Portsoken is one of the City of London's 25 ancient wards, which are still used for local elections. It is predominantly outside the walls, in the east of the City. It is mainly residential, and is sometimes considered to be part of the East End of London. Aldgate ward is to the west and Tower ward to the south. East are Middlesex Street, Spitalfields Street and Mansell Street in Whitechapel. To the north is Bishopsgate ward; to the south, the former liberties of the Royal Mint by the Thames. The ward is about 5 hectares in area, and is mainly oriented north-south. The Sir John Cass's Foundation Primary School was moved into the ward in the 2003 boundary review, forming a westerly salient, and is the only part of the ward within the former city wall.
History
's survey of London records that the ‘soke’ - in this context the right to extract fines as a source of income - was granted in the time of Saxon king Edgar the Peaceful, east of Aldgate to a Guild of Knights in exchange, essentially, for regular jousting. Norman kings confirmed these rights but later the land was voluntarily transferred to the Priory of the Holy Trinity by the descendants of the Guild. In 1120 or 1121, Portsoken was granted as a liberty to the Priory of Holy Trinity, which had been founded in 1107 by Queen Matilda, the wife of King Henry I. The sitting prior of Holy Trinity became, ex officio, an alderman of the City of London Corporation representing Portsoken ward, and remained so until the Dissolution of the Monasteries by King Henry VIII in 1531. In 1332, a tax assessment showed 23 taxpayers in Portsoken. However, this figure only included freemen of the City of London who possessed moveable property worth more than 10 shillings, and so did not include the poor, non-citizens, or members of religious orders. A later subsidy roll from 1582 showed that the ward's taxpayers had been assessed to pay a total of 57 pounds, 11 shillings and 4 pence. Boundary changes in 1994 altered the boundary between the City of London and Tower Hamlets in the area quite considerably. A small part of Portsoken ward was transferred to Tower Hamlets; however a much larger area was transferred to the City from Tower Hamlets, though not all initially to Portsoken ward. In the 2003 ward boundary review, much of the additional territory in this part of the City was given to Portsoken, as it consisted mainly of residential and related buildings including the Middlesex Street Estate. With the loss of some business-dominated parts, the gaining of this residential area and the gaining of the primary school, Portsoken is now regarded as one of the City's four residential wards, with a population of 985.
Politics
Portsoken is one of 25 wards in the City of London, each electing an alderman to the Court of Aldermen, and commoners to the Court of Common Council of the City of London Corporation. Only electors who are Freemen of the City are eligible to stand for election. Keith Joseph, Secretary of State for Industry from 1979–1981 and Secretary of State for Education and Science from 1981–1986 under Margaret Thatcher, took the area as his territorial designation on elevation to the Lords in 1987. Similarly, Peter Levene in 1997. Joseph's father was Lord Mayor in 1942-3. In 2014 William Campbell-Taylor made history when he became the first ever party politician to win a seat on the City of London's Common Council, standing as a Labour candidate in a by-election in the ward of Portsoken. William Campbell-Taylor stood down as a Common Councilman in March 2017 at the end of his time in office. In the 2017 City-wide Common Council elections, the Labour Party won two seats in Portsoken ward with local residents Jason Pritchard and Munsur Ali topping the polls and Independent incumbents John Fletcher and Henry Jones elected in third and fourth place respectively. The Labour Party won a record total of five seats on the Common Council in March 2017, winning two seats in Portsoken, two seats in Cripplegate ward and one seat in Aldersgate ward. In December 2017, William Campbell-Taylor stood as the first ever party political candidate to contest a City of London Aldermanic election, standing for Labour in Portsoken ward, but was defeated by Independent candidatePrem Goyal. Prem Goyal is the founder of the UK political party, All People's Party, although to date Goyal has chosen to stand as an Independent in elections in the City of London.
City of London Corporation election, 2017
On 23 March 2017 two Labour and two independent Common Councilmen were elected.
