Metropolitan Borough of Holborn

Holborn
Holborn
	; Holborn Town Hall
	; Holborn within the County of London;
Area
• 1911	405 acres (1.64 km2)
• 1931	406 acres (1.64 km2)
• 1961	407 acres (1.65 km2)
Population
• 1911	49,357
• 1931	38,860
• 1961	22,008
Density
• 1911	121/acre
• 1931	96/acre
• 1961	54/acre
History
• Created	1900
• Abolished	1965
• Succeeded by	London Borough of Camden
Status	Metropolitan borough
Government	Holborn Borough Council
• HQ	High Holborn
• Motto	Multi Pertransibunt et Augebitur Scientia; (Many shall pass through and learning shall be increased)
	; Coat of arms of the borough council;
	Map of borough boundary

The Metropolitan Borough of Holborn was a metropolitan borough in the County of London between 1900 and 1965. The borough included most of Holborn (the parts outside the City of London) as well as Bloomsbury and St Giles.

In 1965 the borough amalgamated with the Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras and the Metropolitan Borough of Hampstead to form the new London Borough of Camden.

Formation and boundaries

The borough was formed in 1900 from seven civil parishes and extra-parochial places; all but the first of these were historically part of Holborn:

In 1930 these seven were combined into a single civil parish called Holborn, which was conterminous with the metropolitan borough.^[1]

Previous to the borough's formation it had been administered by two separate local bodies: Holborn District Board of Works and St Giles District Board of Works. The Inns of Court and Inns of Chancery had not been under the control of any local authority prior to 1900.

Coat of arms

St Giles, St George (patron saint of Bloomsbury) and St Andrew (patron saint of Holborn) were depicted on the borough seal. The several constituent parishes were illustrated in the arms granted to Holborn in 1906, while the supporters, the Lion and the Griffin are from the arms of Lincoln's Inn and Gray's Inn (Inns of Court).

Charges from these arms were used, together with charges from the coats of arms of Hampstead and of St. Pancras, when the new coat of arms of the London Borough of Camden was designed in 1965.

Visible legacy

Several of the street name signs in the British Museum/Senate House area still bear the "Borough of Holborn" area designation. Holborn Town Hall, built in 1894, still exists, on High Holborn, and still has the coat of arms in the façade.^[2] The entrance gate piers to the church of St Giles-in-the-Fields commemorate the Borough when it was amalgamated in 1965, and bear an inscription to this effect, although the arch that bore the borough's arms has since been removed. ^[3]

Population and area

Holborn was the smallest of the twenty-eight metropolitan boroughs of the County of London, with an area of between 405 and 407 acres (1.6 km²). Therefore, it was even smaller than the City of London. It also had the smallest population of any of the boroughs throughout its existence. The populations recorded in National Censuses were:

Constituent parishes 1801–1899

Population	67,103	80,642	88,172	90,670	93,767	95,726	94,074	93,513	78,668	70,938
Year^[4]	1801	1811	1821	1831	1841	1851	1861	1871	1881	1891

Metropolitan Borough 1900-1961

Population	59,405	49,357	43,192	38,860	^[6]	24,810	22,008
Year^[5]	1901	1911	1921	1931	1941	1951	1961

Politics

A map showing the wards of Holborn Metropolitan Borough as they appeared in 1952.

The borough was divided into nine wards for elections: Central St Giles, Lincoln's Inn, North Bloomsbury, North St Andrew, North St Giles, Saffron Hill, South Bloomsbury, South East St Andrew and St George the Martyr.^[7]^[8]

Borough council

Parliament constituency

For elections to Parliament, the borough was represented by one constituency:

Holborn

In 1950 the borough's representation was reduced to half a seat, when it was merged with part of St Pancras:

Holborn and St Pancras South

Gallery

Borough seal
Town Hall frontage

References

^ GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, Holborn CP through time | Census tables with data for the Parish-level Unit, A Vision of Britain through Time. http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10234116 Date accessed: 19 February 2015
^ Historic England. "Holborn Town Hall and Library (1378893)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
^ https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol5/pt2/pp127-140
^ Statistical Abstract for London, 1901 (Vol. IV); Census tables for Holborn Metropolitan Borough
^ Holborn MetB: Census Tables at Vision of Britain accessed 14 Dec 2006
^ The census was suspended for World War II
^ Post Office London County Suburbs Directory, 1919. 1919. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
^ Ordnance Survey 'County Series 3rd Edition' Map of London (1912-14) at 1:2500 scale. Accessed at https://www.old-maps.co.uk/