EDITORIAL NOTE

The present volume is the second to have been compiled for the Committee formed in 1979 to complete the Middlesex History. The Committee is financed by the seven London Boroughs whose areas make up what may be called inner Middlesex. An eighth local authority, the Greater London Council, was represented until its abolition in 1986. The Committee has continued, under the chairmanship of Dr. David Avery, to support and supervise the Middlesex editorial staff, which has remained unchanged since 1978. The University of London gratefully acknowledges the help of the Committee and the generosity of the London Boroughs which it represents.

The structure and aims of the Victoria History as a whole are outlined in the General Introduction (1970). The contents of the first seven volumes of the Middlesex History are listed and indexed in outline in a booklet, The Middlesex Victoria County History Council, 1955-84, which also describes the work of the precursor of the present Middlesex Victoria County History Committee.

Those who have provided information for the volume or commented on parts of the text are named in the footnotes, and they are sincerely thanked for their help. Particular mention may be made here of the valuable contributions of Mr. H. V. Borley and Mr. R. M. Robbins, C.B.E., who read the sections of the text dealing with communications, of Sir John Summerson, C.H., Mr. M. Holmes, Mr. C. W. Ikin, and Mr. D. Sullivan, who read parts of the article on Hampstead, and of Mr. R. A. Bowden, who read the article on Paddington.