the history of Leyton and Leytonstone
from . dot to … dots – with plenty of spaces
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Employment continued
1979-97
1994 was the worst year for unemployment in London, the area with the highest unemployment rate nationally being the inner London boroughs 1.
Many people who grew up and were educated in Leyton could relate easily to the expanding mass media and popular culture, an outstanding example being Jonathan Ross. They were less likely to have been encouraged to exploit their original creative talent (Lena Kennedy was inspired by a creative writing teacher in Hackney but found the equivalent at Leyton rule-bound and demoralising 2). Even less likely were they to be fitted for new banking jobs an easy journey away on the Isle of Dogs. But someone who helped create the London ‘eurodollar market’, Sir George Lewis French Bolton, was educated at Leyton County High School for Boys (before it got its building in Essex Road). Jerry White in ‘London in the Twentieth Century: A City and Its People’ explains how the eurodollar market started in London to escape US government controls on lending rates and borrowing by foreign companies. “London was chosen over potential European competitors because of its world expertise in shipping, commodities and insurance; a liberal regulatory and tax regime; the use of English as the world business language and English law as the framework for international trade; its excellent communications and its position as a time zone.” Offices in Stratford were profitably converted into private sector flats, presumably selling to those with jobs in the financial sector in Docklands and the City. Adjacent Leyton has seen no such development. Its new flats are mainly social housing, unprepossessing in external appearance with cheap standardised materials and token decoration.
