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The total cost of taking the poll was £103 6s. 0d.
The Public Libraries (England) Acts, 1855 to 1890, having been thus adopted
by the ratepayers, the Vestry proceeded to appoint Commissioners for carrying the
Acts into execution, and after 28 nominations had been received, a ballot was taken
on the 14th April, 1891, when the following nine members of the Vestry were duly
appointed the first Commissioners for Public Libraries and Museums for the parish
of St. Leonard, Shoreditch.
Messrs. Martindill, Wenborn, Moffat, Hurlin, Cox, Barralet, J. Donovan,
Fordham and Molloy.
The first annual report, with an Abstract of the Commissioners' accounts, will
be found at the end of this volume.
SCHOOL BOARD FOR LONDON ELECTION, 1891.
The triennial election for members of the London School Board was held on
the 26th November, 1891, and the Vestry voted the sum of £23 Is. 4d. to enable
a special revision of the Rate books to be made, and to obtain the necessary returns
from owners of property, the rates of which are compounded for. A return of the
members elected will be found at the end of this report.
LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL ELECTION, 1892.
The triennial election for members of the London County Council, which
should in the ordinary course have been held in November, postponed by
statute to the 5th March, 1892. A return of the members elected will be
found at the end of this report.
OPEN SPACES.
(a) GOLDSMITH SQUARE.
In connection with the Boundary Street, Bethnal Green, Improvement scheme,
1890, prepared by the London County Council under Part I. of the Housing of the
Working Classes Act, 1890, it was proposed by the Council to rehouse 500 persons
of the working classes displaced by the execution of the scheme, upon the site of
Goldsmith Square, off Goldsmith Row, in this parish. At a public inquiry held on
the 3rd day of March, 1891, I attended and opposed this part of the scheme on
behalf of the Vestry, and pointed out that the square was formerly occupied by
twenty-four houses used by artizans, which had been closed eighteen months
previously by the owner in pursuance of notice under the Nuisances Removal Acts,
that these houses only contained 150 persons, and that to place 500 persons on this
site which only contained 3,677 square yards, would be creating] the very evil
of overcrowding which the Bethnal Green scheme was intended to obviate.