CLERK'S DEPARTMENT: PARKS COMMITTEE

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: LCC/CL/PK
Held at	: London Metropolitan Archives   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma ›
Full title	: CLERK'S DEPARTMENT: PARKS COMMITTEE
Date(s)	: 1888-1970
Level of description	: Collection View parent record
Extent	: 5.68 linear metres
Name of creator(s)	: LCC | London County Council x London County Council

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

The London County Council delegated administrative matters to its committees, both standing committees and a number of special committees appointed for specific purposes. The committees met frequently, either weekly or fortnightly, while the Council met weekly. Committee reports requiring decision by the Council were dealt with weekly, and each committee reported to the Council every 6 months. In addition the Council also had representatives on many bodies such as industrial councils, school governing bodies and charitable foundations. For the purpose of carrying out the services of the Council, the staff is organised into departments, each of which is under the responsibility of a chief officer.

The Clerk of the Council was the chief administrative officer of the Council, acting as the clerk of the Council itself as well as the various committees. Additional important duties of the Clerk's Department included the maintenance of the library for members of the Council at City Hall, the preparation of general publications and the responsibility for general work including records.

Mrs Basil Holmes, apparently inspired by Rocque's plan of London (1742-1745), noticed how many burial grounds and churchyards were marked upon it which no longer seemed to exist. Her early investigations were printed in 1884 in the First Annual Report of the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association. In 1894 the LCC instructed its Parks Committee to make a return of all the burial grounds existing in the County of London, with their size, ownership and condition. Mrs Holmes offered to undertake the work and began in February 1895. By June she had submitted a report accompanied by 60 sheets of 25": 1 mile Ordnance Survey plans, however only 56 of these have survived. She found 362 burial grounds in all, 41 of which were in her day still in use and 90 had become public gardens and playgrounds.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Records of the London County Council Clerk's Department relating to the Parks Committee, 1888-1970. Clerk's general papers on a variety of subjects including allotments for the unemployed; agriculture and food production in parks; London Development Plan proposals affecting parks and open spaces; entertainments in parks; fairs; the Circuses and Performing Animals Defence League; Festival of Britain arrangements in parks; Green Belt including legislation, requisitioned lands and papers regarding specific Green Belt areas; temporary housing on open spaces; preservation of London Squares; memorials in parks; playgrounds and playing fields; press notices and publicity concerning activities in parks; railings; requisitioned land; sculptures and open air sculpture exhibitions; grey squirrels; Parks staff; swimming baths; town planning in relation to parks and open spaces; transfer of powers to metropolitan borough councils; victory celebrations; protection of wild birds; Parks bye-laws and regulations; gifts of memorial seats and other items, and tree preservation.

Papers relating to individual parks including Battersea Park (including the Festival Gardens); Blackheath; Crystal Palace; Cutty Sark Gardens, Greenwich; Hackney Marsh; Hainault Forest; Hampstead Heath; Holland Park; Kenwood House and Park; Marble Hill House, Twickenham and Richmond Hill; Parliament Hill; Streatham Common; Tooting Common; Victoria Embankment Gardens; Victoria Park; Woolwich Common; Wormwood Scrubs; Bethlem Hospital grounds (now Imperial War Museum); Burgess Park (North Camberwell Open Space) and Lee Valley.

Ordnance Survey maps of London (1867-1875 edition) annotated by Mrs Basil Holmes as part of her investigation into London burial grounds and churchyards. The sites of burial grounds are colour coded: those in use - blue; disused - green and those converted into public recreation grounds - green with a red border.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

General papers: LCC/CL/PK/1; Individual parks: LCC/CL/PK/2; Burial Grounds: LCC/CL/PK/03.

Conditions governing access:

Available for general access.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright: City of London.

Finding aids:

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Acquired with the records of its parent body, the London County Council.

Allied Materials

Related material:

For parks and open spaces managed by the Corporation of London, including Epping Forest, see CLA/077-078.

Publication note:

Mrs Basil Holmes: The London Burial Grounds (London 1896) LMA library reference: [25.5 HOL] Mrs Basil Holmes: Return of Burial Grounds in the County of London (1895) LMA library reference: [25.5 LCC pamphlets] . For further information on the history of the LCC please see Achievement: A Short History of the London County Council by W Eric Jackson (1965), LMA Library reference 18.0 1965, The London County Council 1938, LMA Library reference 18.7 SER 4, and The Youngest County: A description of London as a county and its public services, 1951, LMA Library reference 18.0 1951.

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
April to June 2009