National Heritage List for England
The National Heritage List for England is England’s official list of buildings, monuments and gardens, wrecks and World Heritage Sites. It is maintained by Historic England and brings together these different designations as a single resource though they vary in the type of legal protection afforded to each. Conservation areas do not appear on the NHLE since they are designated by the relevant local planning authority; the passage of the Ancient Monuments Protection Act 1882 established the first part of what the list is today, it established a list of 50 prehistoric monuments which were protected by the state. Further amendments to this act increased the levels of protection and added more monuments to the list; the Town and Country Planning Acts created the first listed buildings and the process for adding properties to it. As of 2018, more than 600,000 properties are listed individually; each year additional properties are added to the National Register as part of the different constituent registers that are part of the list.
The National Heritage List for England was launched in 2011 as the statutory list of all designated historic places including listed buildings and scheduled monuments. The list is managed by Historic England, is available as an on-line database with 400,000 listed buildings, registered parks and battlefields, protected shipwrecks and scheduled monuments. A unique reference number, the NHLE Code, is used to refer to the related database entry, such as 1285296 – this example is for Douglas House. Template:National Heritage List for England — the template used for generating a formatted citation containing the targeted external link. Historic England.org: National Heritage List for England
Theresa May
Theresa Mary May is a British politician serving as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party since 2016. She served as Home Secretary from 2010 to 2016. May was first elected Member of Parliament for Maidenhead in 1997. Ideologically, she identifies herself as a one-nation conservative. May attended St Hugh's College, Oxford. After graduating in 1977, she worked for the Bank of England, she served as a councillor for Durnsford in Merton. After unsuccessful attempts to be elected to the House of Commons she was elected as the MP for Maidenhead in the 1997 general election. From 1999 to 2010, May held a number of roles in Shadow Cabinets, she was Chairwoman of the Conservative Party from 2002 to 2003. When the coalition government was formed after the 2010 general election, May was appointed Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities, but gave up the latter role in 2012, she continued to serve as home secretary after the Conservative victory in the 2015 general election, became the longest-serving home secretary in over 60 years.
During her tenure she pursued reform of the Police Federation, implemented a harder line on drugs policy including the banning of khat, oversaw the introduction of elected Police and Crime Commissioners, the deportation of Abu Qatada, the creation of the National Crime Agency, brought in additional restrictions on immigration. She is to the only woman to hold two of the great offices of state. In July 2016, after David Cameron resigned, May was elected as Conservative Party Leader, becoming Britain's second female Prime Minister after Margaret Thatcher; as Prime Minister, May began the process of withdrawing the UK from the European Union, triggering Article 50 in March 2017. The following month, she announced a snap general election, with the aim of strengthening her hand in Brexit negotiations; this resulted in a hung parliament, in which the number of Conservative seats fell from 330 to 317, despite the party winning its highest vote share since 1983. The loss of an overall majority prompted her to enter a confidence and supply arrangement with the Democratic Unionist Party to support a minority government.
May survived a vote of no confidence from her own MPs in December 2018 and a Parliamentary vote of no confidence in January 2019. May has said that she will not lead her party in the next general election scheduled for 2022 under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, but has not ruled out leading it into a snap election. May carried out the Brexit negotiations with the European Union, adhering to the Chequers Agreement, which resulted in the draft Withdrawal Agreement between the UK and the EU; this agreement was defeated by Parliament in January 2019, negotiations continue to try and reach a deal. May’s revised deal was defeated in Parliament by 391 votes to 242. In March 2019, May committed to stepping down as Prime Minister if Parliament passed her Brexit deal, to make way for a new leader in the second phase of Brexit. Born on 1 October 1956 in Eastbourne, May is the only child of Zaidee Mary and Hubert Brasier, her father was a Church of England clergyman, chaplain of an Eastbourne hospital. He became vicar of Enstone with Heythrop and of St Mary's at Wheatley, to the east of Oxford.
May's mother was a supporter of the Conservative Party. She attended Heythrop Primary School, a state school in Heythrop, followed by St. Juliana's Convent School for Girls, a Roman Catholic independent school in Begbroke, which closed in 1984; when she was 13, May won a place at the former Holton Park Girls' Grammar School, a state school in Wheatley. During her time as a pupil, the Oxfordshire education system was reorganised and the school became the new Wheatley Park Comprehensive School. May attended the University of Oxford where she read geography at St Hugh's College, graduating with a second class BA degree in 1977. Between 1977 and 1983 May worked at the Bank of England, from 1985 to 1997 as a financial consultant and senior advisor in International Affairs at the Association for Payment Clearing Services, she married Philip May in September 1980. Her father died in her mother of multiple sclerosis the following year. May stated she was "sorry they never saw me elected as a Member of Parliament".
May served as a councillor for Durnsford ward on the London Borough of Merton from 1986 to 1994, where she was Chairman of Education and Deputy Group Leader and Housing Spokesman. In the 1992 general election May stood unsuccessfully for the safe Labour seat of North West Durham, coming second to incumbent MP Hilary Armstrong by 12,747 votes to 26,734, with future Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron coming third. May stood at the 1994 Barking by-election, prompted by the death of Labour MP Jo Richardson; the seat had been continuously held by Labour since it was created in 1945 and Labour candidate Margaret Hodge was expected to win which she did, with 13,704 votes. May came a distant third with 1,976 votes. Ahead of the 1997 general election, May was selected as the Conservative candidate for Maidenhead, a new seat, created from parts of the seats of Windsor and Maidenhead and Wokingham, she was elected with 25,344 votes double the total of second-placed Andrew Terence Ketteringham of the Liberal Democrats, who took 13,363 votes.
Having entered Parliament, May became a member of William Hague's front-bench Opposition team, as Shadow Spokesman for Schools, Disabled People and Women. She became the first of the 1997 MPs to enter the Shadow Cabinet when in 1999 she
Georgian architecture
Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I, George II, George III, George IV—who reigned in continuous succession from August 1714 to June 1830; the style was revived in the late 19th century in the United States as Colonial Revival architecture and in the early 20th century in Great Britain as Neo-Georgian architecture. In the United States the term "Georgian" is used to describe all buildings from the period, regardless of style; the Georgian style is variable, but marked by symmetry and proportion based on the classical architecture of Greece and Rome, as revived in Renaissance architecture. Ornament is normally in the classical tradition, but restrained, sometimes completely absent on the exterior; the period brought the vocabulary of classical architecture to smaller and more modest buildings than had been the case before, replacing English vernacular architecture for all new middle-class homes and public buildings by the end of the period.
Georgian architecture is characterized by its balance. Regularity, as with ashlar stonework, was approved, imbuing symmetry and adherence to classical rules: the lack of symmetry, where Georgian additions were added to earlier structures remaining visible, was felt as a flaw, at least before Nash began to introduce it in a variety of styles. Regularity of housefronts along a street was a desirable feature of Georgian town planning; until the start of the Gothic Revival in the early 19th century, Georgian designs lay within the Classical orders of architecture and employed a decorative vocabulary derived from ancient Rome or Greece. In towns, which expanded during the period, landowners turned into property developers, rows of identical terraced houses became the norm; the wealthy were persuaded to live in these in town if provided with a square of garden in front of the house. There was an enormous amount of building in the period, all over the English-speaking world, the standards of construction were high.
Where they have not been demolished, large numbers of Georgian buildings have survived two centuries or more, they still form large parts of the core of cities such as London, Dublin, Newcastle upon Tyne and Bristol. The period saw the growth of a trained architectural profession; this contrasted with earlier styles, which were disseminated among craftsmen through the direct experience of the apprenticeship system. But most buildings were still designed by builders and landlords together, the wide spread of Georgian architecture, the Georgian styles of design more came from dissemination through pattern books and inexpensive suites of engravings. Authors such as the prolific William Halfpenny had editions in America as well as Britain. A similar phenomenon can be seen in the commonality of housing designs in Canada and the United States from the 19th century down to the 1950s, using pattern books drawn up by professional architects that were distributed by lumber companies and hardware stores to contractors and homebuilders.
From the mid-18th century, Georgian styles were assimilated into an architectural vernacular that became part and parcel of the training of every architect, builder, carpenter and plasterer, from Edinburgh to Maryland. Georgian succeeded the English Baroque of Sir Christopher Wren, Sir John Vanbrugh, Thomas Archer, William Talman, Nicholas Hawksmoor; the architect James Gibbs was a transitional figure, his earlier buildings are Baroque, reflecting the time he spent in Rome in the early 18th century, but he adjusted his style after 1720. Major architects to promote the change in direction from baroque were Colen Campbell, author of the influential book Vitruvius Britannicus. Other prominent architects of the early Georgian period include James Paine, Robert Taylor, John Wood, the Elder; the European Grand Tour became common for wealthy patrons in the period, Italian influence remained dominant, though at the start of the period Hanover Square, Westminster and occupied by Whig supporters of the new dynasty, seems to have deliberately adopted German stylistic elements in their honour vertical bands connecting the windows.
The styles that resulted fall within several categories. In the mainstream of Georgian style were both Palladian architecture—and its whimsical alternatives and Chinoiserie, which were the English-speaking world's equivalent of European Rococo. From the mid-1760s a range of Neoclassical modes were fashionable, associated with the British architects Robert Adam, James Gibbs, Sir William Chambers, James Wyatt, George Dance the Younger, Henry Holland and Sir John Soane. John Nash was one of the
Horse Guards Parade
Horse Guards Parade is a large parade ground off Whitehall in central London, at grid reference TQ299800. It is the site of the annual ceremonies of Trooping the Colour, which commemorates the monarch's official birthday, Beating Retreat. Horse Guards Parade was the site of the Palace of Whitehall's tiltyard, where tournaments were held in the time of Henry VIII, it was the scene of annual celebrations of the birthday of Queen Elizabeth I. The area has been used for a variety of reviews and other ceremonies since the 17th century, it was once the Headquarters of the British Army. The Duke of Wellington was based in Horse Guards; the current General Officer Commanding London District still occupies the same office and uses the same desk. Wellington had living quarters within the building, which today are used as offices. For much of the late 20th century, Horse Guards Parade was used as a car park for senior civil servants; the PIRA's mortar attack on 10 Downing Street on 7 February 1991, carried out from a vehicle parked in Horse Guards Avenue near to Horse Guards Parade, although producing no casualties, led to concern about security.
In April 1993 the Royal Parks Review Group, headed by Dame Jennifer Jenkins, Lady Jenkins of Hillhead, recommended that Horse Guards Parade should be restored for public use, linked to St James's Park by closing Horse Guards Road. The proposal was taken up by the Department of National Heritage but resisted by senior Cabinet members under pressure from the civil servants who were to lose their parking places. Public revelation of the resistance led to considerable criticism, with Simon Jenkins urging the Head of the Home Civil Service, Sir Robin Butler, to remove the car park as part of his reforms. In late 1996 Horse Guards Parade was cleared in order to be resurfaced. In March 1997 it was announced that car parking on Horse Guards Parade was to be ended. Vehicles are no longer permitted to park anywhere in the area. Cc les amisd The parade ground is open on the west side, where it faces Horse Guards Road and St James's Park, it is enclosed to the north by the Admiralty Citadel and the Admiralty Extension building, to the east by Admiralty House, William Kent's Horse Guards and the rear of Dover House, to the south by Kent's Treasury building and the rear garden wall of 10 Downing Street.
Access to the south side of Horse Guards Parade is now restricted for security reasons. A number of military monuments and trophies ring the outside of the parade ground, including: To the west, beside St James's Park, the Guards Memorial, designed by the sculptor Gilbert Ledward in 1923–26 and erected to commemorate the First Battle of Ypres and other battles of World War I. To the north, the Royal Naval Division War Memorial, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1925, removed before the Second World War, returned to its original site beside the Admiralty Extension building and rededicated on "Beaucourt Day". To the east: Equestrian statues of Field Marshals Roberts and Wolseley. A Turkish cannon made in 1524 "by Murad son of Abdullah, chief gunner", captured in Egypt in 1801; the Cádiz Memorial, a French mortar mounted on a brass monster which commemorates the lifting of the siege of Cádiz in Spain in 1812. To the south, statues of Field Marshal Kitchener and of Admiral of the Fleet Mountbatten.
An oddity is the black background to the number 2 of the double sided clock which overlooks the Parade Ground and the front entrance, it is popularly thought to commemorate the time the last absolute monarch of England, Charles I, was beheaded at the Banqueting House opposite. Horse Guards Parade hosted beach volleyball at the 2012 Summer Olympics held in London. Temporary courts and seating designed by Populous were installed by the Arena Group, much as seating is installed annually for Trooping the Colour. There was one court with a capacity of 15,000 with two tiers and a floodlight tower at each of its four corners, two practice courts to the east of the arena, a further six practice courts at St. James's Park. Most matches were played on Centre Court, but some matches were played on Court 1 on day 6 of the competition. Horse Guards Parade hosted the 1st London Polo Championships on 17 and 18 June 2009 with teams from around the world. In affiliation with Brad Pitt's 2013 film World War Z, British rock group Muse, who performed on the soundtrack of the film, performed a free concert here shortly after the premiere of the film itself at Leicester Square.
On Sunday 20 July 2014, a temporary arena played host to the anniversary games. It consisted of 4 blocks of single tier seating, a long jump and shot putt pit, containing 15,000 tonnes of sand, it had a 110-metre raised track, a pole vault and high-jump. The event was broadcast live on channel 4 in the UK. Media related to Horse Guards at Wikimedia Commons
Downing Street Chief of Staff
The Downing Street Chief of Staff is the most senior political appointee in the Office of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, acting as a senior aide to the Prime Minister, a powerful, non-ministerial position within Her Majesty's Government. The role of Chief of Staff when created had executive authority and at the time was referred to as "almost the most powerful unelected official in the country", "the third most powerful altogether" after the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Since 2007 the role does not have executive authority, though the post holder remains a senior adviser to the Prime Minister; the current Downing Street Chief of Staff is Gavin Barwell. The position of Downing Street Chief of Staff was created by Tony Blair upon becoming Prime Minister in 1997; the first Chief of Staff was Jonathan Powell. The Chief of Staff is an appointed special advisor or a career civil servant, politically close to the Prime Minister; the responsibilities of the post have varied according to the wishes of the sitting Prime Minister.
However, since the holder is, owing to the nature of the post, at the centre of the Downing Street operation, he or she will always be influential and involved in government policy formulation and implementation, political strategy and communication, advising the Prime Minister. In 1997 Tony Blair gave his Chief of Staff, a special advisor,'unprecedented powers' to issue orders to civil servants; the Cabinet Secretary had been the most senior non-ministerial figure in the British Government, along with the Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister had supported the Prime Minister in the running of 10 Downing Street. The relationship between the three posts was the basis for the BBC television series Yes, Prime Minister. Following the creation of the role, the Chief of Staff supplanted the Principal Private Secretary in running Downing Street operations and replaced the power of the Cabinet Secretary in terms of co-ordinating government policy. Although the Cabinet Secretary continued to be a important role, through remaining responsible for making sure that the civil service was organised and was capable of delivering the Government's objectives, the Chief of Staff replaced the Cabinet Secretary as the "right-hand man" for the Prime Minister.
"Powell had been at the epicentre of power. As Tony Blair's Chief of Staff, he was the ultimate fixer, the Prime Minister's first line of defence against events, baby-catcher in chief; when things went wrong, people called Powell."When Jonathan Powell stood down as Chief of Staff at the end of the Blair Premiership in June 2007, incoming Prime Minister Gordon Brown temporarily appointed civil servant Tom Scholar as both Downing Street Chief of Staff and Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister. This was again altered upon Scholar's scheduled departure in January 2008, when the title Chief of Staff was divided amongst two posts in an attempt to split the political policy communication role from the management of civil servants within Number 10; as such, senior civil servant Jeremy Heywood replaced Scholar as Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, a position he had held under Tony Blair several years earlier, with the role of Chief of Strategy and Principal Advisor to the Prime Minister being given to political advisor Stephen Carter.
After less than a year in the post Carter resigned, becoming a Minister and receiving a peerage amid speculation that his part of the Chief of Staff role had insufficient authority to direct cross-government operations. Heywood continued in his post, now as Principal Private Secretary and Downing Street Chief of Staff, for the remainder of the Brown Premiership. Upon David Cameron becoming Prime Minister in May 2010, Heywood returned to the civil service, enabling him to be appointed as the first Downing Street Permanent Secretary, he was replaced as Downing Street Chief of Staff by Conservative advisor Edward Llewellyn. Cameron created the role of Downing Street Deputy Chief of Staff, with responsibility for supporting the Chief of Staff, given to Catherine Fall; the Chief of Staff is listed as having "direct responsibility for leading and co-ordinating operations across Number 10" and reports directly to the Prime Minister. The role of the Chief of Staff was managerial and is now advisory, has included the following duties at times: Selecting key Downing Street staff and supervising them.
Structuring the Downing Street staff system. Controlling the flow of people into the Office of the Prime Minister. Managing the flow of information. Protecting the interests of the Prime Minister; the specific nature of the position varies accordingly with each Prime Minister and their needs, but the holder is always considered to be one of the most important aides to the Prime Minister, whether or not the PM take a "hands-on" or "hands-off" approach to their job
Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister
The Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister is a position serving the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The holder of the office is viewed as the Prime Minister's "eyes and ears" on the backbenches, serving as a liaison to the Prime Minister's parliamentary party; the Parliamentary Private Secretary is responsible for meeting with members of Parliament when the Prime Minister is unavailable, accompanying the Prime Minister to, assisting them with preparations for Prime Minister's Questions. The Parliamentary Private Secretary can become a powerful and significant role. C. C. Davidson acted in effect as his Chief of Staff. Margaret Thatcher's downfall from the Conservative Party leadership in 1990 is attributed by many to the actions of her Parliamentary Private Secretary, Peter Morrison, in failing to count votes amongst Conservative backbenchers; some Parliamentary Private Secretaries to the Prime Minister go on to hold higher office. There can be multiple Parliamentary Private Secretaries to the Prime Minister at a given time.
Many Prime Ministers have used this tactic during their premierships. The final instalment of Michael Dobbs's and the BBC's House of Cards trilogy, The Final Cut, includes a character, Claire Carlsen, who serves as Prime Minister Francis Urquhart's Parliamentary Private Secretary betraying him by attempting to leak documents about his service in the British Army. Parliamentary Private Secretary
St James's Park
St James's Park is a 23-hectare park in the City of Westminster, central London. The park lies at the southernmost tip of the St James's area, named after a leper hospital dedicated to St James the Less, it is the most easterly of a near-continuous chain of parks that includes Green Park, Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens. The park is bounded by Buckingham Palace to the west, the Mall to the north, Horse Guards to the east, Birdcage Walk to the south, it meets Green Park at Queen's Gardens with the Victoria Memorial at its centre, opposite the entrance to Buckingham Palace. St James's Palace is on the opposite side of The Mall; the closest London Underground stations are St James's Park, Green Park and Westminster. The park is Grade I listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens; the park has a small lake, St James's Park Lake, with two islands, West Island, Duck Island, named for the lake's collection of waterfowl. A resident colony of pelicans has been a feature of the park since pelicans were donated by a Russian ambassador in 1664 to Charles II.
While most of the time the wings are clipped, there is a pelican who can be seen flying to the London Zoo in hopes of another meal. The Blue Bridge across the lake affords a view west towards Buckingham Palace framed by trees. Looking east the view includes the Swire Fountain to the north of Duck Island and, past the lake, the grounds of Horse Guards Parade, with Horse Guards, the Old War Office and Whitehall Court behind. To the south of Duck Island is the Tiffany Fountain on Pelican Rock, past the lake is the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, with the London Eye, the Shell Tower, the Shard behind; the park has a children's playground including a large sandpit. In 1532, Henry VIII bought an area of marshland, it lay to the west of York Palace acquired by Henry from Cardinal Wolsey. On James I's accession to the throne in 1603, he ordered that the park be drained and landscaped, exotic animals were kept in the park, including camels, crocodiles, an elephant and exotic birds, kept in aviaries. While Charles II was in exile in France under the Commonwealth of England, he was impressed by the elaborate gardens at French royal palaces, on his ascension he had the park redesigned in a more formal style by the French landscaper André Mollet.
A 775-metre by 38-metre canal was created. The king opened the park to the public and used the area to entertain guests and mistresses, such as Nell Gwyn; the park became notorious at the time as a meeting place for impromptu acts of lechery, as described by John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester in his poem "A Ramble in St James's Park". In the late 17th and early 18th centuries cows grazed on the park, milk could be bought fresh at the "Lactarian", described by Zacharias Conrad von Uffenbach in 1710; the 18th century saw further changes, including the reclamation of part of the canal for Horse Guards Parade and the purchase of Buckingham House at the west end of the Mall, for the use of Queen Charlotte in 1761. Further remodelling in 1826–27, commissioned by the Prince Regent and overseen by the architect and landscaper John Nash, saw the canal's conversion into a more naturally-shaped lake, formal avenues rerouted to romantic winding pathways. At the same time, Buckingham House was expanded to create the palace, Marble Arch was built at its entrance, whilst The Mall was turned into a grand processional route.
It opened to public traffic 60 years in 1887. The Marble Arch was moved to its current location at the junction of Oxford Street and Park Lane in 1851 and the Victoria Memorial was erected between 1906 and 1934. Media related to St. James's Park at Wikimedia Commons Visitor information at the Royal Parks website
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