From the Wikipedia page [1] The office of Mayor of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets was created in 1965 when the London Borough was formed: it succeeded the mayoralties of the three merged metropolitan boroughs: Bethnal Green, Poplar and Stepney. Until 2010 the mayor acted as chairman of the council and was civic head of the borough. They served a one-year term of office.In that year, following a referendum, Tower Hamlets chose to have a directly-elected mayor with executive powers and a four-year term of office. The existing office of mayor became chair of the council, subsequently retitled as "speaker".