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 Metropolitan Board of Works
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]
Vestries and district boards
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"
List of vestries, district boards and number of members elected to the Metropolitan Board of Works
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.
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.[5]
^The citation of this Act by this short title was authorised by the Short Titles Act 1896, section 1 and the first schedule. Due to the repeal of those provisions it is now authorised by section 19(2) of the Interpretation Act 1978.
^Young, K. & Garside, P., Metropolitan London: Politics and Urban Change, (1982)
^Davis, J., Reforming London: The London Government Problem, 1855-1900, (1988)
^Great Britain, Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England and Wales. The public general acts. London: Proprietors of the Law Journal Reports, 1884. pp. 212–214.
