The 1964 Westminster Council election took place on 7 May 1964 to elect members of

Westminster City Council Westminster City Council is the local authority for the City of Westminster in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in London. The council has been under Labour majority control since 2022. Full council meetings ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England. The whole council was up for election and the Conservative party gained control of the council.

Background

These elections were the first to the newly formed borough. Previously elections had taken place in the

Metropolitan Borough of Paddington Paddington was a Civil parishes in England, civil parish and Metropolitan boroughs of the County of London, metropolitan borough in London, England. It was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, governed by an administrative vestry. The p ...

Metropolitan Borough of St Marylebone The Metropolitan Borough of St Marylebone was a metropolitan borough of the County of London from 1900 to 1965. It was based directly on the previously existing civil parish of St Marylebone, Middlesex, which was incorporated into the Metropoli ...

and

Metropolitan Borough of Westminster The Metropolitan Borough of Westminster was a metropolitan borough in the County of London, England, from 1900 to 1965. City status By royal charter dated 29 October 1900, the borough was granted the title City of Westminster. Westminster had o ...

. These boroughs were joined to form the new London Borough of Westminster by the

London Government Act 1963 The London Government Act 1963 (c. 33) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which created Greater London and a new local government structure within it. The Act significantly reduced the number of local government districts in the ...

. A total of 155 candidates stood in the election for the 60 seats being contested across 31 wards. These included a full slate from the Conservative and Labour parties, while the Liberals stood 31 candidates. Other candidates included 4 from the Communist party. There were 20 single-seat wards, 6 three-seat wards, 4 five-seat wards and 1 two-seat ward. This election had

aldermen An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking membe ...

as well as directly elected

councillors A councillor, alternatively councilman, councilwoman, councilperson, or council member, is someone who sits on, votes in, or is a member of, a council. This is typically an elected representative of an electoral district in a municipal or regi ...

. The Conservatives got 7 aldermen and Labour 3. The Council was elected in 1964 as a "shadow authority" but did not start operations until 1 April 1965.

Election result

The results saw the Conservatives gain the new council with a majority of 22 after winning 41 of the 60 seats. Overall turnout in the election was 28.0%. This turnout included 1,343 postal votes.

Ward results

Abbey

Alderney

Aldwych

Baker Street

Berkeley

Cathedral

Cavendish

Churchill

Church Street

Covent Garden

Dolphin

Eaton

Ebury

Grosvenor

Harrow Road

Hyde Park

Knightsbridge

Lancaster Gate

Lords

Maida Vale

Millbank

Queen's Park

Regent Street

Regent's Park

St James's

Soho

Tachbrook

Victoria

Warwick

Westbourne

Wilton

References

{{United Kingdom local elections, 1964 Election, 1964 1964 London Borough council elections May 1964 in the United Kingdom