Parish of St Thomas Records

The records of the Parish of St Thomas, Southwark include Vestry minutes 1836-1899 (earlier volumes are at the London Metropolitan Archives), Poor Rate Books 1791 and 1792, Rating Valuation Books 1863-1895.

The parish and Southwark as a whole was part of the County of Surrey before 1889, it then became part of London with the formation of The London County Council. (Please see Surrey History Centre and London Metropolitan Archives for records not kept at Southwark Local History Library and Archive).

This parish derived from the medieaval preceinct of St Thomas's Hospital, which existed in Southwark from c.1215 until 1862. The precinct operated as a parish in the Middle Ages and formally became one after the Reformation. In 1896 the civil parish was united with that of St Olave, Southwark; together they were superseded by the Metropolitan Borough of Bermondsey in 1900. The ecclesiastical parish of St Thomas was united with that of St Saviour (whose church bacame Southwark Cathedral in 1905) in 1898. Almost all the records of St Thomas's Parish, whther civil or ecclesiastical, are held by the London Metropolitan Archives (formerly the Greater London Record Office).