Industrial Estates and British Industrial Development, 1897-1939

This article examines the role of pre-1939 British industrial estates in facilitating the growth, and influencing the location, of manufacturing firms. Highly concentrated in outer-London and the South-East, and strongly associated with the 'new industries' of the 'Second Industrial Revolution', industrial estates rapidly expanded to accommodate plants employing around 285, 000 people by 1939. They are shown to have provided a number of important advantages to manufacturers, which fostered external economies of scale, reduced production costs, and accelerated growth. An analysis of the national growth of estate facilities and their employment is provided, together with an assessment of their contribution to industrial development in the South-East over the period 1932-38.