Shops Act 1950

54 Special provisions for London

(1) If the Common Council of the City of London or the London County Council are satisfied that any part of their respective areas—

(a) is a district in which it was, before the first day of January, nineteen hundred and thirty-six, customary to hold street markets on Sunday ; or

(b) is a district, being a district within the City of London or the metropolitan boroughs of Bethnal Green, Shoreditch, or Stepney, in which it was customary before the said date for the majority of the shops in the district to be kept open on Sunday and that, having regard to the character and habits of the population in the district, the application of the provisions of this Part of this Act requiring shops to be closed on Sunday would cause undue hardship,

they may, by order made in accordance with the provisions of this section, authorise such shops or classes of shops as may be specified in the order, being shops situated in the district or in such parts of the district as may be so specified, to be open for the serving of customers on Sunday until two o'clock on Sunday afternoon subject to the conditions hereinafter mentioned:

Provided that, before making an order applying to any district referred to in paragraph (b) of this subsection, the council shall take steps to ascertain the wishes of the occupiers of such shops as appear to them to be likely to be affected, and, if they are satisfied that the occupiers of a majority of any class of such shops are opposed to the making of the order, the council shall exclude that class of shops from the operation of the order.

(2) Any order made under this section authorising shops to be kept open for the serving of customers on Sunday shall fix a week-day upon which such shops must be closed (in this section referred to as " the closing day "), and may fix different days for different classes of shops, and the occupier of a shop who intends to keep open the shop on Sunday in pursuance of the order shall give notice in writing to the Common Council of the City of London or to the London County Council, as the case may be, of his intention so to do, and he shall not keep open the shop on Sunday unless such notice has been given and the shop has been closed on the closing day in the preceding week in like manner and for the like purposes as it would, but for the order, have been required by this Part of this Act to be closed on Sunday:

Provided that—

(a) the closing day so fixed shall be a day other than the day fixed for the weekly half-holiday by an order made under section one of this Act, and the occupier of a shop shall not be entitled to keep his shop closed for the purposes of the weekly half-holiday required by the provisions of that section on the closing day:

(b) where the closing day so fixed is a day other than Saturday, the order shall provide for enabling Saturday to be substituted as the closing day as respects any shop.

(3) Any order made under this section shall contain such provisions as may be necessary or expedient to secure—

(a) that where a notice has been given under the last foregoing subsection to the Common Council of the City of London or to the London County Council by the occupier of a shop, the shop shall not be kept open on the closing day during a period of not less than six months from the date when the notice was given ; and

(b) that so long as the shop is kept open on Sunday in pursuance of the order, such notices as the Common Council of the City of London or the London County Council, as the case may be, may require, shall be kept exhibited in the shop.

(4) The Common Council of the City of London or the London County Council shall, before making any order under this section, give public notice of their intention to make the order, defining by reference to a map the district or parts of the district to which the order is to apply and the times and places at which the map may be inspected, and specifying a period (not being less than four weeks) within which objections may be made to the making of the proposed order, and if, after taking into consideration any objections they have received, the Common Council of the City of London or the London County Council are satisfied that it is expedient to make the order, they may make the order, and the provisions of subsections (2) and (3) of section nine and the provisions of section sixteen of this Act shall have effect as if any such order, or any order varying or revoking such an order, were a closing order.