Holborn District (Metropolis)

Holborn
Old Holborn Town Hall on Gray's Inn Road
Area
• 1861	167 acres (0.68 km^2)[1]
• 1871	167 acres (0.68 km^2)[1]
• 1881	167 acres (0.68 km^2)[2]
• 1891	168 acres (0.68 km^2)[3]
Population
• 1861	45,463[1]
• 1871	43,520[1]
• 1881	36,189[2]
• 1891	33,485[3]
History
• Created	1855
• Abolished	1900
• Succeeded by	Metropolitan Borough of Holborn Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury
Status	District
Government	Holborn District Board of Works
• HQ	Holborn Town Hall, Gray's Inn Road.

Holborn was a local government district in the metropolitan area of London to the north west of the City of London from 1855 to 1900.

The district was formed by the Metropolis Management Act 1855 from the following Middlesex civil parishes and places:^[4]

• The Liberty of Glasshouse Yard
• The Liberty of Saffron Hill, Hatton Garden, Ely Rents and Ely Place
• St Andrew Holborn Above the Bars with St George the Martyr
• St Sepulchre Middlesex

District board

The district was governed by the Holborn District Board of Works, which consisted of forty-nine elected vestrymen: twenty-four elected for the parish of St Andrew Holborn above Bars; nine for St George the Martyr; nine for Saffron Hill, Hatton Garden, Ely Rents, and Ely Place; six for St Sepulchre and one for Glasshouse Yard.^[5] The first elections were held in November 1855, when the entire membership of the board was elected. Thereafter elections for one third of the seats were held in May, beginning in the year 1857.^[6]

Holborn District was originally within the area of responsibility of the Metropolitan Board of Works and nominated one member to the MBW. In 1889 the area of the Metropolitan Board became the County of London, and Holborn District Board of Works became a local council under the London County Council.

The Board of Works was administered from the old Holborn Town Hall, Gray's Inn Road.^[7]

Abolition

The district was abolished in 1900, when the County of London was divided into twenty-eight metropolitan boroughs. A new Metropolitan Borough of Holborn was created by the merger of Holborn District (less Glasshouse Yard and St Sepulchre) with the neighbouring St Giles District along with two of the Inns of Court: Lincoln's Inn and Staple Inn.^[8] Glasshouse Yard and St Sepulchre became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury.

References

1. "Table 10. Area; inhabited houses, population, number of rated householders and rateable value of property within this district of the Metropolitan board of works". Census of England and Wales 1871 Population tables. Vol. II. Online Historical Population Reports (histpop.org). p. 31. Retrieved 4 August 2010.
2. "Supplementary Metropolitan tables. Table b. Area, inhabited houses, and population, in 1871 and 1881, number of rated house-holders, and rateable annual value of property assessed in the several parishes, &c. Within the district of the Metropolitan board of works, as defined by 18 and 19 Vict. C. 120". Census of England and Wales 1881 Population tables. Vol. II. Online Historical Population Reports (histpop.org). 1882. p. 30. Retrieved 2 August 2010.
3. "Division I: London. Table 4. Sanitary areas, distinguishing those under vestries, boards of works and other authorities". Census of England and Wales 1891. Vol II: Registration areas and sanitary districts. Online Historical Population Reports (histpop.org). 1893. p. 17. Retrieved 2 August 2010.
4. Metropolis Management Act 1855 (18 & 19 Vict. c.120)
5. Metropolis Management Act 1855 Schedule 2
6. Metropolis Management Act 1855, ss.7-9
7. Post Office London Directory, 1895, Part 3: Commercial and Professional Directory
8. Frederic A Youngs Jr. Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Volume 1: Southern England, London, 1979