School Board for London

The School Board for London was set up under the Public Elementary Education Act of 1870 for the whole of the 'metropolis', the latter being defined as the area coming within the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Board of Works. For electoral and administrative purposes the area was split into ten divisions. The franchise was extended to all ratepayers (including women) who were entitled to vote in the vestry elections; the Board was therefore the first of the Metropolitan authorities to be directly elected on a democratic basis.

Though in its early years the Board has great difficulty in carrying out even the minimal requirements of the Act, it was by the 1880's trying to extend its functions to fill the obvious need for education beyond the "three R's" (reading, writing and arithmetic) and to improve the physical conditions of the children. Its tasks included building schools and training teachers for a very large and steadily increasing number of children as well as enforcing school attendance. The School Board was closed in 1903 and its powers passed to the London County Council.