Unfinished Business: the remaking of London government, 1985–1995

Abstract

This article describes the abolition and dismemberment of London’s metropolitan authority, the Greater London Council (GLC). It explains how the functions of the GLC were partitioned between successors, with particular reference to the role of the London Residuary Body. The article highlights the contribution of GLC officers and management structures to the residuary process, and the paradoxical part played by County Hall, the one undisposed relic of the GLC empire. The GLC also left behind it a second, less tangible legacy — its territorial footprint. The article contrasts the successful administrative dismemberment of the GLC with the rising sense of political identity within its boundaries. It suggests that a paradoxical effect of abolition has been to lay for the first time the basis of political community within the single physical metropolis of London.