Western University Scholarship@Western Psychology Publications Psychology Department 2014 A Brief History of the Temperance Movement in London and the Surrounding Area Marvin L. Simner Western University,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/psychologypub Part of the Canadian History Commons Citation of this paper: Simner, Marvin L., "A Brief History of the Temperance Movement in London and the Surrounding Area" (2014). Psychology Publications. 118. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/psychologypub/118 The London and Middlesex Historian Volume 23, Autumn 2014 A Brief History of the Temperance Movement in London and the Surrounding Area Marvin L. Simner The Need for Temperance t one time in the mid-to-late 1800s, there were as many as 11 temp- Organizations A In the early 1830s, London, with a erance lodges in London, Ontario along with a local chapter of the Woman's Christian population of around 1,300, already had Temperance Union (WCTU). The majority seven taverns. By 1864, and now with a population of around 14,000, the number of of the lodges, which typically met on a 1 weekly basis, represented three of the major licenced taverns had grown to 58. Then, in national temperance organizations in North the year of Confederation, the London Board America: Sons of Temperance, Independent of Police issued four more licences which meant that by 1867 there was one tavern for Order of Good Templars, and the British 2 American Order of Good Templars which every 225 citizens. was founded here in London. The aim of Since many of these establishments this report is to outline the nature and were clustered in the downtown area around accomplishments of these lodges and their King Street, this street soon became known national affiliates along with the WCTU.