County of London
{{infobox historic district|
Name= London | HQ= County Hall, Lambeth | Status= Administrative county, ceremonial county | Start= 1889 | End= 1965 | Replace= Greater London | Image=  | County of London shown within England |
The County of London was an administrative county and ceremonial county of England from 1889 to 1965. It bordered Middlesex to the north and west, Essex to the north-east, Kent to the south-east and Surrey to the south.
It was created as part of the general introduction of county councils and was governed by the London County Council. It did not cover all of today's Greater London, and did not have authority over the City of London. It covered the same area that the Metropolitan Board of Works (which had run London's roads, bridges, etc) had covered, specifically parts of Middlesex, Surrey and Kent - corresponding to today's London Boroughs of Camden, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Wandsworth and Westminster.
In addition to being an administrative county with a county council, the Act also provided that "such portion of the administrative county of London as forms part of the counties of Middlesex, Surrey, and Kent, shall [...] be severed from those counties, and form a separate county for all non-administrative purposes by the name of the county of London".
The county was abolished in 1965 and was replaced by the much larger Greater London, which took in nearly all of Middlesex, along with much of Surrey, Kent, Essex and part of Hertfordshire. | The County of London (in red), super imposed upon today's Greater London area, to show the difference in size with post-1965 Borough boundaries |
The area of the old County of London is now sometimes known as Inner London. Since the Greater London Council was not an education authority, but London County Council had been, an Inner London Education Authority was constituted to continue this role for the area of the old County of London, and this continued until 1990.In 1900, eleven years after its foundation, the London Government Act divided the County of London into 28 metropolitan boroughs. These replaced the ancient parish vestries and district boards as the second tier of local government. When the County of London was abolished in 1965 these metropolitan boroughs were merged to form 12 London boroughs. *County of London boundary map
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