The Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW) was the upper tier of local government for London between 1856 and 1889, primarily responsible for upgrading infrastructure.

The metropolis, which the board served, included substantial parts of Middlesex, Surrey, and Kent throughout the 33 years leading up to the advent of county councils.

Parliament finally passed the Metropolis Management Act 1855 which dissolved a short-lived building office and a sewers commission and made the Board effective as of December that year.

However the national proliferation of such a tier of government on its demise recognised the advantages of economies of scale in uniting districts in procuring, improving and maintaining energy, street lighting, fire fighting, sanitation, and transport in the same way as large, well-funded, democratic, ministerially and accounting-regulated Municipal Corporations had widely done since 1835.

The City of London, the very core of the sprawling metropolis which keeps its medieval boundaries, was untouched by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 and resisted all moves to expand its borders to include the generally poorer districts surrounding it.

This meant that commissions (justices) of the peace of three counties, key landowners, and powerful parish council vestries beneath them, had authority over the clearly urban area, the metropolis: Middlesex north of the Thames and west of the Lea up to several miles from the City, Surrey to the south and south-west, and Kent as to the south east.

In 1837 an attempt was made to set up an elected authority covering the whole of the metropolis; however, the wealthier districts of Marylebone and Westminster resisted this, as some of their own local powers and low rates would have been lost.

A major problem was sewage: most of London's waste was allowed to flow into the Thames resulting in a horrendous smell in the summer months.

The MBW advanced its plans, but saw its private bill which included negotiated payments and similar rejected by the House of Commons for lack of headroom for light shipping.

In 1856 the MBW obtained an amending act of parliament giving them the power to provide "parks, pleasure-grounds and open spaces", subject to parliamentary approval.

When John Thwaites died (8 August 1870), he was eventually replaced by James Macnaghten Hogg, later Lord Magheramorne, who remained chairman until the MBW was abolished.

Few ratepayers and construction contractors thought MBW were transparently rewarded or that their property deals and tendering amounted to fair price and competition.

Its status as a joint board insulated its members from any influence of popular opinion, though all property owners had to pay for its work as part of their local government rates.

The knub of the scandal arose from the MBW's purchase of the old Pavilion music hall in Piccadilly Circus in 1879, when the site was thought necessary for the construction of Shaftesbury Avenue.

In 1883 Villiers met with Goddard and Thomas James Robertson (MBW Assistant Surveyor) to ensure that the remainder of the site was granted to him for a new Pavilion.

They prepared a report valuing the ground rent at £3,000, which Villiers immediately accepted; this was then hurriedly pushed through the Board which agreed it despite a higher offer of £4,000.

However, displeased by the inspections themselves, and by the attempt to extract gifts, the managers tended to send Hebb tickets for seats that were at the back of the house or hidden behind a pillar.

On the motion of Lord Randolph Churchill (who represented Paddington South where anti-Board feeling was at its highest), the House of Commons voted on 16 February 1888 to establish a Royal Commission to inquire into the Board.

While the Royal Commission was still preparing its hearings, the President of the Local Government Board Charles Ritchie announced that elected County Councils were to be created throughout the United Kingdom.

The Metropolitan Board of Works was abolished by the Local Government Act 1888; and the London County Council had been elected on 21 January 1889, to assume its new powers on 1 April.