History of the London County Council, 1889–1939

Abstract

AT first sight, this comprehensive history of the growth and development of the work of the London County Council to commemorate its jubilee would seem to he an authentic record of significant progress of social and political value. It is not directly concerned with Nature, or the knowledge of Nature commonly called science. Yet much of its nearly 700 pages affords a striking example of the application of science—social science, educational, physical, even biological. We usually associate the familiar name of our local government authority in the Metropolis with the early chairmanship of Lord Rosebery and the enthusiastic band of public-spirited men who gathered round him in 1889, and their not less enthusiastic successors over the fifty years of its history—with their personalities and social ideals, with their programmes and policies and battle slogans, with an improved London and a rising rate. But here is the actual history of their doings and the vast organization which has grown up under their hands.

History of the London County Council, 1889–1939

By Sir Gwilym Gibbon Reginald W. Bell. Pp. xxi + 696 + 33 plates. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1939.) 21s. net.