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14
Diocese of London, in the Northern Metropolitan Postal District, and was
added to the Metropolitan Police District on the 13th October, 1840. The
parish adopted the Public Health Act of 1848 on the 21st June, 1859, but by
the operation of the Edmonton Local Board (Division of District) Act, 1881, it
was divided into two Urban Sanitary Districts, Edmonton and Southgate.
"The diverting history of John Gilpin," by Cowper, with its reference to
Edmonton as the best place for a pleasant picnic outside London, must be wellknown
to all my readers.
John Keats, the famous poet, when fifteen years old, was apprenticed to
Dr. Hammond of 7, Church Street; he was there from 1810-15 and then
" walked" the hospitals in London until his death in 1821.
REGENT HIST0RY.
The district was divided into three Wards—Church Street, Fore Street
and Bury Street—by an order of the Middlesex County Council in 1903, and is
controlled by an Urban District Council of 27 members, nine of whom retire
annually. It is represented on the Middlesex County Council by three
members : Councillors Cornish, Green and Barrass.
The population is now almost entirely industrial, and a large proportion of
the workers travel daily by train and tram to their employment in the City and
other parts of London. There are, however, several large works in Edmonton,
notably the cartridge factory of Messrs. Eley Bros., the Gothic gas-meter works,
the new Pegamoid Company, Aerators Ltd., and the Tottenham District Light
Heat and Power Company, whose employees are, for the most part, residents of
Edmonton.
In April the Secretary of Ridley Whitley & Co. appealed to my Council
for an effort to save this old-established business of linoleum and oilcloth making
from collapse. On the 27th a public meeting was held in our Town Hall to
consider if anything could be done to save the business which provided a good
deal of employment for Edmonton ratepayers and contributed a goodly sum to
the rates. But alas! every effort proved fruitless and many persons lost a lifelong
occupation at an age when engaging in other work was well-nigh impossible.
Some relief to such cases was afforded by local philanthropists.
The aspiration of Edmonton Council for a central Post Office, a Labour
Bureau and a Police Court still remains unsatisfied.
A memorial tablet to Mr. G. Eedes Eachus, our late Engineer, in All
Saints' Church was dedicated by a service on July 14th, 1914.