The construction of the White City Estate began in the late 1930s and was finished after the Second World War. It is named after the White City Exhibition that took place on the site in 1908.
The estate was built by the London County Council. 23 blocks were completed by the outbreak of the war, with the rest completed afterward.
Most of the names of the buildings on the White City Estate are named after men who served the British Empire in various colonial settings - mainly in India.
The White City Exhibition
The White City Exhibition of 1908 was a huge 200-acre site with palaces, halls, stadium and canals. It looked very similar to Venice!
The buildings were covered with white stucco (decorative plaster), but the name didn’t just come from the exhibition’s white buildings.
Entertainer Imre Kiralfy was the mastermind behind the project and ‘borrowed’ the White City name from Chicago.
The first exhibition was open from May to October 1908.
It attracted more than 8 million visitors and celebrated Britain’s friendship with France after the signing of the Entente Cordiale in 1904.
Today, many of the roads in the area are named after African locations and countries that had displays at the White City Exhibition including:
- South Africa Road
- India Way
- Bloemfontein Road
- Loftus Road
- Australia Road
- New Zealand Way.
