Metropolitan Board of Works

The Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW) was the principal instrument of London-wide government from 1856 until the establishment of the London County Council in 1889. Its principal responsibility was to provide infrastructure to cope with London's rapid growth, which it accomplished. The MBW was an appointed rather than elected body. This lack of accountability made it unpopular with Londoners, especially in its latter years when it fell prey to corruption.

Read more about Metropolitan Board Of Works:  Background, Creation, Organisation, Scandals, Abolition, Chairmen of The Metropolitan Board of Works

Famous quotes containing the words metropolitan, board and/or works:

    In metropolitan cases, the love of the most single-eyed lover, almost invariably, is nothing more than the ultimate settling of innumerable wandering glances upon some one specific object.
    Herman Melville (1819–1891)

    This morning I threw up at a board meeting. I was sure the cat was out of the bag, but no one seemed to think anything about it; apparently it’s quite common for people to throw up at board meetings.
    Jane Wagner (b. 1935)

    We thus worked our way up this river, gradually adjusting our thoughts to novelties, beholding from its placid bosom a new nature and new works of men, and, as it were with increasing confidence, finding nature still habitable, genial, and propitious to us; not following any beaten path, but the windings of the river, as ever the nearest way for us. Fortunately, we had no business in this country.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)