Act of Parliament | |
Long title | An Act for the better Local Management of the Metropolis |
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Citation | 18 & 19 Vict. c. 120 |
Territorial extent | England and Wales |
Dates | |
Royal assent | 14 August 1855 |
Commencement | 1 January 1856 |
Other legislation | |
Repealed by |
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Status: Partially repealed | |
Text of statute as originally enacted | |
Text of the Metropolis Management Act 1855 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk. |
The Metropolis Management Act 1855 (18 & 19 Vict. c. 120) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that created the Metropolitan Board of Works, a London-wide body to co-ordinate the construction of the city's infrastructure. The Act also created a second tier of local government consisting of parish vestries and district boards of works. The Metropolitan Board of Works was the forerunner of the London County Council.
The Royal Commission on the City of London considered the case for creation of an authority for the whole of London. Its report recommended the creation of a limited-function Metropolitan Board of Works and seven municipal corporations based on existing parliamentary representation. [2]
The act constituted the Metropolitan Board of Works and provided that its members should be chosen by the parish vestries and district boards also constituted by the act. The first election of members was to take place on 12 December 1855. From 1857, one third of the board was to go out of office on the third Wednesday of June every year. The board was to take over the powers, duties and liabilities of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers and the Metropolitan Buildings Office on 1 January 1856. Its area of responsibility was to be that designated by the Registrar General as London in the 1851 census. [3]
The second tier of local government was to be based on the existing vestries of civil parishes in an area comprising parts of the counties of Middlesex, Kent and Surrey.
Section 42 of the Act dealt with the incorporation of vestries and district boards.
Where single parishes became a local authority they were to have the title:
"The Vestry of the Parish of _______ in the County of ________"
Where parishes were grouped the resulting authority took the title:
"The Board of Works for the _________ District"
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The following were detached parts of parishes and districts: 5a Kensal Green; 15a Penge Hamlet; 34a St Anne; 35a detached portion of Streatham parish; 36a Kensington Gardens Not shown is Clerkenwell Detached, an exclave of that parish within Hornsey, Middlesex. |
Electing authority | Number of members elected to MBW | Administrative headquarters |
---|---|---|
City of London | 3 | Guildhall |
Bermondsey Vestry (Surrey) | 1 | Town Hall, Spa Road, Bermondsey |
Bethnal Green Vestry (Middlesex) | 1 | Vestry Hall, Bethnal Green |
Camberwell Vestry (Surrey) | 1 | Vestry Hall, Peckham Road |
Chelsea Vestry (Middlesex) | 1 | Town Hall, King's Road, Chelsea |
St. James & St. John Clerkenwell Vestry (Middlesex) | 1 | Vestry Hall, 58 Rosomon Street, Clerkenwell (replaced by Town Hall in Rosebery Avenue 1895) |
Fulham District, comprising: | 1 | Town Hall, Walham Green |
Greenwich District, comprising: | 1 | 141 Greenwich Road, Greenwich |
Hackney District, comprising: | 1 | Town Hall, Hackney |
Hampstead Vestry (Middlesex) | 1 | Vestry Hall, Haverstock Hill, Hampstead |
Holborn District, comprising: | 1 | Town Hall, Gray's Inn Road |
Islington St Mary Vestry (Middlesex) | 2 | Vestry Hall, Upper Street, Islington |
Kensington Vestry (Middlesex) | 1 | Town Hall, Kensington |
Lambeth Vestry (Surrey) | 2 | Vestry Hall, Kennington Green |
Lewisham District comprising: | 1 member jointly with Plumstead District | Catford |
Limehouse District comprising: | 1 | White Horse Street, Commercial Road |
Hamlet of Mile End Old Town Vestry (Middlesex) | 1 | Vestry Hall, Bancroft Road, Mile End Road |
Newington Vestry (Surrey) | 1 | Vestry Hall, Walworth Road |
Paddington Vestry (Middlesex) | 1 | Vestry Hall, Harrow Road |
Plumstead District comprising: | 1 member jointly with Lewisham District | Old Charlton |
Poplar District comprising: | 1 | 117 High Street, Poplar |
Rotherhithe Vestry (Surrey) | 1 member jointly with St Olave District | Public Baths, Lower Road, Rotherhithe |
St George Hanover Square Vestry (Middlesex) | 2 | Vestry Hall, Mount Street, Grosvenor Square |
St George in the East Vestry (Middlesex) | 1 | Vestry Hall, Cable Street |
St Giles District comprising: | 1 | 197 High Holborn |
St Luke Middlesex Vestry (Middlesex) | 1 | Vestry Hall, City Road |
St Martin in the Fields Vestry (Middlesex) | 1 | Town Hall, Charing Cross Road |
St Marylebone Vestry (Middlesex) | 2 | Court House, Marylebone Lane |
St Olave District comprising: | 1 member jointly with Rotherhithe Vestry | Vine Street, Tooley Street, Southwark |
St Pancras Vestry (Middlesex) | 2 | Vestry Hall, Pancras Road |
St Saviour's District comprising: | 1 | 3 Emerson Street, Bankside |
Shoreditch St Leonard Vestry (Middlesex) | 2 | Shoreditch Town Hall, Old Street |
Southwark St George the Martyr Vestry (Surrey) | 1 | Vestry Hall, 81 Borough Road |
Strand District comprising: | 1 | 5 Tavistock Street |
Wandsworth District comprising: | 1 | East Hill, Wandsworth |
Westminster District comprising: | 1 | Town Hall, Caxton Street, Westminster |
Westminster St James Vestry (Middlesex) | 1 | Vestry Hall, Piccadilly |
Whitechapel District comprising: | 1 | 15 Great Alie Street, Whitechapel |
Woolwich Local Board (Kent) | 1 | Town Hall, Woolwich |
A number of extra-parochial places lay within the Metropolitan Board of Works' area but were not included in any district:
In 1886, the Fulham District Board of Works was dissolved and the two parish vestries of Fulham and Hammersmith became local authorities. Fulham Vestry continued to use the existing town hall at Walham Green, while Hammersmith Vestry built a town hall at Hammersmith Broadway.
In 1889, the Local Government Act replaced the Metropolitan Board of Works with the London County Council, and the area of the board became the County of London. From that date, the various parishes were separated from Middlesex, Kent and Surrey and placed for all purposes in the new county, while the vestries and district boards continued to function under the aegis of the new county council.
In 1894, the Hackney District Board of Works was dissolved, with the vestries of Hackney and Stoke Newington assuming the powers of the district board. Stoke Newington Vestry built a town hall at 126 Church Street. At the same time, the Vestry of the Parish of Plumstead became a separate authority, with the remaining four parishes of Plumstead District being reconstituted as Lee District Board of Works.
In 1896, the parishes of Southwark St Olave and St Thomas were combined as a civil parish.
In 1900, metropolitan boroughs created by the London Government Act replaced the vestries and district boards.
As of October 2012 [update] , the majority of the Act has been repealed with only sections 239 and 240 remaining in force. Section 239 deals with the maintenance of enclosed gardens and section 240 relates to obligations under the Crown Estate Paving Act 1851. [4]
The Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW) was the upper tier of local government for London between 1856 and 1889, primarily responsible for upgrading infrastructure. It also had a parks and open spaces committee which set aside and opened up several landmark parks. The metropolis, which the board served, included substantial parts of Middlesex, Surrey, and Kent throughout the 33 years leading up to the advent of county councils. This urban zone lay around the medieval-sized City of London but plans to enact a similar body in 1837 failed. Parliament finally passed the Metropolis Management Act 1855 which dissolved a short-lived building office and a sewers commission and made the Board effective as of December that year. The board endured until it was succeeded by London County Council, as its directly elected, direct successor, in March 1889.
The County of London was a county of England from 1889 to 1965, corresponding to the area known today as Inner London. It was created as part of the general introduction of elected county government in England, by way of the Local Government Act 1888. The Act created an administrative County of London, which included within its territory the City of London. However, the City of London and the County of London formed separate ceremonial counties for "non-administrative" purposes. The local authority for the county was the London County Council (LCC), which initially performed only a limited range of functions, but gained further powers during its 76-year existence. The LCC provided very few services within the City of London, where the ancient Corporation monopolised local governance. In 1900, the lower-tier civil parishes and district boards were replaced with 28 new metropolitan boroughs. The territory of the county was 74,903 acres (303.12 km2) in 1961. During its existence, there was a long-term decline in population as more residents moved into the outer suburbs; there were periodic reviews of the local government structures in the greater London area and several failed attempts to expand the boundaries of the county. In 1965, the London Government Act 1963 replaced the county with the much larger Greater London administrative area.
Islington was a civil parish and metropolitan borough in London, England. It was an ancient parish within the county of Middlesex, and formed part of The Metropolis from 1855. The parish was transferred to the County of London in 1889 and became a metropolitan borough in 1900. It was amalgamated with the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury to form the London Borough of Islington in Greater London in 1965.
Hammersmith was a civil parish and metropolitan borough in London, England. It was formed as a civil parish in 1834 from the chapelry of Hammersmith that had existed in the ancient parish of Fulham, Middlesex since 1631. The parish was grouped with Fulham as the Fulham District from 1855 until 1886, when separate parish administration was restored. In 1889 it became part of the County of London and in 1900 it became a metropolitan borough. It included Hammersmith, Wormwood Scrubs, Old Oak Common and Shepherd's Bush. In 1965 it was abolished and became the northern part of the London Borough of Hammersmith, since 1979 renamed the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.
The Metropolitan Borough of Hackney was a metropolitan borough of the County of London from 1900 to 1965. Its area became part of the London Borough of Hackney.
The Metropolitan Borough of Stoke Newington was a metropolitan borough in the County of London between 1900 and 1965 when it became part of the London Borough of Hackney.
The London Government Act 1899 was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed the administration of the capital. The act divided the County of London into 28 metropolitan boroughs, replacing the 41 parish vestries and district boards of works administering the area. The legislation also transferred a few powers from the London County Council to the boroughs, and removed a number of boundary anomalies. The first elections to the new boroughs were held on 1 November 1900.
Hackney was a parish in the historic county of Middlesex. The parish church of St John-at-Hackney was built in 1789, replacing the nearby former 16th-century parish church dedicated to St Augustine. The original tower of that church was retained to hold the bells until the new church could be strengthened; the bells were finally removed to the new St John's in 1854. See details of other, more modern, churches within the original parish boundaries below.
Hackney London Borough Council, also known as Hackney Council, is the local authority for the London Borough of Hackney, in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in London. The council has been under Labour majority control since 2002. Since 2002 the council has been led by a directly elected mayor. The council meets at Hackney Town Hall and has its main offices in the adjoining Hackney Service Centre.
Strand was a local government district within the metropolitan area of London, England, from 1855 to 1900.
Holborn was a local government district in the metropolitan area of London to the north west of the City of London from 1855 to 1900.
St Giles District was a local government district in the metropolitan area of London, England from 1855 to 1900. The district was created by the Metropolis Management Act 1855, and comprised the civil parish of St Giles in the Fields and St George Bloomsbury, Middlesex: the two parishes had been combined for civil purposes in 1774. The district was abolished in 1900 and its former area became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Holborn. The civil parish was abolished in 1930. It is now part of the London Borough of Camden.
The Metropolitan Turnpike Trust was the body responsible for maintaining the main roads in the north of the conurbation of London from 1827 to 1872. The commissioners took over from fourteen existing turnpike trusts, and were empowered to levy tolls to meet the costs of road maintenance.
Plumstead (1855–1894) and then Lee (1894–1900) was a local government district within the metropolitan area of London from 1855 to 1900. It was formed as the Plumstead district by the Metropolis Management Act 1855 and was governed by the Plumstead District Board of Works, which consisted of elected vestrymen.
Fulham was a local government district within the metropolitan area of London, England from 1855 to 1886. It was formed by the Metropolis Management Act 1855 and was governed by the Fulham District Board of Works, which consisted of elected vestrymen. It was in the part of the county of Middlesex that was within the area of the Metropolitan Board of Works. It occupied broadly the same area as ancient parish of Fulham and that of the current London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.
Hackney was a local government district within the metropolitan area of London, England from 1855 to 1894. It was formed by the Metropolis Management Act 1855 and was governed by the Hackney District Board of Works, which consisted of elected vestrymen. It was in the part of the county of Middlesex that was within the area of the Metropolitan Board of Works. In 1889 it became part of the County of London and the district board functioned as a local authority under the London County Council.
Whitechapel was a local government district within the metropolitan area of London, England from 1855 to 1900.
Woolwich, also known as Woolwich St Mary, was an ancient parish containing the town of Woolwich on the south bank of the Thames and North Woolwich on the north bank. The parish was governed by its vestry from the 16th century to 1852, based in the Church of St Mary until 1842, after which in the purpose-built Woolwich Town Hall. The parish adopted the Public Health Act 1848 and was governed by the Woolwich Local Board of Health from 1852. When the parish became part of the district of the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1855 the local board was treated as if it were an incorporated vestry. It was in the county of Kent until it was transferred to London in 1889. In 1900 it was amalgamated with other parishes to form the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich and had only nominal existence until it was abolished as a civil parish in 1930. Since 1965 it has been split between the Royal Borough of Greenwich and the London Borough of Newham.
Hammersmith and Fulham London Borough Council, which styles itself Hammersmith and Fulham Council, is the local authority for the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in London. The council has been under Labour majority control since 2014. The council's usual meeting place is at Hammersmith Town Hall.