Strand (district board)

Strand was a local government district within the metropolitan area of London from 1855 to 1900. The district was formed by the Metropolis Management Act 1855 and was governed by the Strand District Board of Works, which consisted of elected vestrymen.

Until 1889 the district was in the county of Middlesex, but included in the area of the Metropolitan Board of Works. In 1889 the area of the MBW was constituted the County of London, and the District Board became a local authority under the London County Council.

Area

The district comprised the following civil parishes and places: [Metropolis Management Act 1855 (18 & 19 Vict. c.120) ]
*The Liberty of the Rolls
*St Anne within the Liberty of Westminster (commonly called St Anne, Soho)
*St Clement Danes
*St Mary le Strand
*St Paul Covent Garden
*Precinct of the Savoy

The main part of the district was bounded on the east by the City of London, on the north by Holborn and St Giles Districts, and on the west by the parish of St Martin in the Fields. The parish of St Anne formed an exclave to the west. ["See map in" Michael Ball and David Sunderland, "An Economic History of London 1800-1914" London, 2001, p.12]

The District Board established its headquarters at 22 Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, in 1857, on a site leased from the Duke of Bedford. [ [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=46120 "Southampton Street and Tavistock Street Area: Tavistock Street", "Survey of London": volume 36: "Covent Garden" (1970), pp. 218-222, (British History Online) Accessed 13 January 2008.] ]

Abolition

In 1899 the London Government Bill was introduced to parliament. The Bill sought to abolish the vestries and district boards in London and replace them with twenty-eight metropolitan boroughs. One of the boroughs included in the schedule to the Bill grouped together Strand District with the areas of three other boards and vestries in the Westminster area as a new borough. This was vigorously resisted by the Strand District Board of Works along with the vestries of St Martin in the Fields and St James Westminster. Instead of what they dubbed "Greater Westminster", the three authorities instead proposed a Metropolitan Borough of The Strand, separate from Westminster, and with the same boundaries as the parliamentary borough of that name. ["London Government Bill", The Times, March 4, 1899] The campaign met with no success, and on November 1, 1900, the Strand District became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Westminster.

References