This blog post examines how London and New York addressed urban overcrowding through suburbanization during the 19th-century industrial era.
London, the heart of Britain—the land where the sun never sets, home to Oxford and Shakespeare—and New York, often called America’s second capital, a global financial hub, and an indispensable city in America’s early development. These cities have undergone countless development processes to become the metropolises they are today. While these megacities share many characteristics, one fascinating commonality is the development of their suburban areas. However, during the industrial era when everything was concentrated in city centers, these cities would not have developed as they have today without the numerous efforts to develop suburban areas.
Europe confronting the wave of industrialization. During the Victorian era, population surged, and slumification spread due to the ills of industrialization. Through the efforts of many local reformers and legal and financial experts, these problems gradually began to be addressed. Suburbanization policies implemented within this historical context focused on decentralizing cities. The fundamental concept of suburbanization involved constructing housing or factories in suburban areas and connecting them to the city center. Furthermore, efforts were made to accelerate suburbanization by developing new transportation technologies and lowering the cost of new housing through access to cheap labor and resources. We will first examine London, where suburbanization occurred earliest and progressed more effectively than in other cities.
In London, suburban development was initiated by the London County Council. In the early 1900s, Britain’s rapidly growing population made London congested, with everything concentrated in the city center. Booth, a British urban planner at the time, believed that improved transportation was the only way to solve this overcrowding problem. The Progressive Party of the London County Council accepted this view and, after gaining authority to develop outlying areas, launched four estate projects. They began laying tramways in Totem Downfield, Norbury, Tottenham, and Old Oak, but only the Old Oak project succeeded. While opinions vary on Old Oak’s success, the prevailing view is that suburban rents and underground fares were far more expensive than inner-city slum rents, making the relocation policy effective only for some affluent individuals. Nevertheless, large-scale urban planning in Britain achieved a high standard of construction. Meanwhile, in other major British cities, unlike London, there was a perception that problems would be solved only if private housing development flourished, and efforts at the city level were lacking. Ultimately, legislation was passed allowing private developers to proceed autonomously, and local authorities gained firm control over newly constructed housing.
The London County Council never abandoned the idea that the Underground was effective against suburban sprawl. After World War I, as public transport emerged as the most vital resource, attempts to utilize it increased. Americans began participating in these public transport projects; they recognized the commercial value of land along tram lines and began systematically laying tram tracks to develop the suburbs surrounding the routes. In cities including London, legislation passed allowing private developers to proceed autonomously, meaning these activities faced no legal regulation. During this process, Frank Pick and Albert Stanley, the greatest urban transit management team in London’s history, made their mark. They developed bus routes originating from subway terminals and continually explored the potential for new rail services. Consequently, a large-scale railway network traversing all of London was constructed and proved highly successful. While expensive fares imposed limitations, these developments enabled London’s suburbanization.
In New York, suburbanization occurred through the concept of zoning. Unlike London with its relatively long history, New York, with its comparatively shorter history, achieved a more advanced level of suburbanization than London. Zoning refers to the practice in urban planning or architectural design of dividing and allocating space functionally according to its intended use and legal regulations. New York implemented this policy because it possessed significantly more land than London. New York concentrated its zoning efforts in three areas—Lake Forest, Riverside, and Forest Hills Gardens—to drive suburbanization. New York rapidly relocated basic infrastructure to the outskirts, but faced the limitation that few residents lived in the suburbs, resulting in a small beneficiary population.
Before zoning, New York’s urban planners developed the world’s first rapid subway system, capable of speeds up to 40 miles per hour. This was an attempt to address the city’s rapid growth, its expanding population, and the challenges posed by New York’s complex topography. At the time, New York was the world’s second-largest metropolis, initially composed of several islands due to treacherous waterways. However, like many other cities, the cost of moving to the suburbs was far higher than the rent in inner-city slums. Consequently, only high-income residents could afford single-family homes in suburban areas, while impoverished laborers were forced to remain in the overcrowded city center. Moreover, public transportation was often called a “double-edged sword” in urban planning: while an effective means of moving people to the suburbs, it also accelerated the overcrowding of the city center. Therefore, New York needed a new solution, and the answer was the introduction of the zoning system.
Benjamin C. Marsh, Secretary of the New York City Commission, a lawyer, and social reformer, was inspired by zoning in Frankfurt, Germany, and brought it to New York. While other cities had already implemented zoning, New York was the first to adopt the German-style zoning system. Zoning began with regulations on land use and building height. This introduction is considered one of the most significant developments in American history. Manhattan was already the commercial center of the United States and the world at that time, and thus possessed fundamentally different characteristics from other areas. Commerce was more important than residential use, and the importance of building volume and size was greater than anywhere else.
The practice of zoning began in Manhattan’s commercial districts, where employees of high-end shopping streets started utilizing zoning to protect property values. In short, zoning involved dividing areas and assigning them to people, playing a crucial role in merchants’ disputes over vested interests. Merchants supported zoning to protect their own interests. As zoning was formally introduced, it evolved beyond merely serving merchants’ interests. Legally established zoning began regulating private land use for the health, safety, ethics, and welfare of the community. Americans were particularly more positive about zoning than even Germany, its birthplace, due to the pervasive selfishness in early American development. During a chaotic period of immigration from around the world, they used zoning as a shield to preserve their property values, and in well-zoned areas, property values stabilized and actually increased.
In London, zoning led the way in suburbanization through advancements in transportation technology and the efforts of the state legislature. In New York, zoning served as a means to protect the interests of powerful merchants. Building on these beginnings, New York and London, the twin pillars of suburbanization, succeeded in suburbanizing based on cheap labor and resources. The development process of these cities is highly fascinating, and this development process influenced many cities.
