Metropolitan Board of Works
The Metropolitan Board of Works was the upper tier of local government for what later became Inner 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, which did not fall under the MBW remit. Plans to enact a similar body had failed in 1837, but 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 the directly elected London County Council in March 1889.
Its principal responsibility was to provide infrastructure to cope with the rapid growth of the metropolis, which it accomplished with varying degrees of success. The MBW was co-opted from boards, districts of vestries who were elected by their ratepayers rather than directly elected, but which during its period were separated into civil parishes, removing many residual Church of England ties. It was accountable to Parliament but not to a particular ministry to supervise accounts. This democratic deficit vexed critics and rate-paying Londoners, especially after its budget grew and some of its members and staff engaged in embezzlement, bribery and breach of fiduciary duty. However, the creation of county councils across the country on its demise indicated a widespread recognition of the advantages of the economies of scale available from uniting districts in procuring, improving and maintaining energy, street lighting, fire fighting, sanitation and transport, in the same way as large, well-funded, democratic, ministerially and accounting-regulated municipal corporations had since 1835.
Background
The growth of the city around the commercial City of London was continuing apace; as the British Empire grew so the London Docks had grown in trade, population sharply grew and demand for housing rose as did the building of homes. Half of the population of two of the three counties that adjoined that medieval-walled city definition were within a few miles of it. However the government of this metropolis was chaotic, with over 100 key authorities having statutory or customary powers and much overlapping territory. Specifically, providing a rate-paid service or capital improvement in a given place sometimes needed the co-ordination or consent of many of these.In 1835 elected municipal boroughs had been set up covering every major city except London. The City of London, the very core of the sprawling metropolis which keeps its medieval boundaries, was untouched by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 and resisted all moves to expand its borders to include the generally poorer districts surrounding it. This meant that commissions of the peace of three counties, key landowners, and powerful parish council vestries beneath them, had authority over the clearly urban area, the metropolis: Middlesex north of the Thames and west of the Lea up to several miles from the City, Surrey to the south and south-west, and Kent as to the south east.
In 1837 an attempt was made to set up an elected authority covering the whole of the metropolis; however, the wealthier districts of Marylebone and Westminster resisted this, as some of their own local powers and low rates would have been lost. They defeated the motion. In 1854 the Royal Commission on the Corporation of the City of London proposed to divide an urban area around the City of London into seven boroughs, each represented on a Metropolitan Board of Works. This proposal was abandoned, but the next year the board of works was set up to cover all this.
Creation
To empower this body to coordinate work to plan and build infrastructure of the metropolis, Parliament passed the Metropolis Management Act 1855 which created the Metropolitan Board of Works. It covered "the Metropolis", the area designated London in the 1851 census, the alternative proposals had been the Metropolitan Police District; the coal tax area; or that used for the Metropolitan Interments Act 1852.It was not to be a directly elected body, but instead to consist of members nominated by the vestries who were the principal local authorities. The larger vestries had two members and the City of London had three. A few vestries were for tiny parishes who co-convened into a district board for nominating members to the MBW. There were 45 members, who would then elect a Chairman who was to become a member ex officio. The first nominations took place in December and the Board held its first preliminary meeting on 22 December 1855 where John Thwaites was elected as chairman. The board formally came into being on 1 January 1856 when it took over the powers, duties and liabilities of the Commission of Sewers and the Buildings Office.
Activities
Sewage
A major problem was sewage: most of London's waste was allowed to flow into the Thames resulting in a horrendous smell in the summer months. In 1855 and 1858 there were especially bad summers with the latter being known as "The Great Stink". A notable achievement of the Board was the creation of the core London sewerage system, including of main and of street sewers, which solved the problem. A large part of the work of the MBW was under the charge of the Chief Engineer, Joseph Bazalgette, previously engineer with the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers. William Dibdin, chief chemist for the MBW, conceived the biological treatment of sewage to oxidize the waste.Streets and bridges
Activities included slum clearance and making new streets to relieve traffic congestion. The most important streets built were Charing Cross Road, Garrick Street, Southwark Street and Northumberland and Shaftesbury Avenues.From 1869 the MBW bought all the private bridges across its section of the Tideway and freed them of tolls. It also rebuilt Putney, Battersea, Waterloo and Hammersmith Bridges.
;Commons-tabled plans for a bridge serving the role of Tower Bridge
The board wanted to build a new bridge east of London Bridge, discussed for many years. In 1878 Bazalgette drew up plans which were estimated at £1.25 million. The Treasury refused to help by upping the coal and wine duties. The MBW advanced its plans, but saw its private bill which included negotiated payments and similar rejected by the House of Commons for lack of headroom for light shipping.
Embankment
The Board funded the tree-studded surface in the three sections of its contractor-designer Joseph Bazalgette's Thames Embankment from 1864.Fire brigade
From 1865 the MBW became responsible for administering the Metropolitan Fire Brigade. Architects employed by the MBW who specialised in fire stations included Robert Pearsall, responsible for Fulham Fire Station and Woolwich Fire Station.Parks and open spaces
In 1856 the MBW obtained an amending act of parliament giving them the power to provide "parks, pleasure-grounds and open spaces", subject to parliamentary approval. Among the parks and open spaces acquired or laid by the board were:- Finsbury Park
- Southwark Park
- Victoria Embankment Gardens
- Leicester Square
- Wormwood Scrubs
- Hampstead Heath
- Battersea Park, Kennington Park, Victoria Park and the gardens surrounding Bethnal Green Museum
- Clapham Common
- Wandsworth Common
- Ravenscourt Park in 1888 and Clissold Park in 1889
- Dulwich Park laid out by the MBW but opened by the successor London County Council in 1890.
Organisation
The MBW at first had its meetings in the Guildhall of the City of London and its headquarters at Greek Street in Soho. It then built its own headquarters at Spring Gardens, designed by its first chief architect Frederick Marrable and built in an Italianate style in 1859. When John Thwaites died, he was eventually replaced by James Macnaghten Hogg, later Lord Magheramorne, who remained chairman until the MBW was abolished. There was an increase in the membership to 59 in 1885 when some district boards were divided and others were given more members.Scandals
Few ratepayers and construction contractors thought MBW were transparently rewarded or that their property deals and tendering amounted to fair price and competition. Its status as a joint board insulated its members from any influence of popular opinion, though all property owners had to pay for its work as part of their local government rates. Worse, the very many building contracts issued by the MBW made membership of it desirable for anyone wishing to bid for them. The MBW took most of its decisions in secret. There were a succession of corruption scandals in the late 1880s, which led to a Royal Commission investigation. By this time, the MBW had the moniker the "Metropolitan Board of Perks".The knub of the scandal arose from the MBW's purchase of the old Pavilion music hall in Piccadilly Circus in 1879, when the site was thought necessary for the construction of Shaftesbury Avenue. As the street was still in the early stage, the site was leased to music hall proprietor R. E. Villiers. In addition to this, Villiers paid a small sub rosa amount to F. W. Goddard, who was Chief Valuer for the Board, for favourable treatment.
In 1883 Villiers met with Goddard and Thomas James Robertson to ensure that the remainder of the site was granted to him for a new Pavilion. They agreed to help him, in return for one corner becoming a public house under the landlordship of W. W. Grey who was the brother of Robertson, though this was not apparent.
In November 1884 Robertson told Villiers that the time had come to make a formal offer to the MBW to rent the new site. Villiers offered £2,700 ground rent per year. The Board instructed its superintending architect, George Vulliamy, to value the site: he was old and left practically all of the work to his subordinates – Goddard and Robertson. They prepared a report valuing the ground rent at £3,000, which Villiers immediately accepted; this was then hurriedly pushed through the Board which agreed it despite a higher offer of £4,000. Ground rent was paid £2,650 for the largest part, and £350 for the corner. Goddard continued collecting secret sums from Villiers, and Grey took up the cheap corner plot – he sold his existing public house on Tichborn Street and divided the £10,000 profit between Goddard and Robertson. In December 1886, Villiers sold the Pavilion and gave £5,000 to Goddard.