The boundary marks today: The marks in relation to other boundaries

The boundary is the same sort of distance from central London as the boundary of the Greater London Authority (GLA). However it rarely coincides with it, and is often a considerable distance inside or outside: it extends much less far in the east, but much further north and south. In the east, north of the Thames, it is inside the GLA boundary and follows (approximately) the boundary between the London Boroughs of Barking & Dagenham and Havering. From Hainault onwards it runs outside the GLA area in Essex and Hertfordshire north-east and north of London until it joins the GLA boundary at Oxhey. It follows the western boundary of GLA until near Heathrow, when it moves briefly into Berkshire. In the south west it then runs in Surrey along the Thames from Staines to West Molesey and south through Epsom and Banstead. In the south, it runs close to the boundary between Surrey and the London Borough of Croydon, one side or the other. It then runs inside the London Borough of Bromley. In the east, after a short distance in Kent near Swanley it follows the GLA/Kent boundary to the Thames.

The Metropolitan Police District was originally defined in terms of the parishes which it included, so of course the boundary of the 1861 London District of the coal duties coincided with parish boundaries of the day. Although many modern local authority boundaries can still be traced back to parish boundaries, there have been many changes since the abolition of the duties. The changes affecting the coal duties boundary have been of two main types:

minor changes in the alignment of boundaries to accommodate changes in roads, housing, etc; and
abolition of parishes within larger local authority areas. This happened in the 1930s under various county review orders and later under the Local Government Act 1972.

In these cases the boundary no longers coincides with any modern boundary.

Most of the marks lie inside that de facto London boundary the M25 motorway, except for nos 14 to 38 in Essex and Hertfordshire, three marks (nos 77 - 79) in Colnbrook/Poyle, and four posts (nos 149 - 152) at the extreme southern point of the boundary in Surrey.

The relationship between the coal duties boundary and various other London boundaries has been expressed in a sculpture by Stephanie Methven -- see The marks depicted and commemorated.

Page created by Martin Nail: Contact me. Last revised 19th May 2010

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