East
London was founded in April 1847 as a port for the Crown Colony of British
Kaffraria. It would be given the name "London", which was
quickly changed to "East London" because of the natural
confusion of the original title. In January 1848 the port would be annexed
to the Cape Colony to alleviate a rising smuggling problem, and would only
be returned to British Kaffraria in 1859. In 1857 and 1858 the urban area
would expand with the arrival of the German settlers, when two new
villages of Panmure and Cambridge would be established on the eastern bank
of the Buffalo River.
With the construction of the Queenstown railway in 1873, with its terminus at Panmure, the eastern side of the town quickly grew to prominence and soon became the centre of the business community. A municipality was also established in 1873, with two wards (West Bank and East Bank). In 1881, with the incorporation of the town, a third ward would be added which would be called Panmure (although not in any way geographically related to the original Panmure of 1857). A fourth ward would be added in 1896.
The
town suffered immeasurably from a protracted recession after 1883, but
when gold was discovered in 1886, prosperity would return. Indeed, the era
from 1890 to 1905 saw immense physical growth at East London by way of
street construction, provision of electricity, the construction of a town
hall and the 
establishment of a tramway system. A renewed recession after
the Anglo-Boer War, however, would put a dampener on further growth.
The establishment of a Union of South Africa in 1910 would introduce minor changes to East London. Most notable was the town's surrender of its legal status in terms of its various Acts of Parliament under the Cape Colony, and the acceptance of new status under the Provincial Ordinances of the Cape Province. In June 1914 the town would be elevated to the status of a city.
