[2] The vestry became an electing authority to the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1855 and in 1889 it became part of the County of London.

The government of the parish was shared by a vestry, governors of the poor and two separate bodies of trustees.

[3] In 1855 the parish was included within the area of the Metropolitan Board of Works to which it nominated one member and the various local government bodies were replaced by a single incorporated vestry which consisted of 48 elected vestrymen.

[9] From 1837, as the population of Bethnal Green increased, a number of new parishes were formed:[10] In addition, as the population increased, western parts of Bethnal Green were transferred into neighbouring Shoreditch as the new parish of Holy Trinity, Shoreditch, in 1866.

[12] The borough seal depicted a scene based on The Beggar's Daughter of Bednall Green, a poem in Percy’s Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, published in 1765, but probably dating from the era of Elizabeth I.

[15][16] In the first election to the borough council, held on 1 November 1900 the Progressives gained a majority, with 22 of the 30 councillors.

It included the districts now known as Bethnal Green, Cambridge Heath, Bow, Whitechapel and Shoreditch, stretching to include part of the Boundary Estate in the west and parts of Mile End Park and Victoria Park in the east.

In the south its boundary stopped just short of The Blind Beggar pub on Whitechapel Road.

It is estimated that 80 tons of bombs fell on this area alone, affecting 21,700 houses, destroying 2,233 and making a further 893 uninhabitable.