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Court District of Edmonton, Rural Deanery of Enfield, and Archdeaconry and
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.
RECENT HISTORY.
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., Messrs. Ridley Whitley's
linoleum works, the Gothic gas-meter works, the New Pegamoid Company,
Aerators Ltd., and the Tottenham and Edmonton Gas Company, whose
employees are, for the most part, residents of Edmonton. The latter company
has extended its area of supply, and has absorbed the Enfield Company. Its
title is now the "The Tottenham District Light, Heat and Power Company."
POST OFFICE.
In April the Postmaster-General again refused to provide a central branch
post-office for Edmonton.
THE DISTRESS COMMITTEE.
The Distress Committee has been busy in finding useful work for the
unemployed and putting to good use the monies supplied by the Government.
The Unemployed Workmen Act was to be in operation for three years only, but
has been renewed yearly since 1908 Unemployment has been as much as last
year; from October to December, 1913, there were 414 names entered on the
Committee's register, compared with 422 for the same period of 1912. Each
man is given three weeks' work at 6d. an hour for 44 hours per week. The men
have been employed in connection with the culverting of Sadler's mill stream in
Montagu Road, and the culverting of Pymmes Brook.