Obsolete Appendix? The City of London's Struggle for Survival
In the second of our article on Governing the Capital, Ian Doolittle argues that it was during the great reforming Liberal ministry of Gladstone in 1880-85, that the City of London came nearest to being voted out of existence
Lord Mayor Livingstone? How incongruous it sounds! Yet there is nothing inherently implausible about the democratically elected leader of the Greater London Council taking the lead in London's ceremonial affairs. There is no logical reason why County Hall should not be the focal point of the capital's civic life. Instead it is the Square Mile, the City of London Corporation, which captures the limelight. Guildhall is the place where the Prime Minister speaks and the nation listens. Why should this still be so? There was once a time when the City was London, but for three centuries or more it has been steadily enveloped by the mushrooming 'suburbs' outside its ancient walls. Why did it fail to take responsibility for these extra-mural inhabitants and why, in turn, has it not been shouldered aside by those new authorities, such as the Metropolitan Board of Works and the London County Council, which took up the task which the City shirked?
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