Metropolitan Borough of Battersea

Battersea St Mary
Motto: Non Mihi Non Tibi Sed Nobis (Not for me, not for thee, but for us)
Battersea within the County of London
Geography
Status	Civil parish (until 1965) Metropolitan borough (1900—1965)
1831 area	3,020 acres (12.2 km2)[1]
1851 area	2,343 acres (9.48 km2)[1]
1901 area	2,161 acres (8.75 km2)[1]
HQ	Municipal Buildings, Lavender Hill
History
Origin	Ancient parish
Abolished	1965
Succeeded by	London Borough of Wandsworth
Demography
1801 population	3,365[1]
1851 population - 1851 density	10,560[1] 4.5/acre
1901 population - 1901 density	168,907[1] 78/acre
Politics
Governance	Vestry of the Parish of Battersea (1888—1900) Battersea Borough Council (1900—1965)
Coat of arms of the borough council

Battersea was a civil parish and metropolitan borough in the County of London, England. In 1965 the borough was abolished and its area combined with parts of the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth to form the London Borough of Wandsworth. The borough was administered from Battersea Town Hall on Lavender Hill and the building is now Battersea Arts Centre.

Ancient parish

As an ancient parish, Battersea was part of the Hundred of Brixton and County of Surrey. It included the exclave of Penge.

Parish in the Metropolis

In 1855, under the Metropolis Management Act 1855 the civil responsibilities of the parish were passed to the Metropolitan Board of Works. The two parts of the parish were assigned to different districts by the act establishing the MBW: Battersea was included in the area of the Wandsworth District Board of Works and the hamlet of Penge in that of Lewisham District Board of Works. Penge became a civil parish in its own right in 1866.

On 25 March 1888, a separate vestry was formed as a local authority for The parish of Saint Mary Battersea excluding Penge.^[2] In 1889 the Local Government Act 1888 reconstituted the area of the Metropolitan Board of Works as the County of London, and Battersea was transferred from Surrey to the new county.^[3]

The population of the parish in 1896 was 165,115 and it had adopted the Public Libraries Act 1850 immediately on obtaining local independence in 1888, with its own vestry. For electoral purposes the parish was divided into four wards and had 120 elected vestrymen.

Metropolitan borough

In 1900 the London Government Act 1899 divided the County of London into twenty-eight metropolitan boroughs, and the vestries and district boards were dissolved. The parish became the Metropolitan Borough of Battersea, with the borough council replacing the civil vestry.

The Metropolitan Borough included within its bounds Battersea, Battersea Park, Clapham Junction and parts of Wandsworth Common and Clapham Common.

In 1913 John Archer became mayor of the borough and the first black mayor in the country.^[4]

Coat of arms

In 1901 the borough adopted an unofficial coat of arms, consisting of a shield vertically divided blue and white, the division line being indented. This design was taken from a flag dating from 1803. On top of the shield was a dove bearing an olive branch. The Latin motto was Non Mihi, Non Tibi, Sed Nobis, or "Neither for myself, nor for yourself, but for us".

In 1955 the borough received an official grant from the College of Arms, based on the old device. The colours in the shield were reversed, and a bordure or heraldic border added. The bordure consisted of silver and blue waves, representative of the River Thames, and bore sixteen gold stars for the sixteen wards of the borough. The new crest on top of the helm was the dove of the 1901 design, with the addition of sprigs of lavender, for the old lavender fields of the area, and Lavender Hill, the main road of Battersea. The old motto was retained.

Area and population

The area of the Borough was 2,163 acres (8.8 km²). The population recorded in the Census was:

Civil Parish 1801-1899

Year[5]	1801	1811	1821	1831	1841	1851	1861	1871	1881	1891
Population	3,365[6]	4,409[6]	4,764	5,311	6,617	10,560	19,600	54,016	107,262	150,558

Metropolitan Borough 1900-1961

Year[7]	1901	1911	1921	1931	1941	1951	1961
Population	168,907	167,743	167,739	159,552	[8]	117,140	105,870

Politics

The first election to the council was on 1 November 1900, with the Progressive Party taking control of the new borough. They retained power until 1909, when the Municipal Reform Party (allied to the Conservatives) gained a majority. The Progressives regained the council in 1912, holding power until 1919 when the Labour Party gained control. In 1931 the borough come under Municipal Reform control again. Labour regained power in 1934, retaining it for the rest of the borough's existence.

Elections of the whole council were held every three years. Elections were cancelled during the two world wars (1914-1918 and 1939-1945). The 1952 election was postponed for a year so that it did not clash with elections to the London County Council. The number of councillors returned at each election was as follows:.^[9]

Local elections

Year	1900	1903	1906	1909	1912	1919	1922	1925	1928	1931	1934	1937	1945
Progressives	37	38	29	2	29
Municipal Alliance	17	16	25
Municipal Reform				52	25	11	21	25	22	31	18	15	5
Labour						41	33	29	33	23	37	40	50
Discharged servicemen						2

No Municipal Reform candidates were nominated after 1946, and Conservative candidates were nominated at local elections for the first time.

Year	1949	1953	1956	1959	1962
Labour	34	37	46	34	40
Conservative	21	18	18	21	12
Liberal					3

Wards

From 1900 to 1949 the borough was divided into nine wards, returning either three, six or nine councillors:

• Bolingbroke (6 councillors)
• Broomwood (6)
• Church (6)
• Latchmere (6)
• Nine Elms (9)
• Park (6)
• St John (3)
• Shaftesbury (6)
• Winstanley (6)

In 1949 the wards were redrawn, with fourteen wards returning three to five councillors each:

• Bolingbroke (3)
• Broomwood (3)
• Church (4)
• Latchmere (4)
• Lavender (3)
• Newtown (3)
• Nightingale (5)
• Nine Elms (3)
• Park (4)
• Queenstown (4)
• St John (4)
• Shaftesbury (3)
• Stormont (3)
• Thornton (3)
• Vicarage (3)
• Winstanley (3)

The latest ward to be redrawn was Fairfield ward, with three councillors.

Parliamentary constituencies

For elections to parliament the borough was originally part of the parliamentary borough of Battersea and Clapham, which consisted of two divisions, Battersea and Clapham.

In 1918 the metropolitan borough was divided into two constituencies:

• Battersea North (Church, Latchmere, Nine Elms and Park wards) and
• Battersea South (Bolingbroke, Broomwood, St John, Shaftesbury and Winstanley wards)

The boundaries of the two constituencies were adjusted in 1949 to reflect the redrawn borough wards:

• Battersea North (Church, Latchmere, Newtown, Nine Elms, Park, Queenstown, Vicarage and Winstanley wards)
• Battersea South (Bolingbroke, Broomwood, Lavender, Nightingale, St John, Shaftesbury, Stormont and Thornton wards)

The constituencies continued unchanged until 1970.^[10] when the Battersea constituency largely succeeded these two. The current MP is Conservative Jane Ellison.^[11]

References

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Vision of Britain - Battersea population (area and density)
2. ^ Metropolis Management (Battersea and Westminster) Act 1887 (50 & 51 Vict. C.17)
3. ^ Local Government Act, 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. C. 41), s.40
4. ^ John Archer biography (Black History) accessed 14 Jan 2008
5. ^ Statistical Abstract for London, 1901 (Vol. IV); Census tables for Metropolitan Borough of Battersea
6. ^ ^{a b} (probably including Penge)
7. ^ Battersea MetB: Census Tables accessed 19 Jun 2007
8. ^ The census was suspended for World War II
9. ^ Election results as reported in The Times, 3 November, 1900; 4 November 1903; November 3, 1906; November 2, 1909; November 2, 1912; November 4, 1919; November 4, 1925; November 3, 1928; November 4, 1931; November 3, 1934; November 3, 1937; November 2, 1945; May 7, 1949; May 7, 1953; May 11, 1956; May 8, 1959; May 12, 1962
10. ^ F.A. Youngs, Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Volume 1, 1979
11. ^ [1] MPs in the UK Parliament

Bibliography

• "The London Manual 1899-1900" edited by Robert Donald (Edward Lloyd Ltd., 1899)

Coordinates: 51°27′53″N 0°09′39″W / 51.4648°N 0.1607°W / 51.4648; -0.1607