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53-474: Bassishaw is a ward in the City of London . Small, it is bounded by wards: Coleman Street , east; Cheap , south; Cripplegate , north; Aldersgate , west. It first consisted of Basinghall Street with the courts and short side streets off it, but since a boundary review in 2003 (after which the ward expanded into Cripplegate Within) it extends to streets further west, including Aldermanbury , Wood Street , and, to

106-505: A constable assigned, known as the Ward Constable, with the larger wards having Assistant Ward Constables in addition. The wards appear to have taken shape by the 11th century, before the Norman conquest of England . Their administrative, judicial and militia purposes made them equivalent to hundreds in the shires. The primary purpose of wards that had a gate on the city wall appears to be

159-560: A sheriff of the City of London . The title "Alderman" is used for both men and women and may be prefixed to a person's name (e.g., Alderman John Smith, Alderman Smith, or for women; Alderman Mrs (or Miss) Smith). In Scotland , the office of " baillie " bore some similarities to that of alderman in England and Wales. Depending on the jurisdiction, an alderman could have been part of the legislative or judicial local government. A "board of aldermen"

212-514: A "mayor" and "aldermen". Since 1994, all local and regional government areas in Queensland elect a "mayor" and "councillors". (Australian capital cities usually have a Lord Mayor ). An example of the use of the term alderman is evident in the City of Adelaide . Aldermen were elected from the electors in all the wards . Historically, in Canada , the term "alderman" was used for those persons elected to

265-403: A long term of service (commonly 20 years), or a combination of term of service along with leadership positions held within the council. In some councils the title is automatically conferred on the mayor regardless of their term of service. Although the term originated in England, it had no single definition there until the 19th century, as each municipal corporation had its own constitution. It

318-485: A municipal council to represent the wards. As women were increasingly elected to municipal office, the term " councillor " slowly replaced "alderman", although there was some use of the term "alderperson". Today, the title of "alderman" is rarely used except in some cities in Alberta and Ontario , as well as some smaller municipalities elsewhere in the country, that retain the title for historical reasons. The title "alderman"

371-556: A part of the site to the City of London Corporation for the expansion of the Guildhall . This hall was destroyed by fire on the night of 29 December 1940. The masons' hall was constructed in 1463 in Mason's Avenue which today is a southern limit. Their hall was also sold to the Corporation in 1865. The weavers and girdlers also had their guild halls in the ward. The modern livery halls of

424-696: A term of six years, which allowed a party that narrowly lost an election to retain control by choosing aldermen. This was changed by the Municipal Corporations Amendment Act 1910, so that outgoing aldermen were no longer allowed to vote. County councils , created in Great Britain in 1889 and in Ireland in 1899, also elected aldermen, but rural district and urban district councils did not. The Local Government Act 1972 finally abolished Aldermen with voting rights, with effect from 1974, except in

477-400: A vacancy arises, for example, by the resignation or death of a councilman. The elections of aldermen are held individually from one another and arise if the sitting alderman dies, resigns or (after the six-year term) puts themselves up for re-election. Since the 2003 review (and confirmed by the 2013 review process ) the four residential wards elect twenty of the hundred common councilmen, and

530-425: A ward depends inter alia on the number of electors (which comprises both of residents and the business vote) in the ward. Only electors who are freemen are eligible to stand. Instead of a conventional electoral register , each ward has a ward list. All common councilmen are elected every four years in one set of elections held citywide. A by-election in a particular ward can occur between scheduled elections if

583-585: Is a period of purdah whilst in (and for a period after) office, and during this period their appointed deputy will usually take their role within the ward. The City of London is the only remaining local authority in Great Britain to have (non-honorary) aldermen, since their general abolition in England and Wales in 1974 and the London boroughs in 1978. Wards continue to have beadles , with most having just one, but

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636-493: Is denoted (on maps, in documents, etc.) as being "Within" and the part outside the Wall as being "Without". Archaically "Infra" (within) and "Extra" (without) and the terms "intramural" and "extramural" had the same meaning. Changes were made in 1994 to the City of London's external boundary with several London boroughs , which meant consequential changes to boundaries of several wards, where areas were transferred either to or from

689-642: Is essentially an upper house of a bicameral legislature (as it was in New York City until the 20th century). In Illinois , the Illinois Municipal Code allows for the formation and existence of an aldermanic-city form of municipal government. As an example, in Chicago , the Chicago City Council is composed of fifty aldermen (not councilors). As of 2021, Chicago aldermen are legally referred to by

742-490: Is little used in England and Wales, but is used more often in Northern Ireland, where councils may also designate up to a quarter of their elected councillors as aldermen. In the City of London , but not elsewhere in London , aldermen are still elected for each of the wards of the City by the regular electorate. To be a candidate to be Lord Mayor of the City of London , it is necessary to be an alderman and to have been

795-460: Is the governing executive or legislative body of many cities and towns in the United States. Boards of aldermen are used in many rural areas of the United States as opposed to a larger city council or city commission ; its members are typically called "alderman". The term is sometimes used instead of city council , but it can also refer to an executive board independent of the council, or to what

848-456: The City of London Corporation has two council bodies: the now largely ceremonial Court of Aldermen , and the Court of Common Council . The wards are a survival of the medieval governmental system that allowed very small areas to exist as self-governing units within the wider city. They are both electoral/political sub-divisions and permanent ceremonial, geographic and administrative entities within

901-416: The Court of Aldermen and commoners (the City equivalent of a councillor ) to the Court of Common Council of the City of London Corporation . Only electors who are Freemen of the City of London are eligible to stand for election, though all candidates who stand are granted this status. A History of Bassishaw Ward c.1200 – c.1600 (2014, Christine M. Fox, PhD) ebookpartnership.com Wards of

954-487: The Greater London Council and the London borough councils , where they remained a possibility until 1978. Councils in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland still have the power to create honorary aldermen and alderwomen, as a reward for their services as a councillor, but must do so at a special meeting, and in each case the granting of the title needs to be approved by two-thirds of those attending. This power

1007-531: The State of Illinois as alderpersons, though the terms alderman and aldermanic remain in common use. Some cities such as, Ithaca, New York identify aldermen as 'alderpersons'. Others, including New Haven, Connecticut , use the term "alders". Historically the term could also refer to local municipal judges in small legal proceedings (as in Pennsylvania and Delaware ). Pennsylvania's aldermen were phased out in

1060-456: The pewterers , salters and brewers are in Bassishaw. There were two churches, neither of which remain. St Michael Bassishaw , dedicated to St Michael , the archangel, which was founded in the 12th century. At that time, the rectorship was included in the gift of St Bartholomew-the-Great , but, over time, it came to be associated with St Paul's Cathedral itself. The church was destroyed in

1113-399: The City of London The City of London (also known simply as "the City") is divided into 25 wards . The city is the historic core of the much wider metropolis of Greater London , with an ancient and sui generis form of local government , which avoided the many local government reforms elsewhere in the country in the 19th and 20th centuries. Unlike other modern English local authorities,

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1166-452: The City of London refers to the ward as "Basinghall ward". In this ward was a weekly cloth market, authorised by King Richard III . The coopers' guild hall was first founded in this ward in 1522, at The Swan, a public house , and, from 1547, their purpose-built hall. Their hall was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666 but later rebuilt in situ. They rebuilt again in 1865, selling

1219-497: The Great Fire of London, and rebuilt in 1679. It was united with St Lawrence Jewry in 1897; the site was sold in 1899 and the church was demolished in 1900. St Alphage London Wall , also damaged in the Great Fire but not rebuilt until 1777, was eventually demolished in 1924. The ward contains a large part of the Guildhall buildings, the main administrative centre for the City of London Corporation . (A small, but important, part of

1272-516: The Guildhall Library, replacing the Clockmakers' Museum and Library. The prominently motifed Chartered Insurance Institute at 20 Aldermanbury has its own museum. Aldermanbury has broad pavements and remains a pedestrian link from Gresham Street to the road aspect of, the main successor of, London Wall . Bassishaw is one of 25 wards in the City of London, each electing an alderman to

1325-595: The Guildhall lies within Cheap ward.) The Guildhall Art Gallery and Guildhall Library both lie in Bassishaw, as part of the Guildhall buildings. Also in the ward is Wood Street police station, the former headquarters of the City of London Police (not to be confused with the Metropolitan Police Service whose headquarters are at Scotland Yard ). It used to host a small police museum, which relocated in 2016 to

1378-659: The change was less extensive this time. The reviews were conducted by senior officers of the corporation and senior judges of the Old Bailey . The wards are not reviewed by the Electoral Commission or a local government boundary commission under the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 1986 and (unlike other local government electoral reviews) the number and the names of the wards do not change. The final decision on changes to ward boundaries and representation

1431-469: The city – the wards affected were: Farringdon Without, Cripplegate, Coleman Street, Bishopsgate, Aldgate, Portsoken, and Tower. Following a significant reform of the business vote in the city, all the wards underwent a major boundary and electoral representation revision in 2003. The ward boundaries, and electoral representation at the Court of Common Council, were reviewed again in 2010 for change in 2013, though

1484-568: The city's guilds no longer elected members. The number of members of the Common Council grew to 240 by the mid-nineteenth century, but is today fixed at 100. Each ward was divided into precincts, each of which elected one common councilman. As the number of precincts grew over time, the number of councilmen elected therefore also increased. The precincts have now been abolished. The wards are ancient and their number has only changed three times since their creation in time immemorial . Their number

1537-539: The city, who are employees of them. The ward's alderman presides over the wardmote and appoints one of the common councillors of the ward as a deputy (in some wards two are appointed) for the year ahead. Wardmotes at which an alderman is to be elected are presided over by the Lord Mayor. There are also ward clubs , which are similar to residents' associations found elsewhere in the country, but because these have membership open to those without an electoral qualification in

1590-408: The city. The number of Commoners each ward returns to the Court of Common Council is given (for both before and after the 2013 election); being largely based on the size of the electorate, this gives some indication as to the present number of residents (with respect to the four residential wards) and the scale of business activity. (A † symbol is shown where the representation has been capped despite

1643-431: The city. They had their boundaries changed in 2003, and to a lesser extent in 2013, though the number of wards and their names did not change. Each ward, or aldermanry , has its own alderman , who is the most senior official or representative in the ward. The aldermen traditionally held office for life but in the modern era put themselves up for re-election at least every six years. They also now customarily retire at 70,

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1696-418: The defence of that gate, as gates were the weakest points in any fortification. In 1322 it was settled that an assembly consisting of two people elected from each ward would create ordinances for the whole city; in 1346 the number of representatives from each ward was formally linked to the size of the ward. The Common Council as we know it today, as a representative body of the wards, was realised in 1384 when

1749-490: The electorate, the elections in 2013 and 2017 elected a revised number of common councilmen in a number of wards. The present and altered representation is shown in the main ward summary table below; the total number of common councilmen (one hundred) will not change. The cap on Farringdon Without is maintained; the wards of Farringdon Within and Castle Baynard each have eight councilmen by normal allocation. Some wards were, or are, divided into two divisions (these are given in

1802-467: The first several candidates elected were styled "alderman" and the rest "councillor". Someone co-opted to fill a seat vacated by an alderman would be styled "councillor". In the Netherlands, an alderman (Dutch: wethouder ) is part of the municipal executive and not of the municipal council , which controls the aldermen's actions in office. The alderman is comparable to the office of minister at

1855-463: The insurance markets (especially Lloyd's ) with Lime Street ward, and London Bridge with Bridge ward. Boundary changes in 2003 removed some of these connected places from their wards, but that boundary review and the current review do take into account of these historic/traditional connections. The City of London Police use the wards in their day-to-day neighbourhood policing, as well as in recording crime and other statistics, with each ward having

1908-404: The larger wards two or three. This is an ancient elected office that is now largely ceremonial, in that they accompany their alderman on the eight high ceremonial occasions in the city's civic calendar and in attending to call to order the wardmote , an annual meeting in each ward of electors, representatives and officials. These should not be confused with the beadles of the livery companies of

1961-463: The main ward list of this article) and where this happens a Deputy is appointed by the Alderman for each division, instead of the one for the whole ward. Additionally, all wards were further divided into precincts. The numbers and names of these precincts changed gradually over the centuries; precincts were named in various manners across the city's wards. In some wards they were named after localities or

2014-400: The national level. However, the alderman can not propose bills to the council. The alderman can be forced to resign by a vote of no confidence by the council. In South Africa, the term alderman refers to senior members of municipal councils . They are distinguished from ordinary councillors for their "long and distinguished service as a councillor". The title may be awarded on the basis of

2067-876: The normal allocation rules.) Alderman The title is derived from the Old English title of ealdorman , which literally means "elder person", and which was used by the chief nobles presiding over shires . Similar titles exist in other Germanic languages, such as ålderman in Swedish , oldermann in Norwegian , rådmand in Danish and Low German , Olderman in West Frisian , ouderman in Dutch , and Ältermann in German . Finnish also has oltermanni , which

2120-618: The north, part of London Wall and St Alphage Garden. The ward was historically the City's smallest. The ward is named for Basinghall, the mansion house of the Bassing (or Basing) family, who were prominent in the City beginning in the 13th century. King Henry III granted Adam de Basing "certain houses in Aldermanbury and in Milk-street; the advowson of the church at Bassings hall; with other liberties and privileges". John Leake 's 1667 map of

2173-578: The numbers of precincts for each division in two further wards: Dowgate (4 West and 4 East), and Langbourn (7 West and 5 East). This made a total of 220 precincts in 1715. Each precinct elected a Common Councilman. In 1831 there were a total of 236 Common Councilmen (including Deputies, some of whom were elected in their wards in addition to the Councilmen elected by precincts). The ward of Bridge Without had no precincts and did not elect any Common Councilmen throughout its history. Precincts no longer exist in

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2226-887: The numerous parishes (on which many precincts were based), in other wards they were simply given numbers. In those wards which were divided into divisions, the precincts were allocated to one division or another. As of around 1800, the numbers of precincts in each ward (and for each division in brackets) were: Aldersgate 8 (4 Within and 4 Without), Aldgate 7, Bassishaw 2, Billingsgate 12, Bishopsgate 9 (5 Within and 4 Without), Bread Street 13, Bridge Within 14, Broad Street 10, Candlewick 7, Castle Baynard 10, Cheap 9, Coleman Street 6, Cordwainer 8, Cornhill 4, Cripplegate 13 (9 Within and 4 Without), Dowgate 8, Farringdon Within 17, Farringdon Without 16, Langbourn 12, Lime Street 4, Portsoken 5, Queenhithe 6, Tower 12, Vintry 9, and Walbrook 7. This amounted to 228 precincts, making each precinct on average around 3 acres (1.2 ha) in size. The City of London

2279-677: The others as a joint association and is now additional to them. In recent times the ward clerk is a permanent position held by an official at the corporation, and based at the Guildhall , though wards can appoint (usually at the wardmote) an honorary ward clerk in addition. The ward clerk is a separate office to that of the Town Clerk of London , who is the chief executive of the corporation. Particular churches, livery halls and other historic buildings, structures and institutions are associated with specific wards, such as St Paul's Cathedral with Castle Baynard ward , Vintners' Hall with Vintry ward ,

2332-640: The remaining, "business-dominated" wards elect the remaining eighty councilmen. The four residential wards are Portsoken , Queenhithe , Aldersgate and Cripplegate , and the 2003 boundary changes reinforced this. The majority of City residents are in the Barbican Estate which is split between Aldersgate and Cripplegate wards. There are a minimum of two common councilmen per ward and three specific wards have their number of councilmen capped: Farringdon Without at ten, Cripplegate at nine and Farringdon Within at eight. With boundary changes as well as changes in

2385-447: The same retirement age as a justice of the peace . Each ward (irrespective of its size) returns one alderman to the Court of Aldermen. One of the aldermen is elected (by the senior liverymen ) as Lord Mayor of London for a period of one year. The Lord Mayor performs many functions and holds many ancient positions and privileges. The Lord Mayor continues to be the alderman of their ward during and after their term of office, though there

2438-453: The ward fell outside or within the London Wall , though only Farringdon and (formerly) Bridge have been split into separate wards in this way (Bridge Without was beyond the gates on London Bridge ). Some wards—Aldersgate, Bishopsgate and Cripplegate—cover an area that was both within and without the Wall and, although not split into separate wards, often the part (or division ) within the Wall

2491-414: The ward they have essentially become social clubs as part of the city's general civic social life along with the guilds, associations and liveries. There are twenty-two of these (Farringdon has always been an association of both wards of that name and Vintry and Dowgate the result of merger of the two clubs of each ward in 1957). Confusingly, there is also a 'United Wards Club' which was formed before many of

2544-500: Was very densely populated until the mid-19th century, giving each precinct in the region of 500 residents on average. A record of the wards, their divisions and precincts (including the names of the precincts) in 1715 give the following differences from the above figures: Aldersgate Within 5, Billingsgate 6, Broad Street 8 (4 Upper and 4 Lower), Castle Baynard 7 (4 First and 3 Second), Farringdon Without 15 (Fleet Street Side 8 and Holborn Side 7), and Queenhithe 9. This record also states

2597-580: Was abolished for local authorities in the Republic of Ireland by the Local Government Act 2001 , with effect from the 2004 local elections . Early usage of the term mirrored that of England and Wales . Local elections since the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1919 have used the single transferable vote in multiple-member electoral areas. In each electoral area of a borough or county borough ,

2650-542: Was borrowed from Swedish. All of these words mean "elder person" or "wise man". Many local government bodies used the term "alderman" in Australia. As in the way local councils have been modernised in the United Kingdom and Ireland , the term alderman has been discontinued in a number of places. For example, in the state of Queensland before 1994, rural "shires" elected "councillors" and a "chairman", while "cities" elected

2703-434: Was made by the Court of Common Council and an Act of Common Council was passed on 4 November 2010 to give effect to the changes from 8 March 2013. Under the current arrangements, each ward is an electoral district , electing one alderman to the Court of Aldermen , and between two and ten common councilmen (the city's equivalent of a councillor ) to the Court of Common Council . The number of common councilmen elected by

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2756-486: Was stated as 24 in the year 1206. In 1394 Farringdon was divided into Farringdon Within and Farringdon Without. In 1550 the ward of Bridge Without was created south of the river , with the ward of Bridge becoming Bridge Within. These two wards were merged in 1978, into the present-day Bridge ward. Thus the number of wards was 24 prior to 1394, 25 from 1394 to 1550, then 26 from 1550 to 1978, and has been 25 since 1978. The words "Without" and "Within" indicate whether

2809-514: Was used in England, Wales and Ireland / Northern Ireland (all of Ireland being part of the United Kingdom from January 1801 until December 1922), but was not used in Scotland . Under the Municipal Reform Act 1835 , municipal borough corporations consisted of councillors and aldermen. Aldermen would be elected not by the electorate, but by the council (including the outgoing aldermen), for

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