City of London

The ancient walled city — commercial heart of the metropolis

The City of London, the "Square Mile" within and immediately around the ancient walls, was the oldest and most autonomous part of the metropolis. Its governing structure went back to medieval times, and by the eighteenth century, the Corporation of the City of London had the most extensive powers of any local authority in England. It elected its own Lord Mayor, had its own courts, its own police force, and guarded its autonomy jealously against Parliament and the Crown.

Governance

The City of London was governed through a system of 26 wards, each with its own elected Alderman, who served for life. The 26 Aldermen made up the upper governing body of the City, the Court of Aldermen. Below them was the Court of Common Council, which was elected. The Lord Mayor, who was elected annually from the Aldermen, was the City's chief magistrate and its ceremonial head.

The livery companies, guilds dating from medieval times, held considerable power in the government of the City. Being a member of a livery company granted the "freedom of the City," a requisite to vote in City elections or to do business in the City. Though many of the livery companies had ceased to function in a regulatory capacity in the eighteenth century, they remained significant institutions in terms of social and political life, and served as meeting halls for civic and business events.

City of London wards with Harris's List entry markers. The City had relatively few entries compared with Westminster, reflecting its primarily commercial character by the mid-eighteenth century.

The City and Harris's List

A peripheral presence: Very few of the entries in Harris's List are found in the City wards, a surprising difference from the high density in Westminster. Those few are overwhelmingly found in Farringdon Without, the large ward that spanned the western boundary of the City and included Fleet Street and the neighborhoods surrounding Smithfield.

The City's relative absence from Harris's List can be explained by the change from a residential to a commercial centre. By the mid-eighteenth century, the wealthy had begun to migrate westward to the new developments in Westminster and Marylebone, leaving the City mostly populated by clerks, shopkeepers, and tradespeople, rather than gentlemen, the primary readership of Harris's List.

The exception was the City's largest ward, Farringdon Without, which stretched from Ludgate Hill to the Temple, incorporating Fleet Street, the hub of the newspaper and publishing industry. This ward was also close to the Inns of Court and the western entertainment districts of Covent Garden, making it the logical transition point between the City's commercial world and the social world of Westminster.

The wards that do appear in Harris's List are also worth noting. Farringdon Without far outpaces the other City wards, with a few scattered entries for the Cheap and Farringdon Within wards. The other City wards are almost completely absent from the publication, reinforcing the idea that the City, with its commercial character, was outside the geography of the sex trade as it was presented in Harris's List.

Bibliography

  • Barron, Caroline M. London in the Later Middle Ages: Government and People, 1200–1500. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
  • Inwood, Stephen. A History of London. London: Macmillan, 1998.
  • White, Jerry. London in the Eighteenth Century: A Great and Monstrous Thing. London: Bodley Head, 2012.