live in. As a. result, 0 renter London, reckoned widely from Dartford in the south -

east to Hayes in the west, and frA-m (Voydon on the south to BL Albans in Uie nijff.il, is now a busy industrial area. Her outer suburbs are full of factories, many of them big and of the greatest importance. Hayes, Acton, Willesden, and Hendon on. her western mdo, and even the little pleasure, places on the Thames, are following the lead oi Hraylordj Liifh, lAoo.Avieli, Silvertown, •Sf-rfildo.rd, Walt.hamsi (iw. and Tolleiiham on Hie east and becoming engineering centres. So 01 manv pails of SonHiero Lng I hmd. Lullin' once “ nl , v for j si.saw ha Is. now has many engineering I works. Ami many a. piece of mactii-pei-y beam I lie name, not ol one o! Hie 1 mval industrial towns of I lie. north, but of gome lit He country town in -he southern counties. Probably we have seen Hie last greaj coneentrat-ion of mdiishy- Ihal of Hie cvi-le and motor trades at Coventry. Industry will drill more ami more into the open spaces of Hie south And perhaps when that- long-talked ol bar rage io tap the energy ol the Sm-mm is at last made, southern Lugj i, m d rather Ilian Hie north will have, the chief eource el pore!’. j ... -1 ■IJ-aMliifllK '*■*«