City of London
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
City of London in the Metropolis, 1868-85
1298–1885
Seats	four
1885–1950
Seats	two
Replaced by	Cities of London and Westminster (to form north-eastern part of)

The City of London was a United Kingdom parliamentary constituency. It was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of England then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1950.

Boundaries and boundary changes

This borough constituency (or 'parliamentary borough/burgh') consisted of the City of London, which is at the very centre of Greater London. The only change by the Parliamentary Boundaries Act 1832 was to include The Temple.^[1]

Bounded south by the Thames, the City adjoins Westminster westward, enfranchised in 1545.^[2] In other directions a web of tiny liberties and parishes of diverse size adjoined from medieval times until the 20th century. Most of the population of Middlesex was beyond the city's boundaries. From the 17th century three of four new 'divisions' of Ossulstone Hundred adjoined the city reflecting their relative density – Holborn division and Finsbury division to the north and Tower division to the north-east and the east, all enfranchised in 1832.

London is first known to have been enfranchised and represented in Parliament in 1298. Because it was the most important city in England it received four seats in Parliament instead of the normal two for a constituency. Previous to 1298 from the middle of that century, the intermittent first parliaments, the area's households, officially, could turn to their Middlesex "two knights of the shire" – two members of the Commons – as to their interests in Parliament as the City formed part of the geographic county yet from early times wielded independent administration, its corporation.

The city was represented by four MPs until 1885, when this was cut to two, and in 1950 the constituency was abolished.

The City of London was originally a densely populated area. Before the Reform Act 1832 the composition of the City electorate was not as democratic as that of some other borough constituencies, such as neighbouring Westminster. The right of election was held by members of the Livery Companies. However the size and wealth of the community meant that it had more voters than most other borough constituencies. Namier and Brooke estimated the size of the City electorate, in the latter part of the 18th century, at about 7,000. Only Westminster had a larger size of electorate.

During the 19th and 20th centuries the metropolitan area of London expanded greatly. The resident population of the City fell. People moved to the new definitively urban expansion and suburbs; businesses moved in. However the City authorities did not want to extend their jurisdiction beyond the traditional "square mile" so the constituency was left unchanged as its resident population fell. By 1900 almost all electors in the City qualified through Livery Company membership and lived outside of the city. The business voters were a type of plural voter which when abolished by the Representation of the People Act 1948 meant the City became immediately under-sized in electorate, akin to the least-worst examples of pre-1832 "rotten and pocket boroughs".

In 1950 the area was merged for parliamentary purposes with the eldest parts of the neighbouring City of Westminster, to form the seat Cities of London and Westminster. The pre-1900 heavily subdivided city became simplified for the period 1907 and 1965 into one civil parish, before in that year this level of local government complication was taken away. Statutory protection applied between 1986 and 2011 to prevent division of the City between seats:

There shall continue to be a constituency which shall include the whole of the City of London and the name of which shall refer to the City of London"

— Parliamentary Constituencies Act 1986 Sch.2 Rule 3 (repealed, 2011)^[3]

Members of Parliament 1707–1950

See City of London (elections to the Parliament of England) for citizens known to have represented the City in Parliament before 1707

Parliaments of Great Britain 1707–1800