Metropolitan Borough of Westminster
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Image:Westminster arms.png The Metropolitan Borough of Westminster was a metropolitan borough in the County of London from 1899 to 1965.
It was abolished in 1965 and its area became part of the London Borough also to be known as the City of Westminster along with the Metropolitan Borough of Paddington and the Metropolitan Borough of St Marylebone.
City status
By royal charter dated 29th October 1900 the borough was granted the title City of Westminster. Westminster had originally been created a city and seat of the shortlived Diocese of Westminster in 1541. The diocese was supressed in 1550, but the area was still known as a "city", although without official sanction.
Area
It consisted of the area that is now part of the City of Westminster and south of Oxford Street and Bayswater Road. It included Soho, Mayfair, St. James's, The Strand, Westminster, Pimlico, Belgravia, and Hyde Park.
It was formed from various parishes:
- St Anne within the Liberty of Westminster (usually known as St Anne's Soho)
- St Clement Danes
- St George Hanover Square
- St Martin in the Fields
- St Mary le Strand
- St Paul Covent Garden
- St James Westminster (usually called St James Piccadilly)
- St Margaret and St John Westminster
- And the extra parochial places of the Close of the Collegiate Church of St Peter (or Westminster Abbey), the Precinct of the Savoy and the Liberty of the Rolls.
Previous to the borough's formation it had been administered by five separate local bodies.