St Anne Within the Liberty of Westminster, also known as St Anne Soho, was a

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the county of

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, later part of the new

County of London The County of London was a county of England from 1889 to 1965, corresponding to the area known today as Inner London. It was created as part of the general introduction of elected county government in England, by way of the Local Government A ...

, England. The parish was formed in 1687 from part of the ancient parish of St Martin in the Fields in the Liberty of Westminster. It included the eastern section of the contemporary districts of

Soho SoHo, short for "South of Houston Street, Houston Street", is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, art installations such as The Wall ...

to the north of Shaftesbury Avenue and

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to the south of it. The creation of the parish accompanied the building of St Anne's Church, Soho, to meet the demands of a growing population. Initially controlled by a select vestry, the parish was governed by an open vestry of all inhabitants until 1855, when the vestry was superseded for most purposes by the Strand District Board of Works. In 1889 the parish became part of the County of London, and in 1900 the local authority became

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 ...

. St Anne Soho continued to exist as a civil parish until 1922.

Creation

It was created in 1687 from part of the ancient parish of St Martin in the Fields, and was within the Liberty of Westminster. The parish was included in the returns of the Bills of mortality. The creation of the new parish followed the building of the St Anne's Church, Soho and required an act of parliament, which received royal assent on 15 July 1678. A further act of parliament was required to finance and build the church, and a commission of local inhabitants was created for this purpose. The church was completed and the commission became the select vestry of the parish. However, the select vestry was not constituted in the 1678 act creating the parish and was challenged. By 21 May 1744 the parish was governed by an open vestry of all parishioners.

Government

The parish vestry of St Anne's had responsibility for the church, poor relief, and certain civil functions. These included street paving, sanitation, lighting the streets, watching, and the prevention of fire. In common with other parishes, these functions were absorbed by ad hoc authorities as local government was reformed.

Reform

It was grouped into the Strand District in 1855, when it came within the area of responsibility of the

Metropolitan Board of Works The Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW) was the upper tier of local government for London between 1856 and 1889, primarily responsible for upgrading infrastructure. It also had a parks and open spaces committee which set aside and opened up severa ...

. It was an exclave of the district, with the main part located to the southeast and adjacent to the River Thames. The parish elected twenty-four vestrymen to the Strand District Board of Works. In 1889 the parish became part of the

and in 1900 it became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Westminster. It was abolished as a civil parish in 1922.

Geography

The northern boundary was Oxford Street, the western boundary was Berwick Street/Rupert Street, to the south was an irregular boundary around Leicester Square, and the eastern boundary was to the west of Charing Cross Road north of Cambridge Circus and to the east of it to the south. In modern terms it corresponded to the eastern section of

including

Poor law

After the introduction of the

New Poor Law The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 ( 4 & 5 Will. 4. c. 76) (PLAA) known widely as the New Poor Law, was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed by the Whig government of Earl Grey denying the right of the poor to subsistence. It c ...

, the parish was part of the Strand

poor law union A poor law union was a geographical territory, and early local government unit, in Great Britain and Ireland. Poor law unions existed in England and Wales from 1834 to 1930 for the administration of poor relief. Prior to the Poor Law Amendment ...

from 1836 to 1868. It formed part of the Westminster union from 1868 to 1913 and the City of Westminster union from 1913. When the parish of St Anne was abolished in 1922 it was merged with other parishes to form the

City of Westminster The City of Westminster is a London borough with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in Greater London, England. It is the site of the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament and much of the British government. It contains a large par ...

parish for poor law purposes.

Population

The population at each census was:

References

{{coord missing, London History of local government in London (pre-1855) Parishes united into districts (Metropolis) Former civil parishes in the City of Westminster Bills of mortality parishes