You can visit our Bishopsgate Ward Team website here.
Bishopsgate Ward Newsletters:
Q2 2026
Q4 2025 – Wardmote Annual Review
Q3 2025
Q2 2025
March 2025
February 2025
January 2025
December 2024
Bishopsgate Wardmote Agenda and Minutes:
18th March 2026
19th March 2025
20th March 2024
23rd March 2023
14th September 2022 – Aldermanic Election
23rd March 2022
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, no Wardmotes in 2020-2021
21st March 2019
19th March 2018 – Common Council By-election
13th November 2017 – Common Council By-election
.
General Information:
The City of London is divided into 25 wards and 125 members are elected to represent them. Each ward elects one Alderman and two or more Common Councillors, depending on it’s population, totalling 100 Common Councillors and 25 Aldermen. Full City-wide elections are held every four years with By-elections and Aldermanic elections in between. Because the City has a relatively small number of residents compared to City workers, it has two categories of voters: resident and business. The number of votes each business is allocated is based on the number of full time employees they have working in each ward.
The City of London Wards find their origins in the Middle Ages. At the time, small areas within a city were able to act as self-governing communities with their own assemblies (Wardmote) and systems of public order (elected Beadles). The Romans built a defensive wall around the city of Londinium (London), which included 7 gates as a way to enter and exit the fortified town. These gates were Aldgate, Bishopsgate, Moorgate, Cripplegate, Aldersgate, Newgate and Ludgate. Sadly Bishopsgate, like many of the gates, was demolished in 1761.
Bishopsgate elects 1 Alderman and 6 Common Councillors. 3 represent Bishopsgate Within and 3 represent Bishopsgate Without, referencing the historic link to the gates within the wall and without (outside). Bishopsgate was referenced as ‘Porta Episcopi’ in the Doomsday book.
The Court of Common Council is the ‘town council’ of the City of London. Its work includes both the work of an ordinary local authority council and that arising from its historical status and tradition. It works through committees, like any other local authority, but it is unique in that it is non-party political. The City of London Corporation’s reach extends far beyond the Square Mile’s boundaries and across private, public and voluntary sector responsibilities. This, along with its independent and non-party political voice and convening power, enables us to promote the interests of people and organisations across London and the UK and play a valued role on the world stage, as an Ambassador for financial and professional services.
The Bishopsgate Ward map can be found here
Interesting Facts About Bishopsgate…
* Did you know that Bishopsgate was one of the eastern gates in London’s former defensive wall. It was first built in Roman times and marked the beginning of Ermine Street, the ancient road running from London to York (Eboracum). The gate was rebuilt twice in the 15th and 18th centuries, but was permanently demolished in 1760.
* Did you know that the site of the former Bishop’s gate is marked by a stone bishop’s mitre, fixed high upon a building located near Bishopsgate’s junction with Wormwood Street.
* Did you know that from 1247 to 1633, Bishopsgate was the first home of the Bethlem Royal Hospital (also known as Bedlam). This psychiatric hospital lay immediately north of St Botolph’s church. England’s first asylum for the treatment of mental illness, and for many years a place of ‘inhumane conditions’.
* Did you know, that the Bishopsgate Parish Memorial, also known as the Kitchener Cross, was the first freestanding First World War Memorial elected in London. Unveiled on 4 August 1916, The memorial was unveiled by the Lord Mayor of London and the Bishop of Stepney, with the Honourable Artillery Company in attendance.
* Did you know that the National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck (RNLI), was founded by Sir William Hillary on 4 March 1824, at a meeting at the City of London Tavern in Bishopsgate. Since then, they have saved more than 146,000 lives.
* Did you know, there remains a weather-vane in the form of a golden beaver on top of Hasilwood House (60-62 Bishopsgate), which was previously the head office of Canada’s Hudson’s Bay Company, made famous for trading animal skins and furs. Until the 1960s, it was the highest man-made object in Bishopsgate.
* Did you know that at 10.27am on 24 April 1993, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonated a powerful truck bomb on Bishopsgate, killing 1 news photographer and injuring 40 others. The bomb destroyed St Ethelburga’s Church and parts of Liverpool Street station. The Daily Mail described the Natwest Tower as having “black gaps punched in its fifty-two floors like a mouth full of bad teeth”.
* Did you know that the etymology of Houndsditch dates back to 1275, when the area was a ditch into which rubbish and dead dogs were dumped.
* Did you know that the Bishopsgate Institute hold the Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) archive, which includes a significant collection of materials related to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the LGBTQ+ community. The archive was donated in 2021, and it serves as a valuable resource for understanding the impact of THT on HIV and AIDS advocacy.
* Did you know that the Great Eastern Railway War Memorial located on the upper concourse of Liverpool Street Station incudes 1,100 names split into 11 columns. It was unveiled on 22nd June 1922 by Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson. Sadly, upon his return home to Eaton Place a few hours later, Sir Henry was shot and killed by the IRA.
Founded in 1790, the Bishopsgate Ward Club was originally a forum for the merchants, traders and other interested parties of the Ward to express their views to the Aldermen and Common Councilmen, linking them to the governance of the City. In modern times the Ward Club has become a social organisation, promoting community service, good fellowship and interest in the traditions and institutions of the City.
Ward Church: St. Botolph-Without-Bishopsgate
