Metropolitan Police District

The Metropolitan Police District (MPD) is the police area which is policed by the Metropolitan Police Service in London. It currently consists of the ceremonial county of Greater London, which excludes the City of London. The Metropolitan Police District was created by the Metropolitan Police Act 1829 as an ad hoc area of administration because the built-up area of London spread at the time into many parishes and counties without an established boundary. The district expanded as the built up area grew and stretched some distance into rural land. When county police forces were set up in England, those of Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent and Surrey did not cover the parts of the counties within the MPD, while Middlesex did not have a county force. Similarly, boroughs in the MPD that elsewhere would have been entitled to their own police force did not have them.

The MPD was originally defined in reference to civil parishes and in 1946 was altered to correspond to local government districts. The MPD has been used for other purposes during its existence, such as the boundary for coal tax and as a 'Greater London' statistical unit. When the Greater London Council was established in 1965, the MPD was expanded to include all of its territory, though some areas that did not become part of Greater London continued to be within it. In 2000, when the Greater London Authority was formed, the outer boundary of the MPD was retracted to coincide with Greater London and the neighbouring county forces then became responsible for those areas outside Greater London. The MPD now consists of the 32 boroughs of Greater London (including the City of Westminster), while the City of London is served by the City of London Police.

The Metropolitan Police District was defined in the schedule of the Metropolitan Police Act 1829 as an approximately circular area within a seven-mile (11-kilometre) radius of Charing Cross, which was divided into four districts and 17 police divisions.

It consisted of parts of:

There have been numerous changes to the boundaries of the MPD, and of the divisions therein. The Metropolitan Police Act 1839 recognised that the "boundary is... very irregular" and made it lawful to add any place in the Central Criminal Court District and also "any part of any parish, township, precinct or place" not more than 15 miles (24 km) from Charing Cross. The enlarged district encompassed the metropolitan area and some parts of Essex, Kent, Hertfordshire and Surrey. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica notes that it included "those civil parishes [...] of which any part is within twelve miles (19 km) of, or of which no part is more than fifteen miles (24 km) from, Charing Cross".

The enlargement under the 1839 Act was carried out by Order in Council made on 3 January 1840, which listed the following "parishes, townships, precincts, and places" ... "should be added to, and form part of, the metropolitan police district":

In 1946 the Metropolitan Police District was somewhat redrawn by the Police Act 1946, to match the then local government boundaries. The boroughs of Dartford and Watford, the urban district of Caterham and Warlingham and the parish of St. Peter Rural were wholly excluded from the District; whilst the borough of Epsom and Ewell, the urban districts of Banstead, Cheshunt, Coulsdon and Purley, Crayford, Esher and Orpington were brought wholly within the district. The definition, in the Fourth Schedule is as follows:

In 1965 the administrative boundaries of London were extended. After 1965 the newly created Greater London more closely matched the MPD, and the MPD was defined again by section 76 of the London Government Act 1963. The former area of the Municipal Borough of Romford and Hornchurch Urban District, which had not previously been covered by the MPD but were now in Greater London, were added. The revised MPD included some areas that did not become part of Greater London.