Municipal Borough of Barking

Barking
Motto: Dei gratia sumus quod sumus (By the grace of God we are what we are)
Barking within Essex in 1961
Geography
Status	Local board (1882 to 1894) Urban district (1894 to 1931) Municipal borough (after 1931) Civil parish
1911 area	3,805 acres (15.4 km2)
1931 area	3,809 acres (15.4 km2)
1961 area	3,877 acres (15.7 km2)
HQ	Clockhouse Avenue
History
Origin	Barking parish
Created	1894
Abolished	1965
Succeeded by	London Borough of Barking London Borough of Newham
Demography
1911 population - 1911 density	31,294 8.2/acre
1931 population - 1931 density	51,270 13.5/acre
1961 population - 1961 density	72,293 18.6/acre
Politics
Governance	Barking Town Urban District Council Barking Borough Council
Coat of arms of the borough council

Barking was a local government district in south west Essex, England from 1882 to 1965. It included the town of Barking, eastern Beckton and the south western part of the Becontree estate.^[1] The district was within the Metropolitan Police District and experienced a steady increase in population during its existence. It now forms the western part of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham in Greater London.

Background and formation

The ancient manor and parish of Barking covered a large area in the Becontree hundred, including Great Ilford.^[2] The parish was divided into the four wards of Town, Ripple, Ilford and Chadwell.^[3] A local board was formed for Town ward in 1882 and was extended to cover Ripple ward in 1885. In 1888 Barking parish was reduced in size, to match the area of the local board, as the Ilford and Chadwell wards formed a new parish of Ilford. In 1894 the area of the local board became the Barking Town urban district of Essex, as part of the Local Government Act 1894, and the Ilford parish became the Ilford Urban District.

District and borough

The district gained the status of municipal borough in 1931 and was renamed Barking. The borough ran its own tram services until they became the responsibility of the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933.^[4] The borough bordered East Ham to the west, Ilford to the north and Dagenham to the east. In the south the borough bordered the River Thames, with the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich in the County of London to the south. There was also a land boundary as the eastern part of the North Woolwich exclave was surrounded by Barking on three sides.^[1]

Abolition

Since the building of the Becontree estate in the 1920s across the three districts of Ilford, Barking and Dagenham, there had been periodic discussion and review of the local government arrangements in the area.^[5] The districts were all considered to form part of the Greater London conurbation and in 1957 formed part of the review area of the Royal Commission on Local Government in Greater London. The 1960 report of the commission recommended the union of Barking and Dagenham as a single London borough. Following the review, in 1965 the London Government Act 1963 abolished the municipal boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, and transferred their former area from Essex to Greater London, to form the London Borough of Barking. The section of Barking west of the River Roding around Beckton became part of the London Borough of Newham.

Gallery

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  Barking Town Hall. Built 1958.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Vision of Britain - Barking UD/MB (historic map). Retrieved on 2008-08-18.
2. ^ Vision of Britain - Barking parish (historic map). Retrieved on 2008-08-18.
3. ^ 'The ancient parish of Barking: Local government and poor relief', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 5, (1966)
4. ^ Reed, J., London Tramways, (1997)
5. ^ 'The borough of Barking', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 5, (1966)

Coordinates: 51°32′09″N 0°04′43″E / 51.5358°N 0.0785°E / 51.5358; 0.0785