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The Precinct of St Katherine dated back to the twelfth century, when Queen Matilda founded a hospital for the poor on 13 acres of land belonging to the Priory of Holy Trinity. A charter of privileges granted in 1442 removed the inhabitants who had settled in the area from the civil jurisdiction of the City and the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the bishop of London. St Katherine's therefore became a royal peculiar with extra-parochial status; the Precinct had its own ecclesiastical court and the master and Lord Chancellor exercised responsibility in civil matters. Trade and industry quickly developed, free from the restrictions imposed elsewhere by the City and its guilds. A densely populated district arose, with buildings constructed on land leased from the Hospital. Many migrants especially Flemish weavers and brewers were amongst the population. This was estimated to have reached some 3,000-4,000 by 1640. This figure declined thereafter, stabilising at about 2,500 in the first two decades of the 19th century.
The Precinct was enclosed by the Tower of London to the west and St Botolph without Aldgate to the east and north. The river frontage to the south became heavily used by foreign ships, especially Dutch, as these vessels were not allowed to unload on wharfs in the City. Some 23 acres of the district, including about 1,250 houses, were destroyed in 1825 to make way for the new St Katharine Dock and warehouses, which took its name from the church and district it replaced.
Activities
Improvement Commissioners (see L/SKA/1)
Boards of improvement commissioners were ad hoc urban local government boards created during the 18th and 19th centuries. Around 300 boards were created in total, each by a private Act of Parliament, typically termed an Improvement Act. The powers of the boards varied according to the acts which created them; however, they often included street paving, cleansing, lighting, providing watchmen or dealing with various public nuisances. Those with restricted powers might be called lighting commissioners, paving commissioners, police commissioners, etc. Essentially then, the boards performed a number of the functions of local government, and indeed they are often viewed as forerunners of modern forms of municipal governance.
Improvement Acts empowered the commissioners to fund their work by levying rates. Some acts specified named individuals to act as commissioners, who replenished their number by co-option. Other commissions held elections at which all ratepayers could vote, while some took all those paying above a certain rate as automatic members. Improvement commissioners were gradually superseded by reformed municipal boroughs (from 1835) and boards of health (from 1848), which absorbed commissioners' powers by promoting private acts.
Aside from the improvement commissioners outlined above, parish vestries had been the means by which the business of both ecclesiastical and secular local government was met. This early form of local government across the country was a fusion of ecclesiastical and civil functions that had evolved to meet the needs of the inhabitants as they arose. 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 Precinct of St Katherine joined with the following areas to become part of the newly created Whitechapel District Board of Works:
- Parish of St Mary Whitechapel
- Parish of Christchurch
- Parish of St Botolph Without Aldgate
- The Parish of Holy Trinity, Minories
- The Liberty of Norton Folgate
- The Hamlet of Mile End New Town
- The Old Artillery Ground
- The District of Tower
Under the terms of the 1855 Act, so-called 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 Precinct of St Katherine elected one of these members, the first being Thomas Wilson Collet.
The Whitechapel Board was a separate unit of local government (see ref: L/WBW). This oversaw public health and sanitary conditions until the creation of the Metropolitan Borough of Stepney in 1900.
Key developments and dates
1708: 850 houses recorded in the Precinct
1767: first Act passed for the purposes of paving, cleaning, lighting and watching, among other streets, that part of East Smithfield Street in the Precinct of St Katherine; further Acts are passed in 1769 and 1807
June 1780: during the Gordon Riots Charlotte Gardner, a Black woman, co-leads a mob which seeks to burn down the church
1793: merchant William Vaughan publishes 'On Wet Docks, Quays, and Warehouses for the Port of London' - includes an early suggestion for the construction of docks in the St Katherine's area and elsewhere
1800: population in the Precinct estimated at about 3,000
1814: Act passed for purposes of paving, cleaning, lighting and watching the streets and public places in the Precinct of St Katherine; a further Act was passed in 1815
1825: passing of the Act to construct St Katherine's Dock - the St Katherine Docks Company to have capital stock of over £1.3 million; Thomas Telford commissioned to build the Dock
May 1827: foundation stone laid
25 October 1828: St Katherine's Dock opened, displacing in total some 11,000 people
1866: extra-parochial status ended - the area becomes a civil parish
Sources
- John Bowyer Nichols, Account of the Royal Hospital and Collegiate Church of Saint Katherine near the Tower of London (London: Nichols & Son, 1824)
- David Rosam, One Thousand Years of St Katherine Docks (London: Taylor Woodrow, 1995)
- Ben Weinrab, Christopher Hibbert, Julia Keay and John Keay, The London Encyclopaedia, 3rd edn (London: Macmillan, 2008) |