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London Metropolitan Archives

CLERK'S DEPARTMENT: ENGINEERS AND SURVEYORS, ENTERTAINMENTS LICENSING


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): MCC/CL/ES/EL

Held at: London Metropolitan Archives

Title: CLERK'S DEPARTMENT: ENGINEERS AND SURVEYORS, ENTERTAINMENTS LICENSING

Date(s): 1893-1965

Level of description: Collection

Extent: 6.16 linear metres

Name of creator(s): MCC | Middlesex County Council x Middlesex County Council

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

The County Council exercised control over public performances of music, dancing, stage plays, cinemas, boxing and wrestling. Anyone seeking a licence to hold public entertainments had the option of submitting building plans to the County Engineer, enabling him to find out in advance if the plans complied with legislation. The plans were reported upon in detail to the Entertainments Committee by the County Engineer. Notice of the application had to be placed on the site or building, and time was given for any interested person to lodge objections with the Council. Whether or not the plans had been submitted for approval, application for a licence still had to be made as normal upon completion of the building.

All licenced buildings were visited by Council inspectors before renewal of the licence each year. Inspections were also made from time to time during the progress of entertainments, particularly in cinemas, to ascertain that the regulations were being complied with. Heavy penalties were imposed for infringement of the regulations.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Records of the Middlesex County Council Clerk's Department relating to entertainments licensing, 1893-1965, including orders, reports and regulations concerning licences; applications for licensing; reports on the building requirements of premises seeking licences for music, dancing or stage plays; writs, reports and correspondence; prosecutions against unlicensed premises; police reports relating to Sunday opening of cinemas; stage play bonds, and pamphlet 'A short history of the cinema in Middlesex 1910-1965'.

Papers relating to individual premises including cinemas, hotels, music halls, canteens, hippodromes, cafes, arenas, dance halls, lecture halls, sports arenas, restaurants, skating rinks, working men's clubs and theatres.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

MCC/CL/ES/EL/01: General; MCC/CL/ES/EL/02: Individual buildings.

Conditions governing access:

Available for general access.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright to these records rests with the Corporation of London.

Physical characteristics:

Fit

Finding aids:

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Acquired with the records of its parent authority, the Middlesex County Council, and with successor authorities.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related material:

Publication note:

For further information on the history of the Middlesex County Council please see Middlesex by Sir Clifford Radcliffe (2 editions, 1939 and 1953), LMA Library reference 97.09 MID; and The County Council of the Administrative County of Middlesex: 76 years of local government, 1 April 1889 to 31 March 1965, by Middlesex County Council (1965), LMA library reference S97.09 MID.

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note:

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: April to June 2009


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Building licences | Planning licences | Planning control | Town and country planning | Urban development
Cinemas | Recreational buildings | Buildings | Architecture
Dance halls | Recreational facilities
Entertainment legislation | Legislation | Law
Music theatres | Theatres | Recreational buildings | Buildings | Architecture
Plans | Visual materials
Public entertainment | Entertainment | Leisure time activities | Leisure
Regulation | Business practice and regulation | Business management | Management
Sunday trading | Trade (practice)

Personal names

Corporate names
Clerk's Department | Middlesex County Council
MCC | Middlesex County Council x Middlesex County Council

Places
London | England | UK | Western Europe | Europe
Middlesex | England | UK | Western Europe | Europe