Tower Division
The Tower Division , colloquially Tower Hamlets , was a British administrative unit. The Liberty was in the Hundred of Ossulstone in Ancient County of Middlesex . Originally a rural area, the East End of London developed here in the 19th century . The residents were direct subjects of the constable of the Towers of London . The Liberty existed from the early 18th century to 1889. It was about 30 km² and in 1881 had over a million residents.
From 1832 the Tower Division formed its own constituency for the House of Commons. This was called Tower Hamlets and had two MPs. In 1889, the Tower Division went to the County of London . The London Borough of Tower Hamlets has been named after the Liberty since 1965.
In 1829 the following villages and communities belonged to the Tower Division:
- The parish of St Mary, Whitechapel
- The parish of Christchurch, Spitalfields
- The parish of St Leonard, Shoreditch
- The liberty of Norton Folgate
- The parish of St John, Hackney
- The parish of St Matthew, Bethnal Green (London)
- The hamlet of Mile End Old Town
- The hamlet of Mile End New Town
- The parish of St Mary, Stratford Bow
- The parish of Bromley St Leonard
- The parish of All Saints, Poplar
- The parish of St Anne, Limehouse
- The hamlet of Ratcliff
- The parish of St Paul, Shadwell
- The parish of St John, Wapping
- The liberty of East Smithfield
- The precinct of St Katherine
-
The liberty of His Majesty's Tower of London consisting of:
- The liberty of the Old Artillery Ground
- The parish of Trinity, Minories
- The Old Tower precinct
- The precinct of The Tower Within
- The precinct of the well close
Remarks
- ↑ Danby Pickering (Ed.): The Statues at Large from the Twelth Year of Charles II. To the Last Year of King James II. Inclusive Vol. VIII. Cambridge 1763, p. 46.
