Fire Offices' Committee , Printers and Theatres Rating Committee (Southern Committee)

Fire Offices' Committee , Printers and Theatres Rating Committee (Southern Committee)

The origins of the Printers and Theatres Rating Committee (Southern Committee) are unclear. At the end of the 19th century, it appears that a scheme was established for rating insurance premiums on theatres, music halls, and printers and allied trades under the auspices of the London Salvage Corps. The earliest records, tariff rate books, survive from 1896 (Ms 29509); circulars dating from 1899 exist among the records of the London Salvage Corps (CLC/B/017-23, Ms 15739). Meetings of offices interested in matters to do with printers and theatres (and later cinemas and film production studios) came to be held after the meetings of the London Salvage Corps (Ms 29503). The name Printers and Theatres Rating Committee seems to have been first used in 1914. There were also Northern and Scottish Rating Committees.

The Southern Rating Committee was originally managed and administered by the London Salvage Corps. In 1941, owing to the transfer of the London Salvage Corps to London County Council, it was taken over by the Fire Offices' Committee for the duration of the war. After the Second World War, the close relationship between the Southern Rating Committee and Fire Offices' Committee continued. In April 1962, the committee requested that its chairmanship and adninistration should be taken over by the chairman and officers of the Fire Offices' Committee.

The Southern Rating Committee was based at the premises of the London Salvage Corps (at 64 Watling Street) until its administration was taken over by the Fire Offices' Committee.