The Metropolis Management Act 1855 (18 & 19 Vict. c.120) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that created the Metropolitan Board of Works, a London-wide body to co-ordinate the construction of the city's infrastructure. The Act also created a second tier of local government consisting of parish vestries and district boards of works. The Metropolitan Board of Works was the forerunner of the London County Council. Background The Royal Commission on the City of London considered the case for creation of an authority for the whole of London. Its report recommended the creation of a limited-function Metropolitan Board of Works and seven municipal corporations based on existing parliamentary representation. The Metropolitan Board of Works The act constituted the Metropolitan Board of Works and provided that its members should be chosen by the parish vestries and district boards also constituted by the act. The first election of members was to take place on 12 December 1855. From 1857, one third of the board was to go out of office on the third Wednesday of June every year. The board was to take over the powers, duties and liabilities of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers and the Metropolitan Buildings Office on 1 January 1856. Its area of responsibility was to be that designated by the Registrar General as London in the 1851 census. Vestries and district boards The second tier of local government was to be based on the existing vestries of civil parishes in an area comprising parts of the counties of Middlesex, Kent and Surrey. Section 42 of the Act dealt with the incorporation of vestries and district boards. Where single parishes became a local authority they were to have the title: Where parishes were grouped the resulting authority took the title: List of vestries, district boards and number of members elected to the Metropolitan Board of Works A number of extra-parochial places lay within the Metropolitan Board of Works' area but were not included in any district: Inner Temple Middle Temple London Charterhouse Close of the Collegiate Church of St Peter (i.e. Westminster Abbey) Furnival's Inn Gray's Inn Lincoln's Inn Staple Inn Changes in later legislation In 1886, the Fulham District Board of Works was dissolved and the two parish vestries of Fulham and Hammersmith became local authorities. Fulham Vestry continued to use the existing town hall at Walham Green, while Hammersmith Vestry built a