Poor Law Commission and successors: Correspondence with Asylum Districts and Boards

This series consists mainly of the Poor Law Commission and successors' correspondence with the boards of management of Sick Asylum Districts in London, the Metropolitan Asylum Board and other authorities. One volume contains correspondence and papers and draft and sealed orders of the Poor Law Board relating to the special and short-lived Metropolitan Asylum Districts established in 1845. Also includes a set of annual reports of the Metropolitan Asylums Board Statistical Committee from 1887 to 1930.

Most of the papers covering the period 1907 to 1919 have been lost, but some will be found with later papers in

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• Local Government Board, 1871-1919
• Ministry of Health, 1919-1968
• Poor Law Board, 1847-1871
• Poor Law Commission, 1834-1847

Topics

Mental illness

Poverty

In London special arrangements were made for the co-ordination of poor law administration of unions and separate parishes. In July 1845 the Poor Law Commission constituted six metropolitan asylum districts (central, western, south-western, south-eastern, north-western and north-eastern) to provide asylums for the temporary relief and employment of the destitute homeless poor. The provisions of this scheme were not implemented in all districts, and the districts were dissolved under the Poor Law Amendment Act 1851.

The Metropolitan Poor Act 1867 provided for sick asylum districts to establish dispensaries and infirmaries for the sick poor, metropolitan asylum districts to provide hospitals for persons (at first only for paupers), who were insane or were suffering from infectious diseases, and a metropolitan common poor fund designed to aid the poorer districts.

The Poor Law Board was responsible for the supervision of these special arrangements and for audit and control of the fund. A separate department was established to perform this work, which later developed into the Local Loans and Local Acts Department of the Local Government Board.