Recent work on the Lateglacial of north-west Europe has concentrated on the early spread of the Magdalenian following the Last Glacial Maximum at 18,000 BP. Current AMS radiocarbon evidence indicates that this probably occurred around 13,200 BP and was mainly restricted to the loessic plateau lands. In this paper we examine evidence for recolonisation of areas on the edge of the main Magdalenian distribution, in the deglaciated sandier soils of the north European plain. Here, the earliest AMS radiocarbon dates for the Creswellian and Hamburgian suggests that reoccupation was delayed by up to half a millennium. We examine the Magdalenian influences on the Creswellian, and the subsequent development of Final Upper Palaeolithic industries in Britain.