Royal Commission on the City of London

Last updated

The Royal Commission on the Corporation of the City of London was a royal commission, established in 1853, which considered the local government arrangements of the City of London and the surrounding metropolitan area. [1]

Contents

Three commissioners were appointed by letters patent under the Great Seal on 20 June 1853, to enquire into the existing state of the Corporation of the city of London. The commissioners were Henry Labouchere, Sir John Patteson and George Cornewall Lewis. The secretary was J. D. Coleridge [2] The commission's report was sent to the Home Office on 28 April 1854. [3]

Report

The commission's report ([1772] HC (1854) xxvi) made thirty-two recommendations (with the implementation of the proposals or effect if any in parentheses):

  1. A governing charter be granted to the City of London. The city had no charter as such, being regulated by an inspeximus of Charles II which recited previous charters without detailing them. Consequently, there was uncertainty to the exact rights, powers and privileges of the corporation. (Not effected, left as was to date but the corporation has sought parliamentary sanction to alter certain constitutional matters as a local authority.)
  2. The method of election of the Lord Mayor should be altered to conform with the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. (This would mean that the election was by the Court of Common Council. Remains as privilege of the Liverymen as to date.)
  3. The method of electing aldermen should be reformed: each alderman should be elected for a six-year term by the burgesses, with one alderman elected in each ward. (Remained elected for life, then until aged 70 until 1992, as per Lord Chancellor's advice on retirement of JPs, and elected for six year terms from 2004.) As in municipal boroughs, aldermen would be ex officio justices of the peace. (Ex officio JPs until 2004 when they had to qualify separately as JPs.)
  4. Stipendiary magistrates for the city should be appointed in a similar way to the rest of England. (A stipendiary was appointed to support and advise the Aldermen and 'lay' i.e. non-aldermanic voluntary JPs were appointed by the corporation to support them.)
  5. The Court of Aldermen should be abolished, with its powers transferred to the Common Council. (Remains as part of the Court of Common Council but has duties in respect to the Livery and candidacy to Aldermanic Sheriff and Lord Mayor.)
  6. The number of wards of the city should be reduced, to between 12 and 16. The new wards would be of broadly similar area and population, with boundaries fixed by local inquiry. (Never implemented with respect to the 25 Wards of the city. The 26th Ward 'Bridge Without' was abolished by the Corporation in 1978, there being no electorate, only an appointed Alderman.)
  7. The size of the Common Council would be reduced, and it would absorb the Court of Aldermen. The new Common Council would have three common councilmen and one alderman for each ward. (Never implemented; at the time there were over 200 Councilmen. Common Councillors reduced to 100 in 2004, but annual election replaced by four year terms.)
  8. The electors for council elections should be all occupiers with a rateable value of 10 shillings or more, with no additional qualification. (Implemented by the corporation by automatically making all such tenure holders Freemen of the city.)
  9. Elections in "Common Hall" should be abolished: this would end the influence of the livery companies on the corporation. (Never implemented for elections of ceremonial officers, Bridge Masters, Auditors, Ale Conners, Sheriffs and Lord Mayor; the Chamberlain, the Remembrancer and the Town Clerk became appointments of the Corporation directly in the late 1980s, even before then the 'election' was a formality of one candidate.)
  10. The common council should continue to elect two sheriffs for the county of Middlesex. (Privilege abolished in 1889 with creation of Middlesex County Council's High Sheriff but the City Sheriffs were henceforth designated as 'for the City and for Middlesex'.)
  11. The Lord Mayor's court and Sheriff's Court should be consolidated. (This was implemented by the corporation; they were both civil courts and under the city's overall jurisdiction anyway, housed in buildings neighbouring each other.)
  12. The Court of Hustings should be abolished. (Essentially for enrolling of wills and similar formal documents so that other legislation substituted alternative procedures. Never implemented and specifically retained under the Administration of Justice Act 1977 as a ceremonial jurisdiction.)
  13. The Court of St Martin's-le-Grand should be abolished. (Implemented as long in non-operation.)
  14. The prohibition on anyone not a freeman of London to carry on a trade or handicraft in the city should be lifted. (Effected by the city by granting automatic entitlement of the Freedom to bona fide traders of the city as ipso facto ten shilling tenancy holders.)
  15. The corporation should no longer be entitled to "metage" or duty on all fruit, grain and "measurable goods" landed on either side of the River Thames from Staines to Yantlet creek in Kent. (Privileges abolished in 1868 but duty still levied to support construction and maintenance of Thames Bridges above Blackfriars to Staines.)
  16. The Fellowship of Porters should be dissolved. (Technically not a City body so that its abolition did not affect its interests.) [4]
  17. Brokers should not be admitted as aldermen. (No disqualifications of Aldermen under this rule were implemented.)
  18. All street tolls on carts entering or leaving the city should be abolished. (There were few such duties. In effect the same issue as the Coal Duty and Wine duty and was effected in 1868 when duties were distributed across the Metropolis primarily for bridges and other public works.)
  19. The City of London and Metropolitan Police Forces should be amalgamated. (Never implemented to date.)
  20. The Conservancy of the Thames should be transferred from the corporation to a new Thames Navigation Board consisting of the Lord Mayor, First Lord of the Admiralty, President of the Board of Trade, First Commissioner of Woods and the Deputy Master of Trinity House. (Implemented only by transfer of authority to the Port of London Authority but the City still, to date, remains the Port Health Authority.)
  21. The exclusive privileges of the Company of Watermen and Lightermen on the Thames should be abolished. (Training and apprenticeship remains with the company but the last vestige of it as a licensing authority was removed in 2009, its representatives are co-opted onto the necessary licensing bodies.)
  22. The corporation's accounts should be consolidated, as there was "an unnecessary complexity in the keeping of the city accounts and in the administration of its affairs is produced by the multiplication of departments and separate funds." (Largely ignored but the Corporation tidied up its procedures with the assistance of the Courts using cy-près orders.)
  23. The money and securities of the corporation should be lodged in the Bank of England. (Never implemented, the Chamberlain is in effect a 'bank'; cheques and money orders are presented to his department in the same way as a clearing bank.)
  24. Auditors should be appointed in a manner consistent with Municipal Corporations Act 1835. (Professional auditors were henceforth elected by Common Hall, rather than laymen/Liverymen.)
  25. The provisions of the 1835 legislation in relation to mortgages on land and to making annual returns should be extended to the city. (Adopted by the city as a procedure in any event.)
  26. The Honourable The Irish Society should be dissolved, and its properties administered as a trust established by parliament, with trustees appointed by the Lord Chancellor of Ireland. (Never implemented to date, the HIS is in effect a Committee of the Common Council.)
  27. The boundaries of the City of London should not be altered, but its control over the Borough of Southwark should be ended. (Never implemented as such, the practical administration and legal jurisdictions of the City in Southwark through its manorial courts leet had been displaced by local civil parishes vestry boards, poor law guardians and other statutory bodies and the Metropolitan Police magistrates courts and of Surrey at that date. The last vestiges were removed by the creation of the local boards of works, the Metropolitan Board of Works and finally the London County Council's Metropolitan Borough of Southwark in 1900.)
  28. The remainder of the metropolis should be divided into districts for municipal purposes. The boundaries of the districts should correspond with the seven metropolitan parliamentary boroughs: Finsbury, Greenwich, Lambeth, Marylebone, Southwark, Tower Hamlets and Westminster. The districts would be governed by a "municipal body". (Not implemented in respect of the city's parliamentary representation until it was merged by Representation of the People Act 1948 and the City merged into the Westminster constituency. The other provisions had no effect on the city.)
  29. A Metropolitan Board of Works should be established consisting of a number of members deputed from the "municipal bodies" and the Common Council. (Never implemented, the City did not participate in the arrangements but it did financially support and/or supplement these, e.g. Tower Bridge and major road works, in relation to improvements outside the City boundaries.)
  30. The coal duties of the Corporation of London should be transferred to the Metropolitan Board. (Effected in 1868.)
  31. The Metropolitan Board should be empowered to levy a rate for public works of "general metropolitan utility". (The Corporation contributed without representation.)
  32. No works should be performed by the Metropolitan Board without the sanction of the Privy Council. [5] (No effect on the corporation's status.)

The findings of the report led to the creation of the Metropolitan Board of Works by the Metropolis Management Act 1855. The call to create municipal boroughs based on parliamentary representation was rejected. The City did not become part of the Metropolitan Board of Works arrangements but did support it financially. Not a single proposal was imposed on the corporation and some minor suggestions were adopted by the City voluntarily and no legislation was enacted which effected any of the proposals which could have directly affected the city's interests.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">London boroughs</span> Administrative subdivisions of Greater London

The London boroughs are the 32 local authority districts that together with the City of London make up the administrative area of Greater London, England; each is governed by a London borough council. The present London boroughs were all created at the same time as Greater London on 1 April 1965 by the London Government Act 1963 and are a type of local government district. Twelve were designated as Inner London boroughs and twenty as Outer London boroughs. The City of London, the historic centre, is a separate ceremonial county and sui generis local government district that functions quite differently from a London borough. However, the two counties together comprise the administrative area of Greater London as well as the London Region, all of which is also governed by the Greater London Authority, under the Mayor of London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southwark</span> District of Central London, England

Southwark is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed due to its position at the southern end of the early versions of London Bridge, for centuries the only dry crossing on the river. Around 43 AD, engineers of the Roman Empire found the geographic features of the south bank here suitable for the placement and construction of the first bridge.

An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). 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 member elected by voters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metropolitan Board of Works</span> Principal instrument of London-wide government from 1855 until 1889

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">City of London Corporation</span> English municipal governing body

The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the local authority of the City of London, the historic centre of London and the location of much of the United Kingdom's financial sector.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Municipal borough</span> Former type of British and Irish local government

A municipal borough was a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1836 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002. Broadly similar structures existed in Scotland from 1833 to 1975 with the reform of royal burghs and creation of police burghs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Court of Aldermen</span> Elected body, part of the City of London Corporation

The Court of Aldermen forms part of the senior governance of the City of London Corporation. It comprises twenty-five Aldermen of the City of London, presided over by the Lord Mayor. The Court was originally responsible for the entire administration of the City, but most of its responsibilities were subsumed by the Court of Common Council in the fourteenth century. The Court of Aldermen meets seven times a year in the Aldermen's Court Room at Guildhall. The few remaining duties of the Court include approving people for Freedom of the City and approving the formation of new livery companies, appointing the Recorder of London and acting as the Verderers of Epping Forest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leicester City Council</span> Unitary authority in Leicester, England

Leicester City Council is the local authority for the city of Leicester, in the ceremonial county of Leicestershire, England. Leicester has had a council from medieval times, which has been reformed on numerous occasions. Since 1997 the council has been a unitary authority, being a district council which also performs the functions of a county council; it is independent from Leicestershire County Council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metropolitan Water Board</span> Public utility supplying water to London 1903–1974

The Metropolitan Water Board was a municipal body formed in 1903 to manage the water supply in London, UK. The members of the board were nominated by the local authorities within its area of supply. In 1904 it took over the water supply functions from the eight private water companies which had previously supplied water to residents of London. The board oversaw a significant expansion of London's water supply infrastructure, building several new reservoirs and water treatment works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">London Government Act 1899</span> United Kingdom legislation

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">County Borough of Leeds</span> Administrative division of Yorkshire, England until 1974

The County Borough of Leeds, and its predecessor, the Municipal Borough of Leeds, was a local government district in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, from 1835 to 1974. Its origin was the ancient borough of Leeds, which was reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. In 1889, when West Riding County Council was formed, Leeds became a county borough outside the administrative county of the West Riding; and in 1893 the borough gained city status. The borough was extended a number of times, expanding from 21,593 acres (8,738 ha) in 1911 to 40,612 acres (16,435 ha) in 1961; adding in stages the former area of Roundhay, Seacroft, Shadwell and Middleton parishes and gaining other parts of adjacent districts. In 1971 Leeds was the fifth largest county borough by population in England. The county borough was abolished in 1974 and replaced with the larger City of Leeds, a metropolitan district of West Yorkshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ancient borough</span> Historic unit of lower-tier local government in England and Wales

An ancient borough was a historic unit of lower-tier local government in England and Wales. The ancient boroughs covered only important towns and were established by charters granted at different times by the monarchy. Their history is largely concerned with the origin of such towns and how they gained the right of self-government. Ancient boroughs were reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, which introduced directly elected corporations and allowed the incorporation of new industrial towns. Municipal boroughs ceased to be used for the purposes of local government in 1974, with borough status retained as an honorific title granted to some post-1974 local government districts by the Crown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bridge (City of London ward)</span> Ward of the City of London

Bridge and Bridge Without is a small ward in the City of London and is named from its closeness to London Bridge. Since boundary changes in 2003, Bridge is bounded by the River Thames to the south, Swan Lane and Gracechurch Street to the west, Fenchurch Street to the north, and Rood Lane and Lovat Lane to the east.

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.

Bridge Without was a historical ward of the City of London situated to the south of the River Thames, which existed between 1550 and 1899. The area of the Bridge Without ward today forms part of the London Borough of Southwark. It was so-called to distinguish it from the ward of Bridge Within which covered the buildings on London Bridge and the nearby north bank of the Thames. Bridge Within since 1978 is formally called Bridge and Bridge Without.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wards of the City of London</span> Special form of ward in the City of London

The City of London is divided into 25 wards. The city is the historic core of the much wider metropolis of Greater London, with an ancient and sui generis form of local government, which avoided the many local government reforms elsewhere in the country in the 19th and 20th centuries. Unlike other modern English local authorities, the City of London Corporation has two council bodies: the now largely ceremonial Court of Aldermen, and the Court of Common Council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Wootton (lord mayor)</span> English lawyer and politician

Sir David Hugh Wootton is an English lawyer and politician. He was the 684th Lord Mayor of London, from 2011 to 2012, and is the Alderman of the Ward of Langbourn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Henry Stone</span>

Alderman David Henry Stone. His family were the owners of a large amount of land near Lewes for at least three centuries. He was the nephew of Thomas Farncomb the Lord Mayor of London of 1849. Educated at St Olave's Grammar School, in Southwark. He practiced as a solicitor and an attorney from 1839 until 1864.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Pilkington</span> English merchant, politician and Lord Mayor of London

Sir Thomas Pilkington was an English merchant and Whig politician who served as the Lord Mayor of London in 1689.

Liverpool Town Council existed from 1835 to 1880.

References

Sources

Citations

  1. ↑ Young, K. & Garside, P., Metropolitan London: Politics and Urban Change, (1982)
  2. ↑ London Gazette, issue no. 21450, dated 21 June 1853
  3. ↑ "List of commissions and officials: 1850-1859 (nos. 53-94)". Office-Holders in Modern Britain: Volume 9. 1984. Retrieved 10 March 2008.
  4. ↑ Not implemented directly by Commission-inspired legislation, the role had been in decline ever since the creation of new docks in the East End and Surrey whose owners would not allow access to the fellowship. An Act of Parliament finally dissolved the fellowship in 1894, giving each former ‘fellowship’ porter compensation. However, ex-porters continued to make claims on the City of London’s benevolence funds for some decades: there were still 16 former Fellowship Porters alive in 1932. REF: -http://zythophile.wordpress.com/2007/11/02/the-forgotten-story-of-londons-porters/.
  5. ↑ The corporation of the city of London, The Times, 12 May 1854
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.