| AdminHistory | The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is the local authority providing publicly funded services in Tower Hamlets. The Council is one of 32 boroughs in Greater London providing the following services to local residents:
- Billing, i.e. collecting council tax and business rates
- Education
- Environmental health and waste collection and disposal
- Health and social care
- Housing
- Leisure and culture
- Planning applications and building control
- Transport and streets
As at 2020 the Council operated an elected Mayor and Cabinet form of executive decision-making, with an overview and scrutiny committee, a standards committee and various other decision-making and regulatory committees. At the time of writing, the Council employed some 10,500 staff in its five directorates:
- Governance directorate, comprising the Democratic Services, Legal Services, including Electoral Services, Communications and the Strategy and Performance Team.
- Resources directorate, covering financial, human and ICT resources functions.
- Place directorate
- Health, Adults and Community directorate
- Children's Services directorate
Origins and purpose:
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets was formed on 1 April 1965 to replace the three Metropolitan Boroughs of Bethnal Green, Poplar and Stepney. Having operated separately since November 1900 Metropolitan Boroughs were abolished as part of the major reorganisation of local government in London that followed the passing of the 1963 London Government Act; the three boroughs each became recognised districts in the newly created London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The new Borough was intended to be of sufficient size in terms of population and administrative weight to engender a distinct civic identity and enable the performance of a wide range of functions, while remaining small enough for officers and elected members to be easily accessible to local residents.
Statistics from 1965 record that the Borough comprised 4,994 acres (just under 8 square miles) with a population of 206,080:
- 91,130: Stepney
- 68,530: Poplar
- 46,420: Bethnal Green
The history of the Borough since its creation falls into three distinct phases as set against the overall structure of metropolitan government: 1965-1986, during the existence of the Greater London Council (GLC); 1986-2000, the period following the abolition of the GLC under the 1985 Local Government Act; and 2000-date, following the creation of the Greater London Authority (GLA) under national legislation passed in 1999.
A number of internal reorganisations have been undertaken by the Council itself. The most important innovation occurring in 1986 with the introduction of a Neighbourhood system. This controversial experiment in local governance was abandoned in 1994, when the Council reverted to a more traditional local authority structure.
1965-1986:
The local government system in place between 1965 and 1986 meant that the Borough of Tower Hamlets was the main provider of services, especially those of a personalised nature such as housing and social welfare.
In 1968, departments consisted of:
- Town Clerks Department
- Borough Treasurers Department
- Borough Architect and Planning Officers Department
- Public Health Department
- Childrens Department
- Welfare Department
- Housing Department
- Libraries Department
- Public Control Department
- Baths Department
In 1971 a major reorganisation to the committee and departmental structure took place; see L/THL/A for further details and L/THL/A/23/1/1 for minutes of the Special (Re-organisation) Committee.
1986-2000:
This period saw the Borough assume new powers and responsibilities previously exercised by the GLC. Ministerial controls exercised from Whitehall and tight political, organisational and financial constraints impacted decisions and activities.
From 1986-1994 Liberal Democrats brought in a period of Decentralisation. A new Neighbourhood system led to services being provided from the town halls located in the seven neighbourhoods of the borough or via centralised departments. A new structure consisted of the following central departments:
- Chief Executive
- Borough Secretary
- Borough Personnel and Management Officer
- Borough Treasurer
- Borough Valuer
- Borough Building Services Officer
- Borough Engineer
- Social Services
and the seven Neighbourhoods. These were Standing Neighbourhood Committees (SNCs) with their own decision-making powers. Each was independent with a Neighbourhood Chief Executive and offices. The clerking for meetings was often done centrally by Corporate Services, London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The Neighbourhood Committees were (in brackets are assigned collection archive reference codes):
- Bethnal Green (L/BGN)
- Wapping (L/WAN)
- Bow (L/BON)
- Globe Town (L/GTN)
- Isle of Dogs
- Poplar (L/PON)
and Stepney.
Their names were later simplified from SNC to Neighbourhood. This system remained until 1994.
Post-2000:
The post-2000 period has seen the reintroduction of two-tier government in London, with the GLA now forming the upper tier of administration. Mayoral governance has also been introduced, with the first election for the post of London mayor taking place on 4 May 2000, and the creation of a Borough mayoralty in May 2010 following a referendum on the issue.
Activities:
Tower Hamlets Borough Council directly inherited a number of functions previously exercised by its three predecessor Metropolitan Boroughs, and it is probably the case that the administrative burden imposed on the new body was considerable. The administrative functions carried out by Tower Hamlets in the period 1965-86 involved the management of:
- Allotments
- Cemeteries and crematoria
- Children's services
- Control of vermin and pests
- Elections and voter registration
- Food and drugs
- Housing: these services were later outsourced to Tower Hamlets Homes which was later transferred to the council on 1 November 2023
- Information services relating to the borough
- Inspection of premises in connection with health and overcrowding
- Libraries
- Licensing (certain functions)
- Local parks and open spaces
- Noise and smoke abatement
- Personal health services - maternity, mental health, etc.
- Planning - applications and local development plans
- Rates collection
- Refuse collection
- including the removal of commercial and domestic rubbish (the GLC was responsible for waste disposal)
- Registration of births, deaths and marriages
- Registration of local land charges
- Sanitation
- Street cleansing
- Street markets and slaughterhouses
- Swimming baths and wash-houses
- Trading standards and consumer protection
- Weights and measures
- Welfare services - care of the aged, handicapped, blind and homeless
- Working conditions in shops, offices, etc.
In addition, there were a number of concurrently held functions where responsibilities lay with both the Borough and the GLC:
- Economic development
- Emergency planning and civil defence: mainly handled by the GLC with some input from the Borough.
- Grants to voluntary organisations
- Highways and traffic management: the overall strategic planning authority for the city until 1986 was the GLC, with the Borough managing local roads and initiating
small-scale traffic management schemes and parking schemes for GLC approval; these were often refused or suffered lengthy delays, inevitably causing tension between the two authorities.
- Historic buildings and monuments: managed concurrently by the Borough and the GLC, with the latter having special powers over listed buildings.
- Housing: provision mainly fell to the Borough, but the GLC had extensive housing stock in Tower Hamlets (inherited from the London County Council) and strategic powers
for managing large projects and slum clearance. The GLC began to transfer its housing stock to Borough control during the 1970s.
- Licensing: the Borough carried out most licensing, but the GLC did so for places of entertainment, betting tracks, storage of petroleum and building control.
- Museums, art galleries and support for the arts: managed concurrently by the Borough and the GLC, although the bulk of spending was undertaken by the Borough.
- Parks and open spaces: the Borough managed local parks, many of which were transferred from the GLC; the GLC itself dealt with larger 'strategic' parks.
- Planning: the GLC drew up the strategic land-use plan, while the Borough produced its own local plan and exercised development control, with the GLC intervening in major
schemes. The Borough also took decisions on individual planning applications to build, demolish or alter buildings.
- Promotion of tourism
- Sports and recreation: input from both the Borough and the GLC, although the bulk of spending was undertaken by the Borough.
Key activities, events and personalities:
Since 1965, Tower Hamlets has seen many developments and events which are of local, regional and national importance. Among some of the important personalities and key events to have occurred in the last 50 years are:
- The closure of the East India Docks in 1967 and St Katherine's Dock in 1968, part of the former eventually being repurposed as a nature reserve and the latter as a marina
with surrounding offices, flats and shops
- The Council licensing squatting in some of its properties in the 1970s to help ease the housing crisis
- The Rock Against Racism festival headlined by The Clash staged in Victoria Park in 1978
- The murder of Altab Ali, textile worker in 1978, and the political emergence of the Bangladeshi local community leading the struggle against racism
- The closure of the West India Docks in 1980, and the subsequent redevelopment of Canary Wharf throughout the 1990s
- Local boxer Charlie Magri becoming WBC flyweight champion in 1983
- 30,926 GLC dwellings handed over to the Council on 1 July 1985; with its own stock of 19,044 dwellings, the Council became landlord of eight out of every ten homes in the
borough
- The 50th anniversary celebrations held in 1986 of the Battle of Cable Street
- The opening of the Docklands Light Railway in 1987
- Tower Hamlets Cemetery declared a nature reserve in 2000
- The opening of the Museum of London Docklands in 2003
- The election of Rushanara Ali as MP in 2010, the first person of Bangladeshi origin to sit in the House of Commons
- The 2012 Olympics
Addresses:
Upon its creation in 1965 the London Borough of Tower Hamlets occupied the old Bethnal Green Town Hall at Patriot Square (facing Cambridge Heath Road). The Town Hall at Patriot Square was sold to a property developer in the early 1990s, and the Council moved to Mulberry Place in Poplar to be closer to developments in Docklands. This site was part of the former East India Docks and Brunswick Power Station site. Mulberry and next door Lighterman House were designed by Sten Samuelson and the Beaton Thomas Partnership. Built in 1992, staff moved into Mulberry Place in July 1993.
Plans to move the Town Hall from Mulberry Place to the former historic Royal London Hospital building in Whitechapel were initiated in the mid-2010s and approved in March 2018. The last Full Council meeting at Mulberry Place was held on 18 January 2023. The town hall officially opened to the public on 27 February 2023. For more information on the history of the Mulberry Place site and the Council's presence there see Our East End, issue 27, December 2022, pages 34-35. https://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/Documents/ourEastEnd/OEEDecember2022.pdf [accessed September 2023]
Departmental offices were spread throughout the Borough, e.g. the Baths Department was based at York Hall, the Children's Department in Backchurch Lane (E1) and the administrative offices of the Housing Department in White Horse Road (E1) with three local offices at the main Town Hall, Poplar Town Hall in Bow Road (E3) and Stepney Town Hall in Cable Street (E1).
Mayors of Tower Hamlets, 1965-2010:
1965-1966 Thomas Horace Arthur Mitchell (Chairman)
1966-1967 John Orwell (Bethnal Green)
1967-1968 Matthew John Durell
1968-1969 Frederick William Briden
1969-1970 Edwin George Walker
1970-1971 John Orwell (Stepney)
1971-1972 William Harris
1972-1973 Herbert Francis Rackley
1973-1974 George Terence Desmond
1974-1975 George Richard Chaney
1975-1976 Benjamin Samuel Holmes
1976-1977 Daniel Kelly
1977-1978 John Riley
1978-1979 Arthur Sidney Dorrell
1979-1980 Mrs Eva Armsby
1980-1981 Mrs Lilian Crooks
1981-1982 Mrs Patricia M. Thompson
1982-1983 John C. O'Neill
1983-1984 Emmanuel D. Penner
1984-1985 Robert William Ashkettle
1985-1986 Paul Beasley
1986-1987 Brian Williams
1987-1988 Brian Williams
1988-1989 Barrie Duffey
1989-1990 Jeremy A. Shaw
1990-1991 Janet Ludlow
1991-1992 Barry A. Blandford
1992-1993 Kofi B. Appiah
1993-1994 A. John Snooks JP
1994-1995 Arthur William Downes
1995-1996 Ghulam Mortuza
1996-1997 Albert Charles Jacob
1997-1998 Joseph R. Ramanoop
1998-1999 Abdul Asad
1999-2000 Denise Jones
2000-2001 Soyful Alom
2001-2002 Lorraine Melvin
2002-2003 Salim Ullah
2003-2004 Abdul Aziz Sardar
2004-2005 Manir Uddin Ahmed
2005-2006 Doros Ullah
2006-2007 Shafiqul Haque
2007-2008 Ann Jackson
2008-2009 Muhammad Abdullah Salique
2009-2010 Ahmed Adam Omer
May 2010 - October 2010 Motin Uz-Zaman
October 2010 - May 2011 Motin Uz-Zaman (Chair of Council)
See also Mayors' Declarations of Acceptance of Office book, archive reference L/THL/B/10/1.
Council Leaders from 1984-date:
1984-1986 John Riley (also a former Mayor, now deceased)
1986-1987 Eric Flounders (Lib Dem)
1987-1988 Chris Birt
1988-1990 Belinda Collins (now deceased)
1990-1991 Eric Flounders
1991-1994 Peter Hughes
1994-1995 John Biggs (Labour regained control)
1995-1997 Dennis Twomey
1997-1998 Michael Keith
1998-1999 Julia Mainwaring
1999-2001 Michael Keith
2001-2005 Hellal Abbas
2005-2006 Michael Keith
2006-2008 Denise Jones
2008-2010 Lutfur Rahman
2010: May-October Hellal Abbas
2010: October - 2015 Executive Mayor, Lutfur Rahman
2015-2022 - Mayor John Biggs
2022-date Mayor Lutfur Rahman
Chief Executives (formerly Town Clerks) from 1971-date:
- Jack Wolkind: 1971-1985
- Daniel Regan: 1985-1986
- Alan Tobias: Acting CE for a few months in 1987 (no exact dates)
- Charles Lea: 1987-1988
- John McBride: July 1988 - March 1990
- Keith Ivory: Acting CE March 1990 - September 1990
- Albert Golding and Tom Herbert: Joint CE - October 1990 - February 1994
- Sylvia Dean: Acting CE May 1994 - June 1995
- Sylvie Pierce: June 1995 - September 1999
- Eleanor Kelly: CE October 1999 - 2000
- Christine Gilbert: CE 2000 - October 2006
- lan Wilson: Interim CE October 2006 - December 2006
- Martin Smith: CE January 2007 - June 2009
- Kevan Collins: CE July 2009 - October 2011
- Aman Dalvi: Interim CE September 2011 - May 2012
- Stephen Halsey: Interim Head of Paid Service May 2012 - October 2015
- Will Tuckley: CE - October 2015 - March 2023
- Stephen Halsey: Interim CE March 2023 - July 2023, CE July 2023 - date
Tracing names of Councillors who were elected to each ward:
Explore newspapers 'Tower Hamlets News' and 'East End Life' for election results. For example for the1990s, look under Election months May 1990, May 1994 and May 1998. For those elected between years consult declaration of acceptance of office books, reference series L/THL/B/9.
Sources of information include:
- Michael Hebbert and Tony Travers (eds), The London Government Handbook (London: Cassell, 1988) and GLC/ILEA, Greater London Services (1971-1974)
- London Borough of Tower Hamlets Year Books
- Roger Bowdler, Bethnal Green Town Hall, English Heritage Historical Analysis & Research Team, Reports and Papers First Series (14), (1996)
- Tower Hamlets Official Guides
Roll of Honorary Freemen 1945-1996:
- Harold Escott Dennis OBE - 22 October 1945
- Clement Richard Attlee KG, OM, CH, FRS - 21 December 1948
- John Charles Lawder OBE, JP - 2 March 1950
- Henry Edward Tate OBE, JP - 24 April 1953
- Charles William Key JP - 9 November 1953
- Cecilia Aylward - 24 May 1954
- Hannah Long - 24 May 1954
- Nellie Frances Cressall - 8 April 1959
- 114th (1st London) Corps Engineer Regiment (TA) - 27 April 1961
- John Alfred Hanshaw - 23 May 1962
- James Sambrook - 23 May 1962
- Thomas Aylward - 22 May 1963
- Annie Elboz - 22 May 1963
- Jeremiah Joseph Anthony Long - 22 May 1963
- Muriel Lester - 26 February 1964
- Joseph O'Connor OBE, JP - 10 February 1965
- Kathleen O'Connor - 10 February 1965
- Wilfred Reeve - 10 February 1965
- Charles Blaber JP - 7 May 1969
- William Thomas George Guy - 7 May 1969
- Albert William Overland MBE - 7 May 1969
- Frederick George Spearing - 3 March 1971
- William Thomas Tuson - 3 March 1971
- Thomas James Beningfield JP - 21 June 1972
- Alfred Stocks - 7 May 1975
- Jack Wolkind LLM - 22 October 1975
- George Mackley Browne - 23 November 1977
- Ernest Walter Hill - 23 November 1977
- Herbert Francis Rackley - 23 November 1977
- Arthur Sidney Dorrell - 23 July 1979
- William Isaac Brinson OBE, JP - 27 July 1979
- Edward Patrick Webber - 27 July 1979
- George Henry Wall - 28 January 1981
- The Salvation Army - 26 January 1994
- John Riley - 22 April 1995
- Robert William Ashkettle BEM - 11 October 1995
- Albert Charles Jacob - 11 October 1995
- Arthur William Downes - 3 July 1996
- Ashek Ali barrister-at-law - 4 December 1996 |