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The Metropolitan Borough of Chelsea was a metropolitan borough of the County of London between 1900 and 1965.

It was created by the London Government Act 1899 from most of the ancient parish of Chelsea. It was amalgamated in 1965 under the London Government Act 1963, with the Metropolitan Borough of Kensington to form the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

Statistics

Area:

• 660 acres

Population:

• 1861: 59,881
• 1871: 67,717
• 1881: 73,079
• 1891: 74,466
• 1901: 73,842
• 1911: 66,385
• 1921: 63,697
• 1931: 59,031
• 1951: 50,957
• 1961: 47,256

Coat of arms

The borough was granted a coat of arms by the College of Arms on February 28, 1903. The blazon was:

Gules within a cross voided or a crozier in pale of the last in the first quarter a winged bull statant in the second a lion rampant reguardant both argent in the third a sword point downwards proper pomel and hilt gold between two boars' heads couped at the neck of the third and in the fourth a stag's head caboshed of the second.

The winged bull is the symbol of St Luke, patron saint of Chelsea (St.Luke's parish church is just off the King's Road). The other emblems referred to various holders of the manor over the centuries: the crozier for Westminster Abbey, the lion for Earl Cadogan (first mayor of the borough), the boars' heads and sword for the Sloane family and the stag's head for the Stanley family.

The motto was Nisi dominus frustra or "Unless God be with us all will be in vain".

The fourfold division of the shield was a design favoured by Albert Woods, Garter King of Arms for municipal grants: other examples in London being the metropolitan boroughs of Bermondsey, Camberwell, Islington, Kensington, Southwark

Politics

The borough council was controlled by the Municipal Reform Party (which was allied to the Conservative Party), from its creation until 1949. In that year the "Municipal Reform" label was discarded, and the Conservative party governed the borough until its abolition in 1965. The Chelsea Town Hall, a fine neo-classical building containing important frescos remains in use and is situated in the King's Road, on the corner of Chelsea Manor Street.

For elections to parliament, the borough formed a single constituency. By 1950 the decline in population meant that the Chelsea constituency also included the Brompton area of the Metropolitan Borough of Kensington.

References

• http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/relationships.jsp?u_id=10025813

v t e Local government districts abolished or transferred by the London Government Act 1963
London CC	Battersea Bermondsey Bethnal Green Camberwell Chelsea Deptford Finsbury Fulham Greenwich Hackney Hammersmith Hampstead Holborn Islington Kensington Lambeth Lewisham Paddington Poplar Shoreditch Southwark St. Marylebone St. Pancras Stepney Stoke Newington Wandsworth Westminster Woolwich	Constituent parts of Greater London
Essex	Barking Chigwell (part) Chingford Dagenham East Ham Hornchurch Ilford Leyton Romford Walthamstow Wanstead and Woodford West Ham
Hertfordshire	Barnet East Barnet
Middlesex, CC	Acton Brentford and Chiswick Ealing Edmonton Enfield Feltham Finchley Friern Barnet Harrow Hayes and Harlington Hendon Heston and Isleworth Hornsey Ruislip-Northwood Southall Southgate Tottenham Twickenham Uxbridge Wembley Willesden Wood Green Yiewsley and West Drayton
Kent	Beckenham Bexley Bromley Chislehurst and Sidcup Crayford Erith Orpington Penge
Surrey	Barnes Beddington and Wallington Carshalton Coulsdon and Purley Croydon Kingston-upon-Thames Malden and Coombe Merton and Morden Mitcham Sutton and Cheam Surbiton Richmond Wimbledon
Transfers	Middlesex to Hertfordshire: Potters Bar Middlesex to Surrey: Staines Sunbury-on-Thames

• Former boroughs of London
• Kensington & Chelsea