St George Hanover Square was a civil parish in the metropolitan area of Westminster, Middlesex, later Greater London, England. The creation of the parish accompanied the building of the Church of St George's, Hanover Square, constructed by the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches to meet the demands of the growing population. The parish was formed in 1724 from part of the ancient parish of St Martin in the Fields in the Liberty of Westminster and county of Middlesex. It included some of the most fashionable areas of the West End, including Belgravia and Mayfair. Civil parish administration, known as a select vestry, was dominated by members of the British nobility until the parish adopted the Vestries Act 1831. The vestry was reformed again in 1855 by the Metropolis Management Act. In 1889 the parish became part of the County of London and the vestry was abolished in 1900, replaced by Westminster City Council. The parish continued to have nominal existence until 1922. As created, it was a parish for both church and civil purposes, but the boundaries of the ecclesiastical parish were adjusted in 1830, 1835 and 1865.
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The parish adopted the Vestries Act 1831, which provided for election of vestrymen by all ratepayers. The aristocratic dominance of the vestry declined. In 1815, 40% of vestrymen had titles and in 1845 it was half that.[7]
In 1855, the parish vestry became a local authority within the area of responsibility of the Metropolitan Board of Works.
Under the Metropolis Management Act 1855 any parish that exceeded 2,000 ratepayers was to be divided into wards; however the parish of St George Hanover Square had already been divided into seven wards by a local act in 1827 - "An Act for better paving, lighting, regulating and improving the parish of Saint George Hanover-square within the liberty of the city of Westminster" (7 Geo. 4). So the incorporated vestry inherited these wards and assigned vestrymen to them: Dover (6), Conduit (9), Grosvenor (12), Brook (15), Curzon (12), Knightsbridge (27) and The Out (27).[8][9]
It was initially a parish for both ecclesiastical and civil purposes. However, by 1865 it was divided into eleven ecclesiastical districts.[10]
St George was a local act parish and so it did not become part of the New Poor Law system, following the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834. This meant it did not form part of a union and the parish vestry remained in control of poor law functions, instead of a separately elected board of guardians as was typical. Following the Metropolitan Poor Act 1867 (30 & 31 Vict. c. 6), it was joined with St Margaret and St John for this purpose in 1870 as the St George's Union and a board of guardians elected.[11]
More information Year, Population ...
Year | 1801 | 1811 | 1821 | 1831 | 1841 | 1851 | 1871 | 1881 | 1891 | 1901 | 1911 | 1921 |
Population[12] |
38,440 | 41,687 | 46,384 | 58,209 | 66,552 | 73,230 | 90,028 | 89,573 | 78,364 | 76,957 | 70,106 | 67,280 |
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London's Lost Rivers, Paul Talling, Random House, 2011
Liberalism and Local Government in Early Victorian London, Benjamin Weinstein