The 1964 Southwark Council election took place on 7 May 1964 to elect members of

Southwark London Borough Council Southwark London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Southwark in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. History There have previously been a numbe ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, England. The whole council was up for election and the Labour party gained control of the council.

Background

These elections were the first to the newly formed borough. Previously elections had taken place in the

Metropolitan Borough of Bermondsey The Metropolitan Borough of Bermondsey was a Metropolitan borough in the County of London, created in 1900 by the London Government Act 1899. It was abolished and its area became part of the London Borough of Southwark in 1965. Formation and bou ...

Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell Camberwell was a civil parish and metropolitan borough in south London, England. Camberwell was an ancient parish in the county of Surrey, governed by an administrative vestry from 1674. The parish was included in the area of responsibility ...

and

Metropolitan Borough of Southwark The Metropolitan Borough of Southwark (''Br'' �sʌðɨk was a metropolitan borough in the County of London from 1900 to 1965. It was created to cover the western section of the ancient borough of Southwark and the parish of Newington. In common ...

. These boroughs were joined to form the new London Borough of Southwark by the

London Government Act 1963 The London Government Act 1963 (c. 33) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which created Greater London and a new local government structure within it. The Act significantly reduced the number of local government districts in the ...

. A total of 144 candidates stood in the election for the 60 seats being contested across 22 wards. These included a full slate from the Labour party, while the Conservative and Liberal parties stood 57 and 16 respectively. Other candidates included 11 from the Communist party. There were 14 three-seat wards, 7 two-seat wards and 1 four-seat ward. This election had

aldermen An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members them ...

as well as directly elected

councillors A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

. Labour got all 10 aldermen. The Council was elected in 1964 as a "shadow authority" but did not start operations until 1 April 1965.

Election result

The results saw Labour gain the new council with a majority of 48 after winning 54 of the 60 seats. Overall turnout in the election was 23.6%. This turnout included 599

postal votes Postal voting is voting in an election where ballot papers are distributed to electors (and typically returned) by post, in contrast to electors voting in person at a polling station or electronically via an electronic voting system. In an ele ...

1964 Southwark London Borough Council election seat result

Background

Election result

Ward results

Abbey

Alleyn

Bellenden

Bricklayers

Browning

Brunswick

Burgess

Cathedral

Chaucer

Consort

Dockyard

Faraday

Friary

Lyndhurst

Newington

Riverside

Rotherhithe

Ruskin

Rye

St Giles

The College

Waverley

See also