TECHNICAL SERVICES DEPARTMENT: ENGINEER

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: COL/TSD/EG
Held at	: London Metropolitan Archives   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma ›
Full title	: TECHNICAL SERVICES DEPARTMENT: ENGINEER
Date(s)	: 1736-1997
Level of description	: Collection View parent record
Extent	: 84.2 linear metres
Name of creator(s)	: Corporation of London

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

The Technical Services Department retains overall responsibility for many of the City of London's major construction and civil engineering projects. The Department includes the District Surveyor and the City Engineer. Both are concerned with building control and regulation, ensuring that all building work complies with the appropriate standards, that health and safety is not compromised and that the needs of people with disabilities are catered for.

The origins of building control date to 1667, when Parliament passed an Act for the rebuilding of London after the 1666 Great Fire. The Act set out to prevent a recurrence of the disaster and for the first time surveyors were appointed to ensure its requirements were not violated.

In the nineteenth century the District Surveyors Association was formed to ensure the uniformity and interpretation of building legislation throughout London, a role which continues to this day. Building Control today plays a major role in the realisation of a safe and healthy built environment and is a fundamental part of the overall success of modern construction within the City of London.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Records of the Technical Services department relating to the City Engineer, including authority to set up posts to preserve foot passage, 1736; Order from the Common Council to remove projecting signs, water spouts and so on to prevent obstructions, 1764; abstract of streets, lanes, courts, alleys and so on within the City showing the position and depth of public sewers, by William Haywood, surveyor, 1847; papers regarding the scheme of Frank Forster, engineer, for the drainage of districts north of the Thames, 1850-1851; papers regarding the schemes of the Great London Drainage Company, 1852-1854; report by Joseph Bazalgette and William Haywood on the sewage and drainage north of the Thames, with related papers including plans, objections and correspondence, 1853-1855; report by Joseph Bazalgette and William Haywood on the sewage and drainage south of the Thames, 1856; plans by Joseph Bazalgette in connection with Southern high level sewers, 1861; papers regarding the construction of the Commissioners of Sewers' new offices at Basinghall Street, including reports, agreements, plans, photographs and correspondence, [1860]; papers regarding the Central London Railway including acts and bills, petitions, correspondence, memoranda, plans, progress reports, evidence and invoices, particularly for Bank, St Paul's and Chancery Lane stations, 1871 - 1909; papers relating to the Royal Commission on London Traffic, consisting of interviews and evidence presented by City officials including the mayor, engineer, surveyor, chair of Bridge House Estates Committee, Public Health Department medical officer, City Solicitor, Superintendent of Police and the Director of the Great Northern Railway Company, 1903-1904; regulations for the laying of mains and so on beneath the public streets and for opening and closing pavements in the City, 1909; annual report of the London and Home Counties Traffic Advisory Committee, 1926-1927; papers relating to the clearing and repair of war damage, 1941-1946; articles and notes relating to the history of street lighting in the City of London, 1941-1976; photograph albums recording various streets and walkways in the City, focusing on street signs, [1990]; the City Engineer Quality Commitment manual, 1993 and consultation paper The Way Ahead: traffic and the environment, 1993.

Also papers relating to the numbering and naming of City streets, including register of numbered and renamed streets, 1853-1899, lists of streets with corrections to their names, 1878-1982, London County Council orders and correspondence, 1898-1955, Greater London Council orders and correspondence, 1971-1979, orders for the renaming of specific streets, 1986-1997.

Also papers relating to the Holborn Valley Improvement works, including acts and bills, papers of the Improvement Committee, observations and reports, memorandums, correspondence, applications for jobs, publicity material, estimates and abstracts of costs, engineer's financial accounts, technical measurements and other data, contracts, notebooks, speeches, lists of properties affected by the works, sales catalogues, correspondence with gas, water and telegraph companies, photographs, papers relating to statuary on the bridge including the Prince Consort memorial and papers relating to the exhumation of St Andrew's churchyard and the removal of remains, 1863 - 1873.

Papers relating to street easements including registers of petitions and applications, 1849-1899; registers of licences for hoards and scaffolds, 1858-1897; register and rental of licences for easements, 1899-1902; counterfoil licences for easements under vaults, 1870-1899; counterfoil licences for easements under coal plates, cellar flaps and so on, 1870-1899; counterfoil licences for easements over private lamps, signboards, cranes and so on, 1870-1899; counterfoil licences for easements over sky-signs, 1891-1896; counterfoil licences for easements over and under, 1899-1907; counterfoil licences for easements over reflectors, 1899-1907; counterfoil licences for easements upon and beneath vaults, 1907-1954; counterfoil licences for easements over lamps, signboards, cranes and so on, 1907-1939; notices regarding cellar flaps, 1881-1891; notices regarding projections, issued under the Sewer Act, 1899-1932 and indexes to registers of petitions and applications, 1849-1899.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

In sections according to catalogue.

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:

Corporation of London Records Office.

Allied Materials

Related material:

See also COL/CC/STS: Streets Committee, CLA/006: Court of Commissioners of Sewers and COL/PLD/TP: Planning Department - Town Planning. For plans, see COL/PL, the papers of the Public Health Department (COL/PHD), the papers of the Planning Department (COL/PLD), the papers of the Surveyor's Department (COL/SVD) and the papers of the Technical Services Department (COL/TSD).

Publication note:

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:
February 2009