Bishopsgate Ward Club

Bishopsgate Ward Club was instituted in 1790. The City of London was divided into wards for the purpose of government as early as Norman times. The wards had responsibility to keep the peace, supervise trade and oversee sanitation, and each ward has the right to elect an Alderman and Commoners to sit in the Court of Common Council. The Bishopsgate ward is divided into two portions Within and Without of the City wall, the gate through which gives the ward its name. Bishopsgate Ward Within contained three City parish churches: St Helen Bishopsgate, St Ethelburga, and St Botolph Bishopsgate, while the whole of Bishopsgate Without Ward is co-extensive with St Botolph Bishopsgate.