GREENWICH Council has its last full meeting tomorrow night before the borough goes royal.
Councillors will have the hand of history on their shoulders as they convene at Woolwich Town Hall for the last time under the name “London Borough of Greenwich”.
By the time of the next full meeting in January, the borough will have been renamed as the “Royal Borough of Greenwich”.
The future of the parliamentary boundaries will be under discussion on Thursday night as councillors decide how to respond to the current boundary review.
With the adoption of a new royal title, it will be farewell to a name that came into existence in 1965.
As a result of a large reorganisation of local government in London, neighbouring Metropolitan boroughs Greenwich and Woolwich joined together to form the brand new London Borough of Greenwich.
“Charlton”, and even “Royal Charlton”, were considered as names for the new borough but eventually the “London Borough of Greenwich” name was chosen. The amalgamation wasn’t welcomed by all – the very last resolution passed by the old Greenwich borough council placed on record its “deep regret that the Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich will lose its identity on 31st March 1965.”
The Council of the London Borough of Greenwich’s first meeting as a local authority took place on the 1st April, 1965, at Woolwich Town Hall – 46 years before the final meeting will take place in the same chamber.
At that first meeting, Cllr Bill Brooks, whose mother was also on the council, was elected as the London Borough of Greenwich’s first mayor and a telegram offering best wishes from the borough’s twin town of Reinickdorf, Berlin, was noted.
The New Greenwich
To mark the creation of the new London Borough of Greewich, the Mercury newspaper published a 12 page pull out guide, explaining what the new municipal arrangements would mean for residents. Painting an optimistic vision for the new borough, the document explained what the changes would mean for housing, health, industry and tourism.
The borough’s first Town Clerk, Mr Roderick Doble, told the Mercury: “I am certain that the new council doesn’t want to govern on its own – it wants to govern with the people.”
Read ‘The New Greenwich’ in its entirety below:
First meeting of the council
This is a picture of the front page of the minutes from the very first meeting of the council of the London Borough of Greenwich once it became the responsible local authority.
The council appears to have already reworked its website in anticipation of its rebanding. The old “river” logo is now timy and something new that looks like the logo of Pizza Express has appeared in the background. The old colour scheme that, if I remember correctly, symbolised the green spaces of Greenwich is also gone and has been replaced by the colour scheme of the ruling party. I wonder how much this re-branfding effort will cost and which services will be cut to fund this.
I think that Terry Malone and Roland Moyle are survivors from those councillors present on April 1st 1965. There may be others.
Thanks Paul. I’ve added the front page from the minutes of that first meeting to the post above so if anyone recognises names of councillors that were there, it would be great to speak with them.