Metropolitan Building Act

The Metropolitan Buildings Office was formed in 1845 to regulate the construction and use of buildings in the metropolitan area of London. Surveyors were empowered to enforce building regulations which sought to improve the standard of houses and business premises, and to regulate activities that might threaten public health. In 1855 the assets, powers and responsibilities of the office passed to the Metropolitan Board of Works.

The office was established by the London Building Act 1844 (7 & 8 Vict., c.84) [1], with the following purposes:

The limits in which the Act were to operate were defined as:

The act recognised that London was expanding and provision was made to extend the Act by Order in Council to any place within 12 miles (19 km) of Charing Cross.

Authority to administer the Act was given to the Lord Mayor and aldermen of the City of London and the justices of the peace for the counties of Middlesex, Surrey and Kent, the City and Liberty of Westminster and the Liberty of Her Majesty's Tower of London. The city corporation and the justices in quarter sessions were to divide their areas into districts, and to appoint district surveyors to superintend the Act. The office's headquarters were established at 6 Adelphi Terrace.

The power of the district surveyors did not extend to certain buildings already under separate legislation. These were under "special supervision", being under the jurisdiction of specially appointed "official referees" who applied the provisions of the Act. Buildings in this category included royal palaces, bridges, embankments, wharves, gaols and prisons, the Mansion House, the Guildhall, the Royal Exchange, the British Museum and Covent Garden Market.

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