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
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City status in the United Kingdom
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The holding of city status gives a settlement no special rights other than that of calling itself a city. Nonetheless, this appellation carries its own prestige and, consequently, the status does not apply automatically on the basis of any particular criteria, although in England and Wales it was traditionally given to towns with diocesan cathedrals. City status in Ireland was granted to far fewer communities than in England and Wales, in Scotland, city status did not explicitly receive any recognition by the state until the 19th century. At that time, a revival of grants of city status took place, first in England, where the grants were accompanied by the establishment of new cathedrals, and later in Scotland and Ireland. The abolition of corporate bodies as part of successive local government reforms. However, letters patent have been issued for most of the cities to ensure the continuation or restoration of their status. At present, Rochester and Elgin are the former cities in the United Kingdom. The name City does not, in itself, denote city status, a number of large towns in the UK are bigger than some small cities, but cannot legitimately call themselves a city without the royal designation. The initial cities of Britain were the fortified settlements organised by the Romans as the capitals of the Celtic tribes under Roman rule, the British clerics of the early Middle Ages later preserved a traditional list of the 28 Cities which was mentioned by Gildas and listed by Nennius. In the 16th century, a town was recognised as a city by the English Crown if it had a diocesan cathedral within its limits. This association between having a cathedral and being called a city was established when Henry VIII founded dioceses in six English towns, a long-awaited resumption of creating dioceses began in 1836 with Ripon. Ripon Town Council assumed that this had elevated the town to the rank of a city, the next diocese formed was Manchester and its Borough Council began informally to use the title city. When Queen Victoria visited Manchester in 1851, widespread doubts surrounding its status were raised, the pretension was ended when the borough petitioned for city status, which was granted by letters patent in 1853. This eventually forced Ripon to regularise its position, its city status was recognised by Act of Parliament in 1865, from this year Ripon bore city status whilst the rapidly expanding conurbation of Leeds – in the Ripon diocese – did not. The Manchester case established a precedent that any municipal borough in which an Anglican see was established was entitled to petition for city status, accordingly, Truro, St Albans, Liverpool, Newcastle upon Tyne and Wakefield were all officially designated as cities between 1877 and 1888. This was not without opposition from the Home Office, which dismissed St Albans as a fourth or fifth rate market town and objected to Wakefields elevation on grounds of population. In one new diocese, Southwell, a city was not created, because it was a village without a borough corporation and therefore could not petition the Queen. The diocese covered the counties of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, and the boroughs of Derby, the link with Anglican dioceses was broken in 1889 when Birmingham successfully petitioned for city status on the grounds of its large population and history of good local government
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London boroughs
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London boroughs are 32 of the 33 local authority districts of the Greater London administrative area and are each governed by a London borough council. The London boroughs were all created at the time as Greater London on 1 April 1965 by the London Government Act 1963 and are a type of local government district. Twelve were designated as Inner London boroughs and twenty as Outer London boroughs, London boroughs have populations of around 150,000 to 300,000. Inner London boroughs tend to be smaller, in population and area, and more densely populated than Outer London boroughs. The London boroughs were created by combining groups of local government units. A review undertaken between 1987 and 1992 led to a number of small alterations in borough boundaries. London borough councils provide the majority of government services, in contrast to the strategic Greater London Authority. The councils were first elected in 1964 and acted as shadow authorities until 1 April 1965, each borough is divided into electoral wards, subject to periodic review, for the purpose of electing councillors. Council elections take place four years, with the most recent elections in 2014. The political make-up of London borough councils is dominated by the Conservative, Labour, twenty-eight councils follow the leader and cabinet model of executive governance, with directly elected mayors in Hackney, Lewisham, Newham, and Tower Hamlets. The City of London is instead governed by the City of London Corporation, from the mid-1930s, the Greater London area comprised four types of local government authorities. There were county boroughs, municipal boroughs, urban districts and metropolitan boroughs, the large county boroughs provided all local government services and held the powers usually invested in county councils. The municipal borough and urban district authorities had fewer powers, reform of London local government sought to regularise this arrangement. The Royal Commission on Local Government in Greater London was established in 1957 and it proposed 52 Greater London Boroughs with a population range of 100,000 to 250,000. This was made up of a mixture of existing units. In December 1961 the government proposed that there would be 34 boroughs rather than 52, the proposed number was further reduced to 32 in 1962. On 1 April 1965, the 32 London boroughs and Greater London were created by the London Government Act 1963,12 boroughs in the former County of London area were designated Inner London boroughs and the 20 others were designated Outer London boroughs. The City of London continued to be administered by the City of London Corporation, elections were held on 7 May 1964, with the new councils acting as shadow authorities before coming into their powers the following year
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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
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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
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Countries of the United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom comprises four countries, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Within the United Kingdom, a sovereign state, Northern Ireland, Scotland. England, comprising the majority of the population and area of the United Kingdom, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are not themselves listed in the International Organization for Standardization list of countries. However the ISO list of the subdivisions of the UK, compiled by British Standards, Northern Ireland, in contrast, is described as a province in the same lists. Each has separate governing bodies for sports and compete separately in many international sporting competitions. Northern Ireland also forms joint All-Island sporting bodies with the Republic of Ireland for most sports, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are dependencies of the Crown and are not part of the UK. Similarly, the British overseas territories, remnants of the British Empire, are not part of the UK, southern Ireland left the United Kingdom under the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922. * Figures for GVA do not include oil and gas revenues generated beyond the UKs territorial waters, various terms have been used to describe England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Wales was described as the country, principality, and dominion of Wales, outside Wales, England was not given a specific name or term. The Laws in Wales Acts have subsequently been repealed, the Acts of Union 1707 refer to both England and Scotland as a part of a united kingdom of Great Britain The Acts of Union 1800 use part in the same way to refer to England and Scotland. The Northern Ireland Act 1998, which repealed the Government of Ireland Act 1920, the Interpretation Act 1978 provides statutory definitions of the terms England, Wales and the United Kingdom, but neither that Act nor any other current statute defines Scotland or Northern Ireland. Use of the first three terms in other legislation is interpreted following the definitions in the 1978 Act and this definition applies from 1 April 1974. United Kingdom means Great Britain and Northern Ireland and this definition applies from 12 April 1927. In 1996 these 8 new counties were redistributed into the current 22 unitary authorities, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are regions in their own right while England has been divided into nine regions. The official term rest of the UK is used in Scotland, for example in export statistics and this term is also used in the context of potential Scottish independence to mean the UK without Scotland. The alternative term Home Nations is sometimes used in sporting contexts, the second, or civic group, contained the items about feeling British, respecting laws and institutions, speaking English, and having British citizenship. Contrariwise, in Scotland and Wales there was a much stronger identification with each country than with Britain, studies and surveys have reported that the majority of the Scots and Welsh see themselves as both Scottish/Welsh and British though with some differences in emphasis. The propensity for nationalistic feeling varies greatly across the UK, and can rise and it reported that 37% of people identified as British, whilst 29% identified as Irish and 24% identified as Northern Irish
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England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
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Regions of England
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The regions are the highest tier of sub-national division in England. Between 1994 and 2011, nine regions had officially devolved functions within Government, while they no longer fulfil this role, they continue to be used for statistical and some administrative purposes. They define areas for the purposes of elections to the European Parliament, Eurostat also uses them to demarcate first level Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics regions within the European Union. The regions generally follow the boundaries of the former standard regions, the London region has a directly elected Mayor and Assembly. Six regions have local authority leaders boards to assist with correlating the headline policies of local authorities, the remaining two regions no longer have any administrative functions, having abolished their regional local authority leaders boards. In 1998, regional chambers were established in the eight regions outside of London, the regions also had an associated Government Office with some responsibility for coordinating policy, and, from 2007, a part-time regional minister within the Government. House of Commons regional Select Committees were established in 2009, Regional ministers were not reappointed by the incoming Coalition Government, and the Government Offices were abolished in 2011. Regional development agencies were public bodies established in all nine regions in 1998 to promote economic development and they had certain delegated functions, including administering European Union regional development funds, and received funding the central government as well. After about 500 AD, England comprised seven Anglo-Saxon territories – Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, the boundaries of some of these, which later unified as the Kingdom of England, roughly coincide with those of modern regions. During Oliver Cromwells Protectorate in the 1650s, the rule of the Major-Generals created 10 regions in England, proposals for administrative regions within England were mooted by the British government prior to the First World War. In 1912 the Third Home Rule Bill was passing through parliament, the Bill was expected to introduce a devolved parliament for Ireland, and as a consequence calls were made for similar structures to be introduced in Great Britain or Home Rule All Round. On 12 September the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, within England, he suggested that London, Lancashire, Yorkshire, and the Midlands would make natural regions. While the creation of regional parliaments never became official policy, it was for a widely anticipated. In 1946 nine standard regions were set up, in central government bodies, statutory undertakings. However, these had declined in importance by the late 1950s, creation of some form of provinces or regions for England was an intermittent theme of post-Second World War British governments. The Redcliffe-Maud Report proposed the creation of eight provinces in England, one-fifth of the advisory councils would be nominees from central government. The boundaries suggested were the eight now existing for economic planning purposes, a minority report by Lord Crowther-Hunt and Alan T. Peacock suggested instead seven regional assemblies and governments within Great Britain, some elements of regional development and economic planning began to be established in England from the mid-1960s onwards
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Ceremonial counties of England
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The ceremonial counties, also referred to as the lieutenancy areas of England, are areas of England to which a Lord Lieutenant is appointed. The Local Government Act 1888 established county councils to assume the functions of Quarter Sessions in the counties. It created new entities called administrative counties, the Act further stipulated that areas that were part of an administrative county would be part of the county for all purposes. The greatest change was the creation of the County of London, which was both an administrative county and a county, it included parts of the historic counties of Middlesex, Kent. Other differences were small and resulted from the constraint that urban sanitary districts were not permitted to straddle county boundaries, apart from Yorkshire, counties that were subdivided nevertheless continued to exist as ceremonial counties. In 1974, administrative counties and county boroughs were abolished, at this time, Lieutenancy was redefined to use the new metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties directly. Following a further rearrangement in 1996, Avon, Cleveland, Hereford and Worcester, Cleveland was partitioned between North Yorkshire and Durham. Hereford and Worcester was divided into the counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Humberside was split between Lincolnshire and a new county of East Riding of Yorkshire. Rutland was restored as a ceremonial county, many county boroughs were re-established as unitary authorities, this involved establishing the area as an administrative county, but usually not as a ceremonial county. Most ceremonial counties are therefore entities comprising local authority areas, as they were from 1889 to 1974, the Association of British Counties, a traditional counties lobbying organisation, has suggested that ceremonial counties be restored to their ancient boundaries, as nearly as practicable. In present-day England, the ceremonial counties correspond to the shrieval counties, the Lieutenancies Act 1997 defines counties for the purposes of lieutenancies in terms of metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties as well as Greater London and the Isles of Scilly. Although the term is not used in the Act, these counties are known as ceremonial counties. gov. uk
10.
Victoria, London
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Victoria is a small district in the City of Westminster in central London, named after Victoria Street and Victoria Station and therefore, indirectly, after Queen Victoria. The name is used to describe streets adjoining or nearly adjoining, including Victoria Street, Buckingham Palace Road, Wilton Road, Grosvenor Gardens, Victoria consists predominantly of commercial property and private and social housing, with retail uses along the main streets. Victoria Coach Station,900 yards southwest of the station, provides road-coach services to long-distance UK. Victoria Street runs on an east–west axis from Victoria station to Broad Sanctuary at Westminster Abbey, Cardinal Place, across the street from Westminster Cathedral, opened in 2006 and contains a selection of restaurants, banks and shops, including a Marks and Spencer store. Further along the street, there is a large House of Fraser department store opposite Westminster City Hall, the area formed part of the parish of St George Hanover Square. Long before Cardinal Place opposite the cathedral came into being there was a brewery based at the western end of Victoria Street. From the early 17th century it started off as a small brewhouse with properties that once were part of St Jamess Palace and this then substantially grew and then was bought and owned by Watney & Co. They built lodgings around the brewery as well as amenities for their staff to use, by the end of the 19th century they were employing a sizeable number of staff. Part of a slum, dubbed Devils Acre by Charles Dickens, was demolished to construct Victoria Street, Victoria Station was built in 1861. According to his biography Norman Wisdom slept near the statue of Marshal Foch by the bus station at the end of the street when his parents split up at the age of 9. Before going into comedy he worked as a boy in the then grand Artillery Mansions on Victoria Street which was then a grand hotel. In the 1980s it went into decay and became a squat - and in the 1990s was gutted, refurbished, Victoria Palace Theatre has been in its present site since 1832. It was originally known as Moys Music Hall but after Victoria station was built it got demolished and it was demolished again in 1911 due to modernisation. It was most famous for a statue of Anna Pavlova which was above it. In 1939 this was removed and lost, a replica has recently been added and it is also known as the home of the Crazy Gang and the Black and White Minstrels. It has hosted countless famous in the yearly Royal Variety Show, most of the year it hosts musicals its latest being Billy Elliott. Little Ben - a small 20 ft version of Big Ben stands in a roundabout outside the Victoria Palace was first erected in 1891 removed in 1963. It was erected with sponsorship from Elf Aquitaine Ltd as a gift of Anglo-French friendship, the Apollo Victoria on Wilton Road was designed as a super cinema in the art deco style in the 1930 and opened as the New Victoria
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Westminster City Council
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Westminster City Council is the local authority for the City of Westminster in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council and is entitled to be known as a city council, the city is divided into 20 wards, each electing three councillors. The council is composed of 44 Conservative Party members and 15 Labour Party members. The borough council provides some shared services with Hammersmith and Fulham, there have previously been a number of local authorities responsible for the Westminster area. The current local authority was first elected in 1964, a year before coming into its powers. All three had been created in 1900, with Paddington and St Marylebone replacing the parish vestries incorporated by the Metropolis Management Act 1855 and it was envisaged through the London Government Act 1963 that Westminster City Council as a London local authority would share power with the Greater London Council. This arrangement lasted until 1986 when Westminster City Council gained responsibility for services that had been provided by the Greater London Council. Westminster became an authority in 1990. The Council is based at Westminster City Hall on Victoria Street, the City Hall was designed by Burnet Tait & Partners on a speculative basis, and completed in 1966. The local authority derives its powers and functions from the London Government Act 1963, Westminster has the powers and functions of a London borough council. It is an authority collecting Council Tax and business rates, it processes local planning applications, it is responsible for housing, waste collection. It is an education authority responsible for social services, libraries. The council shares responsibility with the Greater London Authority for strategic policies including housing, planning, homes for votes scandal Westminster cemeteries scandal
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Conservative Party (UK)
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The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a political party in the United Kingdom. It is currently the party, having won a majority of seats in the House of Commons at the 2015 general election. The partys leader, Theresa May, is serving as Prime Minister. It is the largest party in government with 8,702 councillors. The Conservative Party is one of the two major political parties in the United Kingdom, the other being its modern rival. The Conservative Partys platform involves support for market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defence, deregulation. In the 1920s, the Liberal vote greatly diminished and the Labour Party became the Conservatives main rivals, Conservative Prime Ministers led governments for 57 years of the twentieth century, including Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. Thatchers tenure led to wide-ranging economic liberalisation, the Conservative Partys domination of British politics throughout the twentieth century has led to them being referred to as one of the most successful political parties in the Western world. The Conservatives are the joint-second largest British party in the European Parliament, with twenty MEPs, the party is a member of the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe Europarty and the International Democrat Union. The party is the second-largest in the Scottish Parliament and the second-largest in the Welsh Assembly, the party is also organised in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. The Conservative Party traces its origins to a faction, rooted in the 18th century Whig Party and they were known as Independent Whigs, Friends of Mr Pitt, or Pittites. After Pitts death the term Tory came into use and this was an allusion to the Tories, a political grouping that had existed from 1678, but which had no organisational continuity with the Pittite party. From about 1812 on the name Tory was commonly used for the newer party, the term Conservative was suggested as a title for the party by a magazine article by J. Wilson Croker in the Quarterly Review in 1830. The name immediately caught on and was adopted under the aegis of Sir Robert Peel around 1834. Peel is acknowledged as the founder of the Conservative Party, which he created with the announcement of the Tamworth Manifesto, the term Conservative Party rather than Tory was the dominant usage by 1845. In 1912, the Liberal Unionists merged with the Conservative Party, in Ireland, the Irish Unionist Alliance had been formed in 1891 which merged anti-Home Rule Unionists into one political movement. Its MPs took the Conservative whip at Westminster, and in essence formed the Irish wing of the party until 1922. The Conservatives served with the Liberals in an all-party coalition government during World War I, keohane finds that the Conservatives were bitterly divided before 1914, especially on the issue of Irish Unionism and the experience of three consecutive election losses
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Lord mayor
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The lord mayor is the title of the mayor of a major city in the United Kingdom or Commonwealth realm, with special recognition bestowed by the sovereign. In Australia, Lord Mayor is a status granted by the monarch to mayors of major cities. Australian cities with lord mayors, Adelaide, Brisbane, Darwin, Hobart, Melbourne, Newcastle, Parramatta, Perth, Sydney, see list of cities in Australia. In Canada, the town with a lord mayor in the traditional sense is Niagara-on-the-Lake. Unusually, the council of Brantford, Ontario has taken upon itself to appoint an honorary Lord Mayor Walter Gretzky in addition to the elected mayor. This is the example of a council granting the cachet itself, rather than the cachet being granted by a higher authority. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland it is a ceremonial post conferred by letters patent. See List of lord mayoralties and lord provostships in the United Kingdom, most famously referring to the Lord Mayor of London, who only has jurisdiction over the City of London, as opposed to the modern title of Mayor of London governing Greater London. In Uganda, the jurisdiction with a lord mayor is Kampala. In the Republic of Ireland, the posts of Lord Mayor of Dublin and Lord Mayor of Cork still exist, in Denmark, as the translation of Danish Overborgmester, it is the title of the highest mayor of Denmarks capital city, Copenhagen. In Germany, it is used to translate German Oberbürgermeister. As in Austria, Germanys mayors serve as the executive leaders of their cities and are elected officials. In Romania and Moldova, the mayors of the capitals are named Primar General which means General Mayor, the name is ceremonial and it has no higher powers than mayors of other cities. In Hungary, the mayor of the capital Budapest is called főpolgármester which means chief mayor or grand mayor, only the capital has a főpolgármester. Between 1873 and 1945, the Lord Mayor of Budapest was representative of the Hungarian government at the municipal authority. In ancient China, jīng zhào yĭn was the given to the mayor of capital city. In Estonia, the mayor of the capital, was named Lord Mayor from 1938 to 1940, in Czech Republic, the mayor of the capital Prague and so-called statutory cities is called Primátor. In Sweden, the titles of mayor and lord mayor have no direct equivalent since the 1970s, the executive leader of Swedish municipalities is one of sometimes several Kommunalråd in the function of Chair of the Municipal Board
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Mark Field
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Mark Christopher Field, is a British politician, author and solicitor. Since the 2001 general election, Field has represented the Cities of London, in July 2015, he was appointed Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party by prime minister David Cameron, a role that he retains under Theresa May. Born at the British Military Hospital in Hanover, Germany, his father was a Major in the British Army, Field was educated at state-funded grammar school, Reading School and St Edmund Hall, Oxford where he graduated with a B. A. degree in Jurisprudence in 1987. During his student days, Field also set up a publishing firm after spotting a gap in the market for careers handbooks in the legal profession and he completed his education at The College of Law at Chester, qualifying as a solicitor in 1990. He then became a director of his own employment agency, Kellyfield Consulting from 1994 until 2001. After being elected to Parliament he sold his share of business to a consortium headed by his ex-business partner. He had unsuccessfully contested the Conservative held seat of Enfield North at the 1997 general election following the retirement of the sitting MP Tim Eggar. However,1997 was the year of Labours parliamentary landslide and he was defeated at that election by Labours Joan Ryan by 6,822 votes, Field won the seat with a majority of 4,499 and has been returned to Parliament with an increased majority three times since. Field made his speech in the House of Commons on 27 June 2001. In Parliament, Mark Field was a member of the Lord Chancellors Department Select Committee for a year from 2003 and he was appointed an Opposition Whip by Iain Duncan Smith in 2003, becoming the Shadow Minister for London later that year. Between May and December 2005 he was Shadow Financial Secretary to HM Treasury, in the eleven months to November 2006 he was the Conservative Partys spokesman on Culture, Media and Sport under the new leadership of David Cameron in 2005. During his tenure he guided Opposition policy on the National Lottery Act 2006 and promoted policy safeguarding lottery funds for its four original causes of the Arts, heritage, charities and he also led debates and opposition to the lack of leadership and vision in Britains declining public library service. His responsibilities ranged from the Arts, Heritage, Architecture and Design, Museums and Galleries, in September 2010, Field was appointed by the Prime Minister to the Intelligence & Security Committee, chaired by former Foreign Secretary, Sir Malcolm Rifkind. He became the youngest MP on this committee, which reports directly to 10 Downing Street and oversees the UK’s intelligence and he previously served as Chairman of the APPGs for Azerbaijan and Business Services. He has served on the Standing Committees of several important pieces of legislation, including the Business Rates Supplements Act, Field vocalised criticism of the previous system governing MPs second home allowances, The Daily Telegraphs investigation of MPs’ expenses found Field to be among the lower-end claimants. In October 2011, Field voiced opposition to Occupy London protestors camped in his constituency and he expressed concern that their tent city was turning into a semi-permanent encampment which was disrupting St Pauls, a key iconic tourist site and place of worship. On 28 February 2012, after 137 days of occupation, Fields initial recommendation became reality following a Court order when the site was cleared by the City of London Police in just 137 minutes. In July 2015, Field was appointed Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party under the leadership of David Cameron and was reappointed to the role by Theresa May, Field was opposed to Brexit prior to the 2016 referendum
15.
London (European Parliament constituency)
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London is a constituency of the European Parliament. It currently elects 8 MEPs using the method of party-list proportional representation. The constituency corresponds to the Greater London region of England, in the south east of the United Kingdom, prior to 1999, London was represented by a number of single-member constituencies. The European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999 reduced this to a constituency returning a number of MEPs. Below are all the members since the creation of the London constituency, the number of seats allocated to London has been reduced from 10 to 8 between 1999 and 2009 due to EU enlargement. Members elected in 1999 who previously represented a London constituency were Pauline Green, elected candidates are shown in bold. Brackets indicate the number of votes per seat won, the 2014 results were delayed by Tower Hamlets, where there were recounts needed for six local election wards
16.
Irish Briton
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Irish migration to Great Britain has occurred from the earliest recorded history to the present. There has been a movement of people between the islands of Ireland and Great Britain due to their proximity. This tide has ebbed and flowed in response to politics, economics, today, Ireland is divided between the independent Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Today, millions of residents of Great Britain are either from Ireland or have Irish ancestry and it is estimated that as many as six million people living in the UK have at least one Irish grandparent. The Irish diaspora refers to Irish people and their descendants who live outside Ireland and this article refers to those who reside in Great Britain, the largest island and principal territory of the United Kingdom. During the Dark Ages, significant Irish settlement of western Britain took place and this is based mostly on medieval writings from the 9th and 10th centuries. However, recently some archeologists have argued against this view, saying there is no archeological or placename evidence for a migration or a takeover by a small group of elites. Due to the growth of Dál Riata, in size and influence, Scotland became almost wholly Gaelic-speaking until Northumbrian English began to replace Gaelic in the Lowlands. Gaelic remained the dominant languages of the Highlands into the 19th century, modwenna and others were significant in the following century. Some English monarchs, such as Oswiu of Northumbria, Aldfrith and Harold Godwinson were either raised in or sought refuge in Ireland, alfred the Great may have spent some of his childhood in Ireland. In the year 902 Vikings who had forced out of Ireland were given permission by the English to settle in Wirral. An Irish historical record known as The Three Fragments refers to a group of settlers living among these Vikings as Irishmen. Historically, Irish immigrants to the United Kingdom in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were considered over-represented amongst those appearing in court, some notable people born in Ireland who settled in Great Britain between the 16th and 19th centuries, Richard Burke, 4th Earl of Clanricarde, died 1635. Richard Brinsley Sheridan George Monro, 1700–57, arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington Thomas Moore, died 1852. It is estimated more than one million people died. A further wave of emigration to England also took place between the 1930s, and 1960s by Irish escaping poor economic conditions following the establishment of the Irish Free State. This was furthered by the labour shortage in Britain during the mid-20th century. Irelands population fell from more than 8 million to just 6.5 million between 1841 and 1851, a century later it had dropped to 4.3 million
17.
Other White
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The category does not comprise a single ethnic group but is instead a method of identification for white people who are not represented by other white census categories. This means that the Other White group contains a collection of people with different countries of birth, religions. Along with White British and White Irish, the category does not appear in Northern Ireland, in the 2001 UK Census, the majority of people living in England and Wales ticking the Other White ethnic group specified their ethnicity as European. Four out of five of the Other White category were born overseas, a third were born in a Western European country other than the UK, and one in seven were born in an Eastern European country. The Other White group is largely of working age, with one in ten aged over 65. This does vary according to the country of birth, with people born in the UK being disproportionately young. Polish and Italian respondents had a proportion of over 65s. A wide number of religions are represented in the Other White group, classification of ethnicity in the United Kingdom
18.
British Indian
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The term British Indian refers to citizens of the United Kingdom whose ancestral roots lie in India. This includes people born in the UK who are of Indian descent, today, Indians comprise about 1.4 million people in the UK, making them the single largest visible ethnic minority population in the country. They make up the largest subgroup of British Asians, and are one of the largest Indian communities in the Indian diaspora, mainly due to the Indian-British relations. The British Indian community is the sixth largest in the Indian diaspora, behind the Indian communities in the United States, Saudi Arabia, British Indians are socioeconomically affluent and are primarily members of the middle class. A study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in 2011 found British Indians have among the lowest poverty rates among all groups in Britain. Studies have shown that Indians are more likely to be employed in professional and managerial occupations, No one knows the earliest settlement of Indians in Great Britain for certain. If the Romani, often known by the exonym Gypsies, are regarded as South Asian, the Romanichal and Kale originated in what is now North India and Pakistan, and began migrating westward around 1000 C. E. mixing with Southwest Asians and continental Europeans over the centuries. Romani began arriving in numbers in Western Europe during the 16th century. People from India have settled in Great Britain since the East India Company recruited lascars to replace vacancies in their crews on East Indiamen whilst on voyages in India. Initially these were men from the Indo-Portuguese or Luso-Asian communities of the subcontinent, including men from Bombay, Goa, Cochin, Madras, later Muslim Bengalis and men from Ratnagiri were hired. Many were then refused passage back and had no alternative than to settle in London, there were also some ayahs, domestic servants and nannies of wealthy British families, who accompanied their employers back to Britain when their stay in South Asia came to an end. British soldiers would sometimes marry Indian women and send their mixed race children back to Britain. Indian wives of British soldiers would sometimes ask for passage home after being abandoned or widowed if they did accompany their children, in 1835, Bridget Peter a native of the Madras region lost her husband, a British soldier serving in His Majestys 1st Foot Regiment. She petitioned the Directors from Chelsea Hospital in a state of destitution and they paid to return her and her three children to India. The Navigation Act of 1660 restricted the employment of non-English sailors to a quarter of the crew on returning East India Company ships, in 1797,13 were buried in the parish of St Nicholas at Deptford. During the 19th century, the East India Company brought thousands of Indian lascars, scholars and workers to Britain largely to work on ships and it is estimated 8,000 Indians lived in Britain permanently prior to the 1950s. Due to the majority of early Asian immigrants being lascar seamen, naval cooks also came, many of them from the Sylhet Division of what is now Bangladesh. One of the most famous early Bengali immigrants to Britain was Sake Dean Mahomet, in 1810, he founded Londons first Indian restaurant, the Hindoostane Coffee House
19.
British Pakistanis
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British Pakistanis are citizens or residents of the United Kingdom whose ancestral roots lie in Pakistan. This includes people born in the UK who are of Pakistani descent, the majority of British Pakistanis originate from the Azad Kashmir and Punjab regions, with a smaller number from other parts of Pakistan including Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. The UK is home to the largest Pakistani community in Europe, British Pakistanis are the second largest ethnic minority population in the United Kingdom and also make up the second largest subgroup of British Asians. In addition, they are the second largest overseas Pakistani community, due to the historical relations between the two countries, immigration to the UK from the region which is now Pakistan began in small numbers in the mid-nineteenth century. This was made easier as Pakistan was a member of the Commonwealth, Pakistani immigrants helped to resolve labour shortages in the British steel and textile industries. Doctors from Pakistan were recruited by the National Health Service in the 1960s, the British Pakistani population has grown from about 10,000 in 1951 to over 1.1 million in 2011. The vast majority of live in England, with a sizable number in Scotland and smaller numbers in Wales. The most diverse Pakistani population is in London which comprises Punjabis, Mirpuri Kashmiris, Pashtuns, Sindhis, Muhajirs, Saraikis, Baloch and others. The majority of British Pakistanis are Muslim, around 90 per cent of those living in England, the majority are Sunni Muslims, with a significant minority of Shia Muslims. The UK also has one of the largest overseas Christian Pakistani communities, since their settlement, British Pakistanis have had diverse contributions and influence on British society, politics, culture, economy and sport. A large number of British Pakistanis have traditionally been self-employed, with a significant number working in the industry or in family-run businesses of the retail sector. The earliest period of Asian migration to Britain has not been ascertained, immigration from what is now Pakistan to the United Kingdom began long before the independence of Pakistan in 1947. These immigrants were often the first Asians to be seen in British port cities and were perceived as indolent due to their reliance on Christian charities. Despite this, most early Pakistani immigrants married local white British women because there were few South Asian women in Britain at the time. During the colonial era, Asians continued coming to Britain as seamen, traders, students, domestic workers, cricketers, political officials and visitors, South Asian seamen sometimes settled after ill treatment or being abandoned by ship masters. Many early Pakistanis came to the UK as scholars and studied at major British institutions, an example of such a person is Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. Jinnah came to the UK in 1892 and started an apprenticeship at Grahams Shipping and Trading Company, after completing his apprenticeship, Jinnah joined Lincolns Inn where he trained as a barrister. At 19, Jinnah became the youngest person from South Asia to be called to the bar in Britain, most early Pakistani settlers and their families moved from port towns to the Midlands, as Britain declared war on Germany in 1939
20.
British Bangladeshi
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British Bangladeshis are people of Bangladeshi origin who reside in the United Kingdom having immigrated to the UK and attained citizenship through naturalisation or whose ancestors did so. They are also known as British Bengalis, in reference to the ethnic group from that region. Large numbers of Bangladeshis immigrated to the UK, primarily from Sylhet, located in the north-east of the country, the largest concentration is in London, primarily in the east London boroughs, of which Tower Hamlets has the highest proportion. This large diaspora in London leads people in Bangladesh to refer to British Bangladeshis as Londonis, Bangladeshis form one of the UKs largest group of people of overseas descent and are also one of the countrys youngest and fastest growing communities. The 2011 UK Census recorded nearly half-a-million residents of Bangladeshi ethnicity, Bangladeshis form a largely homogeneous community. Rates of unemployment are typically high, there is overcrowding, British Bangladeshis have the highest overall relative poverty rate of any ethnic group in the UK with 65% of Bangladeshis living in low income households. Bengalis had been present in Britain as early as the 19th century, some ancestors of British Bangladeshis went to the UK before World War I. Author Caroline Adams records that in 1925 a lost Bengali man was searching for other Bengali settlers in London and they mainly immigrated to the United Kingdom to find work, achieve a better standard of living, and to escape conflict. During the pre-state years, the 1950s and 1960s, Bengali men immigrated to London in search of employment, most settled in Tower Hamlets, particularly around Spitalfields and Brick Lane. In 1971, Bangladesh fought for its independence from Pakistan in what was known as the Bangladesh Liberation War, in the region of Sylhet, this led some people to join the Mukti Bahini, or Liberation Army. In the 1970s, changes in immigration laws encouraged a new wave of Bangladeshis to come to the UK, job opportunities were initially limited to low paid sectors, with unskilled and semi-skilled work in small factories and the textile trade being common. When the Indian restaurant concept became popular, some Sylhetis started to open cafes, from these small beginnings a network of Bangladeshi restaurants, shops and other small businesses became established in Brick Lane and surrounding areas. The influence of Bangladeshi culture and diversity began to develop across the East London boroughs, the early immigrants lived and worked mainly in cramped basements and attics within the Tower Hamlets area. The men were illiterate, poorly educated, and spoke little English, so they could not interact well with the English-speaking population. Some became targets for businessmen, who sold their properties to Sylhetis, by the late 1970s, the Brick Lane area had become predominantly Bengali, replacing the former Jewish community which had declined. Jews migrated to outlying suburbs of London, as integrated with the majority British population. Jewish bakeries were turned into houses, jewellery shops became sari stores. The synagogue at the corner of Fournier Street and Brick Lane became the Jamme Masjid or Great London Mosque and this building represents the history of successive communities of immigrants in this part of London
21.
British Chinese
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They opened restaurants on the ports. Most British Chinese are descended from people who were themselves overseas Chinese when they came to Britain, most are from former British colonies, such as Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Mauritius. People from mainland China and Taiwan and their descendants constitute a minor proportion of the British Chinese community. Chinese communities are found in major cities including London, Birmingham, Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Sheffield, Nottingham, Belfast. The first recorded Chinese person in Britain was Shen Fu Tsong, Shen was the first person to catalogue the Chinese collection in the Bodleian Library. The King was so taken with him he had his portrait painted, the portrait of Shen hangs in the Queens collection. The first settlement of Chinese people in the United Kingdom dates from the early 19th century, because many of the Chinese settlers were originally seamen, the first settlements started in the port cities of Liverpool, Cardiff and London. In London, the Limehouse area became the site of one of the first Chinatowns established in Britain, a Chinese seaman known as John Anthony took on this lucrative role looking after Chinese sailors for the East India Shipping Company in the late 18th and early 19th century. By 1805, Anthony had amassed both the fortune and the influence to become the first Chinese man to be naturalised as a British citizen—an act so rare it actually required an Act of Parliament. British shipping companies first started employing Chinese sailors during the Napoleonic Wars to replace the British sailors who had called up to the Royal Navy. They soon discovered that they worked for less, did not drink to excess, conditions aboard ship appalled Lee Cheong, for instance, when he visited his fathers quarters, The smell. I remember the smell and the cramped conditions. I remember going down below, rows and rows of bunks, knapsacks and all sorts of junk stuffed in every nook, lots and lots of people milling around. I couldn’t think of anything worse than those sorts of conditions, with the advent of steam in the 1860s, the recruitment of Chinese seamen increased on the trading routes from the Far East. The first Chinese student to graduate from a British university was Wong Fun who received his MD in 1855 from Edinburgh, many Chinese graduates did indeed return to make a significant contribution to their country, but some stayed. The Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, is the most important celebration for Chinese and it links overseas Chinese and their descendants to their heritage, even though they live thousands of miles away from their ancestral homelands. Celebrations in London are famous for colourful parades, fireworks, the route starts in the Strand and goes along Charing Cross Road and Shaftesbury Avenue. Other activities include a show in Trafalgar Square with dragon and lion dances and traditional
22.
Black British
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Black British are British people of Black and African origins or heritage, including those of African-Caribbean background, and may include people with mixed ancestry. Black British is one of various self-designation entries used in official UK ethnicity classifications, Black residents constituted around 3 per cent of the United Kingdoms population in 2011. The figures have increased from just under 1.15 million residents in 2001, or 2 per cent of the population, over 95% of Black British live in England, particularly in Englands larger urban areas, with over a million Black British living in Greater London alone. Historically, the term has most commonly used to refer to Black people of New Commonwealth origin. For example, Southall Black Sisters was established in 1979 to meet the needs of black women, Black was used in this inclusive political sense to mean non-white British. The official UK Census has separate self-designation entries for respondents to identify as Asian British, Black British, the 1991 UK census was the first to include a question on ethnicity. Black British was also a term for those Black people in Sierra Leone who were descendants of migrants from England and Canada and considered themselves British. They are generally the descendants of people who lived in England in the 18th century. There is evidence of the presence of people from Romanised North Africa in Roman Britain, archaeological inscriptions suggest that most of these residents were involved with the military. However, some were in the echelons of society. Analysis of a found in a Roman grave in Yorkshire indicated that it belonged to a mixed-race female. Her sarcophagus was made of stone and also contained a jet bracelet, in 2007, scientists found the rare paternal haplogroup A1 in several living British men with Yorkshire surnames. This clade is today almost exclusively found among males in West Africa, the haplogroup is thus thought to have been brought to Britain either through enlisted soldiers during Roman Britain, or via the slave trade. Some of the individuals who arrived through the slave route attained a high social rank. Historical records indicate the presence of a very small African population in Britain dating at least as far as the 12th century, early in the 16th century, servants from parts of Africa probably arrived in London with Catherine of Aragon when she travelled to England to marry Henry VIII. A black musician is among the six trumpeters depicted in the retinue of Henry VIII in the Westminster Tournament Roll. He wears the royal livery, and is mounted on horseback, the man is generally identified as the John Blanke, the blacke trumpeter who appears in the payment accounts of both Henry VIII and his father, Henry VII. A group of Africans were at the court of James IV of Scotland, both he and John Blanke were paid wages for their services
23.
British African-Caribbean people
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British African Caribbean people are residents of the United Kingdom who are of West Indian background and whose ancestors were primarily natives or indigenous to Africa. African-Caribbean people are present throughout the United Kingdom with by far the largest concentrations in London, pauls in Bristol, or Handsworth and Aston in Birmingham or Moss Side in Manchester. According to the 2011 census, the largest number of African-Caribbean people are found in Croydon, there is now a view that the term should not be hyphenated and that indeed, the differences between such groups mean the people of African and Caribbean origins should be referred to separately. The Guardian and Observer style guide prescribes the use of African-Caribbean for use in the two newspapers, specifically noting not Afro-Caribbean, New World slavery was originally focused on the extraction of gold and other precious raw materials. Africans were then set to work on the vast cotton, tobacco and sugar plantations in the Americas for the economic benefit of these colonial powers. One impact of the American Revolution was the historical development of African-American and African-Caribbean people. Whereas the American colonies had established slavery by positive laws, slavery did not exist under English common law and was prohibited in England. Slaves cannot breathe in England, if their lungs receive our air and they touch our country, and their shackles fall. Thats noble, and bespeaks a nation proud, spread it then, And let it circulate through every vein. There are records of small communities in the ports of Cardiff, Liverpool, London and these communities were formed by freed slaves following the abolition of slavery. Typical occupations of the migrants were footmen or coachmen. Walter Tull, footballer and soldier, Andrew Watson, footballer, Robert Wedderburn, Spencean revolutionary Nathaniel Wells, landowner and yeomanry officer. The growing Caribbean presence in the British military led to approximately 15,000 migrants arriving in the north-west of England around the time of World War I to work in munitions factories. The Jamaican poet and communist activist, Claude McKay came to England following the First World War and became the first Black British journalist, in February 1941,345 West Indian workers were brought to work in and around Liverpool. They were generally better skilled than the local Black British, there was some tension between them and West Africans who had settled in the area. Since World War II, many African-Caribbean people migrated to North America and Europe, especially to the United States, Canada, the UK, France, and the Netherlands. As a result of the losses during the war, the British government began to mass immigration from the countries of the British Empire. The British Nationality Act 1948 gave British citizenship to all living in Commonwealth countries
24.
British Arabs
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British Arabs are British people citizens or residents of Arab ethnic, cultural and linguistic heritage or identity from Arab countries. Unlike Black British or Asian British, the term British Arab was not one of those employed in government ethnicity categorisations used in the 2001 UK Census and for national statistics. As a result, community members are believed to have been under-counted in previous population estimates according to the National Association of British Arabs and this absence of a separate Arab category in the UK census obliged many to select other ethnicity categories. In the late 2000s, the British government announced that an Arab ethnicity category would be added to the 2011 UK Census for the first time, as a result,240,545 British Arabs were reported in the 2011 Census in England and Wales. It also notes that how many of the individual identities responded in the general Arab box is uncertain so there may be overlap in the numbers, it found 366,769 Arabs in England. British Arabs is used as an ethnic designation by the National Association of British Arabs. It is also employed by academics, and in the media, as of 2011, the National Association of British Arabs estimates that there are around 366,769 first and second generation British Arabs. The majority originate from Somalia, Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, most live in the Greater London area, and many are either businesspeople, recent immigrants or students. There are also sizable and long-established Yemeni Arab communities living in both Cardiff and the South Shields area, the latter near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a diverse community, British Arabs are represented in the business and media fields, among other areas. Miladi s survey of 146 community members during the summer of 2001 reported Al-Jazeera as being the respondents preferred news outlet, additionally,2010 was a breakthrough year in terms of political participation. Several British Arabs ran for and/or were appointed to office as community representatives, according to the 2011 Census, the religious breakdown of Arabs in England and Wales can be seen in the table below
25.
Classification of ethnicity in the United Kingdom
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According to the 2011 census, the total population of the United Kingdom was around 63,182,000. It is the 22nd-largest in the world and its overall population density is 259 people per square kilometre, with England having a significantly higher population density than Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. This population growth through natural change has been accompanied in the past two decades by growth through net international migration into the UK, the United Kingdoms assumed high literacy rate is attributable to universal public education introduced for the primary level in 1870 and secondary level in 1900. Parents are obliged to have their children educated from the ages of 5 to 16, about 40% of British students go on to post-secondary education. The Church of England and the Church of Scotland function as the churches in their respective countries. The UKs population is predominantly White British, historically, British people were thought to be descended mainly from the different ethnic stocks that settled there before the 11th century, pre-Celtic, Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Viking and Norman. Although Celtic languages are spoken in Scotland, Cornwall, and Northern Ireland. In North and West Wales, Welsh is widely spoken as a first language, but much less so in the South East of the country, during the Industrial Revolution, the life expectancy of children increased dramatically. The proportion of the born in London who died before the age of five decreased from 74.5 per thousand in 1730–1749 to 31.8 per thousand in 1810–1829. According to Robert Hughes in The Fatal Shore, the population of England and Wales, the first Census in 1801 revealed that the population of Great Britain was 10.5 million. In 1800, the population of Ireland was between 4.5 and 5.5 million, the 1841 UK Census counted the population of England and Wales to be 15.9 million. Irelands population was 8.2 million in 1841, the population of Scotland was 2.6 million. The Great Irish Famine, which began in the 1840s, caused the deaths of one million Irish people, mass emigration became entrenched as a result of the famine and the population continued to decline until the mid-20th century. The population of England had almost doubled from 16.8 million in 1851 to 30.5 million in 1901, ireland’s population decreased rapidly, from 8.2 million in 1841 to less than 4.5 million in 1901. The estimated population of the United Kingdom in the 2011 census was 63.182 million of whom 31. 029m were male and 32. 153m female. Based on the 2011 census the population of England was 53. 012m, Scotland was estimated at 5. 295m, Wales was 3. 063m and Northern Ireland 1. 811m. The mid-2015 population estimates for the UK was 65. 1m – approximately 54. 8m for England,5. 4m for Scotland,3. 1m for Wales and 1. 9m for Northern Ireland. The UK Office for National Statistics 2012-based National Population Projections indicated that, if recent trends continue and this is an average annual growth rate of 0. 6% per annum
26.
Greenwich Mean Time
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Greenwich Mean Time is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. GMT was formerly used as the civil time standard, now superseded in that function by Coordinated Universal Time. Today GMT is considered equivalent to UTC for UK civil purposes and for navigation is considered equivalent to UT1, consequently, the term GMT should not be used for precise purposes. Due to Earths uneven speed in its orbit and its axial tilt, noon GMT is rarely the exact moment the sun crosses the Greenwich meridian. This event may occur up to 16 minutes before or after noon GMT, noon GMT is the annual average moment of this event, which accounts for the word mean in Greenwich Mean Time. Originally, astronomers considered a GMT day to start at noon while for almost everyone else it started at midnight, to avoid confusion, the name Universal Time was introduced to denote GMT as counted from midnight. Astronomers preferred the old convention to simplify their observational data, so each night was logged under a single calendar date. Today Universal Time usually refers to UTC or UT1, in some countries Greenwich Mean Time is the legal time in the winter and the population uses the term. For an explanation of why this is, see GMT in legislation below, synchronisation of the chronometer on GMT did not affect shipboard time, which was still solar time. Most time zones were based upon GMT, as an offset of a number of hours ahead of GMT or behind GMT and it was gradually adopted for other purposes, but a legal case in 1858 held local mean time to be the official time. On 14 May 1880, a signed by Clerk to Justices appeared in The Times, stating that Greenwich time is now kept almost throughout England. For example, our polling booths were opened, say, at 813 and closed at 413 PM. This was changed later in 1880, GMT was adopted on the Isle of Man in 1883, Jersey in 1898 and Guernsey in 1913. Ireland adopted GMT in 1916, supplanting Dublin Mean Time, hourly time signals from Greenwich Observatory were first broadcast on 5 February 1924, rendering the time ball at the observatory redundant in the process. The daily rotation of the Earth is irregular and constantly slows, on 1 January 1972, GMT was superseded as the international civil time standard by Coordinated Universal Time, maintained by an ensemble of atomic clocks around the world. Indeed, even the Greenwich meridian itself is not quite what it used to be—defined by the centre of the instrument at the Observatory at Greenwich. Nevertheless, the line in the old observatorys courtyard today differs no more than a few metres from that line which is now the prime meridian of the world. Historically GMT has been used two different conventions for numbering hours. The long-standing astronomical convention dating from the work of Ptolemy, was to refer to noon as zero hours and this contrasted with the civil convention of referring to midnight as zero hours dating from the Romans
27.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
28.
Postcodes in the United Kingdom
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Postal codes used in the United Kingdom are known as postcodes. They are alphanumeric and were adopted nationally between 11 October 1959 and 1974, having been devised by the GPO, a full postcode is known as a postcode unit and designates an area with a number of addresses or a single major delivery point. For example, the postcode of the University of Roehampton in London is SW15 5PU, the postcode of GCHQ is GL51 0EX, where GL signifies the postal town of Gloucester. The postal town refers to an area and does not relate to a specific town. GL51 is one of the postcodes for the town of Cheltenham which is where GCHQ is located, the London post town covers 40% of Greater London. On inception it was divided into ten districts, EC, WC, N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W. The S and NE sectors were later abolished and these divisions changed little, usually only changed for operational efficiency. Some older road signs in Hackney still indicate the North East sector/district, following the successful introduction of postal districts in London, the system was extended to other large towns and cities. Liverpool was divided into Eastern, Northern, Southern and Western districts in 1864/65, in 1917 Dublin – then still part of the United Kingdom – was divided into numbered postal districts. These continue in use in a form by An Post. In 1923 Glasgow was divided in a way to London. In January 1932 the Postmaster General approved the designation of some urban areas into numbered districts. In November 1934 the Post Office announced the introduction of numbered districts in every town in the United Kingdom large enough to justify it. Pamphlets were issued to each householder and business in ten areas notifying them of the number of the district in which their premises lay, the pamphlets included a map of the districts, and copies were made available at local head post offices. The public were invited to include the district number in the address at the head of letters. A publicity campaign in the following year encouraged the use of the district numbers, the slogan for the campaign was For speed and certainty always use a postal district number on your letters and notepaper. A poster was fixed to every box in the affected areas bearing the number of the district. Every post office in the district was also to display this information
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EC postcode area
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The EC postcode area, also known as the London EC postal area, is a group of postcode districts in central London, England. It includes almost all of the City of London and parts of the London Boroughs of Islington, Camden, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, the area covered is of very high density development. Deliveries for the EC postcode area are made from Mount Pleasant Mail Centre, the current postcode districts are relatively recent divisions of the EC1, EC2, EC3 and EC4 districts established in 1917. Where the districts are used for other than the sorting of mail, such as use as a geographic reference and on street signs. Postcode Address File List of postcode areas in the United Kingdom London postal district Royal Mails Postcode Address File A quick introduction to Royal Mails Postcode Address File
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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
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WC postcode area
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The WC postcode area, also known as the London WC postcode area, is a group of postcode districts in central London, England. It includes parts of the London Borough of Camden, City of Westminster, London Borough of Islington, the area covered is of very high density development. The current postcode districts are relatively recent, divisions WC1 and WC2 districts established only in 1917. Where the districts are used for other than the sorting of mail, such as use as a geographic reference and on street signs. Both the WC1 and WC2 postcode districts are part of the London post town, there are no dependent localities used in the postcode districts. The numbered districts were created in 1917, before then they had been included in the WC postal district. There has been no significant recoding of the area from 1990 to 2007. There are Post Office branches in the WC1 postcode district at Grays Inn, High Holborn, Marchmont Street and Russell Square, the Western Central District Office was located on New Oxford Street, which was a stop on the London Post Office Railway. Deliveries for WC1 and WC2 now come from Mount Pleasant Mail Centre in Farringdon Road
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Metropolitan Police Service
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As of March 2016, the Met employed 48,661 full-time personnel. This included 32,125 sworn police officers,9,521 police staff and this number excludes the 3,271 Special Constables, who work part-time and who have the same powers and uniform as their regular colleagues. This makes the Metropolitan Police the largest police force in the United Kingdom by a significant margin, the post of Commissioner was first held jointly by Sir Charles Rowan and Sir Richard Mayne. The post is occupied by the now-outgoing Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe. The Commissioners deputy, the Deputy Commissioner, is currently Craig Mackey, a number of informal names and abbreviations exists for the Metropolitan Police Service, the most common being the Met. In colloquial London, it is referred to as the Old Bill. The Met is also referred to by the metonym Scotland Yard after the location of its headquarters in a road called Great Scotland Yard in Whitehall. The Mets current headquarters is New Scotland Yard, in Victoria, the Metropolitan Police Service, whose officers became affectionately known as bobbies, was founded in 1829 by Robert Peel under the Metropolitan Police Act 1829. In 1839, the Marine Police Force, which had formed in 1798, was amalgamated into the Metropolitan Police. In 1837, it also incorporated with the Bow Street Horse Patrol that had organised in 1805. Since January 2012, the Mayor of London is responsible for the governance of the Metropolitan Police through the Mayors Office for Policing, the mayor is able to appoint someone to act on his behalf, the current office-holder is Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Sophie Linden. The work of MOPAC is scrutinised by the Police and Crime Committee of the London Assembly, the area policed by the Metropolitan Police Service is known as the Metropolitan Police District. In terms of policing, the Met is divided into a number of Borough Operational Command Units. The City of London is a police area and is the responsibility of the separate City of London Police. The British Transport Police are responsible for policing of the network in the United Kingdom. Within London, they are responsible for the policing of the London Underground, Tramlink, The Emirates Air Line. There is also a park police force, the Kew Constabulary, responsible for the Royal Botanic Gardens. Officers also have limited powers in Scotland and Northern Ireland, within the MPD, the Met will take over the investigation of any serious crime from the British Transport Police and Ministry of Defence Police, if it is deemed appropriate
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Inner London
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Inner London is the name for the group of London boroughs which form the interior part of Greater London and are surrounded by Outer London. With its origins in the Bills of mortality, it became fixed as an area for statistics in 1847 and was used as an area of government from 1855 to 1965. It now has two common definitions, Inner London is smaller than Outer London both in terms of population and area, but the density of population is more than double that of Outer London. Inner London is officially the wealthiest area in Europe with the most expensive street in Europe, many of the worlds wealthiest people live in Inner London, but there is also widespread poverty. Central London is located at the core of Inner London, the area that is now Inner London was defined by the Registrar General as a collection of parishes called London and appeared in the 1851 Census. The area become fixed in 1847 with the addition of Lewisham Poor Law Union, in 1855 the Registrar General area, with the addition of Penge, was used to define the district of the Metropolitan Board of Works. The Metropolis was also described as Inner London from the 1881 Census, in 1889 this area became the County of London. The area was adjusted in 1900 when Penge was transferred to Kent, the Inner London boroughs were defined by the London Government Act 1963. The Inner London boroughs occupied the area as the County of London that was abolished as they were created. North Woolwich was an anomaly as it was part of the County of London, the inner borough councils became local education authorities on 1 April 1990. The statutory definition is used as part of the grant settlement used to finance local government, Newham London Borough Council campaigns for recognition as an Inner London borough council for central government grants, as this would have financial benefits for the borough. It is not currently considered an Inner London borough as, with the exception of North Woolwich, it did not form part of the County of London. The statutory Inner London boroughs are, The City of London was not designated as an Inner London borough, the Office for National Statistics and Eurostat define Inner London differently, explicitly including the City of London, adding Haringey and Newham, but excluding Greenwich. The land area is 319 km2 and the population in 2011 was 3,231,901, figures before 1971 have been reconstructed by the Office for National Statistics based on past censuses in order to fit the 2001 limits. Figures from 1981 onward are ONS midyear estimates, after centuries of increase, the population of Inner London reached a peak of 4,998,237 in 1911. The population of Inner London then began a decline as the population continued to increase in Outer London. By 1951 the population of Greater London as a whole was in decline, subsequently, the trend reversed and the population of Inner London recovered to 3,231,901 in 2011, some 1,766,336 short of the 1911 peak. For the purposes of the London Plan planning document produced by the Mayor of London, Inner London consists of the City of London, all the statutory Inner London boroughs, the area covered by the London postal district is sometimes referred to as Inner London
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West End of London
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Use of the term began in the early 19th century to describe fashionable areas to the west of Charing Cross. The West End covers much of the boroughs of Westminster and Camden, while the City of London, or the Square Mile, is the main business and financial district in London, the West End is the main commercial and entertainment centre of the city. It is one of the most expensive locations in the world in which to rent office space and it was also close to the royal seat of power at Westminster, and is largely contained within the City of Westminster. Developed in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, it was built as a series of palaces, expensive town houses, fashionable shops. The areas closest to the City around Holborn, Seven Dials, as the West End is a term used colloquially by Londoners and is not an official geographical or municipal definition, its exact constituent parts are up for debate. The Edgware Road to the north-west and the Victoria Embankment to the south-east were also covered by the document but were treated as adjacent areas to the West End. According to Ed Glinerts West End Chronicles the districts falling within the West End are Mayfair, Soho, Covent Garden, Fitzrovia, one of the local government wards within the City of Westminster is called West End. This covers a area that defined by Glinert, Mayfair, Soho. The population of this ward at the 2011 Census was 10,575, the New West End Company is a business improvement district and runs services including street cleaning and security on Oxford Street, Regent Street and Bond Street. NWEC also runs the Red Caps service, the West End is laid out with many notable public squares and circuses, the latter being the original name for roundabouts in London. London West End Things to do General overview of what to do in the West End
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City of London
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The City of London is a city and county within London. It constituted most of London from its settlement by the Romans in the 1st century AD to the Middle Ages, the City is now only a tiny part of the metropolis of London, though it remains a notable part of central London. Administratively, it one of the 33 local authority districts of Greater London, however, the City of London is not a London borough. The City of London is widely referred to simply as the City and is colloquially known as the Square Mile. Both of these terms are often used as metonyms for the United Kingdoms trading and financial services industries. The name London is now used for a far wider area than just the City. London most often denotes the sprawling London metropolis, or the 32 London boroughs and this wider usage of London is documented as far back as 1888, when the County of London was created. The local authority for the City, namely the City of London Corporation, is unique in the UK and has some unusual responsibilities for a local council and it is also unusual in having responsibilities and ownerships beyond its boundaries. The Corporation is headed by the Lord Mayor of the City of London, the current Lord Mayor, as of November 2016, is Andrew Parmley. The City is a business and financial centre. Throughout the 19th century, the City was the primary business centre. London came top in the Worldwide Centres of Commerce Index, published in 2008, the insurance industry is focused around the eastern side of the City, around Lloyds building. A secondary financial district exists outside of the City, at Canary Wharf,2.5 miles to the east, the City has a resident population of about 7,000 but over 300,000 people commute to and work there, mainly in the financial services sector. It used to be held that Londinium was first established by merchants as a trading port on the tidal Thames in around 47 AD. However, this date is only supposition, many historians now believe London was founded some time before the Roman conquest of Britain in 43 AD. They base this notion on evidence provided by both archaeology and Welsh literary legend, archaeologists have claimed that as much as half of the best British Iron Age art and metalwork discovered in Britain has been found in the London area. One of the most prominent examples is the famously horned Waterloo Helmet dredged from the Thames in the early 1860s and now exhibited at the British Museum. Also, according to an ancient Welsh legend, a king named Lud son of Heli substantially enlarged and improved a pre-existing settlement at London which afterwards came to be renamed after him, the same tradition relates how this Lud son of Heli was later buried at Ludgate
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Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
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The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is an inner London borough of Royal borough status, to the west of the centre. As the smallest borough in London and the second smallest district in England, the borough is immediately to the west of the City of Westminster and to the east of London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. It contains major museums and universities in Albertopolis, department stores such as Harrods, Peter Jones and Harvey Nichols and it is home to the Notting Hill Carnival, Europes largest. It contains many of the most expensive places in the world. The local authority is Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council, the boroughs motto is Quam Bonum in Unum Habitare, which can be roughly translated as How good to dwell in unity. The borough was created in 1965 from the boroughs of Kensington. Kensingtons Royal Borough status was inherited by the new borough, the new borough was originally to be called just Kensington – the inclusion of Chelsea was locally supported. Due to its high French population it has held the unofficial title of the 21st arrondissement of Paris. In 2005, the borough had more of its covered by domestic buildings than anywhere else in England at 19%. It also had the fifth highest proportion of land covered by buildings at 12%. As of 2010, statistics released by the Office for National Statistics showed that life expectancy at birth for females was 89.8 years in 2008–2010, male life expectancy at birth for the same period was 85.1 years. The figures in 1991–1993 were significantly lower,73.0 years for males and 80.0 for females, the borough has a higher proportion of high earners than any other local government district in the country. It has the highest proportion of workers in the financial sector, in December 2006, Sport England published a survey which showed that the boroughs residents were the fourth most active in England in sports and other fitness activities. 27. 9% of the population participate at least three times a week for 30 minutes, the top quarter earn at least £41 per hour, three and a half times the level of the lowest quarter at £12 per hour or less. Two of its more notable leaders were Nicholas Freeman, from 1977 until 1989. The Council has 42 Conservative,9 Labour and 3 Liberal Democrat councillors, the borough has combined a number of services and departments with its neighbours, Hammersmith & Fulham and Westminster City Council. Chelsea has less Underground access than Kensington, the station within Chelsea being Sloane Square. There are long-term plans for the Chelsea-Hackney line, with a station in the Kings Road near Chelsea Old Town Hall, buses Many London bus routes pass through the borough, most of them along Kings Road, Fulham Road, Kensington High Street and Ladbroke Grove
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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
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Metropolitan Borough of Westminster
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The Metropolitan Borough of Westminster was a metropolitan borough in the County of London, England, from 1900 to 1965. By royal charter dated 29 October 1900 the borough was granted the title City of Westminster, Westminster had originally been created a city and seat of the short-lived Diocese of Westminster in 1541. The diocese was suppressed in 1550, but the area was known as a city. The arms of Westminster represent two monarchs, closely associated with the City, edward the Confessor, who rebuilt the church of St Peter, and Henry VII, who added a chapel, within the Abbey. The supporting lions are adopted from the Cecil family, who have had an association with the borough. The arms were first granted in 1601, the motto Custodi Civitatem Domine, is translated as O Lord, watch over the City. The arms can still be seen on the Portland stone parapet of the former Westminster City Hall in St Martins Place and it can also be seen on the entrance to the car park beneath 10 Spring Gardens, home of the British Council, Chelsea and Hammersmith Bridges. It consisted of the area that is now part of the City of Westminster and south of Oxford Street and it included Soho, Mayfair, St. Jamess, The Strand, Westminster, Pimlico, Belgravia, and Hyde Park. In 1922 these eleven were combined into a civil parish called City of Westminster. The Close of the Collegiate Church of St Peter had not been under the control of any local authority prior to 1900, the unions were amalgamated in 1913 to form the City of Westminster Union. The parishes and unions were abolished in 1922 and replaced with a single City of Westminster parish for poor law purposes. The parish continued to exist until 1965, but ceased to have any role in the administration of the law in 1930 when responsibility transferred to the London County Council. It was abolished in 1965 and its area part of the City of Westminster along with the Metropolitan Borough of Paddington. Municipal Year Book of the United Kingdom for 1907, Metropolitan Borough of Westminster at Vision of Britain Westminster
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Westminster parks and open spaces
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The City of Westminster, a central London borough, has 116 parks and open spaces, these include small gardens as well as larger areas of land. The open spaces are managed by Westminster City Council and private resident, Westminster is also home to four of the Royal Parks. The Royal Parks are managed by Royal Parks, Westminster has a selection of typical London squares and formal gardens. In addition to parks and open spaces within the borough, the City owns and maintains East Finchley Cemetery in the London Borough of Barnet, City of Westminster Parks and Recreation
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