An election to the

County Council A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries. Ireland The county councils created under British rule in 1899 continue to exist in Irela ...

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 ...

took place on 31 March 1955. The council was elected by

First Past the Post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

with each elector having three votes in the three-member seats. The

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

made significant gains, but the Labour Party retained a substantial majority. The size of the council was cut by three members, with Fulham East,

Fulham West Fulham West was a borough constituency based in the London district of Fulham. It was represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1918 to 1955. At the 1918 general election the previous Fulham cons ...

and Hammersmith South abolished, and replaced in part by the new constituencies of

Barons Court Barons Court is a London Underground station in West Kensington in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, Greater London. This station serves the District line and the Piccadilly line. Barons Court is between West Kensington and Hamme ...

and

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

. This mirrored changes to constituencies for the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

which were implemented at the 1955 general election, shortly afterwards.

Campaign

The Labour Party began their campaign with a celebration at the

Royal Festival Hall The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a Grade I l ...

, to mark twenty-one years of running the council, and the twenty-fifth anniversary of the '' Daily Herald''. A newspaper strike limited coverage of the election; the ''

Manchester Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' noted that there were fewer posters and fewer meetings than in previous elections, although parties were doing more doorstep campaigning. The Labour Party manifesto proposed more

comprehensive school A comprehensive school typically describes a secondary school for pupils aged approximately 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is res ...

s, and championed their programmes of house building and improved services for children and elderly people. The Conservative Party opposed comprehensive schools, and argued that the council wasted money, proposing that civic restaurants should be closed and residential nurseries reduce their costs. Several constituencies were expected to see close battles between the two: Battersea South, Holborn and St Pancras South, Wandsworth Central and Woolwich West. Barons Court was considered an unknown, as a completely new seat. The Liberal Party manifesto proposed more housing, schools, nurseries and play areas, with their highest hopes of a seat being in

Bethnal Green Bethnal Green is an area in the East End of London northeast of Charing Cross. The area emerged from the small settlement which developed around the common land, Green, much of which survives today as Bethnal Green Gardens, beside Cambridge Heat ...

. The Communist Party focused on housing and opposition to nuclear weapons.

Results

The Conservatives gained fourteen seats from Labour. Barons Court was particularly closely fought, with six recounts required before the result was announced: two Labour seats, and one Conservative. Once the new and abolished seats were taken into account, Labour were down 18 seats, and the Conservatives up 15. Turnout was particularly low, at 32%. In Woolwich West, it reached 55.9%, but in

Stepney Stepney is a district in the East End of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The district is no longer officially defined, and is usually used to refer to a relatively small area. However, for much of its history the place name appl ...

it fell to only 17.6%.

References

{{United Kingdom local elections, 1955 1955 elections in the United Kingdom County Council election 1955 English local elections London County Council elections March 1955 events in the United Kingdom