Rotherhithe (UK Parliament constituency)

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox UK constituency Rotherhithe was a parliamentary constituency centred on the Rotherhithe district of South London. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system.

The constituency was created for the 1885 general election, and abolished for the 1950 general election when it became part of the revived Bermondsey constituency after the London Blitz had destroyed much of the housing and substantially reduced the resident population and electorate.

Boundaries

1885–1918

File:Bermondsey Met. B Ward Map 1916.svg

The Metropolitan Borough of Bermondsey wards of St Olave's, St John's, St Thomas's, St Mary, Rotherhithe and St Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey.

1918–1950

The Metropolitan Borough of Bermondsey wards of St John, St Olave, Bermondsey five and six, and Rotherhithe one, two and three.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" |	1885	Charles Hamilton	Conservative
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" |	1892	John Macdona	Conservative
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" |	1906	Hubert Carr-Gomm	Liberal
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" |	1918	John Lort-Williams	Unionist
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" |	1923	Ben Smith	Labour
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" |	1931	Norah Runge	Conservative
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" |	1935	Ben Smith	Labour
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" |	1946 b-e	Bob Mellish	Labour
1950		constituency abolished

Election results

File:Bermondsey election results.png

Bermondsey historical election results

Elections in the 1880s

File:RichardPankhurst1879.jpg

Pankhurst

General election 1885: Rotherhithe

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Charles Hamilton	Template:Replace	54.3
		Richard Pankhurst	2,800	45.7
Majority			527	8.6
Turnout			6,127	72.5
Registered electors			8,455
	win (new seat)

General election 1886: Rotherhithe

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Charles Hamilton	Template:Replace	60.2
		William Brampton Gurdon	2,115	39.8
Majority			1,087	20.4
Turnout			5,317	62.9
Registered electors			8,455
	hold		Swing	+5.9

Elections in the 1890s

File:Harold Glanville.jpg

Glanville

General election 1892: Rotherhithe

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		John Macdona	Template:Replace	59.1
		Harold Glanville	2,765	40.9
Majority			1,230	18.2
Turnout			6,760	70.1
Registered electors			9,638
	hold		Swing	-1.1

General election 1895: Rotherhithe

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		John Macdona	Template:Replace	64.6
		Ambrose Pomeroy	2,246	35.4
Majority			1,846	29.2
Turnout			6,338	69.0
Registered electors			9,188
	hold		Swing	+5.5

Elections in the 1900s

File:1906 Thomas Hart-Davies.jpg

Hart-Davies

General election 1900: Rotherhithe

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		John Macdona	Template:Replace	62.6
		Thomas Hart-Davies	2,356	37.4
Majority			1,582	25.2
Turnout			6,294	65.8
Registered electors			9,559
	hold		Swing	-2.0

File:Hubert Carr-Gomm.jpg

Carr-Gomm

General election 1906: Rotherhithe

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Hubert Carr-Gomm	Template:Replace	59.8
		John Macdona	2,821	40.2
Majority			1,371	19.6
Turnout			7,013	80.6
Registered electors			8,700
	gain from Template:Yesno		Swing	+22.4

Elections in the 1910s

General election January 1910: Rotherhithe

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Hubert Carr-Gomm	Template:Replace	55.6
		Assheton Pownall	3,570	44.4
Majority			904	11.2
Turnout			8,044	84.3
	hold		Swing	-4.2

General election December 1910: Rotherhithe

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Hubert Carr-Gomm	Template:Replace	57.1
		Assheton Pownall	3,026	42.9
Majority			1,004	14.2
Turnout			7,056	74.0
	hold		Swing	+1.5

General Election 1914–15:

Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by July 1914, the following candidates had been selected;

• Liberal: Hubert Carr-Gomm
• Unionist:

Template:Election box winning candidate with party link coalition 1918Template:Election box end 1918

Election in the 1920s

General election 1918: Rotherhithe

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Hubert Carr-Gomm	3,889	34.5
		Will Godfrey	1,750	15.5
Majority			1,750	15.5
Turnout			25,088	45.1
	gain from Template:Yesno		Swing	+14.8

General election 1922: Rotherhithe

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		John Lort-Williams	Template:Replace	36.5
		Charles Diamond	6,703	36.3
		Hubert Carr-Gomm	5,034	27.2
Majority			46	0.2
Turnout			29,166	63.4
	hold		Swing	-17.6

File:Richard Hazleton.jpg

Hazleton

General election 1923: Rotherhithe

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Ben Smith	Template:Replace	48.0
		John Lort-Williams	5,741	30.5
		Richard Hazleton	4,035	21.5
Majority			3,278	17.5
Turnout			29,457	63.8
	gain from Template:Yesno		Swing	+8.8

General election 1924: Rotherhithe

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Ben Smith	Template:Replace	60.3
		Charles Garfield Lott Du Cann	8,375	39.7
Majority			4,328	20.6
Turnout			29,906	70.5
	hold		Swing	+1.5

General election 1929: Rotherhithe

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Ben Smith	Template:Replace	61.6
		Gurney Braithwaite	4,594	19.3
		Dora West	4,556	19.1
Majority			10,070	42.3
Turnout			36,133	65.9
	hold		Swing	+10.8

Election in the 1930s

File:Superintendent Mrs Norah Cecil Runge OBE in 1918.jpg

Runge

General election 1931: Rotherhithe

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Norah Runge	Template:Replace	50.3
		Ben Smith	11,536	49.7
Majority			130	0.6
Turnout			36,111	64.3
	gain from Template:Yesno		Swing	+21.4

General election 1935: Rotherhithe

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Ben Smith	Template:Replace	59.7
		Norah Runge	9,751	40.3
Majority			4,665	19.4
Turnout			33,899	71.3
	gain from Template:Yesno		Swing	+10.0

Election in the 1940s

General election 1945: Rotherhithe

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Ben Smith	Template:Replace	79.1
		Norah Runge	2,577	20.9
Majority			7,164	58.2
Turnout			18,098	68.1
	hold		Swing	+19.4

1946 Rotherhithe by-election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Bob Mellish	Template:Replace	65.0
		Edward Martell	2,821	25.3
		Frederick Burden	1,084	9.7
Majority			4,444	39.7
Turnout			11,170	50.9
	hold

In fiction

The constituency is portrayed in an episode (A Place in the World) of TV drama series Upstairs, Downstairs as the safe Docklands Labour seat of "Rotherhithe East" that is unsuccessfully contested by James Bellamy for the Conservatives in a by-election in 1920. Location scenes were actually shot in Rotherhithe in January 1975 during the making of the episode. (In real life through 1920 Rotherhithe was a Unionist seat.)