For more coverage on London, see the London Portal.

The administrative area of Greater London contains 32 London boroughs, of which 12 (plus the City of London) make up Inner London and 20 Outer London.

City of London † City of Westminster Kensington and Chelsea Hammersmith and Fulham Wandsworth Lambeth Southwark Tower Hamlets Hackney Islington Camden Brent Ealing Hounslow Richmond Kingston upon Thames Merton		Sutton Croydon Bromley Lewisham Greenwich Bexley Havering Barking and Dagenham Redbridge Newham Waltham Forest Haringey Enfield Barnet Harrow Hillingdon Walford</li, inside Tower Hamlets Defrey vale
† not a London borough

The London boroughs are administered by 'London Borough Council' which are elected every four years (Westminster has city status and its council is called a 'City Council'). The boroughs are the most important unit of local government in London, and are responsible for running most local services in their areas, such as schools, social services, waste collection and roads. Some London-wide services are run by the Greater London Authority, and some services and lobbying of government are pooled within the Association of London Government.

The London boroughs are local government districts and have similar functions to metropolitan boroughs. Each London borough is a Local Education Authority. Until 1990 the Inner London boroughs were served by a shared LEA, the Inner London Education Authority.

The present boroughs came into existence on 1 April 1965 with the creation of Greater London. The first London Borough elections had been held in 1964 with the newly elected London Borough Councils acting as "shadow" Authorities before coming into power the following year.

They had wider authority than the inner London metropolitan boroughs and neighbouring urban districts and municipal boroughs which they mostly replaced, but less power than the three county boroughs of Croydon, West Ham and East Ham, which ceased to exist at the same time.

Between 1965 and 1986 the London boroughs were part of a two-tier system of government, and shared power with the Greater London Council (GLC). However on 1 April 1986, the GLC was abolished, the London boroughs inherited most of its powers and became in effect unitary authorities (combining both county and borough functions). Since the creation in 2000 of a new Greater London Authority, covering the former GLC area but with more limited powers, the boroughs now have powers intermediate between those of English unitary authorities and non-metropolitan districts within shire counties.

The City of London is administered by its own distinct body, the Corporation of London, which predates the London boroughs.

The word borough has cognates in virtually every Germanic language, as well as other Indo-European languages. For a fuller explanation, see under borough.

See also: List of places in London

• The Five Boroughs

• Islington council map page with clickable map linking to each borough's web site.

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