ABSTRACT
if you walk through central London, you will pass the symbols of municipal endeavour that have survived for a century or more. Sprouting iron fish playfully guard the Embankment. The logo ‘LCC’ still adorns the remains of public baths, clinics and school buildings. At your feet look for the ‘MBW’ that straddles the pavement atop a railway viaduct and symbolises the old Metropolitan Board of Works, the London County Council's predecessor. Horse troughs filled with flowers still bear witness. If in the 1990s you are visiting London for the first time, the nearest stranger who is of age may well recognise the three letters LCC; if you are a Londoner you may even live in a former LCC flat with just a single sink (in the kitchen); you may have gone to school on an LCC county scholarship.
