Poplar (UK Parliament constituency)

Poplar
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
1885–1918
Number of members	one
Replaced by	Poplar South
Created from	Tower Hamlets
1950–1974 (1974)
Number of members	one
Replaced by	Stepney and Poplar
Created from	Bow and Bromley and Poplar South

Poplar was a parliamentary constituency centred on the Poplar district of the East End of London. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

History

The constituency was created for the 1885 general election, and abolished for the 1918 general election, when with very minor boundary changes it was replaced by the new constituency of Poplar South. A small amount of the constituency's territory was added to Bow and Bromley.

It was re-established for the 1950 general election, and abolished again for the February 1974 general election. It was then partly replaced by the new Stepney and Poplar constituency.

Boundaries

Poplar in the Metropolitan area, boundaries 1885-1918

File:Poplar1950.png

Poplar in the County of London, boundaries 1950-74

File:Poplar Met. B Ward Map 1916.svg

A map showing the wards of Poplar Metropolitan Borough as they appeared in 1916.

1885-1918: In 1885 the area was administered as part of the county of Middlesex. It was located in the Tower division, in the east of the historic county. The neighbourhood of Poplar formed a division of the parliamentary borough of Tower Hamlets. The parliamentary division was part of the East End of London.

In 1889 the Tower division of Middlesex was severed from the county, for administrative purposes. It became part of the County of London. In 1900 the lower tier of local government in London was re-modelled. Poplar constituency became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Poplar.

1950-1974: When a re-distribution of parliamentary seats took effect in 1950, the constituency was re-created. It then included the whole of the Metropolitan Borough of Poplar.

In 1965 the Metropolitan Borough was incorporated in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in Greater London.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1885	Henry Green	Liberal
	1886	Sydney Buxton	Liberal
	1914 b-e	Alfred Yeo	Liberal
1918		constituency abolished: see Poplar South & Bow and Bromley
1950		constituency re-created
	1950	Charles Key	Labour
	1964	Ian Mikardo	Labour
Feb 1974		constituency abolished: see Stepney and Poplar

Election results

Elections in the 1880s

General Election 1885: Tower Hamlets, Poplar

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Henry Green	4,090	65.9	n/a
	Conservative	Denzil R. Onslow	2,113	34.1	n/a
Majority			1,977	31.8	n/a
Turnout			9,041	68.6	n/a
	Liberal win

File:Sydney Buxton.jpg

Sydney Buxton

General Election 1886: Tower Hamlets, Poplar

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Sydney Charles Buxton	2,903	50.7
	Conservative	Alfred Cholmeley Earle Welby	2,827	49.3
Majority			76	1.4
Turnout			9,041	63.4
	Liberal hold		Swing	-15.2

Elections in the 1890s

General Election 1892: Tower Hamlets, Poplar

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Sydney Charles Buxton	5,007	62.7
	Conservative	Alfred Cholmeley Earle Welby	2,975	37.3
Majority			2,032	25.4
Turnout			10,348	77.1
	Liberal hold		Swing	+12.0

General Election 1895: Tower Hamlets, Poplar

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Sydney Charles Buxton	3,939	55.9
	Conservative	William Pelham Bullivant	3,110	44.1
Majority			829	11.8
Turnout			9,684	72.8
	Liberal hold		Swing	-6.8

Elections in the 1900s

General Election 1900: Tower Hamlets, Poplar

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Sydney Charles Buxton	3,992	58.4
	Conservative	William Pelham Bullivant	2,840	41.6
Majority			1,152	16.8
Turnout			10,009	68.3
	Liberal hold		Swing	+2.5

General Election 1906: Tower Hamlets, Poplar

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Sydney Charles Buxton	4,546	67.0
	Conservative	George Oldroyd Borwick	2,235	33.0
Majority			2,311	34.0
Turnout			9,088	74.6
	Liberal hold		Swing	+8.6

Elections in the 1910s

General Election January 1910: Tower Hamlets, Poplar

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Rt Hon. Sydney Charles Buxton	4,172	57.2
	Conservative	Leslie Orme Wilson	3,125	42.8
Majority			1,047	14.4
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing	-9.8

General Election December 1910

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Rt Hon. Sydney Charles Buxton	3,977	64.9
	Conservative	Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett	2,148	35.1
Majority			1,829	29.8
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing	+7.7

Alfred Yeo

Poplar by-election, 1914

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Alfred William Yeo	3,548	46.0
	Conservative	Robin S. Kerr-Clark	3,270	42.4
	British Socialist Party	John Joseph Jones	893	11.6
Majority			278	3.6
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing	-13.1

References

• Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885-1972, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Reference Publications 1972)
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "P" (part 2)