London County Council

The London County Council was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, 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. The LCC was the largest, most significant and most ambitious English municipal authority of its day.

History

By the 19th century, the City of London Corporation covered only a small fraction of the metropolis. From 1855, the Metropolitan Board of Works had certain powers across what is now Inner London, but it was appointed rather than elected. Many powers remained in the hands of traditional bodies such as parishes and the counties of Middlesex, Surrey, and Kent. The Local Government Act 1888 created a new County of London, with effect from 1889, and the English county councils, of which LCC was one. This followed a succession of scandals involving the MBW - which was abolished on LCC's creation - and was also prompted by a general desire to create a competent government for the metropolitan area, capable of delivering strategic services effectively. The Conservative government of the day would have preferred not to create a single body covering the whole of the new County of London, but its electoral pact with the Liberal Unionists led it to this policy. LCC was established as a provisional council on 31 January 1889 and came into its powers on 21 March 1889.
In the first elections to the LCC, in January 1889, the Progressive Party, closely allied to the Liberal Party, won seventy of the 118 seats. It lost power in 1907 to the Municipal Reform Party under Richard Robinson.
The LCC provided very few services within the ancient City of London, where the existing Corporation had a near-monopoly of local governance. Shortly after its creation, a Royal Commission on the Amalgamation of the City and County of London considered the means for amalgamating the two. Although this was not achieved, it led to the creation of 28 metropolitan boroughs as lower tier authorities, replacing the various local vestries and boards in 1900; these boroughs also assumed some powers of the LCC and shared others.

Powers and duties

The LCC inherited the powers of its predecessor the MBW, but had wider authority over matters such as education, city planning and council housing. It took over the functions of the London School Board in 1903, and Dr C W Kimmins was appointed chief inspector of the education department in 1904.
From 1899, the Council progressively acquired and operated the tramways in the county, which it electrified from 1903. By 1933, when the LCC Tramways were taken over by the London Passenger Transport Board, it was the largest tram operator in the United Kingdom, with more than of route and over 1,700 tramcars.
Under the Local Government Act 1929, the LCC assumed responsibility on 1st April 1930 for the Poor Law Boards of Guardians' general hospitals and the Metropolitan Asylums Board's hospitals for infectious diseases, the mentally disordered and feeble minded, children's hospitals, pathology laboratories and ambulance stations.

Housing reform

One of the LCC's most important roles during the late 19th and early 20th century, was in the management of the expanding city and the re-development of its growing slums. In the Victorian era, new housing had been intentionally urban and large-scale tenement buildings dominated. Beginning in the 1930s, the LCC incentivised an increase in more suburban housing styles. A less-dense style of development, focusing on single family homes, was popular among London housing developers because it was believed that this would satisfy the working classes and provide insurance, "against Bolshevism," to quote one parliamentary secretary. The LCC set the standard for new construction at 12 houses per acre of land at a time when some London areas had as many as 80 housing units per acre. The passage of the Housing of the Working Classes Act in 1885 gave the LCC the power to compel the sale of land for housing development, a power that was vital to the systematic rehousing that began under the council's early Progressive Party leadership.
The Totterdown Fields development at Tooting was the first large suburban-style development to be built under LCC authority, in 1903, and was quickly followed by developments at Roehampton, Bellingham, and Becontree. By 1938, 76,877 units of housing had been built under the auspices of the LCC in the city and its periphery, an astonishing number given the previous pace of development. Many of these new housing developments were genuinely working-class, though the poorest could rarely afford even subsidised rents. They relied on an expanding London Underground network that ferried workers en masse to places of employment in central London. These housing developments were broadly successful, and they resisted the slummification that blighted so many Victorian tenement developments. The success of these commuter developments constructed by the LCC in the periphery of the city is, "one of the more remarkable achievements in London government, and contributed much to the marked improvement of conditions between the wars for the capital's working classes."
The LCC also built overspill estates outside London including Debden in Essex, Merstham and Sheerwater in Surrey, and Edenbridge in Kent.

Street renaming

The MBW, and the LCC undertook between 1857 and 1945 to standardise and clarify street names across London. Many streets in different areas of the city had similar or identical names, and the rise of the car as a primary mode of transportation in the city sometimes made the duplication of names challenging. In an extreme case, there were over 60 streets called "Cross Street" spread across London when the LCC began its process of systematic renaming. These were given names from an approved list that was maintained by the LCC, containing only "suitably English" names. If street names were deemed un-English, they were also slated for change; Zulu Crescent in Battersea, for instance, became Rowena Crescent in 1912.

Second World War era

By 1939, the council had the following powers and duties:

Category	Powers and duties	Notes
Public Assistance	Adoption of children Welfare of blind persons Assistance with formation of building societies and co-operatives Assistance with emigration Domicilary and institutional relief Casual wards Training centres Provision of smallholdings Classes and relief works for the unemployed Appointment of old age pension committee	Many of these powers were acquired in 1930 when the Local Government Act 1929 abolished the Metropolitan Asylums Board and the Poor Law Boards of Guardians.
Health Services, Housing and Sanitation	By-laws and regulations† Prevention of spread of animal diseases† District medical service Main drainage Hospitals and ambulances Large housing schemes † Redevelopment† School medical service Care of "mentally defective" and "mentally disordered" Midwives Registration and inspection of nursing homes† Open spaces† Overcrowding survey Prevention of river pollution Residential treatment of tuberculosis Clearance of unhealthy areas† Treatment of venereal disease†	Medical and ambulance services passed to the National Health Service in 1948.
Regulation and Licensing	Licensing of boxing matches Building regulation Dangerous and neglected structures† By-laws for good rule and government† Storage, registration and inspection of celluloid† Licensing of cinemas and theatres Testing of gas and electricity meters† Registration of employment agencies† Safeguarding of children and young people in employment† Registration and inspection of explosives† Inspection of fertilisers and foodstuffs† Registration of land charges† Registration and inspection of massage establishments† Music and dancing licences Licensing and inspection of petroleum† Licensing of racecourses Clearance of unhealthy areas† Treatment of venereal disease† Shop hours and closing† Prevention of smoke nuisance† Registration of theatrical employers† Town planning† Registration of war and blind charities† Weights and measures† Protection of wild birds
Protective Services	Supervision of adoption Provision of ambulances † Protection of children† Costs of Central Criminal Court and quarter sessions London Fire Brigade Fire regulations Coroners and inquests† Remand homes Thames flood prevention
Education and Museums	Protection of ancient monuments† Elementary schools Special schools Nursery schools Secondary schools Technical and art schools Training colleges Scholarships Grants to educational institutions Fleet Street Museum Geffrye Museum Horniman Museum	The council received powers to provide technical education in 1892. On the abolition of the London School Board the LCC became the local education authority with responsibility for elementary and secondary schools on 1 May 1904.
Transport	Provision of aerodromes† Bridges† Maintenance of Thames Embankment River Ferries Motor vehicle registration Driver licensing Street improvements† Street naming and numbering Subways† Tunnels	Until 1933 the council provided a network of tramway services in the county. This passed to the London Passenger Transport Board.

† ''Denotes a power administered by the City of London Corporation within the City.''