Metropolitan Borough of Stepney
The Metropolitan Borough of Stepney was a Metropolitan borough in the County of London created in 1900. In 1965 it became part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
Stepney
1,766 acres (7.15 km2)
1,771 acres (7.17 km2)
279,804
225,238
92,000
158/acre
127/acre
52/acre
1900
1965
Metropolitan borough (1900—1965)
Civil parish (1927—1965)
Stepney Borough Council
Cheviot House, 227-233 Commercial Road & Stepney Town Hall
A Magnis Ad Maiora (From great things to greater)
Formation and boundaries[edit]
The borough was formed from thirteen civil parishes and extra-parochial places: Christchurch Spitalfields, Liberty of Norton Folgate (part), Mile End New Town, Mile End Old Town, Old Artillery Ground, Ratcliff, St Anne Limehouse, St Botolph without Aldgate, St George in the East, St John of Wapping, St Mary Whitechapel, St Paul Shadwell and Tower of London.
In 1901 Tower of London was merged with St Botolph without Aldgate.[1] In 1921 Ratcliff, St John of Wapping and St Paul Shadwell were merged with St Anne Limehouse; and Christchurch Spitalfields, Liberty of Norton Folgate, Mile End New Town, Old Artillery Ground and St Botolph without Aldgate were merged with St Mary Whitechapel.[2][3] In 1927 the remaining four civil parishes were combined into a single civil parish called Stepney, which was conterminous with the metropolitan borough.[4]
Previous to the borough's formation it had been administered by four separate local bodies: Limehouse Board of Works, Whitechapel Board of Works, Old Town Vestry and St George in the East Vestry.
The area maps roughly to the London postcode E1.
The road sign in front of Mile End tube station and a street sign on Leman Street in Aldgate still have the wording "Borough of Stepney" just visible on them.