If in 1700 London was composed of a series of communities spread along the Thames, each of which was within easy reach of open fields, by the end of the century, encouraged by new roads and new bridges, London had become a massive urban sprawl. The metropolis had begun to escape the magnetic attraction of the River, and to make ever-deeper inroads into rural Middlesex and Surrey.
The nature of the built environment that filled these once rural fields was both squalid and grandiose. Up until at least the passage of the London Building Act of 1774, many suburban developments were haphazard and of poor quality, the work of speculators -- poor carpenters and bricklayers, using even poorer materials. During periodic depressions in the building industry houses put up in hope of attracting middling sort and rich occupants were let out room by room to the very poor. House collapses were common, with whole families occasionally crushed in their beds. To the East and North of the City, the huddled extramural communities of London suffered poor housing and poor infrastructure, made tolerable only by the almost unbounded demand for casual labour on the quays and wharves and in the service industries of the city.
contrast, the West End was built to a higher standard. The urban palaces of the aristocracy stood shoulder to shoulder around the formal squares that came to characterise Westminster. Chains, iron railings and padlocks increasingly served to segregate the rich from their neighbours. At the same time the back streets and mews that filled the areas between the squares retained a diverse community of artisans, service workers and paupers.
New types of street lighting, of paving and water supply grew in the same pattern, with remarkably high standards to be found in the West End and in those parts of the City rebuilt after the Great Fire, and equally remarkably low standards in many other areas. In some areas ground water from public wells was still the only source, and mud still filled the unimproved roads for much of the year. At the end of the century, the building of the huge, enclosed docks east of the Tower only served to emphasise the relative squalor of the communities around.
http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/oldbailey/history/london-life/london-life18th.html
