1.
Richmond Park
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Richmond Park, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, was created by Charles I in the 17th century as a deer park. The largest of Londons Royal Parks, it is of national and international importance for wildlife conservation and its landscapes have inspired many famous artists and it has been a location for several films and TV series. Richmond Park includes many buildings of architectural or historic interest, the Grade I-listed White Lodge was formerly a royal residence and is now home to the Royal Ballet School. Historically the preserve of the monarch, the park is now open for all to use and includes a course and other facilities for sport. It played an important role in world wars and in the 1948 and 2012 Olympics. Richmond Park is the largest of Londons Royal Parks and it is the second-largest park in London and is Britains second-largest urban walled park after Sutton Park, Birmingham. Measuring 3.69 square miles, it is comparable in size to Pariss Bois de Vincennes and it is almost half the size of Casa de Campo and around three times the size of Central Park in New York. Of national and international importance for conservation, most of Richmond Park is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The largest Site of Special Scientific Interest in London, it was designated as an SSSI in 1992, excluding the area of the course, Pembroke Lodge Gardens. In its citation, Natural England said, Richmond Park has been managed as a deer park since the seventeenth century. In particular, Richmond Park is of importance for its diverse deadwood beetle fauna associated with the ancient trees found throughout the parkland, in addition the park supports the most extensive area of dry acid grassland in Greater London. The park was designated as an SAC in April 2005 on account of its having a number of ancient trees with decaying timber. A public open space since the mid C19, Richmond Park is located in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is close to Richmond, Ham, Kingston upon Thames, Wimbledon, Roehampton, day-to-day management of the Royal Parks has been delegated to The Royal Parks, an executive agency of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The Royal Parks Board sets the direction for the agency. Appointments to the Board are made by the Mayor of London, the Friends of Richmond Park and the Friends of Bushy Park co-chair the Richmond and Bushy Parks Forum, comprising 38 local groups of local stakeholder organisations. Although welcoming the principles of the new arrangements, the forum. Richmond Park is enclosed by a wall with several gates
2.
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
3.
Worcester Park
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The area is 10.2 miles south-west of Charing Cross. The suburbs population was 16,031 at the time of the 2001 census, beverley Brook runs through Worcester Park, alongside Green Lane and past Green Lane Primary School, traversing up to Cuddington Recreation Ground. Green Lane appears in the Domesday Book, the Huntsmans Hall was situated on what was the far boundary of a hunting ground for Henry VIII. In 2011, around 78% of residents of Worcester Park ward were White, Worcester Park takes its name from the 4th Earl of Worcester, who was appointed Keeper of the Great Park in 1606. The area was part of the Great Park which covered around 1100 acres and was adjacent to the Little Park which contained Nonsuch Palace of Henry VIII. Both parks were used as deer parks. Henry VIII had obtained the land from Sir Richard de Codington, during the ownership by Sir Richard de Codington, there was a manor house on a site which was later replaced by Worcester House and is now the site of Worcester Close. There was also a church of St. Mary on roughly the site where the church of St Mary the Virgin, Cuddington. In 1809 Worcester Park was acquired by William Taylor and he used a mill on the banks of the Hogsmill Riverto continue the manufacture of gunpowder which had been carried out on and off in the area for several centuries. Manufacturing continued until the 1850s when the mill blew up, in 1890 Worcester Park Baptist Church was formed in Longfellow Road. It moved to its present location on The Avenue in the 1950s, Cheam Common Infants and Junior schools are pre-World War II school buildings. Air raid shelters were found underground during an extension to the building of the junior school. The school is located at the top of the high street, Blakesley School was a private primary school run by the Headmaster Eric Dudley. It closed in the summer of 1958, when the land was sold for housing. It occupied the land at grid reference TQ214654 bordered by the portion of Delta Road which was not surfaced, Delta Close. It occupied a plot of land and was a modern manor house style building referred to on local maps as Worcester Court. The surrounding wall is said to go back to Henry VIIIs reign and this headquarters was erected after the previous building was destroyed by arsonists and still serves the 2nd Cuddington Scout Group. In the 1950s, the ruins of an ornamental lake with a multi-arched bridge
4.
Greater London
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London, or Greater London, is a region of England which forms the administrative boundaries of London. It is organised into 33 local government districts, the 32 London boroughs, the Greater London Authority, based in Southwark, is responsible for strategic local government across the region and consists of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. The county of Greater London was created on 1 April 1965 through the London Government Act 1963, administratively, Greater London was first established as a sui generis council area under the Greater London Council between 1963 and 1986. The area was re-established as a region in 1994, and the Greater London Authority formed in 2000, the region covers 1,572 km2 and had a population of 8,174,000 at the 2011 census. In 2012, it had the highest GVA per capita in the United Kingdom at £37,232, the Greater London Built-up Area—used in some national statistics—is a measure of the continuous urban area of London, and therefore includes areas outside of the administrative region. The term Greater London has been and still is used to different areas in governance, statistics, history. In terms of ceremonial counties, London is divided into the small City of London, outside the limited boundaries of the City, a variety of arrangements has governed the wider area since 1855, culminating in the creation of the Greater London administrative area in 1965. The Greater London Arterial Road Programme was devised between 1913 and 1916, one of the larger early forms was the Greater London Planning Region, devised in 1927, which occupied 1,856 square miles and included 9 million people. The LCC pressed for an alteration in its boundaries soon after the end of the First World War, noting that within the Metropolitan, a Royal Commission on London Government was set up to consider the issue. The LCC proposed a vast new area for Greater London, with a boundary somewhere between the Metropolitan Police District and the home counties, protests were made at the possibility of including Windsor, Slough and Eton in the authority. The Commission made its report in 1923, rejecting the LCCs scheme, two minority reports favoured change beyond the amalgamation of smaller urban districts, including both smaller borough councils and a central authority for strategic functions. The London Traffic Act 1924 was a result of the Commission, Greater London originally had a two-tier system of local government, with the Greater London Council sharing power with the City of London Corporation and the 32 London Borough councils. The GLC was abolished in 1986 by the Local Government Act 1985 and its functions were devolved to the City Corporation and the London Boroughs, with some functions transferred to central government and joint boards. Greater London was used to form the London region of England in 1994, a referendum held in 1998 established a public will to recreate an upper tier of government to cover the region. The Greater London Authority, London Assembly and the directly elected Mayor of London were created in 2000 by the Greater London Authority Act 1999, in 2000, the outer boundary of the Metropolitan Police District was re-aligned to the Greater London boundary. The 2000 and 2004 mayoral elections were won by Ken Livingstone, the 2008 and 2012 elections were won by Boris Johnson. The 2016 election was won by Sadiq Khan, Greater London continues to include the most closely associated parts of the Greater London Urban Area and their historic buffers. Thus it includes, in five boroughs, significant parts of the Metropolitan Green Belt which protects designated greenfield land in a way to the citys parks
5.
River Thames
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The River Thames is a river that flows through southern England, most notably through London. At 215 miles, it is the longest river entirely in England and it also flows through Oxford, Reading, Henley-on-Thames and Windsor. The lower reaches of the river are called the Tideway, derived from its tidal reach up to Teddington Lock. It rises at Thames Head in Gloucestershire, and flows into the North Sea via the Thames Estuary, the Thames drains the whole of Greater London. Its tidal section, reaching up to Teddington Lock, includes most of its London stretch and has a rise, in Scotland, the Tay achieves more than double the average discharge from a drainage basin that is 60% smaller. Along its course are 45 navigation locks with accompanying weirs and its catchment area covers a large part of South Eastern and a small part of Western England and the river is fed by 38 named tributaries. The river contains over 80 islands, in 2010, the Thames won the largest environmental award in the world – the $350,000 International Riverprize. The Thames, from Middle English Temese, is derived from the Brittonic Celtic name for the river, Tamesas, recorded in Latin as Tamesis and yielding modern Welsh Tafwys Thames. It has also suggested that it is not of Celtic origin. A place by the river, rather than the river itself, indirect evidence for the antiquity of the name Thames is provided by a Roman potsherd found at Oxford, bearing the inscription Tamesubugus fecit. It is believed that Tamesubugus name was derived from that of the river, tamese was referred to as a place, not a river in the Ravenna Cosmography. The rivers name has always pronounced with a simple t /t/, the Middle English spelling was typically Temese. A similar spelling from 1210, Tamisiam, is found in the Magna Carta, the Thames through Oxford is sometimes called the Isis. Ordnance Survey maps still label the Thames as River Thames or Isis down to Dorchester, richard Coates suggests that while the river was as a whole called the Thames, part of it, where it was too wide to ford, was called *lowonida. An alternative, and simpler proposal, is that London may also be a Germanic word, for merchant seamen, the Thames has long been just the London River. Londoners often refer to it simply as the river in such as south of the river. Thames Valley Police is a body that takes its name from the river. The marks of human activity, in cases dating back to Pre-Roman Britain, are visible at various points along the river
6.
Putney
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Putney is a district in south-west London, England in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It is centred 5.1 miles south-west of Charing Cross, the area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. And thus we take leave of Putney, one of the pleasantest of the London suburbs, Putney is an ancient parish which covered 9.11 square kilometres and was until 1889 in the Hundred of Brixton in the county of Surrey. Its area has reduced by the loss of Roehampton to the south-west. In 1855 the parish was included in the area of responsibility of the Metropolitan Board of Works and was grouped into the Wandsworth District, in 1889 the area was removed from Surrey and became part of the County of London. The Wandsworth District became the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth in 1900, since 1965 Putney has formed part of the London Borough of Wandsworth in Greater London. The benefice of the remains a perpetual curacy whose patron is the Dean. It has a small chantry chapel removed from the east end of the south aisle, a charitable almshouse for 12 men and women, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was erected by Sir Abraham Dawes, who provided it with an endowment. Putney was also birthplace of Thomas Cromwell, made Earl of Essex by Henry VIII and of Edward Gibbon, author of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, died at a house on Putney Heath. At that time Putney took on Londons premier role in civil engineering, Putney had a second place of worship, for Independents and Roehampton was in the process of achieving separate parish status. The proprietors of the bridge distributed £31 per annum to watermen, and watermens widows and children, Putney in 1887 covered 9 square kilometres. Putney appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Putelei and it was noted that it did not fall into the category of local jurisdictions known as a manor, but obtained 20 shillings from the ferry or market toll at Putney belonging to the manor of Mortlake. One famous crossing at Putney was that of Cardinal Wolsey in 1529 upon his disgrace in falling out of favour with Henry VIII and on ceasing to be the holder of the Great Seal of England. As he was riding up Putney Hill he was overtaken by one of the royal chamberlains who presented him with a ring as a token of the continuance of his majestys favour. The first permanent bridge between Fulham and Putney was completed in 1729, and was the bridge to be built across the Thames in London. The ferry boat was on the side, however and the waterman. Walpole vowed that a bridge would replace the ferry, the Prince of Wales apparently was often inconvenienced by the ferry when returning from hunting in Richmond park and asked Walpole to use his influence by supporting the bridge. The bridge was a structure and lasted for 150 years
7.
Culvert
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A culvert is a structure that allows water to flow under a road, railroad, trail, or similar obstruction from one side to the other side. Typically embedded so as to be surrounded by soil, a culvert may be made from a pipe, in the United Kingdom the word can also be used for a longer artificially buried watercourse. A structure that carries water above land is known as an aqueduct, Culverts are commonly used both as cross-drains for ditch relief and to pass water under a road at natural drainage and stream crossings. A culvert may be a structure designed to allow vehicle or pedestrian traffic to cross over the waterway while allowing adequate passage for the water. Culverts come in sizes and shapes including round, elliptical, flat-bottomed, pear-shaped. The culvert type and shape selection is based on a number of factors including requirements for performance, limitation on upstream water surface elevation. The process of removing culverts, which is becoming increasingly prevalent, is known as daylighting, in the UK, the practice is also known as deculverting. Culverts can be constructed of a variety of materials including cast-in-place or precast concrete, galvanized steel, aluminum, or plastic, two or more materials may be combined to form composite structures. For example, open-bottom corrugated steel structures are built on concrete footings. Culverts must be sized and installed, and protected from erosion. Most agencies adhere to these standards when designing, engineering, if the failure is sudden and catastrophic, it can result in injury or loss of life. Sudden road collapses are often at poorly designed and engineered culvert crossing sites, water passing through undersized culverts will scour away the surrounding soil over time. This can cause a failure during medium-sized rain events. There are more than 5,000,000 culverts currently in use in the United States alone, continued inspection, maintenance, and replacement of these structures is crucial for infrastructure and safety. Accidents due to culvert failure can occur if a culvert has not been adequately sized. Improperly designed backfill support around aluminum or plastic culverts can result in material collapse or failure from inadequate load support. Soil and sand carried through a culvert can wear away the galvanizing of a culvert, allowing it to corrode and eventually collapse. This happened at a culvert near Gosford, New South Wales in 2007, safe and stable stream crossings can accommodate wildlife and protect stream health while reducing expensive erosion and structural damage
8.
Motspur Park
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Motspur Park, also known locally as West Barnes, is a suburb in south-west London. It is located just south-east of New Malden, between the boroughs of Kingston upon Thames and Merton, Motspur Park owes its identity to the railway station of the same name, which has six trains an hour to London Waterloo, and to the adjacent parade of small shops. Two prominent gas holders, which are used to store the consumer gas supply for south-west London, stand just south of the shopping parade, Two of London’s minor natural water courses run through the area. The Beverley Brook runs south to north through its centre and its tributary the Pyl Brook runs parallel further to the east. These have in the past given rise to local flooding. The Motspur Park athletics stadium was built by the University of London in 1928 and it was sold to Fulham Football Club as their training ground in 1999. The name comes from Motspur Farm which was located in the area between the road called Motspur Park and Chilmark Gardens. The 1865 OS map shows the name as Mospur. The district was known as West Barnes and formed part of the traditional county of Surrey. It was rural right up to the end of the century when the railway station was built. Two local lanes, West Barnes Lane and Blakes Lane, represent remnants from this rural era, the barns referred to were those at the western end of Merton Abbeys estates and were just north of West Barnes Lanes junction with the modern Crossway. After the dissolution of the monasteries the land was granted to the Gresham family. They retained the estate for two generations, finally selling it to John Carpenter, a local farmer, the area, remained agricultural and was farmed by a number of families, probably the most well known being the Raynes who gave their name to Raynes Park. In the nineteenth century two local landowners were Charles Blake, the owner of Blue House Farm and Richard Garth Lord of the Manor of Morden, both were lawyers and Garth eventually became a judge. They joined forces to seek to procure a Parliamentary bill for a line to run across their properties. The railway itself was constructed through the locality in 1859 by the London and South Western Railway, large mansions and farms are the only habitation shown on the 1871 map of the district with no station or residential districts. The area east of the railway was part of Hobbalds Farm which was owned by Garth, the oakwood alongside the railway was planted around this time to screen it and remains today. The land was sold and then leased to J. J, bishop the founder of the Bishops Move removal company around 1873
9.
Wimbledon Common
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Wimbledon Common is a large open space in Wimbledon, south-west London, totalling 460 hectares. There are three named areas, Wimbledon Common, Putney Heath, and Putney Lower Common, which together are managed under the name Wimbledon, Putney Lower Common is separated from the rest of the Common by about 1.5 miles of built-up area of southwest Putney. Wimbledon Common, together with Putney Heath and Putney Lower Common, is protected by the Wimbledon, the common is for the benefit of the general public for informal recreation, and for the preservation of natural flora and fauna. It is the largest expanse of heathland in the London area, there is an area of bog with unique flora. The western slopes, which lie on London Clay, support mature mixed woodland, the Commons are also an important site for the stag beetle. Most of the Common is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, english Nature works with the Conservators on the management plan for the area. Wimbledon Common and Putney Heath are also a Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation, the Commons are administered by eight Conservators. Five of them are elected triennially and the three are appointed by three government departments, the Department of the Environment, Ministry of Defence and Home Office. The Commons are managed by the Clerk and Ranger, supported by a Deputy, a Wildlife & Conservation Officer, there are seven Mounted Keepers, two groundsmen, six maintenance workers and one property maintenance worker – some 23 employees in total. There are at least four horses which are used by the Keepers on mounted patrol, the Conservators are responsible for the annual budget of around £1m. Most of the revenue comes from a levy on houses within 3⁄4 mile of the Commons. The levy payers are entitled to vote for the five elected Conservators, the levy payers fall within three London boroughs, Merton, Wandsworth and Kingston. A windmill stands near the centre of Wimbledon Common as usually understood, here Robert Baden-Powell wrote parts of Scouting for Boys, which was published in 1908. In the 19th century the windmill was the headquarters of the National Rifle Association, eventually the headquarters were moved to ranges at Bisley. Two broad, shallow pools, Kingsmere and Rushmere, lie near roads on the parts of Wimbledon Common. The more remote Queensmere is somewhat deeper, being impounded in a small valley, Beverley Brook runs along the western edge of Wimbledon Common. The watercourse was the south west London boundary. Near Beverley Brook and Warren Farm are two Local Nature Reserves managed by the London Wildlife Trust, Farm Bog and Fishpond Wood and it may have been taken by the Legio II Augusta under Vespasian in their push westwards in AD44
10.
East Sheen
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East Sheen, also known as Sheen, is a suburb of London in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. This commercial thoroughfare, well served by transport, is the Upper Richmond Road West which connects Richmond to Putney. Central to this street is The Triangle, an island with a war memorial. The main railway station serving the area, Mortlake, is centred 300m north of this, the earliest recorded use of the name is c.950 as Sceon and means shed or shelters. The area was designated separately from Sheen from the 13th century, manor and hamlet status East Sheen was a hamlet in the parish of Mortlake, East-Sheen is a pleasant hamlet in this parish, situated on a rising ground considerably above the level of the river. Here are several villas, the vicinity to Richmond-park. Earliest references specifically to the present area of land, rather than references to parts of Mortlake, emerge in the 13th century, generally under its early name of Westhall. Originally one carucate, it was sold in 1473 by Michael Gaynsford and Margaret his wife in the right of Margaret to William Welbeck, citizen and haberdasher, the Welbecks held it until selling in 1587. Later owners of what remained, the Whitfields, Juxons and Taylors were equally not titled, as with Mortlakes manorial owners, nor had an above average size or lavish manor house. Development of the Temple Grove, Palmerston country estate The southern estate of Temple Grove, East Sheen, first belonged to Sir Abraham Cullen and he died in 1668, and his first son Sir John in 1677. It belonged to the Temples until Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston and it was bought by Sir Thomas Bernard, who rebuilt the Jacobean style front of the house shown in a drawing hung in the house of 1611. Sir Thomas sold it about 1811 to Rev. William Pearson who founded the Temple Grove Preparatory School for boys, the school moved in 1907 to Eastbourne and the estate was given over to house and apartment builders. East Sheen was included in the Metropolitan Police District in 1840, before 1900, Mortlake developed a secular vestry to help administer poor relief, maintain roads, ditches and other affairs. From 1892 to 1894 Mortlake formed part of the expanded Municipal Borough of Richmond, in 1894 nearby North Sheen was created as a civil parish, being split off from Mortlake and remaining in the Municipal Borough of Richmond. The remainder of Mortlake was instead transferred to Barnes Urban District, in 1965 North Sheen was incorporated in Kew which, with the rest of the Municipal Borough of Richmond, joined Twickenham and Barnes M. B. s to form the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. In the wards of the United Kingdom, Sheen has the largest share of Richmond Park of its surrounding five wards and this wide-footpath street with bus lanes is the Upper Richmond Road West which connects Richmond to Putney. Central to this street is The Triangle, a traffic island with a war memorial. The main railway station serving the area, Mortlake, is centred 300m north of this, East Sheen lies in the ecclesiastical parish of Mortlake with East Sheen
11.
Barnes, London
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Barnes is a suburban district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is located in the extreme northeast of the borough and it is centred 5.8 miles west south-west of Charing Cross in a bend of the River Thames. On the east riverside is the WWT London Wetland Centre adjoining several fields for the three national team sports. The Thames Path National Trail provides a promenade along the entire bend of the river which is on the Championship Course in rowing. Barnes has two stations and is served by bus routes towards central London and Richmond. Hammersmith Bridge at the north end links Barnes to the centre of Hammersmith, Barnes adjoins the South Circular Road and Putney, which forms a rival commercial hub to Hammersmith. Unlike Mortlake and Hammersmith, Barnes has no dual carriageways, the locality is one of a minority at its radius from the centre of London in the early 21st century to be defined by suburban by a Greater London Authority paper. Barnes has two railway stations, Barnes Bridge railway station Barnes railway station Its nearest tube station is Hammersmith. London Buses serving Barnes are, Historically part of Surrey, Barnes appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Berne. It was held by the Canons of St Paul of London when its assets were,8 hides and it rendered to its feudal system overlords £7 per year. The original Norman chapel of St Marys, Barnes village church, was built at some point between 1100 and 1150, and was extended in the early 13th century. In 1215, immediately after confirming the sealing of the Magna Carta, Stephen Langton, the church was added to in 1485 and in 1786. After a major fire in 1978 destroyed the Victorian and Edwardian additions to the building, some of the oldest riverside housing in London is to be found on the Terrace, a road lined with Georgian mansions which runs along the west bend of the river. Construction of these began as early as 1720. Gustav Holst and Ninette de Valois lived in houses on this stretch, the Terrace also has an original red brick police station, built in 1891. It has been remodelled as flats but still preserves the original features, the Grade II listed Barnes Railway Bridge, originally constructed in 1849 by Joseph Locke, dominates the view of the river from the Terrace. In 2009, a project began to re-paint the bridge, Castelnau, in north Barnes and on the banks of the river, has a small church, Holy Trinity. The area between Castelnau and Lonsdale Road contains a 1930s council estate, mostly consisting of Boot Houses, a 2014 survey found that Barnes had the highest proportion of independent shops of any area in Britain, at 96. 6%
12.
Nymphaeaceae
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Nymphaeaceae /ˌnɪmfiːˈeɪsiː/ is a family of flowering plants, commonly called water lilies. They live as rhizomatous aquatic herbs in temperate and tropical climates around the world, the family contains five genera with about 70 known species. Water lilies are rooted in soil in bodies of water, with leaves, the leaves are round, with a radial notch in Nymphaea and Nuphar, but fully circular in Victoria and Euryale. Genera with more parts, Nuphar, Nymphaea, Victoria, have a beetle pollination syndrome, while genera with fewer parts are pollinated by flies or bees. Thus, the number of relatively unspecialized floral organs in the Nymphaeaceae is not an ancestral condition for the clade. Water lilies do not have leaves in the winter time. The leftover of internal pressure is embodied by the constant streams of bubbles that outbreak when rising leaves are ruptured in the spring. Methane is still penetrating the roots and rhizome in the summer, moving fast up the petioles, the Nymphaeaceae are aquatic, rhizomatous herbs. The family is characterized by scattered vascular bundles in the stems. Hairs are simple, usually producing mucilage, stipules are either present or absent. Flowers are solitary, bisexual, radial, with a pedicel and usually floating or raised above the surface of the water. Sepals are 4-12, distinct to connate, imbricate, and often petal-like, petals lacks or 8 to numerous, inconspicuous to showy, often intergrading with stamens. Stamens are 3 to numerous, the innermost sometimes represented by staminodes, carpels are 3 to numerous, distinct or connate. Fruit is an aggregate of nuts, a berry, or an irregularly dehiscent fleshy capsule, seeds are often arillate, more or less lacking sperm. Nymphaeaceae has been investigated systematically for decades because botanists considered their floral morphology to represent one of the earliest groups of angiosperms, modern genetic analyses by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group researchers has confirmed its basal position among flowering plants. In addition, the Nymphaeaceae are more diverse and geographically dispersed than other basal angiosperms. Nymphaeaceae is placed in the order Nymphaeales, which is the second diverging group of angiosperms after Amborella in the most widely accepted flowering plant classification system, Nymphaeaceae is a small family of three to six genera, Barclaya, Euryale, Nuphar, Nymphaea, Ondinea, and Victoria. The genus Barclaya is sometimes given rank as its own family, Barclayaceae, on the basis of a perianth tube arising from the top of the ovary
