1.
Westminster
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Westminster is an area of central London within the City of Westminster, part of the West End, on the north bank of the River Thames. Historically the area lay within St Margarets parish, City & Liberty of Westminster and it has been the home of the permanent institutions of Englands government continuously since about 1200 and is now the seat of British government. In a government context, Westminster often refers to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the closest tube stations are Westminster, St Jamess Park on the Jubilee, Circle, and District lines. Within the area is Westminster School, a public school which grew out of the Abbey. Bounding Westminster to the north is Green Park, a Royal Park of London, the area has a substantial resident population, indeed most of its listed buildings are residential. A proportion of residents are people of limited means, living in council, hotels, large Victorian homes and barracks exist nearer to Buckingham Palace. The name describes an area no more than 1 mile from Westminster Abbey, the settlement grew up around the palace and abbey, as a service area for them. The need for a church, St Margarets Westminster for the servants of the palace. It became larger and in the Georgian period became connected through urban development with the City along the Strand. It did not become a local government unit until created as a civil parish. Indeed, the Cathedral and diocesan status of the church lasted only from 1539 to 1556, as such it is first known to have had two Members of Parliament in 1545 as a new Parliamentary Borough, centuries after the City of London and Southwark were enfranchised. The historic core of Westminster is the former Thorney Island on which Westminster Abbey was built, the abbey became the traditional venue of the coronation of the kings and queens of England from that of Harold Godwinson onwards. From about 1200, near the abbey, the Palace of Westminster became the royal residence, marked by the transfer of royal treasury. Later the palace housed the developing Parliament and Englands law courts, thus London developed two focal points, the City of London and Westminster. The monarchs later moved to St James Palace and the Palace of Whitehall a little towards the north-east, the main law courts have since moved to the Royal Courts of Justice. The Westminster area formed part of the City and Liberty of Westminster in Middlesex, the ancient parish was St Margaret, after 1727 this became the civil parish of St Margaret and St John, the latter a new church required for the increasing population. The area around Westminster Abbey formed the extra-parochial Close of the Collegiate Church of St Peter surrounded by —, until 1900 the local authority was the combined vestry of St Margaret and St John, which was based at Westminster City Hall in Caxton Street from 1883. The Liberty of Westminster, governed by the Westminster Court of Burgesses, also included St Martin in the Fields, Westminster had its own quarter sessions, but the Middlesex sessions also had jurisdiction
2.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
3.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
4.
NW postcode area
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The NW postcode area, also known as the London NW postcode area, is a group of postcode districts covering part of northwest London, England. It is the successor of the NW sector, originally created as part of the London postal district in 1856, the district names are no longer included in the postal address because the first part of the postcode contains equivalent sorting information. The boundaries of the area and its districts have changed over time and are the result of the working requirements of Royal Mail. They are not tied to those of the local authority areas served, the NW7 district extends to the Greater London boundary with Hertfordshire and follows that boundary for a short distance near Scratch Wood. The remainder of northwest Greater London is covered by the HA, UB, part of the EN, list of postcode areas in the United Kingdom London postal district Postcode Address File Royal Mails Postcode Address File A quick introduction to Royal Mails Postcode Address File
5.
London Underground
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The London Underground is a public rapid transit system serving London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. The network has expanded to 11 lines, and in 2015–16 carried 1.34 billion passengers, the 11 lines collectively handle approximately 4.8 million passengers a day. The system has 270 stations and 250 miles of track, despite its name, only 45% of the system is actually underground in tunnels, with much of the network in the outer environs of London being on the surface. In addition, the Underground does not cover most southern parts of Greater London, the current operator, London Underground Limited, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for London, the statutory corporation responsible for the transport network in Greater London. As of 2015, 92% of operational expenditure is covered by passenger fares, the Travelcard ticket was introduced in 1983 and Oyster, a contactless ticketing system, in 2003. Contactless card payments were introduced in 2014, the LPTB was a prominent patron of art and design, commissioning many new station buildings, posters and public artworks in a modernist style. Other famous London Underground branding includes the roundel and Johnston typeface, to prepare construction, a short test tunnel was built in 1855 in Kibblesworth, a small town with geological properties similar to London. This test tunnel was used for two years in the development of the first underground train, and was later, in 1861, the worlds first underground railway, it opened in January 1863 between Paddington and Farringdon using gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives. It was hailed as a success, carrying 38,000 passengers on the opening day, the Metropolitan District Railway opened in December 1868 from South Kensington to Westminster as part of a plan for an underground inner circle connecting Londons main-line termini. The Metropolitan and District railways completed the Circle line in 1884, built using the cut and this opened in 1890 with electric locomotives that hauled carriages with small opaque windows, nicknamed padded cells. The Waterloo and City Railway opened in 1898, followed by the Central London Railway in 1900, the Metropolitan Railway protested about the change of plan, but after arbitration by the Board of Trade, the DC system was adopted. When the Bakerloo was so named in July 1906, The Railway Magazine called it an undignified gutter title, by 1907 the District and Metropolitan Railways had electrified the underground sections of their lines. In January 1913, the UERL acquired the Central London Railway, the Bakerloo line was extended north to Queens Park to join a new electric line from Euston to Watford, but World War I delayed construction and trains reached Watford Junction in 1917. During air raids in 1915 people used the stations as shelters. An extension of the Central line west to Ealing was also delayed by the war, the Metropolitan promoted housing estates near the railway with the Metro-land brand and nine housing estates were built near stations on the line. Electrification was extended north from Harrow to Rickmansworth, and branches opened from Rickmansworth to Watford in 1925, the Piccadilly line was extended north to Cockfosters and took over District line branches to Harrow and Hounslow. In 1933, most of Londons underground railways, tramway and bus services were merged to form the London Passenger Transport Board, the Waterloo & City Railway, which was by then in the ownership of the main line Southern Railway, remained with its existing owners. In the same year that the London Passenger Transport Board was formed, in the following years, the outlying lines of the former Metropolitan Railway closed, the Brill Tramway in 1935, and the line from Quainton Road to Verney Junction in 1936
6.
Baker Street tube station
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Baker Street is a station on the London Underground at the junction of Baker Street and the Marylebone Road. The station is in Travelcard Zone 1 and is served by five different lines and it is one of the original stations of the Metropolitan Railway, the worlds first underground railway, opened in 1863. On the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines it is between Great Portland Street and Edgware Road, on the Metropolitan line it is between Great Portland Street and Finchley Road. On the Bakerloo line it is between Regents Park and Marylebone, and on the Jubilee line it is between Bond Street and St. Johns Wood, the station has entrances on Baker Street, Chiltern Street and Marylebone Road. Nearby attractions include Regents Park, Lords Cricket Ground, the Sherlock Holmes Museum, the station layout is rather complex. The sub-surface station is connected to the open-air Metropolitan line station, below this is a deep-level tube station for the Bakerloo and Jubilee lines. These are arranged in a cross-platform interchange layout and there are connections between the two lines just to the north of the station, access to the Bakerloo and Jubilee lines is only via escalators. With ten platforms overall, Baker Street has the most London Underground platforms of any station on the network, of the MRs original stations, now the Circle and Hammersmith & City line platforms five and six are the best preserved dating from the stations opening in 1863. Plaques of the Metropolitan Railways coat of arms along the platform and old plans and photographs depict the station which has changed little in over a hundred. Restoration work in the 1980s on the oldest portions of Baker Street station brought it back to something similar to its 1863 appearance. The Metropolitan lines platforms one to four were largely the result of the rebuild in the 1920s to cater for the increase in traffic on its outer suburban routes. All Metropolitan line platforms can function as terminating tracks however under normal circumstance only dead ended platforms one, the Bakerloo line uses platforms eight and nine date from 10th March 1906 when the Baker Street & Waterloo railway opened between here and Lambeth North. The contraction of the name to Bakerloo rapidly caught on, by the mid-1930s, the Metropolitan line was suffering from congestion caused by the limited capacity of its tracks between Baker Street and Finchley Road stations. The Bakerloo line also took over the Metropolitan lines service to Stanmore on 20 November 1939, following refurbishment in the 1980s the original tiling scheme was replaced with tiles depicting the silhouette of Sherlock Holmes who lived at 221B, Baker Street. In 1999 the Jubilee line was extended from Green Park to Stratford, the design of the Jubilee line platforms at Baker Street has changed little since being opened with illustrations depicting famous scenes from Sherlock Holmes cases. Cross platform interchange is provided between Bakerloo and Jubilee lines in both directions, in 2008 TfL proposed a project to provide step-free access to the sub-surface platforms. The project was a TfL-funded Games-enabling project in its investment programme, the project was included in the strategy on accessible transport published by the London 2012 Olympic Delivery Authority and the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Access to the Metropolitan line platforms 1–4 would be provided by a bridge from the Bakerloo and Jubilee line ticket hall, through a passage from platforms 1–2, this would also give step-free access to platform 5
7.
221B Baker Street
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221B Baker Street is the London address of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, created by author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In the United Kingdom, postal addresses with a number followed by a letter may indicate an address within a larger. Baker Street in Holmes time was a residential district. At the time the Holmes stories were published, addresses in Baker Street did not go as high as 221, Baker Street was later extended, and in 1932 the Abbey National Building Society moved into premises at 219–229 Baker Street. For many years, Abbey National employed a secretary to answer mail addressed to Sherlock Holmes. Since the closure of Abbey House in 2005, ownership of the address by the Holmes Museum has not been challenged and we met next day as he had arranged, and inspected the rooms at No. 221B, Baker Street, of which he had spoken at our meeting and they consisted of a couple of comfortable bed-rooms and a single large airy sitting-room, cheerfully furnished, and illuminated by two broad windows. When the Sherlock Holmes stories were first published, street numbers in Baker Street did not go as high as 221, the section north of Marylebone Road near Regents Park – now including 221 Baker Street – was known in Conan Doyles lifetime as Upper Baker Street. In his first manuscript, Conan Doyle put Holmes house in Upper Baker Street, sherlockian experts have also held to alternative theories as to where the original 221B was located and have maintained that it was further down Baker Street. A bronze plaque on the front of Abbey House carried a picture of Holmes and a quotation, in 1999, Abbey National sponsored the creation of a bronze statue of Sherlock Holmes that now stands at the entrance to Baker Street tube station. The Sherlock Holmes Museum is situated within an 1815 townhouse very similar to the 221B described in the stories and is located between 237 and 241 Baker Street. It displays exhibits in period rooms, wax figures and Holmes memorabilia, the description of the house can be found throughout the stories, including the 17 steps leading from the ground-floor hallway to the first-floor study. According to the stories, 221B Baker Street was a suite of rooms on the first floor of a lodging house above a flight of 17 steps. She was invited to renumber the museums building to coincide with its official opening, a long-running dispute over the number arose between the Sherlock Holmes Museum, the building society Abbey National and subsequently the local Westminster City Council. After the closure of Abbey House in 2005, the Royal Mail recognised the museums exclusive right to mail addressed to Sherlock Holmes. Another version of Sherlock Holmes apartment is at the Sherlock Holmes pub in Northumberland Street near Charing Cross railway station and this was originally a small hotel, the Northumberland Arms, but was refurbished and reopened under its present name in December 1957. Its owners, Whitbread & Co, were fortunate to own the entire Sherlock Holmes exhibit put together by Marylebone Borough Library, the pub was restored to a late Victorian form and the exhibit, a detailed replica of Holmes fictional apartment, was installed on the upstairs floor. In the United States, there is a pub/restaurant chain named Baker Street Pub, some locations even have the iconic British red phone booth outside
8.
Baker Street (song)
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Baker Street is a song written and recorded by Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty. Released as a single in 1978, it reached #1 in Cash Box and #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, additionally, it hit #1 in Canada, No.3 in the United Kingdom, #1 in Australia and the top 10 in the Netherlands. Rafferty received the 1978 Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically, the arrangement is known for its haunting saxophone riff. In October 2010, the song was recognised by BMI for surpassing five million performances worldwide and it was awarded Gold Certification on two occasions, on 1 April 1978 and 22 July 2013 by the BPI in the UK. In the intervening three years, Rafferty had been unable to release any material because of disputes about the remaining contractual recording obligations. As Rafferty put it, everybody was suing each other, so I spent a lot of time on the train from Glasgow to London for meetings with lawyers. I knew a guy who lived in a flat off Baker Street. Wed sit and chat or play guitar there through the night, Raffertys daughter Martha has said that the book that inspired the song more than any other was Colin Wilsons The Outsider. Rafferty was reading the book, which explores ideas of alienation and of creativity, born out of a longing to be connected, the album City to City, including Baker Street, was co-produced by Rafferty and Hugh Murphy. In addition to a solo, played by Hugh Burns. Rafferty claimed that he wrote the hook with the intention that it be sung. Ravenscroft remembered things differently, saying that he was presented with a song that contained several gaps, in fact, most of what I played was an old blues riff, stated Ravenscroft. If youre asking me, Did Gerry hand me a piece of music to play, however, the 2011 reissue of City To City included the demo of Baker Street which included the saxophone part played on electric guitar by Rafferty. Ravenscroft, a musician, was in the studio to record a brief soprano saxophone part. The part led to what became known as the Baker Street phenomenon, in January 2011, radio presenter Simon Lederman revealed that Ravenscroft thought the solo was out of tune. When asked during a radio interview on BBC Radio London. Ravenscroft replied, Im irritated because its out of tune, yeah its flat, by enough of a degree that it irritates me at best and he added that he had not been able to re-record the take, as he was not involved when the song was mixed. The sax track sounds to be about 11 cents flat from standard tuning, however, the bouncing cheque story was denied by Ravenscroft during an interview on BBC Radio 2s Simon Mayo Drivetime show on 9 February 2012
9.
Marylebone
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Marylebone is an affluent inner-city area of central London, England, located within the City of Westminster and part of the West End. It is sometimes written as St. Marylebone, Marylebone is roughly bounded by Oxford Street to the south, Marylebone Road to the north, Edgware Road to the west and Great Portland Street to the east. The area east of Great Portland Street up to Cleveland Street and this stream rose further north in what is now Swiss Cottage, eventually running along what is now Marylebone Lane, which preserves its curve within the grid pattern. The church and the area later became known as St Mary at the Bourne which, over time, became shortened to its present form. It is a common misunderstanding that the name is a corruption of Marie la Bonne, the manor of Tyburn is mentioned in the Domesday Book as a possession of Barking Abbey valued at 52 shillings, with a population no greater than 50. Early in the 13th century it was held by Robert de Vere, 3rd Earl of Oxford. Tyburn manor remained with the Crown until the part was sold in 1611 by James I, who retained the deer park, to Edward Forest. Forests manor of Marylebone then passed by marriage to the Austen family, the deer park, Marylebone Park Fields, was let out in small holdings for hay and dairy produce. The Harley heiress Lady Margaret Cavendish Harley married William, 2nd Duke of Portland, such place names in the neighbourhood as Cavendish Square and Portland Place reflect the Dukes of Portland landholdings and Georgian-era developments there. In 1879 the fifth Duke died without issue and the estate passed through the line to his sister, Lucy Joan Bentinck. A large part of the area directly to the west was constructed by the Portman family and is known as the Portman Estate, both estates have aristocratic antecedents and are still run by members of the aforementioned families. The Crown repurchased the northern part of the estate in 1813, mansfield Street is a short continuation of Chandos Street built by the Adam brothers in 1770, on a plot of ground which had been underwater. Most of its houses are fine buildings with exquisite interiors, which if put on the market now would have a price in excess of £10 million. Immediately across the road at 61 New Cavendish Street lived Natural History Museum creator Alfred Waterhouse, Queen Anne Street is an elegant cross-street which unites the northern end of Chandos Street with Welbeck Street. The painter JMW Turner moved to 47 Queen Anne Street in 1812 from 64 Harley Street, now divided into numbers 22 and 23, the building is one of the finest surviving Adam houses in London, and now lets rooms. Wimpole Street runs from Henrietta Place north to Devonshire Street, becoming Upper Wimpole en route – the latter where Arthur Conan Doyle opened his practice at number 2 in 1891. Today, at the end of Wimpole at Wigmore can be found a sandwich shop named Barretts. Bentinck Street leaves Welbeck Street and touches the middle of winding Marylebone Lane, more recently, Cambridge spies Anthony Blunt and Guy Burgess lived at 5 Bentinck Street during the Second World War
10.
City of Westminster
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The City of Westminster is an Inner London borough which also holds city status. It occupies much of the area of Greater London including most of the West End. It is to the west of and adjoining the ancient City of London, directly to the east of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and it was created with the 1965 establishment of Greater London. Upon creation, Westminster was awarded city status, which had previously held by the smaller Metropolitan Borough of Westminster. Aside from a number of parks and open spaces, the population density of the district is high. Many sites commonly associated with London are in the borough, including St. Jamess Palace, Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament, much of the borough is residential, and in 2008 it was estimated to have a population of 236,000. The local authority is Westminster City Council, the current Westminster coat of arms were given to the city by an official grant on September 2,1964. Westminster had other arms before, which had an identical to the chief in the present arms. The symbols in the two thirds of the shield stand for former municipalities now merged with the city, Paddington. The original arms had a portcullis as the charge, which now forms the crest. The origins of the City of Westminster pre-date the Norman Conquest of England, in the mid-11th Century king Edward the Confessor began the construction of an abbey at Westminster, only the foundations of which survive today. For centuries Westminster and the City of London were geographically quite distinct, Westminster briefly became a city in 1540 when Henry VIII created the short-lived Diocese of Westminster. Following the dissolution of Westminster Abbey, a court of burgesses was formed in 1585 to govern the Westminster area, Jamess, Strand, Westminster, Pimlico, Belgravia, and Hyde Park. The Westminster Metropolitan Borough was itself the result of an amalgamation which took place in 1900. Sir John Hunt O. B. E was the First Town Clerk of the City of Westminster, the boundaries of the City of Westminster today, as well as those of the other London boroughs, have remained more or less unchanged since the Act of 1963. On 22 March 2017, a terrorist attack took place on Westminster Bridge, Bridge Street and Old Palace Yard, five people - three pedestrians, one police officer, and the attacker - died as a result of the incident. More than 50 people were injured, an investigation is ongoing by the Metropolitan Police. The city is divided into 20 wards, each electing three councillors, Westminster City Council is currently composed of 44 Conservative Party members and 16 Labour Party members
11.
Sherlock Holmes
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Sherlock Holmes is a fictional private detective created by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. All but one are set in the Victorian or Edwardian periods, though not the first fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes is arguably the most well-known, with Guinness World Records listing him as the most portrayed movie character in history. Auguste Dupin is generally acknowledged as the first detective in fiction and served as the prototype for many that were created later, Conan Doyle once wrote, Each is a root from which a whole literature has developed. Where was the story until Poe breathed the breath of life into it. Conan Doyle repeatedly said that Holmes was inspired by the figure of Joseph Bell, a surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. Like Holmes, Bell was noted for drawing conclusions from minute observations. However, he wrote to Doyle, You are yourself Sherlock Holmes. Sir Henry Littlejohn, Chair of Medical Jurisprudence at the University of Edinburgh Medical School, is cited as an inspiration for Holmes. Littlejohn, who was also Police Surgeon and Medical Officer of Health in Edinburgh, One is thought to be Francis Tanky Smith, a policeman and master of disguise who went on to become Leicesters first private detective. Another might be Maximilien Heller, by French author Henry Cauvain and it is not known if Conan Doyle read Maximilien Heller, but in this 1871 novel, Henry Cauvain imagined a depressed, anti-social, polymath, cat-loving, and opium-smoking Paris-based detective. Details about Sherlock Holmess life, except for the adventures in the books, are scarce in Conan Doyles original stories, nevertheless, mentions of his early life and extended family paint a loose biographical picture of the detective. An estimate of Holmess age in His Last Bow places his year of birth at 1854 and his parents are not mentioned in the stories, although Holmes mentions that his ancestors were country squires. In The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter, he claims that his grandmother was sister to the French artist Vernet, without clarifying whether this was Claude Joseph, Carle. Mycroft has a civil service position as a kind of human database for all aspects of government policy. He lacks Sherlocks interest in investigation, however, preferring to spend his time at the Diogenes Club. Holmes says that he first developed his methods of deduction as an undergraduate, his earliest cases, the two take lodgings at 221B Baker Street, London, an apartment at the upper end of the street, up seventeen steps. Holmes worked as a detective for twenty-three years, with physician John Watson assisting him for seventeen and they were roommates before Watsons 1887 marriage and again after his wifes death. Their residence is maintained by their landlady, Mrs. Hudson, most of the stories are frame narratives, written from Watsons point of view as summaries of the detectives most interesting cases
12.
A41 road
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The A41 is a major trunk road in England that links London and Birkenhead, although it has now in parts been superseded by motorways. It follows part of the line of the old Roman road, Akeman Street, with the opening of the M40 extension in 1990 from junction 8 – linking with the M42 near Birmingham – much of the route was downgraded in importance. The sections between Bicester and the M42 near Solihull were classified A4141, A4177 and B4100, the route begins near the Marble Arch end of Oxford Street in Londons West End, at the junction with Portman Street/Gloucester Place – Baker Street/Orchard Street. It becomes a dual-carriageway on Finchley Road, through Swiss Cottage, and along Hendon Way, the road passes through Hendon and after the junction with the A5150. The A41 overlaps the A1 at Five Ways Corner with the known as Watford Way. It passes through Mill Hill, separating with the A1 at Apex Corner roundabout After crossing the M1, near Elstree, it links the M1 at Junction 4, the A41 continues alongside the M1 into Hertfordshire. This section is known as Elton Way, as far as the roundabout with the B462, still running parallel to the M1, it intersects with Junction 5. The road continues north, passing over the River Colne, to the east of Watford, after passing under the junction with the A405, the A41 turns towards the west. Here, a new dual-carriageway bypasses Kings Langley, the old route through Kings Langley is now classified A4251 and continues to south of Tring. North of the M25 the road is a motorway standard A road with all junctions grade-separated via underpasses or flyovers. There are no hard shoulders but frequent lay-bys and it climbs through the Chiltern Hills then descends into the valley of the River Bulbourne crossing water meadows just outside Hemel Hempstead at Boxmoor. There are grade separated junctions with the A414, A4251 and A416, the route returns to open country north of here, passing west of Berkhamsted. It passes the National Film Archive, before Tring, near Wigginton, it crosses the Icknield Way Path and Chiltern Way. An arched footbridge spans the road just near the summit before it passes just east of Tring, the Tring bypass was built in 1973 as the A41 motorway, the first section of the Watford-Tring Motorway, although this section was downgraded on 6 July 1987. The Tring bypass ends with the border of Hertfordshire, at the junction with the B4635, B4009, the section to Tring was finally built in the early 1990s, although to a lower standard and only from the M25 junction 20. There were two sections - the 7-mile £23. 9m Berkhamsted bypass, opened September 1993 and the 5-mile £32. 7m Kings Langley bypass, opened August 1993. On 3 October 2003, the dual carriageway section was extended to the 3-mile £25m Aston Clinton Bypass and it enters Buckinghamshire and the district of Aylesbury Vale. It crosses the Grand Union Canal, and there is a junction with the B489, the road goes straight through Aylesbury, which is a bottleneck
13.
Regent's Park
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Regents Park is one of the Royal Parks of London. It lies within north-west London, partly in the City of Westminster, the population of the Camden ward at the 2011 Census was 13,528. It contains Regents University London and the London Zoo, the park is Grade I listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. The park has a ring road called the Outer Circle and an inner ring road called the Inner Circle. Apart from two roads between these two, the park is reserved for pedestrians. The south, east and most of the west side of the park are lined with elegant white stucco terraces of houses designed by John Nash, Running through the northern end of the park is Regents Canal, which connects the Grand Union Canal to the former London docks. The northern side of the park is the home of London Zoo, winfield House, the official residence of the U. S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, stands in private grounds in the western section of the park. Nearby is the domed London Central Mosque, better known as Regents Park mosque, located to the south of the Inner Circle is Regents University London, home of the European Business School London, Regents American College London and Webster Graduate School among others. Primrose Hill is also the given to the immediately surrounding district. The public areas of Regents Park are managed by The Royal Parks, the Crown Estate Paving Commission is responsible for managing certain aspects of the built environment of Regents Park. The park lies within the boundaries of the City of Westminster and the London Borough of Camden, the Crown Estate owns the freehold of Regents Park. In the Middle Ages the land was part of the manor of Tyburn, in the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Henry VIII appropriated the land, and it has been Crown property ever since, except for the period between 1649 and 1660. It was set aside as a park, known as Marylebone Park. It was then let out in small holdings for hay and dairy produce, when the leases expired in 1811 the Prince Regent commissioned architect John Nash to create a masterplan for the area. However, most of the terraces of houses around the fringes of the park were built. Nash did not complete all the detailed designs himself, in some instances, the scheme is considered one of the first examples of a garden suburb, and continues to influence the design of suburbs. The park was first opened to the public in 1835. On 15 January 1867, forty people died when the ice cover on the lake collapsed
14.
Marylebone Road
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Marylebone Road is an important thoroughfare in central London, within the City of Westminster. It runs east-west from the Euston Road at Regents Park to the A40 Westway at Paddington. The road which runs in 3 lanes in both directions, is part of the London Inner Ring Road and as such part of the boundary of the zone within which the London congestion charge applies. As part of the Ring Road and a route to the A40 and the A5 and M1 motorway much of the traffic leaving central London for the Midlands. The road was effectively Londons first bypass, construction of the New Road, as it was called, began in 1756 along the northern edge of the built-up area. In 1857, the name was changed from New Road, with sections, west to east, renamed Marylebone Road, Euston Road. The name Marylebone originates from a church, called St Marys, the church and the surrounding area later became known as St Mary at the bourne, which over time became shortened to its present form Marylebone. The current St Marylebone Parish Church is on the south of Marylebone Road, opposite the Royal Academy of Music, one of Londons principal tourist attractions lies on Marylebone Road - Madame Tussauds. It is also the location of the Royal Academy of Music, mainline Marylebone Paddington Tube Edgware Road Edgware Road Marylebone Paddington Baker Street Regents Park Great Portland Street
15.
Portman Square
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Portman Square is a square in London, part of the Portman Estate. It is located at the end of Wigmore Street, which connects it to Cavendish Square to its east. It was built between 1765 and 1784 on land belonging to Henry William Portman, alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife maintained his London residence at No.15 Portman Square. Nos 11-15 built in 1773-1776 by the famous architect James Wyatt in cooperation with his brother the builder Samuel Wyatt, first houses in which Coade stone was used. Ref, James Wyatt, architect to George III, No.20 – Home House, built by Robert Adam between 1773 and 1777 for Elizabeth, Countess of Home, and later used by the Courtauld Institute. No.22 – Montagu House, built in the northwest corner of the square by James Stuart between 1777 and 1781 for Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu, demolished in the Blitz by an incendiary bomb, No.30 – Churchill Hotel, incorporating the Michelin-starred Locanda Locatelli. List of eponymous roads in London Portman Square at londontown. com www. georgianindex. net
16.
Wigmore Street
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Wigmore Street is a street in the City of Westminster, in the West End of London. The street runs for about 600 yards parallel and to the north of Oxford Street between Portman Square to the west and Cavendish Square to the east. The well-known Wigmore Hall concert hall is located on the side of Wigmore Street. Harley Street and Wimpole Street, famous for their medical practices, are nearby and have junctions with Wigmore Street. The veteran pharmacy John Bell & Croyden has been located in premises on the street since 1912, number 95 Wigmore Street was the location of the original offices of the Beatles Apple Corps in 1968 prior to their move to Savile Row. The corner of Wimpole and Wigmore Streets features in the legal case about causing a nuisance between neighbours - Sturges v. Bridgman
17.
Oxford Street
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Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running from Marble Arch to Tottenham Court Road via Oxford Circus. It is Europes busiest shopping street, with half a million daily visitors. It is designated as part of the A40, a road between London and Fishguard, though it is not signed as such, and traffic is regularly restricted to buses. The road was originally a Roman road, part of the Via Trinobantina between Essex and Hampshire via London and it was known as Tyburn Road through the Middle Ages and was once notorious as a street where prisoners from Newgate Prison would be transported towards a public hanging. The first department stores in Britain opened on Oxford Street in the early 20th century, including Selfridges, John Lewis, unlike nearby shopping streets such as Bond Street, it has retained an element of downmarket street trading alongside more prestigious retail stores. The street suffered heavy bombing during World War II, and several longstanding stores including John Lewis were completely destroyed, the annual switching on of Christmas lights by a celebrity has been a popular event since 1959. However, the combination of a popular retail area and a main thoroughfare for London buses and taxis has caused significant problems with traffic congestion, safety. Various traffic management schemes have proposed by Transport for London, including a ban on private vehicles during daytime hours on weekdays and Saturdays. Oxford Street runs for approximately 1.2 miles, the eastward continuation is New Oxford Street, and then Holborn. The road is entirely within the City of Westminster and it is within the London Congestion Charging Zone. Numerous bus routes run along Oxford Street, including 10,25,55,73,98,390 and Night Buses N8, N55, N73, N98 and N207. Oxford Street follows the route of a Roman road, the Via Trinobantina, between the 12th century and 1782, it was variously known as Tyburn Road, Uxbridge Road, Worcester Road and Oxford Road. Despite being a major coaching route, there were several obstacles along it, a turnpike trust was established in the 1730s to improve upkeep of the road. It became notorious as the route taken by prisoners on their journey from Newgate Prison to the gallows at Tyburn near Marble Arch. Spectators drunkenly jeered at prisoners as they carted along the road, by about 1729, the road had become known as Oxford Street. The street began to be redeveloped in the 18th century after many of the fields were purchased by the Earl of Oxford. In 1739, local gardener Thomas Huddle began to build property on the north side, John Rocques Map of London, published in 1746, shows urban buildings as far as North Audley Street, but only intermittent rural property thereafter. Buildings began to be erected on the corner of Oxford Street, further development along the street occurred between 1763 and 1793
18.
Wax museum
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A wax museum or waxworks usually consists of a collection of wax sculptures representing famous people from history and contemporary personalities exhibited in lifelike poses, wearing real clothes. Some wax museums have a special section dubbed the Chamber of Horrors, some collections are more specialized, as, for example, collections of wax medical models once used for training medical professionals. Many museums or displays in historical houses that are not wax museums as such use wax figures as part of their displays, the making of life-size wax figures wearing real clothes grew out of the funeral practices of European royalty. After the funeral these were displayed by the tomb or elsewhere in the church, and became a popular attraction for visitors. From the funeral of Charles II in 1680 they were no longer placed on the coffin but were made for later display. The effigy of Charles II, open-eyed and standing, was displayed over his tomb until the early 19th century, concerned for their revenue from visitors, the Abbey decided it needed a rival attraction for admirers of Nelson. In European courts including that of France the making of posed wax figures became popular, antoine Benoist was a French court painter and sculptor in wax to King Louis XIV. He exhibited forty-three wax figures of the French Royal Circle at his residence in Paris, thereafter, the king authorized the figurines to be shown throughout France. His work became so highly regarded that James II of England invited him to visit England in 1684, there he executed works of the English king and members of his court. A seated figure of Peter the Great of Russia survives, made by an Italian artist, the Danish court painter Johann Salomon Wahl executed figures of the Danish king and queen in about 1740. Philippe Curtius, waxwork modeller to the French court, opened his Cabinet de Cire as a tourist attraction in Paris in 1770, in 1783 this added a Caverne des Grandes Voleurs, an early Chamber of Horrors. He bequeathed his collection to his protegé Marie Tussaud, who during the French Revolution made death masks of the executed royals. Madame Tussauds, historically associated with London, is the most famous associated with wax museums, although it was by no means the earliest wax museum. In 1835 Madame Tussaud established her first permanent exhibition in Londons Baker Street, by the late 19th century most large cities had some kind of commercial wax museum, and for a century these remained highly popular. In the late 20th century it became harder for them to compete with other attractions. C, Fishermans Wharf in San Francisco and Hollywood. Louis Tussauds wax museum in San Antonio, Texas, is across the street from the historic Alamo, others are located on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, and Grand Prairie, Texas. One of the most popular wax museums in the United States for decades was The Movieland Wax Museum in Buena Park, California, the museum opened in 1962 and through the years added many wax figures of famous show business figures. Several stars attended the unveilings of the wax incarnations, the museum closed its doors on October 31,2005, after years of dwindling attendance
19.
Madame Tussauds
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Madame Tussauds is a wax museum in London with smaller museums in a number of other major cities. It was founded by wax sculptor Marie Tussaud and it used to be known as Madame Tussauds, the apostrophe is no longer used. Madame Tussauds is a major tourist attraction in London, displaying waxworks of famous people, Marie Tussaud was born as Marie Grosholtz in 1761 in Strasbourg, France. Her mother worked as a housekeeper for Dr. Philippe Curtius in Bern, Switzerland, Curtius taught Tussaud the art of wax modelling. He moved to Paris and took his apprentice, only 6 years old. Tussaud created her first wax sculpture in 1777 of Voltaire, at the age of 17 she became the art tutor to King Louis XVI of France’s sister, Madame Elizabeth, at the Palace of Versailles. During the French Revolution she was imprisoned for three months awaiting execution, but was released after the intervention of an influential friend, other famous people whom she modelled included Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Benjamin Franklin. During the Revolution, she modelled many prominent victims and she claims that she would search through corpses to find the severed heads of executed citizens, from which she would make death masks. Her death masks were held up as revolutionary flags and paraded through the streets of Paris and she inherited the doctors vast collection of wax models following his death in 1794, and spent the next 33 years travelling around Europe. She married Francois Tussaud in 1795, and the show acquired a new name, Madame Tussauds, in 1802, she accepted an invitation from Paul Philidor, a magic lantern and phantasmagoria pioneer, to exhibit her work alongside his show at the Lyceum Theatre, London. She did not fare well financially, with Philidor taking half of her profits. She was unable to return to France because of the Napoleonic Wars, so she traveled throughout Great Britain, from 1831, she took a series of short leases on the upper floor of Baker Street Bazaar, which later featured in the Druce-Portland case sequence of trials of 1898–1907. This became Tussauds first permanent home in 1836, by 1835, Marie had settled down in Baker Street, London and opened a museum. One of the attractions of her museum was the Chamber of Horrors. The name is credited to a contributor to Punch in 1845. This part of the exhibition included victims of the French Revolution and newly created figures of murderers, other famous people were added, including Lord Nelson and Sir Walter Scott. Some sculptures still exist that were done by Marie Tussaud herself, the gallery originally contained some 400 different figures, but fire damage in 1925 coupled with German bombs in 1941 has rendered most of these older models defunct. The casts themselves have survived, allowing the historical waxworks to be remade, the oldest figure on display is that of Madame du Barry, the work of Curtius from 1765 and part of the waxworks left to Tussaud at his death
20.
James Fillans
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James Fillans was a Scottish sculptor, poet and artist with a short but influential career in the early 19th century. He was born in Wilsontown, Lanarkshire, in early life he worked as a handloom weaver, the typical trade of the area. In his early teens he was apprenticed to a mason/builder in Paisley, during this period it seems he was responsible for the highly impressive Corinthian capitals on the Glasgow Royal Exchange earning him the nickname of “The Young Athenian”. He moved to Glasgow in the early 1830s, setting up his own practice there he employed his younger brothers, Robert Fillans and John Fillans. Receiving financial backing from James Walkinshaw he trained more formally in Paris, whilst in London he met Sir Francis Chantrey, who recommended him to several patrons. Incoming commissions allowed him to move to High Holborn, a commission to sculpt Archibald Oswald took him to Vienna in 1841, also permitting a visit to Italy and a second trip to Paris on his return. The bulk of his commissions were Scottish and he returned to Glasgow in 1851 and he also was a portrait painter, exhibiting in the Scottish Royal Academy from 1837 to 1850. He was father to the sculptors James Davidson Fillans and Wilhelmina Fillans, hill and Adamson photographed Fillans with his daughters in 1845. Sir Daniel Macnee painted his portrait and he is buried in Woodside Cemetery, Paisley beneath his own sculpture which he was working on for the grave of his father, who lies with him, when he died. The monument stands alone, to the north-west of the crematorium, on the path descending into the lower north section
21.
Arnold Bennett
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Enoch Arnold Bennett was an English writer. He is best known as a novelist, but he worked in other fields such as the theatre, journalism, propaganda. Bennett was born in a modest house in Hanley in the Potteries district of Staffordshire, Hanley was one of the Six Towns that were joined together at the beginning of the 20th century as Stoke-on-Trent and are depicted as the Five Towns in some of Bennetts novels. Enoch Bennett, his father, qualified as a solicitor in 1876, Bennett was employed by his father, but the working relationship failed. He found himself doing jobs such as rent-collecting which were uncongenial, Bennett also resented the low pay, it is no accident that the theme of parental miserliness is important in several of his novels. In his spare time he was able to do a little journalism, at the age of 21 he left his fathers practice and went to London as a solicitors clerk. In 1889 Bennett won a competition run by the magazine Tit-Bits and was encouraged to take up journalism full-time. In 1894 he became assistant editor of the magazine Woman and he noticed that the material offered by a syndicate to the magazine was not very good, so he wrote a serial that was bought by the syndicate for 75 pounds. This became The Grand Babylon Hotel, just over four years later his novel A Man from the North was published to critical acclaim and he became editor of the magazine. In 1900 Bennett gave up the editorship of Woman and dedicated himself to writing full time, however, he continued to write for newspapers and magazines while finding success in his career as a novelist. In 1926, at the suggestion of Lord Beaverbrook, he writing a influential weekly article on books for the London newspaper the Evening Standard. One of Bennetts most popular works was the self-help book How to Live on 24 Hours a Day. His diaries have yet to be published in full, but extracts from them have often quoted in the British press. In 1903 Bennett moved to Paris, where artists from around the world had converged on Montmartre. Bennett spent the eight years writing novels and plays. He believed that people had the potential to be the subjects of interesting books. Maupassant is also one of the writers on whose work Richard Larch, Bennetts novel The Old Wives Tale had an immediate success throughout the English-speaking world when it was published in 1908. In 1911 he visited the United States, then returned to England, during the First World War Bennett became Director of Propaganda for France at the Ministry of Information
22.
H. G. Wells
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Herbert George H. G. Wells was an English writer. He was prolific in many genres, including the novel, history, politics, social commentary, Wells is now best remembered for his science fiction novels and is called a father of science fiction, along with Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback. His most notable science fiction works include The Time Machine, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man and he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times. Wellss earliest specialised training was in biology, and his thinking on ethical matters took place in a specifically and fundamentally Darwinian context and he was also from an early date an outspoken socialist, often sympathising with pacifist views. His later works became increasingly political and didactic, and he wrote science fiction. A diabetic, in 1934, Wells co-founded the charity The Diabetic Association, Herbert George Wells was born at Atlas House,46 High Street in Bromley, Kent, on 21 September 1866. Called Bertie in the family, he was the fourth and last child of Joseph Wells and his wife, Sarah Neal. An inheritance had allowed the family to acquire a shop in which they sold china and sporting goods, although it failed to prosper, the stock was old and worn out, and the location was poor. Joseph Wells managed to earn an income, but little of it came from the shop. Payment for skilled bowlers and batsmen came from voluntary donations afterwards, a defining incident of young Wellss life was an accident in 1874 that left him bedridden with a broken leg. To pass the time he started reading books from the local library and he soon became devoted to the other worlds and lives to which books gave him access, they also stimulated his desire to write. Later that year he entered Thomas Morleys Commercial Academy, a school founded in 1849 following the bankruptcy of Morleys earlier school. The teaching was erratic, the curriculum mostly focused, Wells later said, Wells continued at Morleys Academy until 1880. In 1877, his father, Joseph Wells, fractured his thigh, the accident effectively put an end to Josephs career as a cricketer, and his subsequent earnings as a shopkeeper were not enough to compensate for the loss of the primary source of family income. No longer able to support financially, the family instead sought to place their sons as apprentices in various occupations. From 1880 to 1883, Wells had an apprenticeship as a draper at the Southsea Drapery Emporium. Wellss parents had a turbulent marriage, owing primarily to his mother being a Protestant, when his mother returned to work as a ladys maid, one of the conditions of work was that she would not be permitted to have living space for her husband and children. Thereafter, she and Joseph lived separate lives, though they never divorced and remained faithful to each other, as a consequence, Herberts personal troubles increased as he subsequently failed as a draper and also, later, as a chemists assistant
23.
Special Operations Executive
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The Special Operations Executive was a British World War II organisation. Few people were aware of SOEs existence, to those who were part of it or liaised with it, it was sometimes referred to as the Baker Street Irregulars, after the location of its London headquarters. It was also known as Churchills Secret Army or the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, SOE operated in all countries or former countries occupied by or attacked by the Axis forces, except where demarcation lines were agreed with Britains principal Allies. It also made use of territory on occasion, or made plans and preparations in case neutral countries were attacked by the Axis. The organisation directly employed or controlled just over 13,000 people, after the war, the organisation was officially dissolved on 15 January 1946. A memorial to SOEs agents was unveiled on the Albert Embankment by Lambeth Palace in London in October 2009, the organisation was formed from the merger of three existing secret departments, which had been formed shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. Immediately after Germany annexed Austria in March 1938, the Foreign Office created an organisation known as Department EH. In the autumn of the year, the War Office expanded an existing research department known as GS. GS was renamed MI in early 1939 and these three departments worked with few resources until the outbreak of war. There was much overlap between their activities and Section D and EH duplicated much of each others work, on the other hand, the heads of Section D and MI knew each other and shared information. They agreed a rough division of their activities, MI researched irregular operations which could be undertaken by regular uniformed troops, during the early months of the war, Section D was based first at St Ermins Hotel in Westminster and then the Metropole Hotel near Trafalgar Square. The Section attempted unsuccessfully to sabotage deliveries of vital materials to Germany from neutral countries by mining the Iron Gate on the River Danube. MI meanwhile produced pamphlets and technical handbooks for guerrilla leaders, on 13 June 1940, at the instigation of newly appointed Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Lord Hankey persuaded Section D and MI that their operations should be coordinated. On 1 July, a Cabinet level meeting arranged the formation of a single sabotage organisation, on 16 July, Hugh Dalton, the Minister of Economic Warfare, was appointed to take political responsibility for the new organisation. As Dalton was leaving Churchills study after being given his new task, the new organisation was formally created on 22 July. Dalton used the Irish Republican Army during the Irish war of Independence as a model for the organisation, Campbell Stuart left the organisation, and the flamboyant Major Grand was returned to the regular army. At his own request, Major Holland also left to take up an appointment in the Royal Engineers. However, Hollands former deputy at MI, Brigadier Colin Gubbins, one department of MI, MI R, which was involved in the development of weapons for irregular warfare, was not formally integrated into SOE but became an independent body codenamed MD1
24.
Baker Street Irregulars
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The Baker Street Irregulars are fictional characters who appear in various Sherlock Holmes stories, as street children who are employed by Holmes as intelligence agents. The name has subsequently been adopted by organizations, most notably a prestigious. The original Baker Street Irregulars are fictional characters featured in the Sherlock Holmes stories of Arthur Conan Doyle. The group of street urchins is led by a boy called Wiggins. The group appears in the first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study In Scarlet and they also appear in the next novel, The Sign of the Four, in which one of the chapters is titled The Baker Street Irregulars. The Baker Street Irregulars later appear in The Adventure of the Crooked Man, the Baker Street Irregulars is an organization of Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts founded in 1934 by Christopher Morley. The nonprofit organization numbers some 300 individuals worldwide, the group has published The Baker Street Journal — an irregular quarterly of Sherlockiana — since 1946. The group is mentioned briefly in the Doctor Who episode Hide as the Eleventh Doctor discusses the involvement of Professor Palmer in the Special Operations Executive. The Irregulars appear as the characters in Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars, The Fall of the Amazing Zalindas. Other major characters include Ozzie, an apprentice, Rohan, an Indian boy, Elliot, from an Irish tailors family, Pilar, a Gypsy girl. The Irregulars help solve the deaths of three tightrope walkers at a circus. Hazel Meades troop of children serve as couriers and lookouts in the Baker Street Irregulars during the revolution of Robert A. Heinleins The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Two BBC television series have been made starring the Irregulars, The Baker Street Boys and Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars. The sci-fi series Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century features a trio of children who aid Holmes as the new Baker Street Irregulars, the Baker Street Irregulars are mentioned in Douglas Preston and Lincoln Childs Agent Pendergast novel, White Fire. During the plot of the novel, Agent Pendergast teams up with a member of the group to find a lost Sherlock Holmes story entitled The Adventure of Aspern Hall. Variations of the Irregulars can be found in the modern-day remakes Sherlock, Baker Street Irregulars Trust Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes The Baker Street Journal is an Irregular quarterly of Sherlockiana, published by the Baker Street Irregulars. Collection Guide to Baker Street Irregulars Papers 1923–2007, Houghton Library, Harvard Library, Harvard University
25.
The Beatles
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The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960. With members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, the Beatles built their reputation playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg over a three-year period from 1960, with Stuart Sutcliffe initially serving as bass player. The core of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison went through a succession of drummers, including Pete Best, before asking Starr to join them. They acquired the nickname the Fab Four as Beatlemania grew in Britain the next year, from 1965 onwards, the Beatles produced increasingly innovative recordings, including the albums Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles and Abbey Road, after their break-up in 1970, they each enjoyed successful musical careers of varying lengths. McCartney and Starr, the members, remain musically active. Lennon was shot and killed in December 1980, and Harrison died of cancer in November 2001. The Beatles are the band in history, with estimated sales of over 600 million records worldwide. They have had more number-one albums on the British charts and sold more singles in the UK than any other act, according to the RIAA, the Beatles are also the best-selling music artists in the United States, with 178 million certified units. In 2008, the group topped Billboard magazines list of the all-time most successful Hot 100 artists, as of 2016 and they have received ten Grammy Awards, an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score and fifteen Ivor Novello Awards. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and they were also collectively included in Time magazines compilation of the twentieth centurys 100 most influential people. In March 1957, John Lennon, then aged sixteen, formed a group with several friends from Quarry Bank school. They briefly called themselves the Blackjacks, before changing their name to the Quarrymen after discovering that a local group was already using the other name. Fifteen-year-old Paul McCartney joined as a rhythm guitarist shortly after he, in February 1958, McCartney invited his friend George Harrison to watch the band. The fourteen-year-old auditioned for Lennon, impressing him with his playing, after a month of Harrisons persistence, they enlisted him as their lead guitarist. By January 1959, Lennons Quarry Bank friends had left the group, the three guitarists, billing themselves at least three times as Johnny and the Moondogs, were playing rock and roll whenever they could find a drummer. They used the name until May, when they became the Silver Beetles, before undertaking a tour of Scotland as the backing group for pop singer. By early July, they had changed their name to the Silver Beatles, allan Williams, the Beatles unofficial manager, arranged a residency for them in Hamburg, but lacking a full-time drummer they auditioned and hired Pete Best in mid-August 1960
26.
Apple Boutique
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The Apple shop was a retail store located in a building on the corner of Baker Street and Paddington Street, Marylebone, London. It opened on 7 December 1967 and closed on 30 July 1968, the shop was one of the first business ventures by The Beatles fledgling Apple Corps. The concept of the shop was that everything in it was for sale, the aim, as described by Paul McCartney, was to create a beautiful place where beautiful people can buy beautiful things. In practice, the stock was overwhelmingly fashion garments and accessories, John Lennon vetoed the use of the word boutique, but the venture has come to be popularly called the Apple Boutique. Suggesting a degree of precision and planning not subsequently realized in the management of the business, footage of the event shows Simon Posthuma playing Arabic music on a flute, Barry Finch playing a small drum, and Josje Leeger playing finger cymbals to the guests. Lennons friend Peter Shotton managed the store with Pattie Boyds sister Jenny Boyd, the Apple shop was a financial disaster. Customers helped themselves to the stock, as did staff members, who had difficulty determining which people had come in with. The ethos of the venture and those operating it was antithetic to making accusations of shop-lifting or of calling for the police, the Fools members also made a habit of taking their choice of the merchandise. The Dutch designers, Simon Posthuma and Marijke Koeger along with artist Josje Leeger had met Simon Hayes and Barry Finch in London, Barry Finch employed art students to paint a psychedelic style mural, designed by The Fool, across the buildings facades between 10 and 12 November 1967. The concept was borrowed from the painting of the facades of the Lord John shop in Carnaby Street, albeit executed to a design with greater density. Westminster City Council had not, however, granted consent for the mural, which could be construed as an advertisement, nor had a licence to do this been sought from the landlord, the Portman Estate. Complaints from local traders resulted in the Council issuing Apple with an enforcement notice to paint over the façade mural, in addition, the Portman Estate were prevailed upon to enforce the terms of the lease. Between 15 and 18 May 1968 the façades were duly painted white with the word Apple in cursive script painted on each fascia, peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band released in June 1967 and that of The Beatles to be released in November 1968. In an interview conducted for The Beatles Anthology, George Harrison said of the artwork, If theyd protected it, weve got to stop it chipping off. But thats just typical of the narrow minds we were trying to fight against, thats what the whole Sixties Flower-Power thing was about, Go away, you bunch of boring people. The whole government, the police, the public — everybody was so boring, once we were told we had to get rid of the painting, the whole thing started to lose its appeal. The retail business lost money at a rate, eventually running to £200000. In a press release, explaining The Beatles motives for closing the stores, the shops were doing fine and making a nice profit on turnover
27.
Baker Street robbery
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The Baker Street robbery was the burglary of the safe deposit boxes at the Baker Street, London branch of Lloyds Bank, on the night of 11 September 1971. The robbers had rented the leather goods shop Le Sac, two north of the bank, and tunnelled a distance of approximately 50 feet passing under the intervening Chicken Inn restaurant. To avoid being overheard, they dug only during weekends and they initially used a thermal lance to try to break into the vault but ultimately had to use explosives. Robert Rowlands was a ham radio operator who lived in a fifth floor flat on Wimpole Street and he overheard conversations between the robbers and their rooftop lookout at 11,15 pm. He contacted local police, who did not take him seriously, there was however insufficient information to identify which bank was being robbed. At 1 am, Rowlands contacted Scotland Yard, who immediately sent officers to his flat in Wimpole Street, at 2 am, a senior police officer alerted radio detector vans to track down the gangs exact location. Police checked the 750 banks within 10 miles of Rowlands receiver, at the time, the thieves were still in the vaults but the police failed to realise this because the security door was still locked. The thieves got away with £1. 5m cash and valuables from over 260 safe deposit boxes, the total haul was believed to be near £3m. The robbers left a message on a wall, Lets see how Sherlock Holmes solves this one. He also claims that police threatened to prosecute him for listening to a radio station. An investigation some years later showed that a request had never made to the D-Notice committee at that time. Furthermore, a D-Notice has no status, being a mere request. The Times newspaper was reporting about the case over two months later. Other recent reports suggest that the identities of the criminals and their sentences have never been revealed, however, The Times reported in January 1973 that four men had been convicted of the robbery at a trial at the Old Bailey. The fourth man, Benjamin Wolfe,66, a leather goods dealer from Dovercourt Road in East Dulwich, Wolfe had signed the lease on the shop used by the robbers using his own name. Two other men accused of handling banknotes from the robbery were acquitted, according to one press report, the police believed that the mastermind of the crime was another London car dealer who was never apprehended. Thomas Stephens and Reg Tucker had sentences reduced to eight years on appeal, in 2014 the robbery was the subject of an episode of BBC Radio 4s Punt PI. In November 2015, Channel 5 aired a programme offering the story of the robbery in its series Britains Biggest Bank Jobs
28.
Lloyds Bank
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Lloyds Bank plc is a British retail and commercial bank with branches across England and Wales. It has traditionally been considered one of the Big Four clearing banks, the bank was founded in Birmingham in 1765. It expanded during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and took over a number of smaller banking companies, in 1995 it merged with the Trustee Savings Bank and traded as Lloyds TSB Bank plc between 1999 and 2013. The bank is the subsidiary of Lloyds Banking Group, which was formed in January 2009 by the acquisition of HBOS by the then-Lloyds TSB Group. That year, following the UK bank rescue package, the British Government took a 43. 4% stake in Lloyds Banking Group, the new business began operations on 9 September 2013 under the TSB brand. Lloyds TSB was subsequently renamed Lloyds Bank on 23 September 2013, Lloyds Bank is the largest retail bank in Britain, and has an extensive network of branches and ATM in England and Wales and offers 24-hour telephone and online banking services. As of 2012 it has 16 million personal customers and small business accounts, Lloyds Bank came 10th out of 12 in the British Bank Awards 2016. It has its operational Headquarters in London and other offices in Wales and it also operates a number of office complex, brand headquarters and data centres in Yorkshire including Leeds, Sheffield and Halifax. The origins of Lloyds Bank date from 1765, when button maker John Taylor and Quaker iron producer and dealer Sampson Lloyd II set up a banking business in Dale End. The first branch opened in Oldbury, some six miles west of Birmingham. The symbol adopted by Taylors and Lloyds was the beehive, representing industry, the black horse regardant device dates from 1677, when Humphrey Stokes adopted it as sign for his shop. Stokes was a goldsmith and keeper of the running cashes and the became part of Barnett. When Lloyds took over that bank in 1884, it continued to trade at the sign of the black horse, the association with the Taylor family ended in 1852 and, in 1865, Lloyds & Co. converted into a joint-stock company known as Lloyds Banking Company Ltd. The first report of the company in 1865 stated, LLOYDS BANKING COMPANY LIMITED – Authorized Capital £2,000,000, FOUNDED ON The Private Banks of Messrs. Moilliet and Sons, with-which have subsequently been amalgamated the Banks of Messrs. P. H. Williams, Wednesbury and your Directors have the satisfaction to report that they have concluded an agreement with the well-known and old-established firm of Messrs. It will be submitted to you for final confirmation after the close of the Ordinary General Meeting. Eventually, this became absorbed into the original Lloyds Banking Company, and, finally, Lloyds Bank Limited in 1889. By 1923, Lloyds Bank had made some 50 takeovers, one of which was the last private firm to issue its own banknotes—Fox, Fowler and Company of Wellington, today, the Bank of England has a monopoly of banknote issue in England and Wales
29.
Marks & Spencer
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Marks and Spencer plc is a major British multinational retailer headquartered in the City of Westminster, London. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE100 Index and it specialises in the selling of clothing, home products and luxury food products. M&S was founded in 1884 by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in Leeds, the company also began to sell branded goods like Kelloggs Corn Flakes in November 2008. In recent years its clothing sales have fallen whilst food sales have increased after the axing of St. Michaels naming for their own brand. The company was founded by a partnership between Michael Marks, a Polish Jew from Słonim, and Thomas Spencer, a cashier from the English market town of Skipton in North Yorkshire. On his arrival in England, Marks worked for a company in Leeds, called Barran, in 1884 he met Isaac Jowitt Dewhirst while looking for work. Dewhirst lent Marks £5 which he used to establish his Penny Bazaar on Kirkgate Market, Dewhirst also taught him a little English. Dewhirsts cashier was Tom Spencer, a bookkeeper, whose wife, Agnes. In 1894, when Marks acquired a permanent stall in Leeds covered market, in 1901 Marks moved to the Birkenhead open market where he amalgamated with Spencer. The pair were allocated stall numbers 11 &12 in the aisle in 1903. The company left Birkenhead Market on 24 February 1923 and it also accepted the return of unwanted items, giving a full cash refund if the receipt was shown, no matter how long ago the product was purchased, which was unusual for the time. M&S staff raised £5,000 to pay for a Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft called The Marksman in 1941, by 1950, virtually all goods were sold under the St Michael label. M&S lingerie, womens clothes and girls uniform were branded under the St Margaret label until the whole range of general merchandise became St Michael. Simon Marks, son of Michael Marks, died in 1964, Israel Sieff, the son-in-law of Michael Marks, took over as chairman and in 1968, John Salisse became the company Director. A cautious international expansion began with the introduction of Asian food in 1974, M&S opened stores in continental Europe in 1975 and in Ireland four years later. The company put its emphasis on quality, including a 1957 stocking size measuring system. For most of its history, it also had a reputation for offering fair value for money, when this reputation began to waver, it encountered serious difficulties. Arguably, M&S has historically been an iconic retailer of British Quality Goods, the uncompromising attitude towards customer relations was summarised by the 1953 slogan, The customer is always and completely right
30.
Paddington Basin
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Paddington Basin is the name given to a canal basin, and its surrounding area, in Paddington, London. The junction of the Regents Canal and the Grand Junction Canal is close to this point and it was opened in 1801, with Paddington being chosen as the site of the basin because of its position on the New Road which led to the east, providing for onward transport. In its heyday, the basin was a transshipment facility. The basin is now the centre of a major redevelopment as part of the wider Paddington Waterside scheme and is surrounded by modern buildings, a consortium in partnership with the former British Waterways began work in January 2000 by draining the basin. In all, the development around Paddington Basin will create 2,000,000 sq ft of offices, homes, shops and leisure facilities, Paddington Walk is a block of 232 flats designed by Munkenbeck & Marshall that completed in August 2005. The Point and Waterside are office blocks designed by Terry Farrell and Partners, the original plan for the eastern end envisaged a commercial development focused around the Grand Union Basin and included the Winding building and the Grand Union building. The Richard Rogers Partnership originally designed the latter as three towers of 24,32 and 40 floors rising to 164m, but the planners imposed a limit of 100 metres. The Health Campus scheme collapsed in 2005 and in February 2006 the Paddington Development Corporation - now European Land, branded as Merchant Square, this proposed 1,800,000 sq ft of mixed-use space spanning 6 buildings, including 554 residential units and 58% commercial space. Planning permission was granted on 1 March 2007, a revised planning application was subsequently submitted and was approved on 19 May 2011. Part of the building is occupied by Marks & Spencer, which occupies the Waterside Building. 3 Merchant Square, a 21-storey development of 159 luxury apartments and 42 standard apartments, was completed in summer 2014,2 Merchant Square will be a 16-storey office building providing 162,000 sq ft of Grade A space with 4,400 sq ft of retail space. 6 Merchant Square will offer 119 apartments over 15 floors, Merchant Square is located around a central square. A life-size sculpture in memory of Sir Simon Milton was unveiled in September 2014 by The Rt Hon. Eric Pickles MP, Secretary of State for Communities, the sculpture, designed by Bruce Denny, follows Sir Simons pivotal role in facilitating the regeneration of Paddington Basin. The basin is known for its ingenious pedestrian bridges, such as The Rolling Bridge and the The Fan Bridge, the nearest London Underground stations are Edgware Road and Paddington, the latter also being served by National Rail
31.
Expedition Engineering
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Expedition Engineering is a London-based consulting firm, delivering structural engineering services. Expedition Engineering was founded in 1999 by Professor Chris Wise and Seán Walsh, on 2 October 2008, Expeditions ownership was restructured, passing to an Employee Benefit Trust called the Useful Simple Trust. Expedition has twice won the IStructEs Supreme Award for Structural Engineering, for the London 2012 Velodrome in 2011,55 Baker Street also received a commendation for sustainability at the Structural Awards. In 2012 Expedition was named Engineering Consultant of the Year at the Building Awards, Expedition. uk. com, official website The Expedition Workshed, website for educational purposes Useful Simple Trust, group website
32.
London County Council
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It covered the area today known as Inner London and was replaced by the Greater London Council. The LCC was the largest, most significant and most ambitious English municipal authority of its day, by the 19th century the City of London Corporation covered only a small fraction of metropolitan London. From 1855 the Metropolitan Board of Works had certain powers across the metropolis, many powers remained in the hands of traditional bodies such as parishes and the counties of Middlesex, Surrey and Kent. While the Conservative government of the day would have preferred not to create a body covering the whole of London. It was established as a council on 31 January 1889. Shortly after its creation a Royal Commission on the Amalgamation of the City and County of London considered the means for amalgamation with the City of London. The LCC inherited the powers of its predecessor the MBW, but had authority over matters such as education, city planning. It took over the functions of the London School Board in 1903, from 1899 the Council progressively acquired and operated the tramways in the county, which it electrified from 1903. One of the LCCs most important roles during the late 19th and early 20th century, was in the management of the expanding city, in the Victorian era, new housing had been intentionally urban and large-scale tenement buildings dominated. Beginning in the 1930s, the LCC incentivized an increase in suburban housing styles. The LCC set the standard for new construction at 12 houses per acre of land at a time when some London areas had as many as 80 housing units per acre. By 1938,76,877 units of housing had been built under the auspices of the LCC in the city and its periphery, many of these new housing developments were genuinely working-class, though the poorest could rarely afford even subsidized rents. They relied on an expanding London Underground network that ferried workers en masse to places of employment in the city center and these housing developments were broadly successful, and they resisted the slummification that blighted so many Victorian tenement developments. The LCC undertook between 1857 and 1929 to standardize and clarify street names across London, many streets in different areas of the city had similar or identical names, and the rise of the automobile as a primary mode of transportation in the city made these names unworkable. In an extreme case, there were more than 60 streets called Cross Street spread across the city when the LCC began its process of systematic renaming and these were given names from an approved list that was maintained by the LCC, containing only suitably English names. If street names were deemed un-English, they were slated for change, Zulu Crescent in Battersea, for instance. By 1939, the council had the powers and duties. The LCC initially used the Spring Gardens headquarters inherited from the Metropolitan Board of Works, the building had been designed by Frederick Marrable, the MBWs supeintending architect, and dated from 1860
33.
Blue plaque
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The brainchild of British politician William Ewart in 1863, it is the oldest such scheme in the world. The worlds first blue plaques were erected in London in the 19th century to mark the homes and workplaces of famous people. This scheme continues to the present day, having been administered successively by the Society of Arts, the London County Council, the Greater London Council, many other plaque schemes have since been initiated in the United Kingdom. Some are restricted to a geographical area, others to a particular theme of historical commemoration. The plaques erected by these schemes are manufactured in a variety of designs, shapes, materials, the term blue plaque may be used narrowly to refer to the official English Heritage scheme, but is often used informally to encompass all similar schemes. There are also commemorative plaque schemes throughout the world such as those in Paris, Rome, Oslo, Dublin, and in cities in Australia, Canada, Russia. The forms these take vary, and they tend to be known as historical markers, the original blue plaque scheme was established by the Society of Arts in 1867, and since 1986 has been run by English Heritage. It is the oldest such scheme in the world, since 1984 English Heritage have commissioned Frank Ashworth to make the plaques which have then been inscribed by his wife, Sue, at their home in Cornwall. English Heritage plans to erect an average of twelve new blue plaques each year in London. After being conceived by politician William Ewart in 1863, the scheme was initiated in 1866 by Ewart, Henry Cole and the Society of Arts, the first plaque was unveiled in 1867 to commemorate Lord Byron at his birthplace,24 Holles Street, Cavendish Square. This house was demolished in 1889, the earliest blue plaque to survive, also put up in 1867, commemorates Napoleon III in King Street, St Jamess. Byron’s plaque was blue, but the colour was changed by the manufacturer Minton, in total the Society of Arts put up 35 plaques, fewer than half of which survive today. The Society only erected one plaque within the square-mile of the City of London, in 1879, it was agreed that the City of London Corporation would be responsible for erecting plaques within the City to recognise its jurisdictional independence. This demarcation has remained ever since, in 1901, the Society of Arts scheme was taken over by the London County Council, which gave much thought to the future design of the plaques. It was eventually decided to keep the shape and design of the Societys plaques, but to make them uniformly blue, with a laurel wreath. Though this design was used consistently from 1903 to 1938, some experimentation occurred in the 1920s, in 1921, the most common plaque design was revised, as it was discovered that glazed ceramic Doulton ware was cheaper than the encaustic formerly used. In 1938, a new design was prepared by an unnamed student at the LCCs Central School of Arts and Crafts and was approved by the committee. It omitted the decorative elements of earlier designs, and allowed for lettering to be better spaced and enlarged
34.
William Pitt the Younger
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William Pitt the Younger, PC was a British politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He became the youngest Prime Minister in 1783 at the age of 24 and he left office in 1801, but was Prime Minister again from 1804 until his death in 1806. He was also the Chancellor of the Exchequer throughout his premiership, born William Pitt, he is known as the Younger to distinguish him from his father, William Pitt the Elder, who had previously served as Prime Minister. The younger Pitts prime ministerial tenure, which came during the reign of George III, was dominated by events in Europe, including the French Revolution. Pitt, although referred to as a Tory, or new Tory. He is best known for leading Britain in the wars against France. Pitt was an administrator who worked for efficiency and reform. He raised taxes to pay for the war against France. To meet the threat of Irish support for France, he engineered the Acts of Union 1800, Pitt created the new Toryism, which revived the Tory Party and enabled it to stay in power for the next quarter-century. Historian Asa Briggs points out that his personality did not endear itself to the British mind, for Pitt was too solitary, too colourless and his greatness came in the war with France, with the adversary setting the pace. Pitt reacted to become what Lord Minto called the Atlas of our reeling globe and his integrity and industry and his role as defender of the threatened nation allowed him to inspire and access all the national reserves of strength. William Wilberforce said that, For personal purity, disinterestedness and love of this country, for this he is ranked highly amongst British Prime Ministers. The Honourable William Pitt, second son of William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, was born at Hayes Place in the village of Hayes, Pitt was from a political family on both sides. His mother, Hester Grenville, was sister to former prime minister George Grenville, according to biographer John Ehrman, Pitt inherited brilliance and dynamism from his fathers line, and a determined, methodical nature from the Grenvilles. Suffering from occasional poor health as a boy, he was educated at home by the Reverend Edward Wilson, an intelligent child, Pitt quickly became proficient in Latin and Greek. In 1773, aged fourteen, he attended Pembroke College, Cambridge, at Cambridge, Pitt was tutored by George Pretyman, who became a close personal friend. Pitt later appointed Pretyman Bishop of Lincoln then Winchester and drew upon his advice throughout his political career, while at Cambridge, he befriended the young William Wilberforce, who became a lifelong friend and political ally in Parliament. Pitt tended to socialise only with students and others already known to him
35.
Dusty Springfield
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Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette OBrien, OBE, better known as Dusty Springfield, was an English pop singer and record producer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s. She is a member of the US Rock and Roll and UK Music Halls of Fame, international polls have named Springfield among the best female rock artists of all time. Her image, supported by a peroxide blonde bouffant hairstyle, evening gowns, born in West Hampstead to a family that enjoyed music, Springfield learned to sing at home. In 1958 she joined her first professional group, The Lana Sisters and her solo career began in 1963 with the upbeat pop hit, I Only Want to Be with You. Among the hits that followed were Wishin and Hopin , I Just Dont Know What to Do with Myself, You Dont Have to Say You Love Me, and Son of a Preacher Man. Although she was never considered a Northern Soul artist in her own right and she was the first UK singer to top the New Musical Express readers poll for Female Singer. To boost her credibility as a soul artist, Springfield went to Memphis, Tennessee, to record Dusty in Memphis, an album of pop and soul music with the Atlantic Records main production team. Released in 1969, it has ranked among the greatest albums of all time by the US magazine Rolling Stone and in polls by VH1 artists, New Musical Express readers. The album was awarded a spot in the Grammy Hall of Fame. Despite its current recognition, the album did not sell well and after its release, however, in collaboration with Pet Shop Boys, she returned to the Top 10 of the UK and US charts in 1987 with What Have I Done to Deserve This. Two years later, she had two other UK hits on her own with Nothing Has Been Proved and In Private, subsequently, in the mid-1990s, owing to the inclusion of Son of a Preacher Man on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack, interest in her early output was revived. Springfield was born Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette OBrien on 16 April 1939 in West Hampstead and her older brother, Dionysius P. A. OBrien, was later known as Tom Springfield. Springfields father, who had raised in British India, worked as a tax accountant and consultant. Her mother came from an Irish family, originally from Tralee, County Kerry, Springfield was brought up in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire until the early 1950s, and later lived in Ealing. She attended St Annes Convent School, Northfields, a traditional all-girl school, Springfield and her brother were both prone to food-throwing as adults. She was given the nickname Dusty for playing football with boys in the street, Springfield was raised in a music-loving family. Her father would tap out rhythms on the back of her hand and she listened to a wide range of music, including George Gershwin, Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Glenn Miller. A fan of American jazz and the vocalists Peggy Lee and Jo Stafford, at the age of twelve, she made a recording of herself performing the Irving Berlin song When the Midnight Choo Choo Leaves for Alabam at a local record shop in Ealing
36.
Seychelles
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Seychelles, officially the Republic of Seychelles, is an archipelago and country in the Indian Ocean. The 115-island country, whose capital is Victoria, lies 1,500 kilometres east of mainland East Africa, other nearby island countries and territories include Comoros, Mayotte, Madagascar, Réunion and Mauritius to the south. Seychelles is a member of the African Union, the Southern African Development Community, the Commonwealth of Nations, since 1976, per capita output has increased nearly sevenfold. In recent years, the government has encouraged investment in order to upgrade these sectors. Today, Seychelles boasts the highest nominal per capita GDP in Africa and it is one of only a handful of countries in Africa with high Human Development Index. Despite the countrys economic prosperity, poverty remains widespread due to very high level of income inequality, one of the highest in the world. The Seychelles were uninhabited throughout most of recorded history, some scholars assume that Austronesian seafarers and later Maldivian and Arab traders were the first to visit the uninhabited Seychelles. This assumption is based on the discovery of tombs in 1910, the earliest recorded sighting by Europeans took place in 1502 by the Portuguese Admiral Vasco da Gama, who passed through the Amirantes and named them after himself. The earliest recorded landing was in January 1609, by the crew of the Ascension under Captain Alexander Sharpeigh during the voyage of the British East India Company. The islands were named after Jean Moreau de Séchelles, Louis XVs Minister of Finance, the British controlled the islands between 1794 and 1810. Jean Baptiste Quéau de Quincy, French administrator of Seychelles during the years of war with the United Kingdom, instead, he successfully negotiated the status of capitulation to Britain which gave the settlers a privileged position of neutrality. Britain eventually assumed full control upon the surrender of Mauritius in 1810, Seychelles became a crown colony separate from Mauritius in 1903. Elections were held in 1966 and 1970, independence was granted in 1976 as a republic within the Commonwealth. In the 1970s Seychelles was the place to be seen, a playground for film stars, in 1977, a coup détat by France Albert René ousted the first president of the republic, James Mancham. René discouraged over-dependence on tourism and declared that he wanted to keep the Seychelles for the Seychellois, the 1979 constitution declared a socialist one-party state, which lasted until 1991. In the 1980s there were a series of attempts against President René. In 1981, Mike Hoare led a team of 43 South African mercenaries masquerading as holidaying rugby players in the 1981 Seychelles coup détat attempt, there was a gun battle at the airport, and most of the mercenaries later escaped in a hijacked Air India plane. The leader of this hijacking was German mercenary D. Clodo, Clodo later stood trial in South Africa as well as in his home country Germany for air-piracy
37.
Rapid transit
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Rapid transit, also known as heavy rail, metro, subway, tube, or underground, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. The stations typically have high platforms, without steps inside the trains and they are typically integrated with other public transport and often operated by the same public transport authorities. However, some transit systems have at-grade intersections between a rapid transit line and a road or between two rapid transit lines. It is unchallenged in its ability to transport large numbers of people quickly over short distances with little use of land, variations of rapid transit include people movers, small-scale light metro, and the commuter rail hybrid S-Bahn. The worlds first rapid-transit system was the partially underground Metropolitan Railway which opened as a railway in 1863. In 1868, New York opened the elevated West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway, china has the largest number of rapid transit systems in the world. The worlds longest single-operator rapid transit system by length is the Shanghai Metro. The worlds largest single rapid transit service provider by both length of revenue track (665 miles and number of stations is the New York City Subway. The busiest rapid transit systems in the world by annual ridership are the Tokyo subway system, the Seoul Metropolitan Subway, the Moscow Metro, the Beijing Subway, Metro is the most common term for underground rapid transit systems used by non-native English speakers. One of these terms may apply to a system, even if a large part of the network runs at ground level. In Scotland, however, the Glasgow Subway underground rapid transit system is known as the Subway, in the US, underground mass transit systems are primarily known as subways, whereas the term metro is a shortened reference to a metropolitan area. In that vein, Chicagos commuter rail system, serving the area, is called Metra. Exceptions in naming rapid transit systems are Washington DCs subway system the Washington Metro, Los Angeles Metro Rail, and the Miami Metrorail, the opening of Londons steam-hauled Metropolitan Railway in 1863 marked the beginning of rapid transit. Initial experiences with steam engines, despite ventilation, were unpleasant, experiments with pneumatic railways failed in their extended adoption by cities. Electric traction was more efficient, faster and cleaner than steam, in 1890 the City & South London Railway was the first electric-traction rapid transit railway, which was also fully underground. Both railways were merged into London Underground. The 1893 Liverpool Overhead Railway was designed to use electric traction from the outset, budapest in Hungary and Glasgow, Chicago and New York all converted or purpose-designed and built electric rail services. Advancements in technology have allowed new automated services, hybrid solutions have also evolved, such as tram-train and premetro, which incorporate some of the features of rapid transit systems
38.
Transport for London
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Transport for London is a local government body responsible for the transport system in Greater London, England. Its head office is in Windsor House in the City of Westminster, the underlying services are provided by a mixture of wholly owned subsidiary companies, by private sector franchisees and by licensees. In 2015-16, TfL had a budget of £11.5 billion, the rest comes from government funding, borrowing, other income and Crossrail funding. On 21 January 2016, it was announced that the responsibility for franchising all of Londons inner suburban services would be transferred from the DfT to TfL. This transfer will take place as current franchises fall due for renewal, TfL was created in 2000 as part of the Greater London Authority by the Greater London Authority Act 1999. It gained most of its functions from its predecessor London Regional Transport in 2000, the first Commissioner of TfL was Bob Kiley. The first Chair was then-Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, and the first Deputy Chair was Dave Wetzel, Livingstone and Wetzel remained in office until the election of Boris Johnson as Mayor in 2008. Johnson took over as Chairman, and in February 2009 fellow-Conservative Daniel Moylan was appointed as his Deputy, TfL did not take over responsibility for the London Underground until 2003, after the controversial Public-private partnership contract for maintenance had been agreed. Management of the Public Carriage Office had previously been a function of the Metropolitan Police, Transport for London Group Archives holds business records for TfL and its predecessor bodies and transport companies. Some early records are held on behalf of TfL Group Archives at the London Metropolitan Archives. After the bombings on the underground and bus systems on 7 July 2005 and they helped survivors out, removed bodies, and got the transport system up and running, to get the millions of commuters back out of London at the end of the work day. Those mentioned include Peter Hendy, who was at the time Head of Surface Transport division, and Tim OToole, head of the Underground division, carrying open containers of alcohol was also banned on public transport operated by TfL. The Mayor of London and TfL announced the ban with the intention of providing a safer, there were Last Round on the Underground parties on the night before the ban came into force. Passengers refusing to observe the ban may be refused travel and asked to leave the premises, the Greater London Authority reported in 2011 that assaults on London Underground staff had fallen by 15% since the introduction of the ban. In an effort to reduce sexual offences and increase reporting, TfL—in conjunction with the British Transport Police, Metropolitan Police Service, TfL is controlled by a board whose members are appointed by the Mayor of London, a position held by Sadiq Khan since May 2016. The Commissioner of Transport for London reports to the Board and leads a management team with individual functional responsibilities, the body is organised in three main directorates and corporate services, each with responsibility for different aspects and modes of transport. This network is sub-divided into three service units, BCV, Bakerloo, Central, Victoria and Waterloo & City lines. JNP, Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines, SSL, Metropolitan, District, Circle and Hammersmith & City lines
39.
Lost and found
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A lost and found, lost property, or lost articles is an office in a public building or area where people can go to retrieve lost articles that may have been found by others. Frequently found at museums, amusement parks and schools, a lost, some lost and found offices will try to contact the owners of any lost items if there are any personal identifiers available. Practically all will either sell, give or throw away items after a period has passed to clear their storage. First advertising of this appears on papyruses in Ancient Greece. In Japan, the property system dates to a code written in the year 718. The first modern lost and found office was organized in Paris in 1805, however, it was not until 1893 that Louis Lépine, then prefect of police, organized efforts to actively track down the owners of lost items. Lost and found offices at large organizations can handle a large, transport for Londons lost property offices handles over 130,000 items a year, including 24,000 bags and 10,000 mobile phones. Among the more items that have been handed in include a wedding dress, ashes in an urn, a longcase clock, a kitchen sink. Other large organizations may lack a central lost and found office but have several offices attached to different administrative units and this is the case, for instance, at the University of Illinois, where different campus units have both distinct offices and different unofficial retention and resolution policies. Some organisations now use online programs like www. itsfound. com. au for lost property data storage, in addition to such distributed offices, a cross-unit office might also exist, again referring to the University of Illinois, this cross-functional unit rests in the Campus Police
40.
The Great Mouse Detective
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The Great Mouse Detective is a 1986 American animated mystery comedy film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film was known as The Adventures of the Great Mouse Detective for its 1992 theatrical re-release. The main characters are all mice and rats living in Victorian London, Sherlock Holmes also mentions Basil as one of his aliases in the Arthur Conan Doyle story The Adventure of Black Peter. As such, the new management of the company were convinced that their animation department was still a viable enterprise. In London, circa 1897, a mouse named Olivia Flaversham is celebrating her birthday with her toymaker father. Suddenly, a bat with a wing and peg leg bursts into the Flavershams workshop. Olivia searches to find the famed Great Mouse Detective named Basil of Baker Street, a surgeon named Dr. David Q. Dawson, who is returning from a service of the Mouse Queens 66th Regiment in Afghanistan, stumbles upon Olivia. It is then revealed that Professor Ratigan kidnapped Hiram to create a robot which mimics the Queen of the Mice so Ratigan can rule England. Hiram initially refuses to participate in the scheme, but gives in when Ratigan threatens to harm Olivia, Ratigan then announces his plans to kill the Queen and become supreme ruler of all mousedom to his henchmen. Meanwhile, as Basil is deducing the case, Fidget appears through the window and they give chase as Basil finds Fidgets footprints, declaring that they purse him in order to find Hiram. Basil, along with Dawson and Olivia, takes Toby, Sherlock Holmess pet Basset Hound, to track Fidgets scent, Fidget then ambushes Olivia from inside a toy cradle and kidnaps her. Basil and Dawson pursue Fidget, but become entangled and fall behind, while searching the shop, Dawson discovers Fidgets checklist, to which Basil does some chemical tests to discover the list came from a riverfront near the Thames. Basil and Dawson disguise themselves as sailors and go into a tavern called the Rat Trap and they are caught, and Ratigan has his hooligans tie them to a spring-loaded mousetrap connected with a Rube Goldberg machine laid out to kill them both. Ratigan sets out for Buckingham Palace, where Fidget and Ratigans accomplices kidnap the queen. Basil, along with Dawson, deduces the traps weakness and escape just in time, shortly after Dawson helps Basil out of a state of self-pity that he allowed himself into, thanks to Ratigan. At Buckingham Palace, Ratigan forces Hiram to operate the toy Queen, while the real Queen is taken to be fed to Felicia, the toy Queen declares Ratigan the ruler of all Mousedom, and he announces his tyrannical plans for his new subjects. Just then, Basil, Dawson, and Olivia save Hiram and the real Queen, Basil seizes control of the mechanical queen, making it denounce Ratigan as a fraud and tyrant while breaking it into pieces
41.
Sherlock Hound
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Sherlock Hound is an Italian-Japanese animated television series based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyles Sherlock Holmes series where almost all the characters are depicted as anthropomorphic dogs. The show featured appearances of Jules Verne-steampunk style technology, adding a 19th-century science-fiction atmosphere to the series. It consists of 26 episodes aired between 1984 and 1985, the series was a joint project between Japans Tokyo Movie Shinsha and the Italian public broadcasting corporation RAI. Six episodes were directed by Hayao Miyazaki in 1981 until problems with Sir Arthur Conan Doyles estate led to a suspension in production, by the time the issues were resolved Miyazaki had turned to other projects, and thus the remaining episodes were directed by Kyosuke Mikuriya. The show was aired in 1984. Two pieces of music are used for the Japanese version, The opening theme is Sora Kara Koboreta Story. The series international versions had a piece of theme music for the opening and ending credits. The frequent soloists are Joe Farrell on soprano, tenor and alto saxophones and flute and this English theme does not exist on the UK DVDs from Manga, instead instrumentals of both the Japanese opening and ending themes were used. Sherlock Hound Voiced by, Taichirō Hirokawa, Larry Moss Just like his original incarnation and he keeps a cool and logical head despite the situation. Unlike his original incarnation, his drug habit is smoking a tobacco pipe. He keeps his apartment a mess and is regularly conducting chemical experiments that lead to clouds of noxious fumes and he also seems to have feelings for Mrs. Hudson, as does the rest of the male cast. Doctor Watson Voiced by, Kōsei Tomita, Lewis Arquette Hounds loyal companion and he tries his best to help Hound as he can, but has difficulty at times keeping up with Hound, both mentally and physically, being a bit overweight. Mrs. Hudson Voiced by, Yōko Asagami, Patricia Parris Hound and her late husband Jim was a pilot and Hound finds her contacts in the world of aviation useful. She can also be quick and resourceful when need be. Miyazaki actually wanted to present her as the brains of Baker Street. Like many people in Hounds world, Mrs. Hudson is a golden retriever and his plans can occasionally be very complex or outlandish that rely on one questioning or linking together unusual acts, which is often how Hound figures out what Moriarty is up to. Sometimes he acts as a mercenary to other criminals who are after what he wouldnt steal. In this version, Moriarty resembles a gray wolf, Smiley Voiced by, Mitsuo Senda, Lewis Arquette One of Moriartys henchmen, created for the show
42.
Danger Mouse (1981 TV series)
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Danger Mouse is a British animated television series produced by Cosgrove Hall Films for Thames Television. It featured the eponymous Danger Mouse who worked as a secret agent, the show was a parody of British spy fiction, particularly the Danger Man series and James Bond. The show originally ran in the United Kingdom from 28 September 1981 to 19 March 1992, a continuation of the original series, under the same name, began airing in September 2015 on CBBC. The series also spawned a spin-off show, Count Duckula, which aired between 1988 and 1993, Danger Mouse was created by Mark Hall and Brian Cosgrove for their production company, Cosgrove Hall Films. Danger Mouse was based on Patrick McGoohans lead role in Danger Man, the series was intended to have a more serious tone as seen in the pilot episode but Mike Harding gave Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall the idea to make the series silly. Mike said, The characters had got stuck in reality and were doing James Bond type things rooted in the real world. I argued that once you invented a Mouse Secret Agent then all of creation, in other words we could be as barmy as we wanted. By 1983, Danger Mouse viewing figures hit a high of 21 million viewers. In the UK, Channel 4s 100 Greatest Kids TV Shows, Danger Mouse came third, beaten only by The Muppet Show and The Simpsons. The original Danger Mouse returned to television after the BBC purchased episodes of the series to broadcast in its daytime schedules with its first broadcast on 12 February 2007. The series was expensive to make, sometimes needing 2,000 drawings thus footage was reused while certain scenes were set in the North Pole or in the dark as a cost-cutting measure. This time-and-money saving device was cheerfully admitted by both Brian Cosgrove, who conceived the character and the show, and Brian Trueman, who wrote almost all the scripts from the beginning. It was reported in 2013 that the series was under consideration for a reboot, the new series is produced by Boulder Media for FremantleMedia Kids. It is directed by Robert Cullen with Brian Cosgrove, one of the original creators, armstrongs Pointless co-host Richard Osman appears in the series as Professor Strontium Jellyfishowitz. John Oliver voices the character Dr Augustus P Crumhorn III and Lena Headey voices the character Jeopardy Mouse and this series will be aired on Netflix in the US. Kevin Eldon describes the style as much the same as the original. The first episode aired on 28 September 2015, a long-running comic strip adaptation, written by Angus P. Allan and illustrated by Arthur Ranson, ran in Look-in magazine and was syndicated in various other magazines. Ranson also provided some backdrops for the TV series, Allan and Ransons work was highly appreciated by Cosgrove Hall, and the pair were awarded an Oh Goodness
Baker Street
