The class differences of the Victorian period were maintained up until the First World War (1914-1918) and afterwards. It would appear that nobody at Government level had the compassion, vision or political will to do anything about the London slums. The rich were happily amusing themselves with their new toy the motor car.
Following the war a housing programme called "Homes fit for Soldiers" commenced but soon ran out of political steam and was finally knocked on the head by the world depression in the late 1920s and 1930s.

London was still expanding throughout the whole of this period mainly fuelled by the new middle classes as they continued the move into new, out of town, purpose built "posh" estates. A good example of these are in the outskirts of south east London on the borders with Kent. Notably the estates of Farnborough and Keston Parks. (The latter close to the historical "Caesars Well" at the southern end of Keston Ponds).
All these land marks can still be visited and it is interesting to examine the jobs that created the affluence to allow detached 4 or 5 bedroom individually designed houses in a minimum of ½ acre of virgin wooded land to be purchased with little inherited money.

Keston Park is in a block between Westerham Road and Croydon Road measuring ½ mile by 1 mile approximately with an elevation of about 500 feet (half way up the northern slopes of the North Downs) so it is possible to see London some 20 miles to the north and west. Land plots were available for sale from the late 1920s. All house owners had a car and a handful had two. All houses had central heating but only one bathroom and certainly no shower. Keston Park was not serviced by any convenient railway line so the wage earner (the man in all cases) would travel to work by car to probably: local Bromley 4 miles, Orpington 4 miles, central London 20 miles, Silvertown chemical works and docks via Blackwall Tunnel 15 miles or Woolwich 8 miles. Indeed a considerable proportion of the occupants worked locally.

Keston Park was not serviced by any local shops and the lady of the house would have to visit Keston Village(5 shops) 1 mile away or Locks Bottom (adjacent to Farnborough Park) 2 miles away about 12 shops including a bank Without a car many wives went by bike or walked! Or placed an order for the weekly shopping to be delivered. Bromley was the nearest largish town which was serviced by the 410 green double decker bus running every 15 minutes to an accuracy to enable you to set your watch by it. The ladies of the house would use this for shopping in Bromley or for catching a train to London either from Bromley South (fast to Victoria) or Bromley North.(slow stopper to Charing Cross). All easy, comfortable, clean and safe modes of transport.

Dads would probably drop the kids to school in the mornings for 08.45 start and the kids would return by bus in the afternoons. All the kids without exception would go to private or High Schools. It was possible on this return journey to meet kids from the "lower class" schools of Bromley Grammar or worse the Secondary Modern. This always was confrontational and as the posh kids in posh uniforms would be out numbered and often alone, it would be advised to keep a low profile unless the posh kids from Keston were particularly large and strong.

Many Kids above the age of 8 were sent to boarding school and if not then the majority of both girls and boys would have been sent away to a posh upper-class boarding school by the time they were 13 years old. These schools were most likely to be in Kent but many children were sent to places as far afield as Malvern in Worcestershire or Oundle in Northamptonshire.

The teenagers, when home, had a good social life for boy meets girl parties either at dances (always ballroom, Waltz, Quickstep Tango, Conga etc) organised by parents or more exciting kids' own parties when the parents went out and when the party would normally deteriorate to non stop "petting" in the dark. (Petting was normally restricted to the boy, if he dared and the girl was willing, to caressing a young pair of breasts. Parties where sexual contact went further were known but would generally not take place in the posh Parks but did take place in nearby Hayes where the girls encouraged active stimulation off all parts of their bodies short of full penetrative sex. Contraceptives would probably not be known to this age group but pregnancy outside marriage was and was such a social taboo that full sex amongst teenagers was virtually unknown for this class of people.
Indeed some attractive nannies employed by these families to look after the small children who became pregnant were sent home in total disgrace never to be seen again!! (Who was the naughty dad then?)
This restriction on sex before marriage was probably the cause of couples marrying in their early 20s. The women of these partnerships would be unlikely to work after producing kids but of course were well educated and could contribute to the education of their own children.

The famous fogs
The famous London pea soupers (Fog) reached out as far south as Keston and Farnborough Parks so dense even at this distance and this altitude that parents collecting tots from parties could not do so by car but would have to walk the 5 miles or so to collect and back again!
Young girls of say 20 years old were known to call the fogs "spooky" but none of the families daughters listed above were ever molested.

Keston Park dads and their jobs.
Examples
Elm Gables Westerham Rd.
Job, Engineer working in the field of distillation (Silvertown Docks, transport private car, two children at private school) House almost the same now as in 1931 but garden now half the size (Currently run down yr. 2001)
Forest Ridge
Job, Editor Daily Mail Newspaper (Central London, transport private car, two children at private school)
Forest Drive
Job, Engineer motor manufacture. Retired

Farnborough Park was a similar where the houses today are very similar to how they were when built except that a large proportion have been extended to totally fill the width of their ¾ acre plots. Those living in Farnborough Park, other than dad who had a car, would use the 47 red double decker bus to reach Bromley for shopping and young working daughters would take the train from Bromley South to Victoria (20 minutes) for their London secretarial jobs. All the 17 year old sons would have some form of motorised transport but not the daughters.

Farnborough Park dads and their jobs
Examples
Elm Walk
Job, specialist in bitumen road surfaces, One child
Sunnydale
Job, owner of small engineering works (inventor of aeroplane wing shapes) making parts for cars and aeroplanes in Bromley, Three children
Woodway
Job, Joint owner of a company renting out catering equipment in Woolwich. Two children
Woodway
Job, Stock Broker central London. Two daughters.
Park Avenue
Job, Owner of bespoke clothing manufacturing company. Two children.
Park Avenue
Job, Importer of tea, Office in Bromley, Two children
Meadow Way
Job, Owner of (real) estate agency in Bromley. Two Children
The Glen
Job, Owner of a small company in Farnborough village manufacturing car foot-pumps. Two children.
The Glen
Job, Army Brigadier. Two children
Sunnydale
Job, Accountant and partner in a major city firm of accountants, two children

Hence the majority of the house owners of these estates were self made men running their own businesses within a few miles of their houses or professionals engineers or senior managers, directors or partners working for larger companies in the London area. Some would have served in the First World War and the majority would have had active service in the Second World War. By far the vast majority had two children both sent to private school with many boarding as far away as the Midlands. Of all the house owners listed only one was known to have a divorced partner. All had daily cleaners who would walk or bike to work from either Farnborough Village (or the nearby Crofton Road council estate) or Keston Village as appropriate. These "Mrs Mops" were part of the family they worked for and were fully trusted. In all the families mentioned above all the kids also "loved" Mrs Mop. Only one of the families mentioned above had a live in permanent cleaner/helper who was the only one called by her Christian name (Beryl) others were known affectionately as either Mrs P or straight Mrs Breckon. Generally the husbands of the Mrs Mops were artisans that is they would have skills like plumbing or carpentry or painting and decorating. All would have served in the Second World War and both Mrs Mop and her husband would smoke, probably "Woodbines" up to 60 per day.

In the 1930s most of the house owners would have smoked and some but not all of their wives. None of their children would have openly smoked in front of their parents before they were 21. (The 21 key of the door phrase which meant the young offspring of either sex could stay out after midnight went out during the Second World War). Very young offspring would start school at 3 at a kindergarten in a private house. There was one main one which served Keston and Farnborough Park, Miss Figgis' in Crofton Road. This was 3 miles from the far side of Keston Park and 3 year olds would walk! The two children of the family with this 3 mile walk were accompanied by their grandfather (80 years old) who obviously had to walk 12 miles a day for this task.