Vestry of the Parish of St Martin in the Fields

St Martin in the Fields
Civil parish
Area
• 1881/1921	286 acres (1.16 km2)
Population
• 1881	17,508
• 1901	12,980
• 1921	10,666
History
• Origin	Ancient parish
• Abolished	1922
• Succeeded by	City of Westminster (parish)
Status	Civil parish
Government	St Martin in the Fields Vestry
• HQ	Vestry Hall, St Martin's Place
Contained within
• Poor Law Union	Strand (1868–1913) City of Westminster (1913–1922)

St Martin in the Fields was a civil parish in the metropolitan area of London, England. It took its name from the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields and was within the Liberty of Westminster. It included within its boundaries the former extra-parochial areas of Buckingham Palace and St. James's Palace.

It was an ancient parish. In 1542 it gained the territory between the church of St Clement Danes and the Palace of Westminster from the parish of St Margaret.

It originally included the following, which were carved out as new parishes:

It was a single parish for poor law following the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 until 1868 when it became part of the Strand Poor Law Union.

In 1855 the parish vestry became a local authority within the area of responsibility of the Metropolitan Board of Works.

Under the Metropolis Management Act 1855 any parish that exceeded 2,000 ratepayers was to be divided into wards; as such the incorporated vestry of St Martin in the Fields was divided into three wards (electing vestrymen): No. 1 (12), No. 2 (12) and No. 3 (12).

In 1896 as its population had increased the incorporated vestry was re-divided into three new wards (electing vestrymen): Park (15), Long Acre (12) and Embankment (9).

In 1889 the parish became part of the County of London and in 1900 it became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Westminster. The St Martin in the Fields Vestry was replaced by Westminster City Council and the vestry hall became Westminster City Hall.

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Wikipedia