Royal Commission on the Amalgamation of the City and County of London
Encyclopedia
The Royal Commission on the Amalgamation of the City and County of London was a royal commission
which considered the means for amalgamating the ancient City of London
with the County of London
, which had been created in 1889. The commission reported in 1894. The government headed by Lord Rosebery accepted the recommendations of the commission, but when a Conservative
government under Lord Salisbury came to power in 1895
the reforms were almost entirely abandoned.
area of London, and the possible reform of the ancient City of London
had been prominent political topics since the 1830s. Recommendations by royal commissions given in 1837, 1854 and 1867 had largely been left unimplemented. The Local Government Act 1888
had set up a County of London which surrounded, but did not include, the square-mile and main business district of the City of London. London was therefore governed by the Corporation of London
at its core and the London County Council
for its metropolitan area.
When the first London County Council was elected, the Progressive Party
, closely allied to the parliamentary Liberals
, took control. The first chairman of the LCC, Lord Rosebery
, was strongly in favour of the unification of the city and county. Campaigning for the second county council elections in 1892, he set out the position of the Progressives:
The Progressives increased their majority at the elections, and in November 1892 the council passed five resolutions seeking legislation to give the authority increased powers. It was resolved inter alia
to seek:
The Liberal Party gained control of parliament
at the general election in July of that year
, and in February 1893 the Government announced that a royal commission would be appointed to formulate a scheme for the unification of London. The President of the Local Government Board
, H. H. Fowler
, told the Commons that the commission was to have five members, of which one each were to represent the views of the City and the county council respectively. Accordingly, he wrote to both bodies in March suggesting the names of individuals who might be acceptable. The process was drawn out as the City was reluctant to cooperate.
The secretary to the commission was George Edward Yorke Gleadowe.
The terms of reference were:
The commission's quorum
was set at three members, and it was given full power to call witnesses and examine books, documents, registers and records. They were also permitted to visit and personally inspect any place in the United Kingdom that they deemed expedient.
, with the commission being given the duty of devising a method of amalgamating City and county, not whether this should go ahead. A special committee of the common council was established and in November 1893 advised the corporation to cease giving evidence, as the proposed merger was:
The Attorney General
, Sir Charles Russell
attacked the City's attitude. The only reasons he could see for resisting the merger were a misplaced pride in the office of Lord Mayor and a "too sacred regard" for the City funds. Following the receipt of a letter from the President of the Local Government Board the City agreed to resume tendering evidence in December on the understanding that the terms of reference could be modified.
However, in February 1894, the Corporation suddenly announced that they were withdrawing from furnishing evidence to the commission. The City's representative on the commission, H Homewood Crawford, resigned with immediate effect. The common council wrote an open letter
to The Times
explaining their actions: firstly the assurances given by the President of the Local Government Board regarding the terms of reference of the commission had not been honoured; and secondly the commission was refusing to hear their evidence regarding the position, powers and duties of the vestries and other local authorities outside the City.
The main part of the report was accordingly divided into four sections, with detailed proposals on each of these issues.
and later legislation; or triennial elections of the whole body of councillors in the same way as county council
s established unter the 1888 act. The commission recommended that elections be held triennially.
, co-opted by the councillors. In boroughs there was one alderman for every three councillors, in county councils the ratio was one to six. In place of co-option, two methods of electing aldermen were suggested to the commission. The first was that they should be nominated by the second tier of local bodies, while the second was that they be elected in the same manner as councillors, but for a six-year term. Neither suggestion found favour by the commission who recommended no change.
, and also hold the offices of lord lieutenant and custos rotulorum of London.
s. The commission strongly recommended that a town clerk be appointed, independent of the parties on the council.
Additionally, and beyond its terms of reference, it suggested the creation of a number of lower-tier councils headed by mayors. Although the amalgamation did not take place, the creation of metropolitan borough
s was achieved through the London Government Act 1899
.
The corporation would inherit most of the powers of the county council, although the commission suggested that some of the LCC's duties would better be exercised by the local bodies. The existing City corporation was already the authority for a number of London-wide functions. These included being the sanitary authority for the Port of London
, management of metropolitan markets, and the maintenance of Epping Forest
and other open spaces. These would transfer to the new body. In addition the new corporation would gain powers over numerous administrative functions in the "old city", including bridges, street improvements, water supply and weights and measures.
bodies in charge of public libraries, bath and wash houses and the administration of the poor law
.
From these trusts and properties the new corporation was to pay an annual sum to the local authority for the old City for the upkeep of the Freemen's Orphan School, almshouse
s and other charitable institutions, along with donations to hospitals in the area.
The Sheriffs of London would be chosen by the council of the new corporation in the same manner as those of counties corporate
under the Municipal Corporations Act 1882
.
The power of granting and fixing the number of liverymen of the various livery companies
was to be transferred to central government. It was suggested that the privy council
, which already possessed powers of granting royal charter
s to such bodies elsewhere, should take on this duty.
had removed the powers of borough corporations to appoint clergy. These rights had been sold to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners
, with the money received invested for the benefit of the borough. The commission suggested the extension of the legislation to the city.
. The City authorities had objected, fearing that insufficient resources would be allocated to protect the banks and other financial businesses of the area. The commissioners discounted this, finding that the business districts of provincial cities were adequately policed by borough police forces.
had no more than 72 members.
councils under the Local Government Act 1894
, and there would be 72 councillors. The area would be divided into 24 wards with three councillors elected for each ward. Councillors would have a three-year term of office, with one councillor in each ward retiring annually. They would be empowered to elect a mayor from among the citizens of the Old City. As a transitory measure, and in order to create a continuity with the abolished common council, the 26 existing aldermen would be entitled to sit as "additional life members" of the new council. It was expressly stated that aldermen were not to form a permanent part of the new body.
As the electoral districts for the new corporation (and the existing London County Council) were identical to the parliamentary constituencies, it followed that the areas of the new authorities would need to consist of one or more constituencies. The governing bodies of the new areas were to be called "councils", and were to be elected in the same way as an urban district council. Councils would have the right to elect one of their members as a mayor, but their areas would not have the status of a borough. All members of the councils were to be directly elected. There were to be no co-opted aldermen on the new councils, as none existed in the existing vestries, and the commission fund "no desire to adopt such an addition".
The commission identified nineteen parishes which could form "areas of local administration" without any need for boundary changes:
Elsewhere in London there would be a need for a combination of existing areas which was considered to be "a very slight alteration to present arrangements". The commission did not make any further proposals on local areas as it was beyond their powers.
In practical administration it was proposed that the local bodies should have as much independence as possible, but with the central authority acting to ensure that local government legislation should be consistently applied throughout the Metropolis. Some of the powers exercised by the county council might be transferred to the local councils. At the same time the new corporation would be given the powers of "supervision, appeal and control", and where local councils failed to carry out their duties could do so. The new corporation would also have to give consent for the local bodies to take out loans over a certain value.
, James Stuart
, Edward Pickersgill
and Dadabhai Naoroji
and a resolution was passed strongly approving the report. The resolution called for the government to bring in a bill in the next parliamentary session to bring the report into effect. The meeting went further than the commission, calling for the Metropolitan Asylums Board
to be abolished and for the Metropolitan Police
to be brought under the control of the new corporation.
Salisbury poured scorn on the royal commission, dismissing the members as either "Radicals" or ignorant of the ways and wants of London. He described the commissioners as "about the worst men" to study the problem of metropolitan government. He warned against the "evil of over-centralisation", and declared that the idea of a single corporation for the whole of London was unworkable. The "mammoth municipality" so created would be remote from its citizens, and the councillors were unlikely "to sympathize with the wishes of their fellow-men solely and mainly on the grounds of drainage and water supply".
While he admitted of the need of a central body for some purposes, he spoke in favour of establishing a number of "municipalities of suitable size" which would encourage "local patriotism".
He then launched an attack on the county council. He alleged that it was not representative of London, as only about forty percent of the electorate participated in elections, and those who did vote were not likely to be a "quiet, sober respectable citizens" but "people with strong feelings... cranks and crotcheteers". This resulted in the county council consisting of a "very large contingent of the intense portion of mankind... moved by their special, limited, fanatical views, or by their partisan or class antipathies". The county council had become, he said "the place where Collectivist and Socialistic experiments are tried. It is the place where a new revolutionary spirit finds its instruments and collect its arms".
, which was a pro-Conservative Liberal Unionist
organisation, issued its response to the report on 4 November. The society condemned the "centralising tendency" of the proposals. They agreed on the principles set out in the report that a central body should be formed for certain London-wide matters and a number of smaller local authorities below it. They differed, however, on the distribution of powers, wishing the lower tier to consist of "strong and authoritative district councils or corporations", with no duties to de done by the central body that could not be done at the local level.
The Common Council of the City appointed a special committee to consider the report, and in January 1895 it presented its findings. The procedures of the commission were condemned and its conclusions described as "illogical". The Progressive Party on the county council was attacked, with its "real object" being to supplant the City corporation.
The committee felt that, if they had acted properly, the commissioners would have been "bound to report in favour of a scheme for the government of London based on the establishment in the Metropolis of a number of separate municipalities." The City's preferred scheme was "...the creation of separate municipal corporations, each consisting of a mayor, aldermen and councillors... (and) ...the creation of a central body or council composed of representatives from the whole of the metropolis, with tha aldermen added by the several metropolitan municipalities in lieu of the undesirable system of co-optation."
, H H Asquith, attended a meeting in the same hall in which Lord Salisbury had spoken a month before. The meeting passed a resolution "earnestly appealing to the Government to give effect during the next session to give effect to the recommendations of the commissioners." In reply Asquith promised to carry this forward. He also made a reply to Salisbury's comments, defending the members of the commission. Two of them were intimately connected with England's largest and best governed municipalities. It was hoped that the government of London might be raised to the level of that of Birmingham and Liverpool. Of the other two "Radicals" one was in fact a member of Salisbury's own political grouping and a dogged critic of the government, while the other was one of the country's most distinguished civil servants.
Asquith attributed Salisbury's assault on the county council as regret at having created it, and his sudden interest in creating a number of boroughs was not due to "his love of municipalities, (but) to his hatred of the County Council." He dismissed the scheme for a number of municipalities in scathing terms:
In March 1894, Lord Rosebery, former chairman of the London County Council, had become prime minister
. Unsurpisingly, he was highly supportive of the commission's proposals. He gave a speech at the opening of Clerkenwell
Town Hall in June 1895 where he declared that those who opposed unification were facing an "irresistible movement"... "not a matter of party clamour, but a natural force", To continue to maintain "two Londons" would be a "civil war". He announced that the bill for the unification of London was already in print, ready to be introduced to parliament. The bill, he stated "follows almost strictly and literally the recommendations of (the) commission".
a general election brought the Conservatives under Lord Salisbury to power. With the change of government, there was no prospect of any amalgamation legislation being introduced in the short term.
The reorganisation of London government continued to be a political issue, however, particularly in the London County Council. In November 1895 the majority Progressive Party on the council promoted a motion seeking the transfer of powers from the City to the county. The opposition Moderate Party countered with a motion seeking to transfer powers from the county council to the vestries. In November 1897 the Conference of the National Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associations passed a resolution calling on the government to pass legislation to decentralise local government in London.
The government introduced the London Government Bill to the House of Commons on 1 March 1899. The bill sought to strengthen parish-level government in London at the expense of the county council, by dividing the whole of the administrative county of London into metropolitan borough
s. The boroughs were to receive the transfer of some minor powers from the county council, and were to have a council consisting of a mayor, aldermen and councillors. The Times, in an opinion piece, believed that the bill "had probably brought to its last stage the long controversy as to the form of government best suited to the needs of London." The newspaper's correspondent continued that the bill would render "the attainment of such unity (of City and county) more difficult". The bill was vigorously opposed by the Liberals and Progressives, but received the royal assent
on 13 July. The twenty-eight metropolitan boroughs came into existence on 1 November 1900.
Royal Commission
In Commonwealth realms and other monarchies a Royal Commission is a major ad-hoc formal public inquiry into a defined issue. They have been held in various countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Saudi Arabia...
which considered the means for amalgamating the ancient City of London
City of London
The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
with the County of London
County of London
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...
, which had been created in 1889. The commission reported in 1894. The government headed by Lord Rosebery accepted the recommendations of the commission, but when a Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
government under Lord Salisbury came to power in 1895
United Kingdom general election, 1895
The United Kingdom general election of 1895 was held from 13 July - 7 August 1895. It was won by the Conservatives led by Lord Salisbury who formed an alliance with the Liberal Unionist Party and had a large majority over the Liberals, led by Lord Rosebery...
the reforms were almost entirely abandoned.
Background
The administration of the metropolitanMetropolitan Board of Works
The Metropolitan Board of Works was the principal instrument of London-wide government from 1855 until the establishment of the London County Council in 1889. Its principal responsibility was to provide infrastructure to cope with London's rapid growth, which it successfully accomplished. The MBW...
area of London, and the possible reform of the ancient City of London
City of London
The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
had been prominent political topics since the 1830s. Recommendations by royal commissions given in 1837, 1854 and 1867 had largely been left unimplemented. The Local Government Act 1888
Local Government Act 1888
The Local Government Act 1888 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which established county councils and county borough councils in England and Wales...
had set up a County of London which surrounded, but did not include, the square-mile and main business district of the City of London. London was therefore governed by the Corporation of London
Corporation of London
The City of London Corporation is the municipal governing body of the City of London. It exercises control only over the City , and not over Greater London...
at its core and the London County Council
London County Council
London County Council was the principal local government body for the County of London, throughout its 1889–1965 existence, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today known as Inner London and was replaced by the Greater London Council...
for its metropolitan area.
When the first London County Council was elected, the Progressive Party
Progressive Party (London)
The Progressive Party was a political party based around the Liberal Party that contested municipal elections in the County of London.It was founded in 1888 by a group of Liberals and leaders of the labour movement. It was also supported by the Fabian Society, and Sidney Webb was one of its...
, closely allied to the parliamentary Liberals
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
, took control. The first chairman of the LCC, Lord Rosebery
Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery
Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, KG, PC was a British Liberal statesman and Prime Minister. Between the death of his father, in 1851, and the death of his grandfather, the 4th Earl, in 1868, he was known by the courtesy title of Lord Dalmeny.Rosebery was a Liberal Imperialist who...
, was strongly in favour of the unification of the city and county. Campaigning for the second county council elections in 1892, he set out the position of the Progressives:
The present arrangement by which a comparitively small district in the centre of London is detached from London and held aloof cannot be maintained. The object of parliament and of reformers must be that the city should be united with London as soon as possible and with as little friction as possible. Of all London reforms I lay infinitely the most stess on this, because each can supply what the other lacks, because so many reforms are contingent on it, and because you cannot have a complete municipality without it.
The Progressives increased their majority at the elections, and in November 1892 the council passed five resolutions seeking legislation to give the authority increased powers. It was resolved inter alia
Inter Alia
-Track listing:# Inter Alia# Outfox'd # Righteous Badass # The Altogether feat. Bix, Apt, UNIVERSE ARM and Cal# The Day-to-Daily# Trouble Brewing # The Prestidigitator# The Force...
to seek:
The unification of London, by the removal of the division of the jurisdiction between city and county, which now hampers every reform, but especially the great questions of the public services, such as water, gas, markets &c.
The Liberal Party gained control of parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
at the general election in July of that year
United Kingdom general election, 1892
The 1892 United Kingdom general election was held from 4 July to 26 July 1892. It saw the Conservatives, led by Lord Salisbury, win the greatest number of seats, but not enough for an overall majority as William Ewart Gladstone's Liberals won many more seats than in the 1886 general election...
, and in February 1893 the Government announced that a royal commission would be appointed to formulate a scheme for the unification of London. The President of the Local Government Board
President of the Local Government Board
The President of the Local Government Board was a ministerial post, frequently a Cabinet position, in the United Kingdom, established in 1871. The Local Government Board itself was established in 1871 and took over supervisory functions from the Board of Trade and the Home Office, including the...
, H. H. Fowler
Henry Fowler, 1st Viscount Wolverhampton
Henry Hartley Fowler, 1st Viscount Wolverhampton PC , was a British solicitor and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1880 until 1908 when he was raised to the peerage...
, told the Commons that the commission was to have five members, of which one each were to represent the views of the City and the county council respectively. Accordingly, he wrote to both bodies in March suggesting the names of individuals who might be acceptable. The process was drawn out as the City was reluctant to cooperate.
Membership and terms of reference
The royal commission was appointed on 27 March 1893, the members being:- Leonard Henry CourtneyLeonard Courtney, 1st Baron Courtney of PenwithLeonard Henry Courtney, 1st Baron Courtney of Penwith PC was a British politician, academic and man of letters...
, (chairman) Liberal Unionist member of parliamentMember of ParliamentA Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for BodminBodmin (UK Parliament constituency)Bodmin was the name of a parliamentary constituency in Cornwall from 1295 until 1983. Initially, it was a parliamentary borough, which returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of England and later the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom until the 1868 general...
, who had held a number of junior ministerial posts in the Second Gladstone MinistrySecond Gladstone Ministry-The Cabinet:†Created Earl of Selborne in 1882.Notes*William Ewart Gladstone served as both First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer between April 1880 and December 1882....
. - Sir Thomas Henry Farrer, Bt.Thomas Farrer, 1st Baron FarrerThomas Henry Farrer, 1st Baron Farrer was an English civil servant and statistician.Farrer was the son of Thomas Farrer, a solicitor in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Born in London, he was educated at Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1840...
, London County Council aldermanAldermanAn alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members themselves rather than by popular vote, or a council...
, former deputy chairman of the LCC and member of the Progressive grouping. He was elevated to the peerage as Baron Farrer later in 1893. - Robert Durning Holt, Mayor of Liverpool. In August 1893 he became the city's first Lord MayorLord Mayor of LiverpoolThe office of Mayor of Liverpool has existed since the foundation of Liverpool as a borough by the Royal Charter of King John in 1207. This changed, however, some time after Liverpool was granted city status in 1880 when it was deemed necessary for the "second city of the Empire" to have a Lord Mayor...
- Henry Homewood Crawford, Solicitor to the Corporation of the City of London
- Edward Orford Smith, Town Clerk of BirminghamBirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
. Smith had led the campaign to obtain city statusCity status in the United KingdomCity status in the United Kingdom is granted by the British monarch to a select group of communities. The holding of city status gives a settlement no special rights other than that of calling itself a "city". Nonetheless, this appellation carries its own prestige and, consequently, competitions...
for Birmingham in 1889.
The secretary to the commission was George Edward Yorke Gleadowe.
The terms of reference were:
..to consider the proper conditions under which the amalgamation of the City and County of London can be effected, and to make specific and practical proposals for that purpose.
The commission's quorum
Quorum
A quorum is the minimum number of members of a deliberative assembly necessary to conduct the business of that group...
was set at three members, and it was given full power to call witnesses and examine books, documents, registers and records. They were also permitted to visit and personally inspect any place in the United Kingdom that they deemed expedient.
Conflict with the City
From the beginning of the commission's sittings the City were reluctant to have any dealings with the body. The main objection was that the terms of reference suggested a fait accompliFait Accompli
Fait accompli is a French phrase which means literally "an accomplished deed". It is commonly used to describe an action which is completed before those affected by it are in a position to query or reverse it...
, with the commission being given the duty of devising a method of amalgamating City and county, not whether this should go ahead. A special committee of the common council was established and in November 1893 advised the corporation to cease giving evidence, as the proposed merger was:
...a thing that should not be done and that the creation of a monster municipality is a thing to be utterly avoided, and the annihilation of the City equally to be avoided.
The Attorney General
Attorney General for England and Wales
Her Majesty's Attorney General for England and Wales, usually known simply as the Attorney General, is one of the Law Officers of the Crown. Along with the subordinate Solicitor General for England and Wales, the Attorney General serves as the chief legal adviser of the Crown and its government in...
, Sir Charles Russell
Charles Russell, Baron Russell of Killowen
Charles Arthur Russell, Baron Russell of Killowen, GCMG, PC, was an Irish statesman of the 19th century, and Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales.-Early life:...
attacked the City's attitude. The only reasons he could see for resisting the merger were a misplaced pride in the office of Lord Mayor and a "too sacred regard" for the City funds. Following the receipt of a letter from the President of the Local Government Board the City agreed to resume tendering evidence in December on the understanding that the terms of reference could be modified.
However, in February 1894, the Corporation suddenly announced that they were withdrawing from furnishing evidence to the commission. The City's representative on the commission, H Homewood Crawford, resigned with immediate effect. The common council wrote an open letter
Open letter
An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally....
to The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
explaining their actions: firstly the assurances given by the President of the Local Government Board regarding the terms of reference of the commission had not been honoured; and secondly the commission was refusing to hear their evidence regarding the position, powers and duties of the vestries and other local authorities outside the City.
The London County Council submission
In contrast to the City, the county council engaged enthusiastically with the commission and submitted detailed proposals for merging city and county. The main points were:- The administrative County of London and the City of London should form a single municipal area, and be designated the "City of London". The new area would constitute a county for all purposes.
- The Corporation of the City and the London County Council would be replaced by a single body known as the "Mayor, and Commonalty and Citizens of London".
- The new corporation would inherit all the property, powers, rights, privileges and distinctions of both bodies, as well as their debts and liabilities.
- All electors qualified to elect county councillors would be citizens.
- The corporation would consist of 118 councillors and 19 aldermen, identical in composition to the county council, and would be elected in the same way.
- The Lord Mayor would be elected by the corporation in the same way as those of municipal boroughMunicipal boroughMunicipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002...
s. - A Deputy Mayor would be elected annually, and would perform the same functions as the chairman of a county council.
- A "City Local Authority" would be formed for the area of the existing City, elected triennially by those qualified to elect county councillors. The authority would have the same functions as an incorporated vestry or district board established under the Metropolis Management Act 1855Metropolis Management Act 1855The Metropolis Management Act 1855 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...
. - The High SheriffHigh SheriffA high sheriff is, or was, a law enforcement officer in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.In England and Wales, the office is unpaid and partly ceremonial, appointed by the Crown through a warrant from the Privy Council. In Cornwall, the High Sheriff is appointed by the Duke of...
of London would be chosen by the new council. - The Commissioners of Lieutenancy of the City of London would be abolished, and the Lord Mayor would be ex officio lord lieutenantLord LieutenantThe title Lord Lieutenant is given to the British monarch's personal representatives in the United Kingdom, usually in a county or similar circumscription, with varying tasks throughout history. Usually a retired local notable, senior military officer, peer or business person is given the post...
and custos rotulorumCustos rotulorumCustos rotulorum is the keeper of an English county's records and, by virtue of that office, the highest civil officer in the county...
of London. - Freedom of the CityFreedom of the CityFreedom of the City is an honour bestowed by some municipalities in Australia, Canada, Ireland, France, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom, Gibraltar and Rhodesia to esteemed members of its community and to organisations to be honoured, often for service to the community;...
of London by patrimony, apprenticeship, purchase or gift would be abolished. The new council would be empowered to award honorary freedom as a mark of distinction. - The Honourable The Irish SocietyThe Honourable The Irish SocietyThe Honourable The Irish Society is the organisation created by royal charter consisting of members nominated by livery companies of the City of London, set up to colonise County Londonderry during the plantation of Ulster. Notably it was involved in the construction of the city of Londonderry,...
would be abolished and its charter repealed. Its property in Ireland would pass to the corporations of DerryDerryDerry or Londonderry is the second-biggest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth-biggest city on the island of Ireland. The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Irish name Doire or Doire Cholmcille meaning "oak-wood of Colmcille"...
and ColeraineColeraineColeraine is a large town near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It is northwest of Belfast and east of Derry, both of which are linked by major roads and railway connections...
, or to any elective county authority established in the future.
The commission's report
The commission issued its report on 29 September 1894. The report began by summarising the attempts to reform London government since 1835 and then laid out the general principles on which the area should be governed in future. There was general agreement among the witnesses called by the commission that a two-tier structure was needed, consisting of a "central body" and a number of "local authorities". The commissioners identified four questions that needed to be answered in order to carry out the reorganisation:- What should be the constitution and functions of the central body?
- How should the powers, duties and property of the existing corporation be dealt with?
- What should be the constitution and functions of the local authority for the City and other areas of the Metropolis?
- What should the relationship between the local authorities and the central body?
The main part of the report was accordingly divided into four sections, with detailed proposals on each of these issues.
Part 1. Constitution and functions of the central body
The new central body, which was to be called the Corporation of London, or more formally the "mayor and commonalty and citizens of London", was to be the legal successor of both the existing city corporation and the London County Council. In effect the status of city was to be extended from the old City to the area of the entire county, which would be redesignated as the City of London. The new city was to be governed by a council.Councillors
The first matter addressed was the membership and method of election of the central body. There were two competing systems of election to be considered: annual elections by thirds as happened in boroughs reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835Municipal Corporations Act 1835
The Municipal Corporations Act 1835 – sometimes known as the Municipal Reform Act, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in the incorporated boroughs of England and Wales...
and later legislation; or triennial elections of the whole body of councillors in the same way as county council
County council
A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries.-United Kingdom:...
s established unter the 1888 act. The commission recommended that elections be held triennially.
Aldermen
Both borough and county councils contained a proportion of aldermenAlderman
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members themselves rather than by popular vote, or a council...
, co-opted by the councillors. In boroughs there was one alderman for every three councillors, in county councils the ratio was one to six. In place of co-option, two methods of electing aldermen were suggested to the commission. The first was that they should be nominated by the second tier of local bodies, while the second was that they be elected in the same manner as councillors, but for a six-year term. Neither suggestion found favour by the commission who recommended no change.
Size of council
The existing London County Council consisted of 118 councillors and 19 aldermen. The commission suggested that the City, which was represented by four councillors should have its representation increased to eight elected members. This was to reflect the fact that the in spite of its small population and area, the City's rateable value was one eighth of that of the whole of London. The resulting council would have 122 councillors, with a proportionate increase in the number of aldermen from 19 to 20.Office of Lord Mayor
The post of Lord Mayor of London would be retained, and would not be restricted to the City alderman. Instead the council would have the power to elect any citizen of London as lord mayor, who would be titular chairman of the council. All ceremonies surrounding the mayoralty, and all rights and privileges were to be continued. The lord mayor was to be a justice of the peaceJustice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
, and also hold the offices of lord lieutenant and custos rotulorum of London.
Town Clerk
The head of staff of the county council was the deputy chairman, an elected member who received a salary for his services. In contrast the City employed a town clerk, a practice followed in municipal boroughMunicipal borough
Municipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002...
s. The commission strongly recommended that a town clerk be appointed, independent of the parties on the council.
Additionally, and beyond its terms of reference, it suggested the creation of a number of lower-tier councils headed by mayors. Although the amalgamation did not take place, the creation of metropolitan borough
Metropolitan borough
A metropolitan borough is a type of local government district in England, and is a subdivision of a metropolitan county. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, metropolitan boroughs are defined in English law as metropolitan districts, however all of them have been granted or regranted...
s was achieved through the London Government Act 1899
London Government Act 1899
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...
.
Functions of the new corporation
The commission called for a clear division of functions between the top tier corporation and the second tier local authorities. The basic principle was that the upper body should "be relieved of all administrative details for which its intervention is not really necessary" and the local bodies should "be intrusted with every duty they can conviently discharge". Where there was a need for "uniformity of action", the corporation would be given the power to frame bylaws which would be administered by the local bodies. The corporation would have the power to intervene where the local authority was failing to carry out its duties.The corporation would inherit most of the powers of the county council, although the commission suggested that some of the LCC's duties would better be exercised by the local bodies. The existing City corporation was already the authority for a number of London-wide functions. These included being the sanitary authority for the Port of London
Port of London
The Port of London lies along the banks of the River Thames from London, England to the North Sea. Once the largest port in the world, it is currently the United Kingdom's second largest port, after Grimsby & Immingham...
, management of metropolitan markets, and the maintenance of Epping Forest
Epping Forest
Epping Forest is an area of ancient woodland in south-east England, straddling the border between north-east Greater London and Essex. It is a former royal forest, and is managed by the City of London Corporation....
and other open spaces. These would transfer to the new body. In addition the new corporation would gain powers over numerous administrative functions in the "old city", including bridges, street improvements, water supply and weights and measures.
Functions of the local bodies
The remaining duties of a municipality would fall to the second tier of local authorities. These powers would be transferred from the existing vestries, district boards and burial boards, along with various ad hocAd hoc
Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning "for this". It generally signifies a solution designed for a specific problem or task, non-generalizable, and not intended to be able to be adapted to other purposes. Compare A priori....
bodies in charge of public libraries, bath and wash houses and the administration of the poor law
Poor Law
The English Poor Laws were a system of poor relief which existed in England and Wales that developed out of late-medieval and Tudor-era laws before being codified in 1587–98...
.
Part 2. Powers, duties and property of the old corporation
The commission made arrangements for the transfer of the powers and rights of the City to the new London-wide corporation or to the new local authority for the area, and a scheme was also made for a number of residual matters.Transferred to the new corporation
- Bridges
- Markets
- The Bridge House and Blackfriars BridgeBlackfriars BridgeBlackfriars Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge over the River Thames in London, between Waterloo Bridge and Blackfriars Railway Bridge, carrying the A201 road. The north end is near the Inns of Court and Temple Church, along with Blackfriars station...
Estates: any profits left after maintaining Blackfriars, LondonLondon BridgeLondon Bridge is a bridge over the River Thames, connecting the City of London and Southwark, in central London. Situated between Cannon Street Railway Bridge and Tower Bridge, it forms the western end of the Pool of London...
and Tower BridgeTower BridgeTower Bridge is a combined bascule and suspension bridge in London, England, over the River Thames. It is close to the Tower of London, from which it takes its name...
from these estates were to be used to maintain the other crossings of the ThamesRiver ThamesThe River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
maintained by the London County Council. - The ClerkenwellClerkenwellClerkenwell is an area of central London in the London Borough of Islington. From 1900 to 1965 it was part of the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury. The well after which it was named was rediscovered in 1924. The watchmaking and watch repairing trades were once of great importance...
Improvement Trust - The HolbornHolbornHolborn is an area of Central London. Holborn is also the name of the area's principal east-west street, running as High Holborn from St Giles's High Street to Gray's Inn Road and then on to Holborn Viaduct...
Valley Improvement Trust - Grain duty, which maintained a number of parks and open spaces:
- Epping Forest
- Burnham BeechesBurnham BeechesBurnham Beeches is an area of 220 hectares of ancient woodland, located close to Farnham Common, Burnham and Beaconsfield, in Buckinghamshire. It is approximately 25 miles to the west of London, England.-Preservation:...
- CoulsdonCoulsdonCoulsdon is a town on the southernmost boundary of the London Borough of Croydon. It is surrounded by the Metropolitan Green Belt of the Farthing Down, Coulsdon Common and Kenley Common...
Commons - Highgate Woods
- Other places managed under the London Open Spaces Act 1878
- The Gresham Estates, that maintained:
- The Royal ExchangeRoyal ExchangeRoyal Exchange may refer to:*Royal Exchange, Belfast a major mixed-use regeneration scheme in the North East Quarter of Belfast City Centre*Royal Exchange, Manchester, a 19th century classical building, home of the Royal Exchange Theatre...
- Gresham CollegeGresham CollegeGresham College is an institution of higher learning located at Barnard's Inn Hall off Holborn in central London, England. It was founded in 1597 under the will of Sir Thomas Gresham and today it hosts over 140 free public lectures every year within the City of London.-History:Sir Thomas Gresham,...
- The Royal Exchange
- The City of London CourtMayor's and City of London CourtThe Mayor's and City of London Court is a County Court in the City of London. It is located at Guildhall Buildings, Basinghall Street.The current court is the successor to courts pre-dating the County Courts Act 1846, which introduced the modern system of county courts...
- The GuildhallGuildhall, LondonThe Guildhall is a building in the City of London, off Gresham and Basinghall streets, in the wards of Bassishaw and Cheap. It has been used as a town hall for several hundred years, and is still the ceremonial and administrative centre of the City of London and its Corporation...
- The Mansion HouseMansion House, LondonMansion House is the official residence of the Lord Mayor of the City of London in London, England. It is used for some of the City of London's official functions, including an annual dinner, hosted by the Lord Mayor, at which the Chancellor of the Exchequer customarily gives a speech – his...
- The City of London SchoolCity of London SchoolThe City of London School is a boys' independent day school on the banks of the River Thames in the City of London, England. It is the brother school of the City of London School for Girls and the co-educational City of London Freemen's School...
- Ward's City of London School for GirlsCity of London School for GirlsCity of London School for Girls is a girls' independent school located in the City of London, United Kingdom. It is sister school of the City of London School and the City of London Freemen's School .-History:The school was founded by William Ward in 1894...
- The Guildhall School of Music
From these trusts and properties the new corporation was to pay an annual sum to the local authority for the old City for the upkeep of the Freemen's Orphan School, almshouse
Almshouse
Almshouses are charitable housing provided to enable people to live in a particular community...
s and other charitable institutions, along with donations to hospitals in the area.
Ceremonial functions and shrievalty
The new corporation was to succeed "without breach of continuity" to the powers and possessions the former City. The lord mayor would continue to enjoy the existing rights and privileges, and it would be lawful for the corporation to vote a sum to meet the costs of the office. The lord mayor and corporation were to retain the right of special access to the Sovereign, and to prsent petitions to the House of Commons.The Sheriffs of London would be chosen by the council of the new corporation in the same manner as those of counties corporate
County corporate
A county corporate or corporate county was a type of subnational division used for local government in England, Ireland and Wales.Counties corporate were created during the Middle Ages, and were effectively small self-governing counties...
under the Municipal Corporations Act 1882
Municipal Corporations Act 1882
The Municipal Corporations Act 1882 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It replaced existing legislation governing municipal boroughs in England and Wales, and gave the corporations powers to make byelaws and to acquire land and buildings. Municipal boroughs continued to be...
.
Freemen and liverymen
The existing system of granting or succeeding to the freedom of the city was to be ended, with the privilege being in future a purely honorary title awarded by the council. The rights of existing freemen, or widows and children of freemen to access to City charities and schools was to continue. The administration of these bodies was to pass to the new local authority for the old city.The power of granting and fixing the number of liverymen of the various livery companies
Livery Company
The Livery Companies are 108 trade associations in the City of London, almost all of which are known as the "Worshipful Company of" the relevant trade, craft or profession. The medieval Companies originally developed as guilds and were responsible for the regulation of their trades, controlling,...
was to be transferred to central government. It was suggested that the privy council
Privy council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the monarch's closest advisors to give confidential advice on...
, which already possessed powers of granting royal charter
Royal Charter
A royal charter is a formal document issued by a monarch as letters patent, granting a right or power to an individual or a body corporate. They were, and are still, used to establish significant organizations such as cities or universities. Charters should be distinguished from warrants and...
s to such bodies elsewhere, should take on this duty.
Ecclesiastical patronage
The Municipal Corporations Act 1835Municipal Corporations Act 1835
The Municipal Corporations Act 1835 – sometimes known as the Municipal Reform Act, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in the incorporated boroughs of England and Wales...
had removed the powers of borough corporations to appoint clergy. These rights had been sold to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners
Ecclesiastical Commissioners
Ecclesiastical Commissioners were, in England and Wales, a body corporate, whose full title is Ecclesiastical and Church Estates Commissioners for England. The commissioners were authorized to determine the distribution of revenues of the Church of England, and they made extensive changes in how...
, with the money received invested for the benefit of the borough. The commission suggested the extension of the legislation to the city.
Irish Society
While the commission noted the county council's proposals for winding up the society, it was not in a position to make any recommendations on the matter. This was due to the fact that the City Corporation, the Irish Society and the livery companies were at the time involved in a court case in the Chancery Division of the Irish courts.City of London Police
The commission recommended the ending of the separate police force for the City of London, and the inclusion of the area in the Metropolitan Police DistrictMetropolitan Police District
The Metropolitan Police District is the police area which is policed by London's Metropolitan Police Service. It currently consists of Greater London, excluding the City of London.-History:...
. The City authorities had objected, fearing that insufficient resources would be allocated to protect the banks and other financial businesses of the area. The commissioners discounted this, finding that the business districts of provincial cities were adequately policed by borough police forces.
Transferred to the local authority for the "Old City"
The remaining powers and duties would be taken over the new local authority established for the area of the City. These included:- Baths and washhouses
- Burial grounds
- Charitable trusts
- Poor law (although responsibility for registration of births, deaths and marriages would pass to central government)
- Public libraries
Part 3. Constitution and functions of the local authority in the City and of the other local authorities in London
The commission recommended the establishment of a second tier of local authorities. One of these would cover the area of the old City, and would take over the local administrative functions of the existing corporation and Commissioners of Sewers. The rest of London would be divided into a number of areas for local administration. New local authorities would replace the existing vestries and district boards.Functions of the local authorities
The functions the commission assigned to the local bodies included:- Sanitary administration, including building control and drainage.
- Maintenance of main roads other than highways, small street improvements and regulation of tramways.
- Valuation and registration of voters.
- Provision and maintenance of small open spaces and mortuaries.
- Powers over electric lighting and gas supply.
- Exercise of powers to regulate overhead wires, food and drug sales.
Constitution of the local authorities
The commission considered the optimum number of members of the new local authorities. The existing Common Council of the City had 232 members, the Commissioners of Sewers had 92, while the mamximum number of members of a vestry or district board was 120. It was felt that in each case the membership was too large, and did not allow for effective administration. On reviewing England and Wales outside London, it was discovered that the council of even the most populous municipal boroughMunicipal borough
Municipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002...
had no more than 72 members.
Council of the Old City
The report recommended the creation of a new local authority for the area of the existing City, to be known as the "Mayor and Council of the Old City". The electoral franchise would be the same as that for urban districtUrban district
In the England, Wales and Ireland, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an elected Urban District Council , which shared local government responsibilities with a county council....
councils under the Local Government Act 1894
Local Government Act 1894
The Local Government Act 1894 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales outside the County of London. The Act followed the reforms carried out at county level under the Local Government Act 1888...
, and there would be 72 councillors. The area would be divided into 24 wards with three councillors elected for each ward. Councillors would have a three-year term of office, with one councillor in each ward retiring annually. They would be empowered to elect a mayor from among the citizens of the Old City. As a transitory measure, and in order to create a continuity with the abolished common council, the 26 existing aldermen would be entitled to sit as "additional life members" of the new council. It was expressly stated that aldermen were not to form a permanent part of the new body.
Other local councils
A number of witnesses had suggested that the councillors elected to the London-wide corporation should also be ex officio members of the local councils for the same areas as they represented. The commission accepted this proposal, which was felt would help the two tiers to keep in touch with each other.As the electoral districts for the new corporation (and the existing London County Council) were identical to the parliamentary constituencies, it followed that the areas of the new authorities would need to consist of one or more constituencies. The governing bodies of the new areas were to be called "councils", and were to be elected in the same way as an urban district council. Councils would have the right to elect one of their members as a mayor, but their areas would not have the status of a borough. All members of the councils were to be directly elected. There were to be no co-opted aldermen on the new councils, as none existed in the existing vestries, and the commission fund "no desire to adopt such an addition".
The commission identified nineteen parishes which could form "areas of local administration" without any need for boundary changes:
- Bethnal GreenBethnal GreenBethnal Green is a district of the East End of London, England and part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, with the far northern parts falling within the London Borough of Hackney. Located northeast of Charing Cross, it was historically an agrarian hamlet in the ancient parish of Stepney,...
- ChelseaChelsea, LondonChelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...
- ClerkenwellClerkenwellClerkenwell is an area of central London in the London Borough of Islington. From 1900 to 1965 it was part of the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury. The well after which it was named was rediscovered in 1924. The watchmaking and watch repairing trades were once of great importance...
- FulhamFulhamFulham is an area of southwest London in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, SW6 located south west of Charing Cross. It lies on the left bank of the Thames, between Putney and Chelsea. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London...
- HammersmithHammersmithHammersmith is an urban centre in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London, England, in the United Kingdom, approximately five miles west of Charing Cross on the north bank of the River Thames...
- HampsteadHampsteadHampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...
- IslingtonIslingtonIslington is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...
- KensingtonKensingtonKensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the north, Kensington is...
- LambethLambethLambeth is a district of south London, England, and part of the London Borough of Lambeth. It is situated southeast of Charing Cross.-Toponymy:...
- Mile EndMile EndMile End is an area within the East End of London, England, and part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is located east-northeast of Charing Cross...
Old Town - NewingtonNewington, LondonNewington is a district of London, England, and part of the London Borough of Southwark. It was an ancient parish and the site of the early administration of the county of Surrey...
- PaddingtonPaddingtonPaddington is a district within the City of Westminster, in central London, England. Formerly a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965...
- PoplarPoplarPopulus is a genus of 25–35 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. English names variously applied to different species include poplar , aspen, and cottonwood....
- St George, Hanover Square
- St Marylebone
- St PancrasSt Pancras-Saints:* Pancras of Taormina, martyred in 40 AD in Sicily* Pancras of Rome, the saint martyred c.304 AD after whom the following are directly or indirectly named-United Kingdom:* St Pancras, London, a district of London...
- ShoreditchShoreditchShoreditch is an area of London within the London Borough of Hackney in England. It is a built-up part of the inner city immediately to the north of the City of London, located east-northeast of Charing Cross.-Etymology:...
- Westminster, St Margaret and St John
- WhitechapelWhitechapelWhitechapel is a built-up inner city district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, London, England. It is located east of Charing Cross and roughly bounded by the Bishopsgate thoroughfare on the west, Fashion Street on the north, Brady Street and Cavell Street on the east and The Highway on the...
Elsewhere in London there would be a need for a combination of existing areas which was considered to be "a very slight alteration to present arrangements". The commission did not make any further proposals on local areas as it was beyond their powers.
Part 4. Relations of the local authority of the Old City and of the other local authorities to the new corporation
The report concluded by setting out the elationship between the two tiers of local government. In part 3 the "personal connection" between the layers with members of the higher being ex officio members of the lower.In practical administration it was proposed that the local bodies should have as much independence as possible, but with the central authority acting to ensure that local government legislation should be consistently applied throughout the Metropolis. Some of the powers exercised by the county council might be transferred to the local councils. At the same time the new corporation would be given the powers of "supervision, appeal and control", and where local councils failed to carry out their duties could do so. The new corporation would also have to give consent for the local bodies to take out loans over a certain value.
Reaction
Reaction to the commissioners' proposals was sharply divided, largely on party lines, with Liberals very much in favour and Conservatives strongly opposed.Liberal Party
A meeting of the London Liberal and Radical Union was held on 15 October to consider the commission's report. The meeting was addressed by three London members of parliamentMember of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
, James Stuart
James Stuart (politician)
James Stuart was a British educator and politician. He was born in Markinch, Fife, and attended the University of St Andrews before going to Trinity College, Cambridge. He later became a Fellow of the College and Professor of Mechanism and Applied Mechanics at Cambridge University from 1875; he...
, Edward Pickersgill
Edward Pickersgill
Edward Hare Pickersgill was an English Liberal Party politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1911.Pickersgill was the son of Thomas Pickersgill, an architect of York. He was educated at York Grammar School before entering employment at the age of 18 as a clerk in Savings Bank...
and Dadabhai Naoroji
Dadabhai Naoroji
Dadabhai Naoroji , known as the Grand Old Man of India, was a Parsi intellectual, educator, cotton trader, and an early Indian political leader. His book Poverty and Un-British Rule in India brought attention to the draining of India's wealth into Britain...
and a resolution was passed strongly approving the report. The resolution called for the government to bring in a bill in the next parliamentary session to bring the report into effect. The meeting went further than the commission, calling for the Metropolitan Asylums Board
Metropolitan Asylums Board
The Metropolitan Asylums Board was established under Poor Law legislation, to deal with London's sick poor. It was established by the Metropolitan Poor Act 1867 and was wound up in 1930, its functions being transferred to the London County Council. Despite its name, the MAB was not involved in...
to be abolished and for the Metropolitan Police
Metropolitan police
Metropolitan Police is a generic title for the municipal police force for a major metropolitan area, and it may be part of the official title of the force...
to be brought under the control of the new corporation.
Conservative Party
Lord Salisbury, leader of the opposition Conservative Party, gave an address in London on 7 November. Salisbury, who had led the government that passed the legislation creating the London County Council, had become one of its fiercest critics.Salisbury poured scorn on the royal commission, dismissing the members as either "Radicals" or ignorant of the ways and wants of London. He described the commissioners as "about the worst men" to study the problem of metropolitan government. He warned against the "evil of over-centralisation", and declared that the idea of a single corporation for the whole of London was unworkable. The "mammoth municipality" so created would be remote from its citizens, and the councillors were unlikely "to sympathize with the wishes of their fellow-men solely and mainly on the grounds of drainage and water supply".
While he admitted of the need of a central body for some purposes, he spoke in favour of establishing a number of "municipalities of suitable size" which would encourage "local patriotism".
He then launched an attack on the county council. He alleged that it was not representative of London, as only about forty percent of the electorate participated in elections, and those who did vote were not likely to be a "quiet, sober respectable citizens" but "people with strong feelings... cranks and crotcheteers". This resulted in the county council consisting of a "very large contingent of the intense portion of mankind... moved by their special, limited, fanatical views, or by their partisan or class antipathies". The county council had become, he said "the place where Collectivist and Socialistic experiments are tried. It is the place where a new revolutionary spirit finds its instruments and collect its arms".
London Municipal Society
The London Municipal SocietyLondon Municipal Society
The London Municipal Society was formed in 1894 to support the pro-Unionist Moderate candidates in London local elections. It was a Liberal Unionist society, and was wound up in 1963, following the legislation that would create the Greater London Council....
, which was a pro-Conservative Liberal Unionist
Liberal Unionist Party
The Liberal Unionist Party was a British political party that was formed in 1886 by a faction that broke away from the Liberal Party. Led by Lord Hartington and Joseph Chamberlain, the party formed a political alliance with the Conservative Party in opposition to Irish Home Rule...
organisation, issued its response to the report on 4 November. The society condemned the "centralising tendency" of the proposals. They agreed on the principles set out in the report that a central body should be formed for certain London-wide matters and a number of smaller local authorities below it. They differed, however, on the distribution of powers, wishing the lower tier to consist of "strong and authoritative district councils or corporations", with no duties to de done by the central body that could not be done at the local level.
City of London
On receipt of the report it was angrily rejected by the City of London. They attacked what they described as proposals for a "puppet lord mayor" and the "spoilation of the City". The commission was accused of simply adopting the county council's scheme. The reputations of the members of the commission were attacked. Courteney was described as "a philosophical and occasionally unpractical chairman", Holt and Smith were dismissed as "two gentlemen whose experiences were avowedly to provincial administration" while Farrer was an "amiable nobleman and advowed advocate of the LCC".The Common Council of the City appointed a special committee to consider the report, and in January 1895 it presented its findings. The procedures of the commission were condemned and its conclusions described as "illogical". The Progressive Party on the county council was attacked, with its "real object" being to supplant the City corporation.
The committee felt that, if they had acted properly, the commissioners would have been "bound to report in favour of a scheme for the government of London based on the establishment in the Metropolis of a number of separate municipalities." The City's preferred scheme was "...the creation of separate municipal corporations, each consisting of a mayor, aldermen and councillors... (and) ...the creation of a central body or council composed of representatives from the whole of the metropolis, with tha aldermen added by the several metropolitan municipalities in lieu of the undesirable system of co-optation."
The Government
In December 1894, the Chancellor of the ExchequerChancellor of the Exchequer
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters. Often simply called the Chancellor, the office-holder controls HM Treasury and plays a role akin to the posts of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the...
, H H Asquith, attended a meeting in the same hall in which Lord Salisbury had spoken a month before. The meeting passed a resolution "earnestly appealing to the Government to give effect during the next session to give effect to the recommendations of the commissioners." In reply Asquith promised to carry this forward. He also made a reply to Salisbury's comments, defending the members of the commission. Two of them were intimately connected with England's largest and best governed municipalities. It was hoped that the government of London might be raised to the level of that of Birmingham and Liverpool. Of the other two "Radicals" one was in fact a member of Salisbury's own political grouping and a dogged critic of the government, while the other was one of the country's most distinguished civil servants.
Asquith attributed Salisbury's assault on the county council as regret at having created it, and his sudden interest in creating a number of boroughs was not due to "his love of municipalities, (but) to his hatred of the County Council." He dismissed the scheme for a number of municipalities in scathing terms:
Why they cannot even agree whether they are going to have eight, ten, twelve or fourteen of these mammoth municipalities. Where are they going to draw their boundaries? Who wants them? So far as I can see, nobody in London.
In March 1894, Lord Rosebery, former chairman of the London County Council, had become prime minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
. Unsurpisingly, he was highly supportive of the commission's proposals. He gave a speech at the opening of Clerkenwell
Clerkenwell
Clerkenwell is an area of central London in the London Borough of Islington. From 1900 to 1965 it was part of the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury. The well after which it was named was rediscovered in 1924. The watchmaking and watch repairing trades were once of great importance...
Town Hall in June 1895 where he declared that those who opposed unification were facing an "irresistible movement"... "not a matter of party clamour, but a natural force", To continue to maintain "two Londons" would be a "civil war". He announced that the bill for the unification of London was already in print, ready to be introduced to parliament. The bill, he stated "follows almost strictly and literally the recommendations of (the) commission".
Change of government and the London Government Act 1899
In June 1895United Kingdom general election, 1895
The United Kingdom general election of 1895 was held from 13 July - 7 August 1895. It was won by the Conservatives led by Lord Salisbury who formed an alliance with the Liberal Unionist Party and had a large majority over the Liberals, led by Lord Rosebery...
a general election brought the Conservatives under Lord Salisbury to power. With the change of government, there was no prospect of any amalgamation legislation being introduced in the short term.
The reorganisation of London government continued to be a political issue, however, particularly in the London County Council. In November 1895 the majority Progressive Party on the council promoted a motion seeking the transfer of powers from the City to the county. The opposition Moderate Party countered with a motion seeking to transfer powers from the county council to the vestries. In November 1897 the Conference of the National Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associations passed a resolution calling on the government to pass legislation to decentralise local government in London.
The government introduced the London Government Bill to the House of Commons on 1 March 1899. The bill sought to strengthen parish-level government in London at the expense of the county council, by dividing the whole of the administrative county of London into metropolitan borough
Metropolitan boroughs of the County of London
The term metropolitan borough was used from 1900 to 1965, for the subdivisions of the County of London created by the London Government Act 1899....
s. The boroughs were to receive the transfer of some minor powers from the county council, and were to have a council consisting of a mayor, aldermen and councillors. The Times, in an opinion piece, believed that the bill "had probably brought to its last stage the long controversy as to the form of government best suited to the needs of London." The newspaper's correspondent continued that the bill would render "the attainment of such unity (of City and county) more difficult". The bill was vigorously opposed by the Liberals and Progressives, but received the royal assent
Royal Assent
The granting of royal assent refers to the method by which any constitutional monarch formally approves and promulgates an act of his or her nation's parliament, thus making it a law...
on 13 July. The twenty-eight metropolitan boroughs came into existence on 1 November 1900.