Becontree (/ˈbɛkəntriː/ or /ˈbiːkəntriː/[notes 1]) is an area of approximately 4 square miles (10 km2) in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham.

It is located 11 miles (17.7 km) east-northeast of Charing Cross and was constructed in the interwar period as the largest public housing estate in the world.

The building of the estate caused a huge increase in population density, which led to demands on services and reforms of local government.

The estate had no industrial and very little commercial development until the May & Baker and Ford Dagenham sites opened nearby, and a shopping area was built at Heathway.

On 18 June 1919 the London County Council's Standing Committee on the Housing of the Working Classes resolved to build 29,000 dwellings to accommodate 145,000 people within 5 years, of which 24,000 were to be at Becontree.

[4] Source: The very first houses completed, in Chittys Lane, are recognisable by a blue council plaque embedded in the wall.

It connected the railway sidings at Goodmayes on the Great Eastern line and a wharf with a new 500 ft jetty, on the River Thames.

[5] On 13 July 1935 the official completion of the estate was celebrated with the ceremonial opening of Parsloes Park by MP Christopher Addison.

After the Second World War, between 1949 and 1951, 600 additional houses were built by the LCC in Dagenham in an area called Heath Park, adjacent to the estate.

[8] The LCC built the estate to rehouse people from London's East End, who were displaced by slum clearance.

[9] Prospective tenants were interviewed by London County Council officials in their homes to check their suitability and the size of family, their domestic standards and financial resources.

The tenants came from the skilled working class in relatively secure jobs and earning slightly more than the average wage.

[4] At the time everyone marvelled at having indoor toilets and a private garden, although the sash windows were extremely draughty, there was no insulation in the attics, and during the winter months very few people could afford enough coal to heat the bedrooms.

When built, the development occupied parts of the parishes of Barking, Dagenham and Ilford, with administration split between the three respective urban district councils.

However, the division of responsibilities allowed for the local councils to provide elementary education in their areas as their populations were high enough.

During the 1920s and 1930s there was periodic discussion and review of the local government arrangements in the area, including proposals to merge the three districts, or transfer the estate to the County of London, but it was not acted on.

[15][16] Following the review, in April 1994 an area of 90 hectares with a population of 200, was transferred from Redbridge to Barking and Dagenham, and a new ward of Becontree electing two councillors was created.

Water supply in the whole estate came from the South Essex Waterworks Company, but sewerage was split on municipal lines.

[19] In 1927 the LCC was reluctant to agree that the Postmaster General should provide subscriber telephone lines to the estate, as it was considered incongruous for residents of a subsidised housing scheme to be able to afford such a luxury.

However, LCC was only a landlord in the area and had limited ability to influence commercial development and had no control over local government.

[20] The LCC planned a tramway through the estate, filling some of the wide spaces on roads left by the special railway, but it was never built.

The elderly man and his wife who lived in Mill Lane, Chadwell Heath and toured the estate in a horse-drawn cart on Saturday mornings selling logs and firewood (mostly tarred wood taken from the East End roads when they were replaced by tarmac) saw their business collapse overnight.