2 Westminster, 1720-
The story of London's night watch begins in Westminster, which contained
every gradation of wealth and a highly complex government, marked by
overlapping jurisdictions. Its population was growing at a modest rate,
from 130,000 in 1700 to 165,000 in 1801. By 1730, it encompassed nine
parishes, four extra parochial areas and one Liberty.^1 As the fashionable
areas nearer the boundaries of the City, such as Covent Garden, became
crowded and less salubrious, the rich and fashionable migrated west. They
escaped from the encroachment of the poorer classes and moved closer to
Parliament and the Court. They were also drawn by the promise of fresher
air in the newly developed areas centred on elegant squares such as Hanover
Square, built by the Earl of Scarborough in 1717-19 and Cavendish Square
built in the 1720s. This building trend continued on through the eighteenth
century and into the next, including John Nash's unmistakable mark on the
West End - Regent Street and Regent's Park. From these elegantly planned
streets, the rich and powerful had easy access to the Court at StJames's and,
later, Buckingham House? The aristocracy was joined in the West End by
the gentry, Members of Parliament, officers of the armed forces and a
scattering of artists and writers. Politically, the western parishes, along with
St John's and St Margaret's, tended to support the Court, rather than
Independent or opposition candidates in the first half of the century.^3
Westminster was also the home of large numbers of craftsmen and smaller
merchants, paying rents from £7 to £135, the workers and purveyors for their
richer neighbours.^4 Westminster also had its slums and 'dangerous districts',
in the older parts of the city, nearer the river and the boundaries of the City
of London. Petty France, the Haymarket, and St James's Market were
considered unsafe. Covent Garden and the neighbourhood of Drury Lane
quickly acquired bad reputations when they ceased to be fashionable
districts.^5 In the more commercially oriented parishes -St Martin-in-the-
Fields; St Clement Danes; St Anne, Soho; St Paul, Covent Garden - parlia-
mentary politics tended more to the opposition or Independent position.^6
The story of Westminster's night watch began in the context of a power
struggle among those who shared its government. The Court of Burgesses,
parish vestries, and the bench of justices had a role in policing Westminster
and in an ongoing power struggle over local administration. This conflict
affected an early effort to reform the night watch in 1720, shedding light on
some aspects of the debate about the night watch and policing that will be
constant throughout the century. In the 1720s and 1730s, the Court of
Burgesses lost ground to the Westminster and Middlesex justices and to
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