Bermondsey (also known as St. Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey) was a parish in the metropolitan area of

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 England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The ancient parish was part of

Hundred of Brixton Brixton Hundred or the Hundred of Brixton was for many centuries a group of parishes (hundred) used for meetings and taxation of their respective great estates in the north east of the county of Surrey, England. Its area has been entirely absorbed ...

and County of

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

. In 1855, it was included in the area of responsibility of the

Metropolitan Board of Works The Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW) was the principal instrument of local government in a wide area of Middlesex, Surrey, and Kent, defined by the Metropolis Management Act 1855, from December 1855 until the establishment of the London County ...

(MBW). The act, establishing the MBW, also incorporated a new elected local authority for the parish known as ''The Vestry of the Parish of Bermondsey in the County of Surrey''. The population of the parish in 1896 was 84,632, and it had adopted the

Public Libraries Act 1850 The Public Libraries Act 1850 (13 & 14 Vict c.65) was an Act of the United Kingdom Parliament which first gave local boroughs the power to establish free public libraries. The Act was the first legislative step in the creation of an enduring natio ...

in 1887. For electoral purposes, the parish was divided into four

wards Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a priso ...

and had 120 elected vestrymen. In 1889, the area of the Metropolitan Board was reconstituted as the

County of London The County of London was a county of England from 1889 to 1965, corresponding to the area known today as Inner London. It was created as part of the general introduction of elected county government in England, by way of the Local Government A ...

, and Bermondsey was transferred to the new county. In 1900, the County of London was divided into twenty-eight

metropolitan borough A metropolitan borough (or metropolitan district) is a type of local government district in England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, metropolitan boroughs are defined in English law as metropolitan districts within metropolitan ...

s. The parish became the core part of 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 ...

, which also covered the parish of

Rotherhithe Rotherhithe () is a district of south-east London, England, and part of the London Borough of Southwark. It is on a peninsula on the south bank of the Thames, facing Wapping, Shadwell and Limehouse on the north bank, as well as the Isle of Dogs ...

, and the area of the St Olave's District Board of Works (consisting of the two parishes of

Southwark St John Horsleydown Southwark St John Horsleydown was a small parish on the south bank of the River Thames in London, opposite the Tower of London. The name Horsleydown, apparently derived from the "horse lie-down" next to the river, is no longer used. The pari ...

and

Southwark St Olave and St Thomas Southwark St Olave was an ancient civil and ecclesiastical parish on the south bank of the River Thames, covering the area around where Shard London Bridge now stands in the modern London Borough of Southwark. The boundaries varied over time bu ...

). A borough council replaced the vestries and board, and in 1904, all four parishes in the borough were merged as the single

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

of Bermondsey.

Ecclesiastical parish

The ancient parish, dedicated to

St Mary Magdalene Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to his crucifixion and resurre ...

and centred on the church of St Mary Magdalen Bermondsey, was in the

Diocese of Winchester The Diocese of Winchester forms part of the Province of Canterbury of the Church of England. Founded in 676, it is one of the older dioceses in England. It once covered Wessex, many times its present size which is today most of the historic enla ...

until 1877, then the

Diocese of Rochester The Diocese of Rochester is a Church of England diocese in the English county of Kent and the Province of Canterbury. The cathedral church of the diocese is Rochester Cathedral in the former city of Rochester. The bishop's Latin episcopal signat ...

until 1905, and then finally in the

Diocese of Southwark The Diocese of Southwark is one of the 42 dioceses of the Church of England, part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The diocese forms part of the Province of Canterbury in England. It was created on 1 May 1905 from part of the ancient Dio ...

. From 1840, as the population of Bermondsey increased, a number of new parishes were formed:
'Parishes: Bermondsey', A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 4 (1912), pp. 17-24. Date accessed: 10 March 2014. * St James's Church, Bermondsey, St James, Bermondsey in 1840 * Christ Church, Bermondsey in 1845 * St Paul, Bermondsey in 1846 * St Anne, Bermondsey in 1871 * St Crispin, Bermondsey in 1875 * St Augustine of Hippo, South Bermondsey in 1878 * St Andrew, Bermondsey in 1882 * St Luke, Bermondsey in 1885. In addition, as the population of neighbouring Camberwell increased, parts of Bermondsey parish were included in the new parish of * St Philip, Avondale Square in 1876 ''with parts of St Giles, Camberwell''

Politics

Under the

Metropolis Management Act 1855 The Metropolis Management Act 1855 (18 & 19 Vict. c.120) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that created the Metropolitan Board of Works, a London-wide body to co-ordinate the construction of the city's infrastructure. The Act al ...

any parish that exceeded 2,000

ratepayers Rates are a type of property tax system in the United Kingdom, and in places with systems deriving from the British one, the proceeds of which are used to fund local government. Some other countries have taxes with a more or less comparable role ...

was to be divided into wards; as such the incorporated vestry of St Mary Magdalen Bermondsey was divided into four wards (electing

vestrymen 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 ...

): No. 1 (9), No. 2 (9), No. 3 (9) and No. 4 (9). In 1894 as its population had increased the incorporated vestry was re-divided into six wards (electing

): No. 1 (21), No. 2 (24), No. 3 (21), No. 4 (21), No. 5 (18) and No. 6 (15).

References

*''The London Manual 1899-1900'' edited by Robert Donald (Edward Lloyd Ltd., 1899) {{Coord, 51.492, -0.065, type:city_region:GB-SWK, display=title History of the London Borough of Southwark Parishes governed by vestries (Metropolis) Former civil parishes in London Bills of mortality parishes