Lambeth (UK Parliament constituency)

Lambeth was a parliamentary constituency centred on the Lambeth district now part of south London. It returned two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the bloc vote system.

History

Lambeth in the Metropolitan area, showing boundaries used from 1868 to 1885.

The constituency was created under the Great Reform Act for the 1832 general election, and abolished by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 for the 1885 general election.

It was divided into eight single member constituencies of Camberwell North, Camberwell Peckham, Lambeth Brixton, Lambeth Kennington, Lambeth North, Lambeth Norwood, Newington Walworth and Newington West.^[1]

Boundaries

Under the original proposals for the constituency it would have consisted of a large area of south east London comprising the parishes of Bermondsey, Rotherhithe, Newington, Lambeth and Camberwell. The commissioners appointed to fix parliamentary boundaries attempted to equalise each of the new "metropolitan" constituencies of London in terms of the number of voters and of population. For this reason Bermondsey and Rotherhithe were assigned to the neighbouring constituency of Southwark. It was also decided not to include the entirety of the parishes of Camberwell and Lambeth: both were very large parishes running five or six miles south from the Thames. The portions closest to the river were heavily built up, but the southern sections were still rural. Peckham and part of Brixton were therefore excluded from the constituency, instead forming part of the Eastern Division of the parliamentary county of Surrey.^[2]

The boundaries of the parliamentary borough were detailed in the schedules of the Parliamentary Boundaries Act 1832, and consisted of:

• The entire parish of St Mary Newington
• The parish of St Giles Camberwell (except for the Manor and Hamlet of Dulwich)
• The part of the parish of Lambeth north of a line defined in the act.^[3]

The constituency was unchanged when parliamentary seats were next redistributed under the Reform Act 1867.^[1]

Members of Parliament

Election results

Elections in the 1830s

Elections in the 1840s

Elections in the 1850s

Elections in the 1860s

Election in the 1870s

Election in the 1880s

Notes

Bibliography

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "L" (part 1)
• Harris, J. (2001). The Roupells of Lambeth. London: The Streatham Society. ISBN 1-873520-37-9. 
• Hill, George (1879). The Electoral History of the Borough of Lambeth since its Enfranchisement in 1832. London: Stanford.