Wards of the City of London
The wards are a survival of the medieval governmental system that allowed very small areas to exist as self-governing units within the wider city.
The aldermen traditionally held office for life but in the modern era put themselves up for re-election at least every six years.
[4] This is an ancient elected office that is now largely ceremonial, in that they accompany their alderman on the eight high ceremonial occasions in the city's civic calendar and in attending to call to order the wardmote, an annual meeting in each ward of electors, representatives and officials.
There are also ward clubs,[6] which are similar to residents' associations found elsewhere in the country, but because these have membership open to those without an electoral qualification in the ward they have essentially become social clubs as part of the city's general civic social life along with the guilds, associations and liveries.
The Common Council as we know it today, as a representative body of the wards, was realised in 1384 when the city's guilds no longer elected members.
Changes were made in 1994 to the City of London's external boundary with several London boroughs, which meant consequential changes to boundaries of several wards, where areas were transferred either to or from the city – the wards affected were: Farringdon Without, Cripplegate, Coleman Street, Bishopsgate, Aldgate, Portsoken, and Tower.
[17] Following a significant reform of the business vote in the city, all the wards underwent a major boundary and electoral representation revision in 2003.
[18] The wards are not reviewed by the Electoral Commission or a local government boundary commission under the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 1986 and (unlike other local government electoral reviews) the number and the names of the wards do not change.
A by-election in a particular ward can occur between scheduled elections if a vacancy arises, for example, by the resignation or death of a councilman.
The elections of aldermen are held individually from one another and arise if the sitting alderman dies, resigns or (after the six-year term) puts themselves up for re-election.
The four residential wards are Portsoken, Queenhithe, Aldersgate and Cripplegate, and the 2003 boundary changes reinforced this.
The majority of City residents are in the Barbican Estate which is split between Aldersgate and Cripplegate wards.
[18] The present and altered representation is shown in the main ward summary table below; the total number of common councilmen (one hundred) will not change.
The City of London was very densely populated until the mid-19th century, giving each precinct in the region of 500 residents on average.
A record of the wards, their divisions and precincts (including the names of the precincts) in 1715[21] give the following differences from the above figures: Aldersgate Within 5, Billingsgate 6, Broad Street 8 (4 Upper and 4 Lower), Castle Baynard 7 (4 First and 3 Second), Farringdon Without 15 (Fleet Street Side 8 and Holborn Side 7), and Queenhithe 9.
[citation needed] The number of Commoners each ward returns to the Court of Common Council is given (for both before and after the 2013 election); being largely based on the size of the electorate, this gives some indication as to the present number of residents (with respect to the four residential wards) and the scale of business activity.
