Barking was a local government district, and later civil parish and borough, in southwest Essex, England from 1882 to 1965.

[3] The parish was the largest in Essex in terms of area and was divided into the four wards of Town, Ripple, Great Ilford and Chadwell.

[4] The Town ward covered land immediately to the east and west of the River Roding and the Ripple ward stretched from Longbridge Road in the north to the River Thames in the south taking in Creekmouth and the western part of the modern estate of Becontree.

The borough ran its own tram services, Barking Town Urban District Council Light Railways, until they became the responsibility of the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933.

[2] Since the building of the Becontree estate in the 1920s across the three districts of Ilford, Barking and Dagenham, there had been periodic discussion and review of the local government arrangements in the area.