Epsom, High Street c.1955

Photo ref: E37048

More about this scene

The Downs, like Horton and the common, were now part of London's Green Belt, and no further development would take place on them. For the first time in centuries, this meant that the borough's population remained stable at between 60,000 and 70,000 people. New town planners distrusted the earlier, casual dispersal of houses and manufacturers along the same street, deciding that in future there would be zoning, with different areas of the town set apart for different purposes. East Street had grown up as a scruffy artisan area between the railway tracks, but now its character was changed by several administrative buildings, starting in 1950 with Clayton House for the Ministries of Labour and of Pensions. Next along there was the sorting house of the Post Office, built in 1956 on the site of the old Barnardo's, and after that came the offices of the newly nationalised utilities.