Editing Holborn (section)

== Origins and administration ==
Holborn emerged from the [[civil parish#Ancient parishes|ancient parish]] of St Andrew Holborn and its later sub-divisions. The [[St Andrew, Holborn|parish church]] is first mentioned, and described as ''old'', in a charter of 959, but this is before the parish or the landholdings on which it was based took on anything like their settled form.<ref>detail of the perambulation of the landholding described in 'Citadel of the Saxons' by Rory Naismith, p130</ref>

=== Toponymy ===

{{See also|Street names of Holborn}}

The earliest surviving written record of the area occurs in a charter of 959, in which [[Edgar the Peaceful|King Edgar the Peaceful]] granted [[Westminster Abbey]] an area of land (much larger than the later parish of Holborn) stretching from the Abbey, on [[Thorney Island (Westminster)|Thorney Island]], to the [[River Fleet]]. The charter mentions "the old wooden church of St Andrew" ([[St Andrew, Holborn]]).<ref name=lethaby>{{cite book|last= Lethaby|first= William|author-link= William Lethaby|title= London before the conquest|url= https://archive.org/details/londonbeforeconq00lethrich|publisher= Macmillan|location= London|year= 1902|page= [https://archive.org/details/londonbeforeconq00lethrich/page/60 60]}}</ref><ref>Citadel of the Saxons, Rory Naismith, p130</ref> The name Holborn is used in the charter, but it refers to the River Fleet rather than the district.

The name "Holborn" may derive from the [[Middle English]] ''hol'' for "hollow", and ''bourne'', a "brook", referring to the [[River Fleet]] as it ran through a steep valley (hollow) in places.<ref name=lethaby /><ref name=besant>{{cite book|last= Besant|first= Walter|author-link= Walter Besant|author2= Mitton, Geraldine|title= Holborn and Bloomsbury|publisher= [[A & C Black|Adam and Charles Black]]|location= London|year= 1903|edition= Project Gutenberg, 2007|series= The Fascination of London|url= http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21411/21411-8.txt|access-date= 13 August 2008}}</ref>

However, the 16th-century historian [[John Stow]] attributes the name to a different watercourse: the ''Old Bourne'' ("old brook"), a small stream which he believed ran into the Fleet at Holborn Bridge. This structure was lost when the river was [[culvert]]ed in 1732. The exact course of the stream is uncertain, but according to Stow it started in one of the many small springs near Holborn Bar, the old [[City of London|City]] toll gate on the summit of Holborn Hill.<ref name=besant /><ref>{{cite book|last= Strype|first= John|author-link= John Strype|title= Survey of London|publisher= Online edition: University of Sheffield 2007|year= 1720|series= The Stuart London Project|chapter= Rivers and other Waters serving this City|url= http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/strype/TransformServlet?page=book1_024&display=print|access-date= 2 November 2008|archive-date= 12 August 2014|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140812203926/http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/strype/TransformServlet?page=book1_024&display=print|url-status= dead}}</ref> Other historians, however, find the theory implausible, in view of the slope of the land.<ref>Lethaby (1902:48)</ref>

===Administration: Parish and Ward===
The [[St Andrew Holborn (parish)|Parish of St Andrew, Holborn]], was divided by a civil boundary, with part within the Farringdon Without ward of the City of London (later known as ''St Andrew Holborn Below the Bars'') – which includes the parish church and the part within the [[Ossulstone Hundred]] of Middlesex (later known as ''St Andrew Above the Bars'').
It is not known when the parish of Holborn took on its settled form, but it is likely to have been by the time of the introduction of Canon Law around 1180,<ref>History of the Countryside by Oliver Rackham, 1986 p19 After the development of Canon Law, changes after this time became legally onerous and rare</ref> with records from the time the [[St Giles in the Fields|hospital of St Giles]] was established in 1120 indicating that the parish extended further west at that time, presumably to encompass what would become the combined parish of [[St Giles, London|St Giles]] and [[Bloomsbury]].

A charter of around 1000 shows the boundaries of the city being pushed west to their settled historic extent in around 1000, though this extramural area would have been very sparsely settled. The city's wards take shape in the 11th century, before the Norman Conquest.<ref name="auto">Process, terms and sources described in detail in "London, 800-1216". Brooke and Keir, Chapter 7</ref> The civil division of the parish is very ancient and predates the establishment of the parish in its settled form. In 1394 the [[Ward (country subdivision)|Ward]] of Farringdon was subdivided into [[Farringdon Within]] and [[Farringdon Without]], with south-east Holborn part of the latter.

The [[City of London#Boundary of the City|City Bars]] mark the boundary of the City of London within Holborn. In 1994 the City boundary shifted slightly to the junction of Chancery Lane and the Bars were moved accordingly.

===Many Civil Parishes===
[[File:Passage North side of Holborn, 1897 by Philip Norman.jpg|thumb|Passage North side of Holborn, 1897 by [[Philip Norman (artist)|Philip Norman]]]]
It has been described how the two parts of the parish came under separate civil governance (though without any civil governance at parish level) according to whether the part was in the city or outside. From the Tudor period onwards new local government were introduced in England, and parish areas were obliged to take on civil as well as ecclesiastical responsibilities for the first time, this started with [[Act for the Relief of the Poor 1597|relief of the poor]].

The two parts became, for civil but not ecclesiastical purposes, two separate parishes known as ''St Andrew Holborn Below the Bars'' and ''St Andrew Holborn Above the Bars'', the ''Bars'' being the City boundary markers. The area "above Bars" (outside the city's jurisdiction) was organised by the [[vestry]] board of the parish of [[St Andrew Holborn|St Andrew]].<ref>''The Parish of St Andrew Holborn'' pp. 11–12 Caroline Barron London 1979</ref>

[[File:City of London civil parishes Map 1870.png|thumb|St Andrew Holborn, Below the Bars, in the west of the City of London]]
As well as Holborn's two main civil parishes, there were a number of extra-parochial areas, parts of the ecclesiastical parish of Holborn but formed their own (usually tiny) civil parish areas:
* [[Liberty of Saffron Hill, Hatton Garden, Ely Rents and Ely Place]]
* [[Lincoln's Inn]] (excluding Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the combined parish of ''St Giles and Bloomsbury'')
* [[Thavie's Inn]]
* [[Barnard's Inn]]
* [[Furnival's Inn]]
* [[Gray's Inn]]
* [[Staple Inn]]

===Response to urbanisation===
The St George the Martyr Queen Square area became a separate parish, for both civil and ecclesiastical matters, in 1723; but for civil matters was reunited with the part of St Andrew outside the city (''Above the Bars'') of London in 1767, to form [[St Andrew Holborn Above the Bars with St George the Martyr]].

The [[Holborn District (Metropolis)|Holborn District]] was created in 1855, consisting of the civil parishes and extra-parochial places of Holborn outside the city; St Andrew Holborn Above the Bars with St George the Martyr, [[Saffron Hill, Hatton Garden, Ely Rents and Ely Place]], as well as two tiny units that were added from the [[Finsbury division|Finsbury Division]]: [[Glasshouse Yard]] and [[St Sepulchre (parish)|St Sepulchre, Middlesex]].
[[File:St Giles & Holborn Civil Parish Map 1870.png|thumb|The Holborn District (in green, but excluding St Sepulchre Middlesex and Glasshouse Yard which had been attached to it) merged with the combined parishes of St Giles and Bloomsbury (in red), in 1900, to form the Metropolitan Borough of Holborn.]]
[[File:Holborn Met. B Ward Map 1952.svg|thumb|left|The parts of Holborn outside the City formed the eastern part of the [[Metropolitan Borough of Holborn]]. The former combined parish of [[Bloomsbury]] and [[St Giles, London|St Giles]] (including most of the Lincoln's Inn Ward).]]
The [[Metropolitan Borough of Holborn]] was created in 1900, consisting of the former area of the Holborn District and the [[St Giles District (Metropolis)|St Giles District]], but the small units previously part of the [[Finsbury division|Finsbury Division]] were instead included in the [[Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury]]. The Metropolitan Borough of Holborn was abolished in 1965 and its area now forms part of the [[London Borough of Camden]].