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51-570: The Brixton Library (also known as the Brixton Tate Library ) is a public library in the London Borough of Lambeth in Brixton , South West London . It was built in the 1890s by the sugar magnate Sir Henry Tate and is a Grade II listed building. Brixton library was once part of common land called Rush Common . An Act of Parliament in 1806 "stipulated that 'no Buildings or Erections above

102-569: A national scandal, and several bills were introduced to parliament in the 1690s, but none became acts. There was continual agitation for reform, and in 1698 to keep the debate alive the House of Lords insisted that a bill to reform the select vestries, the Select Vestries Bill , would always be the first item of business of the Lords in a new parliament until a reform bill was passed. The First Reading of

153-569: A new borough formed from the Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth and six wards and portions of two others from the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth. In the 2016 European Union referendum , Lambeth had the highest share of Remain votes in the United Kingdom at 78.62%, second to overseas territory Gibraltar 's 95.9%. Lambeth is a long, thin borough, about three miles (five kilometres) wide and seven miles (eleven kilometres) long. Brixton

204-441: A property qualification and who were recruited largely by co-option . This took responsibility from the community at large and improved efficiency, but over time tended to lead to governance by a self-perpetuating elite. This committee was also known as the close vestry , whilst the term open vestry was used for the meeting of all ratepayers. By the late 17th century, a number of autocratic and corrupt select vestries had become

255-671: A variety of tasks. It became responsible for appointing parish officials, such as the parish clerk, overseers of the poor, sextons and scavengers, constables, and nightwatchmen. At the high point of their powers, just prior to removal of Poor Law responsibilities in 1834, the vestries spent not far short of one-fifth of the budget of the national government itself. More than 15,600 ecclesiastical parish vestries looked after their own: churches and burial grounds, parish cottages and workhouses, endowed charities, market crosses, pumps, pounds, whipping posts, stocks, cages, watch houses, weights and scales, clocks, and fire engines. Or to put it another way:

306-507: Is also twinned with Bluefields , Nicaragua ; Brooklyn , New York; and Spanish Town , Jamaica. The borough's coat of arms is that of the former Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth , with two gold stars (mullets) in the second and third quarters of the shield indicating the addition of the districts of Clapham and Streatham . Its motto is " Spectemur agendo " ("Let us be judged according to our conduct"). Vestry The term vestry remains in use outside of England and Wales to refer to

357-451: Is its civic centre, and there are other town centres. The largest shopping areas are (in order of size) Streatham , Brixton , Vauxhall , Clapham and West Norwood . In the northern part of the borough are the central London districts of the South Bank , Vauxhall and Lambeth ; in the south are the suburbs of Gipsy Hill , Streatham , West Dulwich and West Norwood . In between are

408-524: Is the home of Surrey County Cricket. The Basaveshwara statue at the Albert Embankment erected by the former Mayor of Lambeth Neeraj Patil was unveiled by the Prime Minister of India on 14 November 2015. The local authority is Lambeth Council, which meets at Lambeth Town Hall in the Brixton area of the borough and has its main offices at the nearby Civic Centre. Since 2000, for elections to

459-536: Is wheelchair accessible and has computers and internet access for users. The library also offers free digital skills training and hosts live music performances and other events. 51°27′40″N 0°06′53″W  /  51.46101°N 0.11486°W  / 51.46101; -0.11486 London Borough of Lambeth Lambeth ( / ˈ l æ m b ə θ / ) is a London borough in South London , England , which forms part of Inner London . Its name

510-565: The Church of England , until they were abolished and replaced by parochial church councils (PCCs) in 1921. This secularisation of local government was unsuccessfully opposed by administrations of the Conservative Party led by Lord Salisbury and several high church Liberal politicians from 1895 to 1900. The only aspect of the original vestry remaining in current use is the annual meeting of parishioners , which may be attended by anyone on

561-569: The Justices of the Peace . The functions could vary from parish to parish depending on accepted custom and necessity and the willingness of the community to fund them. This was because their power derived initially from custom and was only occasionally ratified by the common law or asserted in statute. However during the Tudor period (1485–1603), parish vestries were given increased statutory duties; for example,

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612-551: The London Assembly , the borough forms part of the Lambeth and Southwark constituency. The borough has three Parliamentary constituencies: Dulwich and West Norwood (shared with Southwark ), Streatham , and Vauxhall . Lambeth is the local authority with the highest relative gay or lesbian population in the UK, at 5.5%, with the borough containing the gay village of Vauxhall and

663-613: The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 this duty was transferred to elected boards of guardians for single parishes or to poor law unions for larger areas. These new bodies now received the poor law levy and administered the system. This legislation removed a large portion of the income of the vestry and a significant part of its duties. The vestries escaped the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 , which brought more democratic and open processes to municipal bodies. Still, there

714-759: The South Bank , a tourist area has developed around the former Greater London Council headquarters of County Hall and the Southbank Centre and National Theatre . Also on the river is the London Eye and Shell Centre . Nearby is St Thomas' Hospital , Lambeth Palace and the Florence Nightingale Museum . Nearby is Brixton , home of Lambeth Town Hall and the Brixton Murals . Landmark church buildings include: The Oval cricket ground in Kennington

765-656: The Wandsworth District . In 1900 the lower tier was reorganised into metropolitan boroughs . The parish of Lambeth became the Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth , and the old Wandsworth District became the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth . The modern London borough was created in 1965 under the London Government Act 1963 . It was a merger of the old borough of Lambeth and the Clapham and Streatham areas from

816-428: The incumbent of the parish, originally held in the parish church or its vestry, from which it got its name. The vestry committees were not rooted in any specific statute, but they evolved independently in each parish according to local needs from their roots in medieval parochial governance. By the late 17th century they had become, along with the county magistrates, the rulers of rural England. In England, until

867-573: The 1894 Act.... 62 counties, 302 Municipal Boroughs, 31 Improvement Act Districts, 688 Local Government Districts, 574 Rural Sanitary Districts, 58 Port Sanitary Districts, 2,302 School Board Districts ... 1,052 Burial Board Districts, 648 Poor Law Unions, 13,775 Ecclesiastical Parishes, and nearly 15,000 Civil Parishes. The total number of Authorities which tax the English ratepayers is between 28,000 and 29,000. Not only are we exposed to this multiplicity of authority and this confusion of rating power, but

918-505: The 19th century , the parish vestry committee equated to today's parochial church councils plus all local government responsible for secular local business, which is now the responsibility of a District Council as well as in some areas a Civil Parish Council , and other activities, such as administering locally the poor law . The original unit of settlement among the Anglo-Saxons in England

969-600: The London Underground, metro, light rail or tram (21.4 percent of residents aged 16–74); bus, minibus or coach (10 percent); train (10 percent); automobile (8.6 percent); bicycle (5.7 percent), or walking (5.4 percent). A small percentage (3.2 percent) worked mainly at—or from—home. The former Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth and its successor have been twinned with the Vincennes district of Paris in France since 1955. Lambeth

1020-656: The Surface of the Earth' should be erected upon Rush Common within 150 feet of the London to Croydon Turnpike Road (now Brixton Road and Hill)". In 1891–3, Sir Henry Tate built the library at a cost of £15,000, and it was opened by the Prince of Wales on 4 March 1893. According to the Survey of London (1956), "the architect was Sidney R.J. Smith, and the builders were F. and H.F. Higgs. A brass tablet in

1071-565: The area around Clapham Common. The borough covers London Waterloo railway station , the Waterloo tube station network and (until 2007) the London terminus for Eurostar . National Rail service in Lambeth is provided by South Western Railway , Southeastern , Southern , Thameslink and London Overground . In March 2011, the primary forms of transport borough residents used to travel to work were

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1122-645: The area of the modern borough was governed by the Metropolitan Board of Works , which was established to provide services across the metropolis of London. In 1889 the Metropolitan Board of Works' area was made the County of London . From 1856 until 1900 the lower tier of local government within the metropolis comprised various parish vestries and district boards ; the parish of Lambeth was governed by its vestry , whilst Clapham and Streatham were both included in

1173-574: The bill was made annually, but it never got any further every year. This continues to this day as an archaic custom in the Lords to assert the independence from the Crown, even though the select vestries have long been abolished. A major responsibility of the vestry had been the administration of the Poor Law. Still, the widespread unemployment following the Napoleonic Wars overwhelmed the vestries, and under

1224-483: The compulsory parish register of baptisms, marriages and burials was introduced in 1538, and under the Highways Act 1555 , the vestries became responsible for the upkeep of roads in the parish, while the Tudor poor laws ; a series of laws introduced through the period, made vestries responsible for the care of the poor of the parish. At the high point of their powers before removal of Poor Law responsibilities in 1834,

1275-462: The developed and inner-city districts of Brixton , Brixton Hill , Streatham Hill , Clapham , Clapham Park , Herne Hill , Stockwell , Tulse Hill and Kennington , each at different stages of gentrification with suburban and urban elements. Vauxhall and South Lambeth are central districts in the process of redevelopment with high-density business and residential property. Streatham lies between suburban London and inner-city Brixton , with

1326-455: The early Tudor period the division of manors and the new mercantile middle class had eroded the old feudal model, These changes accelerated with the Reformation in the 1530s, with the sequestration of religious houses and the greatest estates of the church, and under Mary I and others, a parish system developed to attend to social and economic needs. These changes transformed participation in

1377-673: The ecclesiastical parish. This is sometimes referred to as the "annual vestry meeting". Parochial church councils now undertake all other roles of the vestry meetings. The term vestry continues to be used in some other denominations , denoting a body of lay members elected by the congregation to run the business of a church parish. This is the case in the Scottish , and the American Episcopal Churches, and in Anglican ecclesiastical provinces such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand. In

1428-404: The ecclesiastical parishes acquired a dual nature and could be classified as civil and ecclesiastical parishes. In England, until the 19th century , the parish vestry was in effect what would today usually be called a parochial church council . Still, it was also responsible for all the secular parish business now dealt with by civil bodies, such as parish councils. Eventually, the vestry assumed

1479-485: The elected governing body and legal representative of a parish church, for example in the American and Scottish Episcopal Churches . For many centuries, in the absence of an incorporated city or town council, the vestries were the sole de facto local government and presided over communal fundraising and expenditure until the mid or late 19th century under local established Church chairmanship. They were concerned with

1530-401: The entrance hall records that the garden in front of the library was given in 1905 by Amy, Lady Tate in fulfilment of a wish of her husband Sir Henry Tate". Dame Amy Tate had bought the land in front of the library in 1904 and created a public garden, with a bust of Tate at its centre which now stands in front of the library. The bust of Tate is a Grade II listed structure. The theatre next to

1581-599: The increasing number of local boards which came into being and operated across greater areas than single parishes for a specific purpose. These were able to levy their rate. Among these were the local boards of health created under the Public Health Act 1848 ( 11 & 12 Vict. c. 63), the burial boards, which took over responsibility for secular burials in 1853, and the Sanitary districts , which were established in 1875. The church rate ceased to be levied in many parishes and

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1632-419: The law of the land, and by local custom and practice. This level of activity resulted in an increasing sophistication of administration. The parish clerk would administer the decisions and accounts of the vestry committee, and records of parish business would be stored in a "parish chest" kept in the church and provided for security with three different locks, the individual keys to which would be held by such as

1683-565: The library was destroyed by bombing in 1940, allowing the nearby cinema to expand into its place. This cinema is now known as the Ritzy cinema , of which the bar and cafe now stand on the theatre's former site. The library has been Grade II listed since 1999. Today the library houses a collection of books that include a reference encyclopaedias, as well as books in Bengali, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. The building

1734-424: The local civil register of electors and which has the power to appoint churchwardens . A right to tax by a PCC for church chancel repairs remains as to liable (apportioned) residents and businesses across an apportioned area of many church parishes, in the form of chancel repair liability however, in some areas no such further taxation replaced tithes. The vestry was a meeting of the parish ratepayers chaired by

1785-427: The maintenance of the church and its services, the keeping of the peace, the repression of vagrancy, the relief of destitution, the mending of roads, the suppression of nuisances, the destruction of vermin, the furnishing of soldiers and sailors, and the enforcement of religious and moral discipline. These were among the many duties imposed on the parish and its officers, that is to say, the vestry and its organisation, by

1836-443: The old Wandsworth borough. When the government was drafting the boundaries for the London boroughs in the early 1960s, it initially suggested that the Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth and the Metropolitan Borough of Southwark be merged into a new borough; the southern and eastern sections of the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth (including Clapham , Streatham and Tooting ) would form another. South Shields town clerk R.S. Young

1887-450: The parish priest and churchwardens . While the vestry was a general meeting of all inhabitant rate-paying householders in a parish, in the 17th century the huge growth of population in some parishes, mostly urban, made it increasingly difficult to convene and conduct meetings. Consequently, in some of these a new body, the select vestry , was created. This was an administrative committee of selected parishioners whose members generally had

1938-523: The qualification, tenure, and mode of election of members of these Authorities differ in different cases." Under the Act, secular and ecclesiastical duties were finally separated when a system of elected rural parish councils and urban district councils was introduced. This removed all secular matters from the parish vestries, and created parish councils or parish meetings to manage these. The parish vestries were left with only church affairs to manage. Following

1989-529: The removal of civil powers in 1894, the vestry meetings continued to administer church matters in Church of England parishes until the Parochial Church Councils (Powers) Measure 1921 Act established parochial church councils as their successors. Since then, the only remnant of the vestry meeting has been the meeting of parishioners , which is convened annually solely for the election of churchwardens of

2040-423: The spiritual and physical welfare of parishioners and their parish amenities, both secular and religious, by collecting local taxes and taking responsibility for functions such as the care of the poor , the maintenance of roads, minor law enforcement, civil registration , and maintenance of the church building, etc. However, more serious punitive matters were dealt with by the manorial court and hundred court , or

2091-722: The suburban and developed areas of Streatham , Streatham Hill and Streatham Vale . The London Borough of Southwark lies to the east of the Borough of Lambeth. To the west is the London Borough of Wandsworth ; to the south-west is the London Borough of Merton ; and to the south is the London Borough of Croydon and the London Borough of Bromley . Lambeth's open spaces include Brockwell Park and Lido , Streatham Common , half of Clapham Common , West Norwood Cemetery , Archbishop's Park , Norbury Park , Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens and Ruskin Larkhall and Kennington Parks . Along and around

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2142-533: The three ancient parishes of Lambeth , Clapham and Streatham . The parish of Lambeth included the archiepiscopal Lambeth Palace , and formed part of the Hundred of Brixton . It was an elongated north–south parish with two miles (three kilometres) of River Thames frontage opposite the cities of London and Westminster . Lambeth became part of the Metropolitan Police District in 1829. From 1856

2193-482: The town meeting. Assembly of parishes rested on land ownership, so increasingly the manorial system , with parishes assembled by lords of the manor in concert with local clergy and religious institutions. Initially, the manor was the principal unit of local administration, common customs and justice in the rural economy, but over time the church replaced the manorial court in key elements of rural life and improvement—it levied its local tax on produce, tithes . By

2244-447: The township or parish meeting, which dealt with civil and ecclesiastical demands, needs and projects. This new meeting was supervised by the parish priest (vicar/rector/curate), probably the best educated of the inhabitants, and became known as the vestry meeting. As the complexity of rural society increased, the vestry meetings acquired greater responsibilities and were given the power to grant or deny payments from parish funds. Although

2295-500: The vestries spent not far short of one-fifth of the budget of the British government. During the 19th century, their secular functions were gradually eroded, and finally in 1894 (1900 in London) the secular and ecclesiastical aspects of the vestries were separated. The vestry's remaining secular duties were transferred to newly created parish councils . Their ecclesiastical duties remained with

2346-467: The vestry committees were not established by any law and had come into being in an unregulated process, it was convenient to allow them to develop. For example, they were the obvious body for administering the Edwardian and Elizabethan systems for support of the poor on a parochial basis. This was their principal, statutory power for many centuries. With the gradual formalisation of civil responsibilities,

2397-513: Was a gradual movement to separate the vestry's ecclesiastical and secular duties. The Vestries Act 1850 prevented the holding of meetings in churches, and in London, vestries were incorporated under the Metropolis Management Act 1855 to create properly regulated civil bodies for London parishes. Still, they did not have any ecclesiastical duties. As the 19th century progressed, the parish vestry progressively lost its secular duties to

2448-504: Was commissioned to make final recommendations to the government on the shape of the future London boroughs, and he noted that the Wandsworth council opposed the partition of its borough. However, Wandsworth's suggestion to merge Lambeth with the Metropolitan Borough of Battersea was rejected by both councils involved. Young believed that residents of Clapham and Streatham would be more familiar with Brixton than with Wandsworth, and recommended

2499-546: Was made voluntary in 1868. However, the proliferation of these local bodies led to a confusing fragmentation of local government responsibilities, and this became a driver for large scale reform in local government, which resulted in the Local Government Act 1894 . The problem of so many local bodies was expressed by H H Fowler , President of the Local Government Board, who said in the parliamentary debate for

2550-535: Was recorded in 1062 as Lambehitha ("landing place for lambs") and in 1255 as Lambeth . The geographical centre of London is at Frazier Street near Lambeth North tube station , though nearby Charing Cross on the other side of the Thames in the City of Westminster is traditionally considered the centre of London. The area of the modern borough had historically been part of the county of Surrey , and generally corresponds to

2601-480: Was the tun or town. The inhabitants met to conduct business in the town moot or meeting, at which they would assign tasks, and the common law would be promulgated. Later with the rise of the shire , the township would send its reeve and four best men to represent it in the courts of the hundred and shire. However, township independence in the Saxon system was lost to the feudal manorial court leet , which replaced

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