| AdminHistory | Until it became part of the Whitechapel District Board of Works in 1855 (and ultimately the Metropolitan Borough of Stepney in 1900), the Old Artillery Ground existed outside of the prevailing system of parochial governance. The Old Artillery Ground was a so-called 'liberty'. This is a term which originated in the Middle Ages and was traditionally defined as an area in which rights reserved to the king had devolved into private hands. Liberties were often marked by a certain lawlessness among the inhabitants, but this did not stop them later becoming units of local government administration.
Liberties varied widely in size: the Liberty of the Old Artillery Ground was a small rectangle of land oriented north-south, enclosed to the north by Norton Folgate (another liberty) and to the east and south by the parish of Christ Church Spitalfields. St Botolph Without Aldgate formed the western boundary. This area was originally the outer precinct of the Priory and Hospital of St Mary Spital. It was converted to an Artillery Ground in 1538 for the use of 'The Fraternity or Guild of Artillery of Longbows, Crossbows and Handguns'. This group were later known as the Honourable Artillery Company and used the ground in conjunction with the Gunners of the Tower.
In 1658 the Honourable Artillery Company moved to a new Artillery Ground in Bunhill Fields. This left the Gunners of the Tower in possession of the area until 1682, when it was sold off to speculative builders who proceeded to rapidly develop the area for housing. Fort Street, Gun Street, Artillery Passage and Artillery Lane all recall the area's former use.
The nature of the liberty's self-government in the eighteenth century is unclear. There are records dating to 1729 in which the Overseers of the Poor presented important matters for the consideration of the inhabitants at annual meetings. In 1774 an Act of Parliament established trustees to deal with the poor and commissioners to levy a rate and organise paving, cleansing and watching of the streets. The Constable and other officers of the Tower were named among the latter.
Before 1855 parish vestries had met to discharge the business of both ecclesiastical and secular local government of conventional parishes. A generalised system of local government, separate to ecclesiastical concerns, slowly took shape. It was the 1855 Metropolis Management Act which saw a major break from the old tradition of local administration in London. The Liberty of the Old Artillery Ground joined with the following areas to become became part of the newly created Whitechapel District Board of Works:
- Parish of St Mary Whitechapel
- Parish of Christchurch
- Parish of St Botolph Without Aldgate
- Parish of Holy Trinity, Minories
- The Precinct of St Katherine
- The Hamlet of Mile End New Town
- The Liberty of Norton Folgate
- The District of Tower
Under the terms of the 1855 Act, Schedule B vestries elected a total of 619 members to serve on the London District Boards; more specifically, the nine constituent bodies of the Whitechapel Board elected 58 members: the Old Artillery Ground elected one of these members.
The Whitechapel Board was a separate unit of local government (see ref: L/WBW). The Board oversaw public health and sanitary conditions until the creation of the Metropolitan Borough of Stepney in 1900. A few residual responsibilities remained with an Old Artillery Ground vestry after 1855 (see L/OAG/1/3).
Notable events
1729: first recorded meeting of the 'Ancient Inhabitants' of the liberty
1774: Parliament passes an Act to regulate the poor and organise paving, cleansing, lighting and watching the streets of the Old Artillery Ground
1792: 29 Fort Street is used for a workhouse
1801: the population is recorded as 1,428 people living in 185 houses
1837: the Old Artillery Ground is joined to Whitechapel Union by order of the Poor Law Commissioners
1881: the population is stated to be 2,516 and overcrowding is rife
Source
F. H. W. Sheppard (general ed.), Survey of London: Vol. XXVII - Spitalfields and Mile End New Town (London: The Athlone Press, for the London County Council, 1957) |