London County Council election 1892

The second election of the London County Council was held on 5 March 1892.

There were 118 seats to be filled, with the County of London divided into 58 electoral divisions corresponding to the parliamentary constituencies used to elect members of the parliament. Each division returned two councillors except for the City of London, which elected four.

Politics
Originally it was envisaged that the county council would not have any formal political groupings. However, following the first election in 1889 the council quickly divided into two main parties, the majority Progressive and opposition Moderate Parties, using the same labels as the groups on the London School Board.

The Progressives were aligned with the parliamentary Liberal Party and their candidates were generally nominated by local Liberal and Radical Associations. In some divisions Labour organisations were also involved in the nomination of Progressives.

The Moderates were aligned with the parliamentary Conservative Party and candidates were mostly nominees of local associations. Some were nominated by Liberal Unionist Party organisations.

There were also a large number of independents, some of whom had failed to be nominated by their parties but stood for election, and some genuinely non-party candidates.

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Party strength 1889–1892
Although the 1889 election was not fought on strict party lines, two groups almost immediately emerged, the majority Progressive Party and the minority Moderate Party. At the first meeting, when the election of 19 aldermen was made, 17 were Progressive candidates and only one was a Moderate. Two candidates had been nominated by both parties, but took the Progressive whip. This gave the Progressives a safe majority with 72 councillors and 18 aldermen to the Moderate Party's 46 councillors and single alderman. The Moderates gained one seat from the Progressives in a by-election in March 1891.

County councillors
Successful candidates are shown in bold text. The political affiliations are those given in the contemporary newspapers.

Lambeth, Brixton
** Following the election, Beresford-Hope challenged the right of Lady Sandhurst to sit as a member of the council on the grounds that she was a woman. Following a court case and an appeal, Sandhurst's election was declared illegal and Beresford Hope took the seat as a Moderate in May 1889.

County aldermen
In addition to the 118 councillors the council consisted of 19 county aldermen. Aldermen were elected by the council, and served a six-year term. Half of the aldermanic bench (nine or ten aldermen) were elected every three years following the tri-ennial council election. In the first election of aldermen in February 1889, ten of the nineteen chosen had three-year terms, retiring in 1892.

Aldermen with two asterisks ** after their names had stood as candidates for election as councillors, but had been been unsuccessful.

By-elections and filling of casual vacancies to 1892
Where a county councillor died or resigned a by-election was held to fill the vacant seat. If there was only one candidate nominated there was no poll and they were elected unopposed.

Where a similar vacancy occurred on the aldermanic benches the vacancy was filled by a vote of the council.

Haggerston by-election, 1889
J F B Firth, Progressive Party councillor for Shoreditch, Haggerston, died on 3 September 1889. A by-election to fill the vacancy was held on 14 October 1889.

Holloway had been an unsuccessful candidate at Shoreditch, Hoxton, in the January 1889 election.

Aldermanic vacancies, 1890
On 15 January 1890 two Progressive Party aldermen (M Beaufoy and S H Morley) resigned. The vacancies were filled by the council at their meeting of 4 February 1890:

St Pancras North by-election, 1891
C L Lewes, Progressive Party councillor for St Pancras North, died on 26 February 1891. A by-election to fill the vacancy was held on 17 March 1891.

Both candidates had also contested this division at the January 1889 election.

Hackney North by-election, 1891
J Beck, Moderate Party councillor for St Pancras North, died on 21 April 1891. A by-election to fill the vacancy was held on 11 May 1891.

Trick was later to become a member of Stoke Newington Borough Council, and mayor of the borough in 1906-07. -->