1.
London Borough of Barnet
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The London Borough of Barnet is a suburban London borough in North London, England, forming part of Outer London. It is the second largest London borough by population with 331,500 inhabitants and covers an area of 86.74 square kilometres, the fourth highest. It borders Hertfordshire to the north and five other London boroughs, Harrow and Brent to the west, Camden and Haringey to the south-east, the borough was formed in 1965 from parts of the counties of Middlesex and Hertfordshire. The local authority is Barnet London Borough Council, based in Hendon, the Act did not include a name for the new borough. A joint committee of the due to be amalgamated suggested Northgate or Northern Heights. Keith Joseph, the Minister of Housing and Local Government, eventually chose Barnet, the place name Barnet is derived from the Old English bærnet meaning Land cleared by burning. The area covered by the borough has a long history. Evidence of 1st-century Roman pottery manufacturing has been found at Brockley Hill and Roman coins from the 3rd, both sites are on the Roman road Watling Street from London and St Albans which now forms the western border of the borough. Hendon is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, but the districts of Barnet, Edgware, in 1471 the Battle of Barnet was fought in Monken Hadley, just within the present boroughs boundary. It was here that Yorkist troops led by King Edward IV killed the Kingmaker Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick and his brother, John Neville, individual articles describe the history and development of the districts of Church End, East Finchley, Edgware, Golders Green and North Finchley. The residents of London Borough of Barnet are represented at Westminster by Members of Parliament for three parliamentary constituencies, Chipping Barnet is represented by Theresa Villiers. Finchley and Golders Green is represented by Mike Freer, Hendon, in 2010 the most marginal Conservative-held seat in London with a majority of 106 votes, is represented by Matthew Offord. The borough is divided into 21 wards, each with 3 councillors, following the local government election on 4 May 2006 the Conservative party gained a working majority and full control of the council. Mike Freer became leader of the council on 11 May 2006, replacing Brian Salinger as Conservative group leader, Barnet had £27.4 million invested in Icelandic banks Glitnir and Landsbanki when they collapsed October 2008. A report showed that Barnet Council failed to correct procedures when depositing the money. Campaigning on parking, he beat Conservative politician Brian Coleman at the 2012 London Assembly election overturning a 20,000 vote deficit and turning this into a 21,000 vote majority. In 2009, the authority started to introduce a new model of local government delivery in the borough, called Future Shape, the first stages of Future Shape were agreed by the councils cabinet in July 2009. The mainly public-sector union UNISON commissioned its own report on the involved in Future Shape
2.
Standard Life Aberdeen
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Standard Life plc is an investment company with headquarters in Edinburgh and operations around the globe. It has 1.2 million shareholders in more than 50 countries and 4.5 million customers and clients worldwide, with a further 25 million customers through joint ventures in China and India. In March 2017, the reached a agreement to merge with the investment company Aberdeen Asset Management. The Standard Life Assurance Company was established in 1825 and was reincorporated as an assurance company in 1925. During the 19th century it opened offices in Canada, India, China, in 2006 demutualisation took place and the company was floated on the London Stock Exchange. It sold its division to Discovery Holdings, a South African business, in May 2010 and went on to buy Focus Solutions Group. In February 2013, the announced that it had acquired the private client division of Newton Management Limited. In March 2014, it was announced that Standard Life was in advanced talks to purchase rival Phoenix Group Holdings’ Ignis Asset Management for around £400 million, towards the end of the month, Standard Life completed the acquisition for a fee of £390 million. In September 2014, Standard Life agreed to sell its Canadian operations to The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company and it completed this sale on 30 January 2015 for a cash consideration of C$4. 0bn. The transaction included a Global Collaboration Agreement where Manulife will seek to distribute Standard Life Investments funds in Canada, the US and Asia. In a round-up of 2014 business, pre-tax profits rose by 19% to £604m, fee-based revenue during the year grew 14% to 1. 43bn, the pay and bonus of Chief Executive, David Nish, rose by 23% to almost £5. 5m. In July 2016, a property investment fund managed by Standard Life Investments froze withdrawals after experiencing liquidity issues, Standard Life is an investment company, headquartered in Edinburgh, with operations across the globe. It employs around 6,300 people internationally through businesses in the UK, Europe, North America and it has around 4.5 million customers and clients across 45 countries and is responsible for the administration of £357bn of their assets. The company has a further 25 million customers through its Indian and Chinese associate and joint venture businesses - HDFC Life in India, Standard Life Investments offers global asset management expertise and actively manages over £278bn worldwide. In the UK, Standard Life also owns three subsidiary businesses, Focus Solutions, a software and consultancy business, threesixty, a provider and Vebnet. Standard Life has a listing on the London Stock Exchange. It is also listed in a number of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices, including the DJSI World, in March 2017, Standard Life reached an agreement to merge with Aberdeen Asset Management, in an all-share merger, subject to shareholder approval. The company’s board of directors is made up of a Chairman, four Executive Directors, the board has nine men and three women
3.
Building Design Partnership
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BDP, formerly known as Building Design Partnership, is a firm of architects and engineers employing over 900 staff in the UK and internationally. The associates were made full equity partners in 1964, BDP was the end result of a series of experiments in profit sharing and multidisciplinary working begun by Grenfell-Baines in 1941 with the Grenfell Baines Group. A1962 policy statement committed BDP to “the principle of equal status for all professions”, the firm expanded rapidly over the following decades and had 30 partners and 700 staff by the time of Grenfell-Baines’s retirement in 1974. BDP’s principal offices, inherited from Grenfell Baines & Hargreaves, were in London, Manchester, by 1970, there were branch offices in Belfast, Glasgow and Guildford plus international offices in Memphis, Rome and Johannesburg. BDP ceased to be a partnership in 1997 and became a limited company, as of 2016 BDP was reported to be the UKs third largest architecture firm, with 950 employees. In March 2016, the Japanese engineering firm Nippon Koei bought all of the stock of BDP for a sale price of £102.2 million. Khandekar Website
4.
Fenwick (department store)
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Fenwick pronounced fen-ick is an independent chain of department stores in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1882 by John James Fenwick in Newcastle upon Tyne, as of 2012, the chain is still owned by the Fenwick family and the company is chaired by Mark Fenwick. The company is reported to be valued at £452million, the stores founder, John James Fenwick, was born in Richmond, North Yorkshire in 1846. Fred had trained in retail in Paris and is said to have inspired by Le Bon Marché. Fenwick has since expanded its operations, in 1888 it opened a store in Sunderland, but it closed within the year. In 1891 it opened a branch in Bond Street, London and this store was later doubled in size in 1980. The company bought the Joseph Johnson store in Leicester in 1962 and this store was subsequently rebranded as Fenwick. Fenwick was the department store for the 1976 opening of Brent Cross Shopping Centre in London. Outlets in Windsor and York followed in 1980 and 1984 respectively, the Ricemans store in Canterbury was acquired in 1986, and rebranded Fenwick in 2003. The Tunbridge Wells store opened in 1992, Fenwick acquired in 2001 the Bentalls group of department stores for £70.8 million, with stores in Bracknell, Ealing, Kingston upon Thames, Lakeside, Royal Tunbridge Wells and Worthing. The Lakeside store was closed, and three branches were sold to J E Beale, with Fenwick retaining only the stores in Kingston upon Thames. On the 5th January 2017 Mark Fenwick declared that fenwicks leicester is to close, Fenwick has its headquarters at the original Fenwick department store in the centre of Newcastle upon Tyne, and currentlyoperates 11 outlets across England. The Newcastle store is the store in the chain. It specialises in a range of luxury products. The store is known locally for its extravagant Christmas window display, filled with detailed sets and sophisticated moving figures, the themes are taken mainly from fairy tales and childrens stories. The figures move and are accompanied by music
5.
John Lewis (department store)
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John Lewis is a chain of upmarket department stores operating throughout the United Kingdom. The chain is owned by the John Lewis Partnership, which was created alongside the first store in the mid-1800s, the first John Lewis store was opened in 1864 in Oxford Street, London. The chains slogan is Never Knowingly Undersold which has been in use since 1925, there are 46 stores throughout England, Scotland and Wales, including 12 At Home stores, and flexible format stores in Exeter and York. The first John Lewis concession opened in New South Wales, Australia in November 2016, on 1 January 2008, the Oxford Street store was awarded a Royal Warrant from Her Majesty the Queen as, suppliers of haberdashery and household goods. John Lewis Reading is also the holder of a Royal Warrant from the Queen in 2007 as suppliers of household, the flagship store on Oxford Street began as a drapery shop, opened by John Lewis in 1864. In 1905 Lewis acquired a store, Peter Jones in Sloane Square. His son, John Spedan Lewis, founded the John Lewis Partnership in 1920 after thinking up the idea during his days in charge of Peter Jones, John Spedan Lewis also thought up the idea of the Gazette, the partnerships in-house magazine, first published in 1918. In 1933 the partnership purchased its first store outside London, the long established Jessop & Son in Nottingham, Jessops only rebranded itself as John Lewis on 27 October 2002. In 1940 the partnership bought Selfridge Provincial Stores, caleys, Windsor was also included but closed in 2006. In 1949, it was reported that London branches included Peter Jones, John Barnes, John Pound, the provincial branches were Robert Sayle, of Peterborough and Cambridge, Tyrell & Green, of Southampton and Lance and Lance Ltd. of Weston-super-Mare. They also had silk shops at Hull, Edinburgh and Newcastle, in 1953 the famous Reading Department Store Heelas became part of the John Lewis group and remained named as such under the Heelas name until 2001 when it adopted the John Lewis name. Also in 1953 the partnership bought Herbert Parkinson, a textile manufacturer, the first John Lewis store constructed as part of a shopping centre was Jessops in Nottingham which has been a feature of Victoria Centre since it opened in 1972. The announcement of an anchor tenant such as John Lewis contributes to the certainty of developers proposals, before the relaxation of UK Sunday trading laws in 1994, John Lewis stores closed on Mondays to allow staff a full two-day weekend. The John Lewis Partnership were the first department store group in the UK to adopt central buying, launching the Jonell name for own brand merchandise in 1937 and that brand name has gradually been replaced with the John Lewis name since 2001. Additional own brands include Collection by John Lewis as well as John Lewis & Co. a selection of Waitrose own brand products, such as cleaning materials and party stationery, are also available from John Lewis. All have now been rebranded John Lewis, with the exception of Peter Jones in south west London, investment has been made across the group over recent years. This has included the renovation of Peter Jones at a cost of £107 million, the original Oxford Street shop is still the flagship and largest branch in the partnership. A complete refurbishment of the building was completed in late 2007 at a cost of £60 million and this introduced the new Place To Eat restaurant and a brasserie and bistro in the store
6.
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
7.
Brent Cross
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Brent Cross is an area of north London, in the London Borough of Barnet. It is located near the A41 Brent Cross Flyover over the A406 North Circular Road, Brent Cross is best known for its shopping centre and the proposed Brent Cross Cricklewood development. Brent Cross is in the London Borough of Barnet and contains the Brent Cross Shopping Centre, the area takes its name from an old crossroads near the River Brent and is not in the London Borough of Brent. It has no boundaries but in general only premises west of the Brent Cross Flyover, east of the M1 motorway. The River Brent passes through it, flowing from east to west in a man-made channel, Brent Cross was originally the name of a crossroads in the vicinity of the current Brent Cross Flyover. Previously the area had been known as Renters Farm, a name dating from 1309, in the late nineteenth century a sewage works was built there and Hendon Greyhound Stadium stood there from 1935 to 1972. In 1976 the Brent Cross Shopping Centre was opened, the first stand-alone shopping centre to be built in the United Kingdom, in the 1920s and 1930s, two major roads through the area were constructed, the east-west A406 North Circular Road and the north-south A41 Hendon Way. In 1923 the Northern line was extended on a viaduct over the River Brent. In 1964/65 the Brent Cross Flyover was built to carry the Hendon Way over the North Circular, during its construction on Saturday 20 June 1964 a fatal accident occurred while erecting a large crane at the site. The crane jib buckled and collapsed onto a coach travelling east on the North Circular Road killing seven passengers on board, a question was raised in parliament about the accident on 22 June. When Brent Cross Shopping Centre opened in 1976 it was the shopping centre of its type in the UK after the Bullring in Birmingham. It was initially constructed in a dumbbell shape running east-west parallel to the North Circular Road and it was expanded and renovated beginning in 1995, with additional shops and restaurants on an arm running north from the middle. A multi-storey car park replaced the remainder of the parking area to the north. The car park of the centre was used as a filming location for the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies. On 14 December 1991, four explosive devices were planted by the Provisional Irish Republican Army, the bombs were discovered and defused before they could have been detonated. On 6 November 2012, six people on three motorbikes entered the centre and smashed in the windows at jewellers Fraser Hart. An estimated £2m worth of jewellery was stolen, Brent Cross Cricklewood is a planned new town centre development in Hendon and Cricklewood. The developers of the scheme are Hammerson and Standard Life, construction is planned to start in 2018 and be completed in 2021-22
8.
Provisional Irish Republican Army
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It was the biggest and most active republican paramilitary group during the Troubles. It saw itself as the successor to the original IRA and called simply the Irish Republican Army. It was also referred to as such by others. The Provisional IRA emerged in December 1969, following a split in the republican movement, the IRA initially focused on defence, but it began an offensive campaign in 1971. The IRAs primary goal was to force the British to negotiate a withdrawal from Northern Ireland and it used guerrilla tactics against the British Army and RUC in both rural and urban areas. It also carried out a campaign in Northern Ireland and England against what it saw as political. The IRA called a ceasefire in July 1997, after Sinn Féin was re-admitted into the Northern Ireland peace talks. It supported the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and in 2005 it disarmed under international supervision, the campaign was supported by arms and funding from Libya and from some Irish American groups. As a result, the IRA launched a new strategy known as the Long War and this saw them conduct a war of attrition against the British and increased emphasis on political activity, via the political party Sinn Féin. The success of the 1981 Irish hunger strike in mobilising support and winning elections led to the Armalite and ballot box strategy, with more time, the British demand was quickly dropped after the May 1997 general election in the UK. The IRA ceasefire was reinstated in July 1997 and Sinn Féin was admitted into all-party talks. The IRAs armed campaign, primarily in Northern Ireland but also in England and mainland Europe, the dead included around 1,100 members of the British security forces, and about 640 civilians. The IRA itself lost 275–300 members and an estimated 10,000 imprisoned at times over the 30-year period. The organisation remains classified as a proscribed terrorist group in the UK, two small groups split from the Provisional IRA, the Continuity IRA in 1986, and the Real IRA in 1997. Both reject the Good Friday Agreement and continue to engage in paramilitary activity and this new IRA group is estimated by Police Service of Northern Ireland intelligence sources to have between 250 and 300 active militants and many more supporting associates. The Provisional IRA was organised hierarchically, at the top of the organisation was the IRA Army Council, headed by the IRA Chief of Staff. All levels of the organisation were entitled to send delegates to IRA General Army Conventions, the GAC was the IRAs supreme decision-making authority. Since 1969, there have only three, in 1970,1986, and 2005, owing to the difficulty in organising such a large gathering of an illegal organisation in secret
