1.
Kensington
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Kensington is an affluent district within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London. Its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, the affluent and densely populated area contains the major museum district of South Kensington, which has the Royal Albert Hall for music and nearby Royal College of Music. The area is home to many of Londons European embassies, the first mention of the area is in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it was written in Latin as Chenesitone, which has been interpreted to have originally been Kenesignetun in Anglo-Saxon. A variation may be Kesyngton, in 1396 and he in turn granted the tenancy of Kensington to his vassal Aubrey de Vere I, who was holding the manor in 1086, according to Domesday Book. The bishops heir, Robert de Mowbray, rebelled against William Rufus, Aubrey de Vere I had his tenure converted to a tenancy in-chief, holding Kensington after 1095 directly of the crown. He granted land and church there to Abingdon Abbey at the deathbed request of his young eldest son, Geoffrey. As the Veres became the earls of Oxford, their estate at Kensington came to be known as Earls Court, while the Abingdon lands were called Abbots Kensington and the church St Mary Abbots. The original Kensington Barracks, built at Kensington Gate in the late 18th century, were demolished in 1858, the focus of the area is Kensington High Street, a busy commercial centre with many shops, typically upmarket. The street was declared Londons second best shopping street in February 2005 thanks to its range, however, since October 2008 the street has faced competition from the Westfield shopping centre in nearby White City. Kensingtons second group of buildings is at South Kensington, where several streets of small to medium-sized shops. This is also the end of Exhibition Road, the thoroughfare that serves the areas museums. To the west, a border is kept along the line of the Counter Creek marked by the West London railway line, in the north east, the large Royal Park of Kensington Gardens is a green buffer. The other main area in Kensington is Holland Park, just north of Kensington High Street. Kensington is, in general, an affluent area, a trait that it now shares with its neighbour to the south. In early 2007, houses sold in Upper Phillimore Gardens for in excess of £20 million, Kensington is also very densely populated, it forms part of the most densely populated local government district in the United Kingdom. This high density is not formed from high-rise buildings, instead, unlike northern extremities of the Borough, Kensington lacks high-rise buildings except for the Holiday Inns London Kensington Forum Hotel in Cromwell Road, which is a 27-storey building. The Olympia exhibition hall is just over the border in West Kensington. Kensington is part of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, the head office of newspaper group DMGT is located in Northcliffe House in Kensington, which is the office part of the large Barkers building
2.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
3.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
4.
London Underground
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The London Underground is a public rapid transit system serving London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. The network has expanded to 11 lines, and in 2015–16 carried 1.34 billion passengers, the 11 lines collectively handle approximately 4.8 million passengers a day. The system has 270 stations and 250 miles of track, despite its name, only 45% of the system is actually underground in tunnels, with much of the network in the outer environs of London being on the surface. In addition, the Underground does not cover most southern parts of Greater London, the current operator, London Underground Limited, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for London, the statutory corporation responsible for the transport network in Greater London. As of 2015, 92% of operational expenditure is covered by passenger fares, the Travelcard ticket was introduced in 1983 and Oyster, a contactless ticketing system, in 2003. Contactless card payments were introduced in 2014, the LPTB was a prominent patron of art and design, commissioning many new station buildings, posters and public artworks in a modernist style. Other famous London Underground branding includes the roundel and Johnston typeface, to prepare construction, a short test tunnel was built in 1855 in Kibblesworth, a small town with geological properties similar to London. This test tunnel was used for two years in the development of the first underground train, and was later, in 1861, the worlds first underground railway, it opened in January 1863 between Paddington and Farringdon using gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives. It was hailed as a success, carrying 38,000 passengers on the opening day, the Metropolitan District Railway opened in December 1868 from South Kensington to Westminster as part of a plan for an underground inner circle connecting Londons main-line termini. The Metropolitan and District railways completed the Circle line in 1884, built using the cut and this opened in 1890 with electric locomotives that hauled carriages with small opaque windows, nicknamed padded cells. The Waterloo and City Railway opened in 1898, followed by the Central London Railway in 1900, the Metropolitan Railway protested about the change of plan, but after arbitration by the Board of Trade, the DC system was adopted. When the Bakerloo was so named in July 1906, The Railway Magazine called it an undignified gutter title, by 1907 the District and Metropolitan Railways had electrified the underground sections of their lines. In January 1913, the UERL acquired the Central London Railway, the Bakerloo line was extended north to Queens Park to join a new electric line from Euston to Watford, but World War I delayed construction and trains reached Watford Junction in 1917. During air raids in 1915 people used the stations as shelters. An extension of the Central line west to Ealing was also delayed by the war, the Metropolitan promoted housing estates near the railway with the Metro-land brand and nine housing estates were built near stations on the line. Electrification was extended north from Harrow to Rickmansworth, and branches opened from Rickmansworth to Watford in 1925, the Piccadilly line was extended north to Cockfosters and took over District line branches to Harrow and Hounslow. In 1933, most of Londons underground railways, tramway and bus services were merged to form the London Passenger Transport Board, the Waterloo & City Railway, which was by then in the ownership of the main line Southern Railway, remained with its existing owners. In the same year that the London Passenger Transport Board was formed, in the following years, the outlying lines of the former Metropolitan Railway closed, the Brill Tramway in 1935, and the line from Quainton Road to Verney Junction in 1936
5.
Earl's Court tube station
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Earls Court is a London Underground station on the District and Piccadilly lines. The station is in fare zones 1 and 2. The station is located in the Earls Court area of central London, on the Piccadilly line the station is between Barons Court and Gloucester Road. It is the junction of the District line, with West Brompton, Kensington and West Kensington to the west, High Street Kensington to the north. The Earls Court train crew depot is situated within the buildings towards the Warwick Road side of the station, it includes booking-on point, mess room. There are train stabling roads below nearby Hogart Road, at its opening, the extension had no intermediate station. The 1870s was a decade for the DR. On 3 July 1871 the DR opened a link from the West Brompton branch which connected to the Inner Circle south of High Street Kensington. Shortly afterwards, on 30 October 1871, the DR opened its first station at Earls Court, the original station was on the east side of Earls Court Road rather than the west. On 1 February 1872, the DR opened a branch west of Earls Court station to the WLEJR which it connected to at Addison Road. From that date the Outer Circle service began running over the DRs tracks, the service was operated jointly by the H&CR and the DR. On 9 September 1874 another extension was opened which took the DR west from Earls Court to West Kensington, trains from Earls Court could then travel via five different routes and the stations efficient operation was central to the DRs success. Unfortunately, the location of the close to the eastern junction meant that the original station was congested. A fire on 30 November 1875 damaged the station and a substantial replacement was built to the west of Earls Court Road. It was opened on 1 February 1878, on 5 May 1878 The Midland Railway began running a circuitous service known as the Super Outer Circle from St Pancras to Earls Court via Cricklewood and South Acton. It operated over a now disused connection between the NLR and the London and South Western Railways branch to Richmond, the service was not a success and was ended on 30 September 1880. An experimental service was operated for six months in 1900 when electric trains were tested over the section of track between Earls Court and High Street Kensington. Following protracted negotiations with the MR over the method of electrification to be used the first electrified section of the DR was opened in 1903, electric services through Earls Court were begun on 1 July 1905
6.
London Overground
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The London Overground is a suburban rail network in the United Kingdom. Established in 2007, it serves a large part of Greater London and parts of Hertfordshire, the network forms part of the National Rail network, but under the franchise control and branding of Transport for London. Operation has been franchised to Arriva Rail London since 13 November 2016, the Overground has been assigned the colour orange as a mode specific colour by Transport for London. This colour is used in the Overground version of the TfL roundel, for the representation of Overground routes on the map, in train interiors. Rail services in Great Britain are mostly run under franchises operated by train operating companies. The concept of developing a network of services around London goes back to the independently produced Ringrail proposals in the early 1970s. The proposal from Barren was for several overlapping services mainly using the North London Line and this was given the marketing name Cross Town Link-Line, and operated with basic 2-car diesel units. The next initiative came from the GLC in 1984, when the government supported the Broadgate development that would entail the demolition of Broad Street Station. The closure process was convoluted because of problems in making arrangements for the North London Line. These would eventually run to and from Liverpool Street via a new section of track and this used a name once associated with a semicircular service that operated from Broad Street to Mansion House, but ceased during World War 1. The pamphlets and briefings, first issued in 1997, initially suggested a route from Clapham Junction to the Greenwich Peninsula, intended to improve access from south London to the Millennium Dome. However, this was thwarted by architect Richard Rogers who considered a railway route on an elevated viaduct could cause community severance, nothing further happened to develop this network until after the new GLA was set up in 2000. But the lobbying discreetly continued with a series of short briefings published by one RDS member based in North London, mayoral and GLA candidates were approached to discuss the viability of the Outer Circle concept. The principle was widely supported and was adopted into the first Mayors Transport Plan, meanwhile, a pilot scheme was launched in 2003 to bring several National Rail local services, mainly in South London and operated by multiple companies, under the ON – Overground Network brand. TfL introduced consistent information displays, station signage and maps on the routes in South London. The pilot scheme was later dropped, in January 2004 the Department for Transport announced a review of the rail industry in Great Britain. As part of review, proposals were put forward by TfL for a London Regional Rail Authority to give TfL regulatory powers over rail services in. A result of consultation was agreement by the then Secretary of State for Transport, Alistair Darling
7.
National Rail
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The name and the accompanying double arrow symbol are the intellectual property of the Secretary of State for Transport. The National Rail logo was introduced by ATOC in 1999, and was used on the Great Britain public timetable for the first time in the edition valid from 26 September in that year. Rules for its use are set out in the Corporate Identity Style Guidelines published by the Rail Delivery Group, the NR title is sometimes described as a brand. As it was used by British Rail, the operator before franchising, its use also maintains continuity and public familiarity. National Rail should not be confused with Network Rail, the two networks are generally coincident where passenger services are run. Most major Network Rail lines carry traffic and some lines are freight only. About twenty privately owned operating companies, each franchised for a defined term by government. The Rail Delivery Group is the association representing the TOCs and provides core services. It also runs Rail Settlement Plan, which allocates ticket revenue to the various TOCs, and Rail Staff Travel and it does not compile the national timetable, which is the joint responsibility of the Office of Rail Regulation and Network Rail. Since the privatisation of British Rail there is no longer a single approach to design on railways in Great Britain, the look and feel of signage, liveries and marketing material is largely the preserve of the individual TOCs. However, National Rail continues to use BRs famous double-arrow symbol and it has been incorporated in the National Rail logotype and is displayed on tickets, the National Rail website and other publicity. The trademark rights to the arrow symbol remain state-owned, being vested in the Secretary of State for Transport. The double arrow was already prescribed for indicating a railway station, the lettering used in the National Rail logotype is a modified form of the typeface Sassoon Bold. It is a misconception that Rail Alphabet was also used for printed material. The British Rail typefaces of choice from 1965 were Helvetica and Univers, TOCs may use what they like, examples include Futura, Helvetica, Frutiger, Bliss, and a modified version of Precious by London Midland. Several conurbations have their own metro or tram systems, most of which are not part of National Rail, LO now also possesses some infrastructure in its own right, following the reopening of the former East London line of London Underground as the East London Railway of LO. Heathrow Express and Eurostar are also not part of the National Rail network despite sharing of stations, northern Ireland Railways were never part of British Rail, which was always confined to Great Britain, and therefore are not part of the National Rail network. National Rail services have a common ticketing structure inherited from British Rail, through tickets are available between any pair of stations on the network, and can be bought from any station ticket office
8.
West Brompton station
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The station is on the Wimbledon branch of the District line between Earls Court and Fulham Broadway stations. On the WLL, National Rail services are provided by Southern, the station is between Kensington and Imperial Wharf stations. This part of the station and track is within the London Borough of Hammersmith, since 2000 it has been a Grade II Listed Building. The West London Extension Joint Railway was opened in the early 1860s and it joined the southern end of the West London Joint Railway at Kensington station with Clapham Junction station and ran through West Brompton although a station was not opened until 1866. The original station was designed by the engineer of the Metropolitan and District Railway, Sir John Fowler. The current Lillie bridge dates from 1860 and is the work of Fowler, the soon to disappear Lillie Bridge Railway and Engineering Depot, opened in 1872, is close by. On 12 April 1869, the District Railway opened its own station adjacent to the WLEJR station as the terminus, the original plan was to connect the DR to the WLEJR but this did not take place. On 1 March 1880, the DR opened an extension south from West Brompton to Putney Bridge, in 1940, during World War II, several WLL stations sustained bomb damage. Passenger services on the WLL between Willesden Junction and Clapham Junction were withdrawn on 21 October 1940, the Underground station remained in use and the WLL continued in use for freight traffic. The WLL station buildings and platforms were subsequently demolished, full passenger services resumed on the WLL in 1994, but it was not until 1 June 1999 that new Network Rail platforms were opened at West Brompton by the then Minister of Transport, Glenda Jackson. There is a plaque to this effect on the Western lift tower. The station design was by Robinson Kenning and Gallagher of Croydon, the lift tower design is an echo of the decorative brickwork by the 19th c. City of London architect and surveyor, John Young designer of the nearby Empress Place, the works were funded by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham on whose border the station lies. The WLL platforms do not have an entrance and access is from the Underground station. The District line serves platforms 1 and 2 and the WLL serves platforms 3 and 4, there is a fence between platforms 2 and 3, but they are on the same level and it is possible to pass directly between them. There are lifts to both platforms for wheelchair access, and this means there is also step-free access to the eastbound District line platform. Southern 1 northbound to Milton Keynes Central via Watford Junction,1 southbound to South Croydon via Clapham Junction and East Croydon. Additional District line services operate at times, with many trains continuing to Barking, Dagenham East or Upminster
9.
Capital & Counties Properties
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Capital & Counties Properties plc is a United Kingdom-based property investment and development company which is focused on sites in the West and West End of London. It is listed on the London and Johannesburg stock exchanges and is a constituent of the FTSE250 Index, the company was demerged from Liberty International in May 2010, although it does not itself hold REIT status. The firms three principal businesses are Covent Garden, EC&O Limited and Great Capital Partnership, the market value of the companys property portfolio as at 31 December 2015 was £3.9 billion
10.
Seating capacity
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Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that seats two to a stadium that seats hundreds of thousands of people. The International Fire Code, portions of which have adopted by many jurisdictions, is directed more towards the use of a facility than the construction. It specifies, For areas having fixed seating without dividing arms and it also requires that every public venue submit a detailed site plan to the local fire code official, including details of the means of egress, seating capacity, arrangement of the seating. Once safety considerations have been satisfied, determinations of seating capacity turn on the size of the venue. For sports venues, the decision on maximum seating capacity is determined by several factors, chief among these are the primary sports program and the size of the market area. Seating capacity of venues also plays a role in what media they are able to provide, in contracting to permit performers to use a theatre or other performing space, the seating capacity of the performance facility must be disclosed. Seating capacity may influence the kind of contract to be used, the seating capacity must also be disclosed to the copyright owner in seeking a license for the copyrighted work to be performed in that venue. Venues that may be leased for private functions such as ballrooms and auditoriums generally advertise their seating capacity, seating capacity is also an important consideration in the construction and use of sports venues such as stadiums and arenas. The seating capacity for restaurants is reported as covers, a restaurant that can seat 99 is said to have 99 covers, seating capacity differs from total capacity, which describes the total number of people who can fit in a venue or in a vehicle either sitting or standing. Use of the term public capacity indicates that a venue is allowed to more people than it can actually seat. Again, the total number of people can refer to either the physical space available or limitations set by law
11.
C. Howard Crane
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Charles Howard Crane was an American architect. Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Crane moved to Detroit in 1904 and he worked as a draftsman for several architectural firms, including Albert Kahn Associates, Smith, Hinchman & Grylls, and the office of Gustave A. Mueller, before opening his own office in 1908. Like Thomas W. Lamb and John Eberson, Crane specialized in the design of palaces in North America. Cranes career would include some 250 theaters in total, with 62 of them in the Detroit area and his 5174-seat Detroit Fox Theatre was the largest of the Fox Theatres. The 4,500 seat Fox Theatre in St. Louis was its slightly smaller architectural near twin and these were considered to have been his architectural masterpieces. Among the 5 massive Fox theatres, Crane also designed the Brooklyn Fox, Crane was a genius at giving his venues great acoustics. Among his best theatres were Orchestra Hall, the former and once home of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Crane also designed Olympia Stadium, which eventually had seating for 13,375 plus standing room for 3,300, Olympia, used by the Detroit Red Wings, was razed in 1987. Crane also designed many office buildings, most of his many downtown Detroit movie palaces had attached office towers that he designed. However, Cranes office tower masterpiece is the 47 story 555 ft. tall LeVeque Tower in Columbus, due to the 1929 Great Depression, Cranes theatre and office building commissions dried up. He became disillusioned and in 1930 moved to London, England, Crane designed many cinemas across Britain, but in much tamer designs than his American movie palaces. Cranes most famous U. K. commission was Earls Court Exhibition Centre and it closed in 2014 and is due to be demolished in 2015. Crane returned to visit Detroit once or twice a year until World War II and he then remained in London, where he died and was buried in 1952. His namesake descendants now live in the Detroit area, all buildings are located in Detroit, unless otherwise indicated. C. Meyer, Katherine Mattingly and Martin C. P. McElroy with Introduction by W. Hawkins Ferry, cS1 maint, Multiple names, authors list Perkins, Michael A. Leveque, The First Complete Story of Columbus Greatest Skyscraper. List of cinemas designed by C. Howard Crane Detroit Symphony Orchestra Hall Detroit Opera House
12.
Streamline Moderne
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Streamline Moderne, or Art Moderne, is a late type of the Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Its architectural style emphasized curving forms, long lines. The first streamline buildings evolved from the work of New Objectivity artists, a movement connected to the German Werkbund, as the Great Depression of the 1930s progressed, Americans saw a new aspect of Art Deco—i. e. Cylindrical forms and long horizontal windowing also may be influenced by constructivism, as a result, an array of designers quickly ultra-modernized and streamlined the designs of everyday objects. Manufacturers of clocks, radios, telephones, cars, furniture, the style was the first to incorporate electric light into architectural structure. In the first-class dining room of the SS Normandie, fitted out 1933–35, twelve pillars of Lalique glass. The Streamline Moderne was both a reaction to Art Deco and a reflection of austere economic times, Sharp angles were replaced with simple, exotic woods and stone were replaced with cement and glass. Art Deco and Streamline Moderne were not necessarily opposites, the Sterling Streamliner Diners were diners designed like streamlined trains. Although Streamline Moderne houses are less common than streamline commercial buildings, the Lydecker House in Los Angeles, built by Howard Lydecker, is an example of Streamline Moderne design in residential architecture. In tract development, elements of the style were used as a variation in postwar row housing in San Franciscos Sunset District. The style was applied to such as electric clocks, sewing machines, small radio receivers. Their manufacturing processes exploited developments in science including aluminium and bakelite. Compared to Europe, the United States in the 1930s had a focus on design as a means to increase sales of consumer products. Streamlining was associated with prosperity and an exciting future and this hope resonated with the American middle class, the major market for consumer products. A wide range of goods from refrigerators to pencil sharpeners was produced in streamlined designs, streamlining became a widespread design practice for automobiles, railroad cars, buses, and other vehicles in the 1930s. Streamline style can be contrasted with functionalism, which was a design style in Europe at the same time. One reason for the designs in functionalism was to lower the production costs of the items. Streamlining and functionalism represent two different schools in modernistic industrial design, but both reflecting the intended consumer
13.
Earl's Court
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The Earls Court Exhibition Centre was one of the countrys largest indoor arenas and a popular concert venue until its closure in 2014. Earls Court was once an area, covered with green fields. The Saxon Thegn Edwin held the lordship of the prior to the Norman conquest. By circa 1095, his tenure had been converted, and he held Kensington directly of the crown, a church had been constructed there by 1104. The earls held their manorial court where Old Manor Yard is now, Earls Court Farm is visible on Greenwoods map of London dated 1827. The construction of the Metropolitan District Railway station in 1865–69 was a catalyst for development, in the quarter century after 1867, Earls Court was transformed into a densely populated suburb with 1,200 houses and two churches. The Earls Court ward had a population of 9,659 according to the 2001 census, following the Second World War a number of Polish immigrants settled in the Earls Court area leading to Earls Court Road being dubbed the Danzig Corridor. During the late 1960s a large transient population of Australian and New Zealand travellers began to use Earls Court as a UK hub and over time it gained the name Kangaroo Valley. It was at the one of the cheapest areas close to central London. The area was, for a time, the place to buy. This moved off in the direction of the New North Road in the 1980s, the name Kangaroo Valley lingers on in the usage of older expatriate Australasians and Australasian visitors, as does the alternative nickname Kangaroo Court. The change in the population is largely owed to rocketing property prices. The scale of change is illustrated by the divide between the eastern and western areas of Earls Court. Despite fighting fiercely for the centre it has, according to Dave Hill in The Guardian. Howard Carter, English archaeologist, Egyptologist and primary discoverer of the tomb of Tutankhamun, benjamin Britten, English composer, conductor, violist and pianist, lived at 173 Cromwell Road. Edwin Arnold, English poet and journalist, lived at 31 Bolton Gardens, alfred Hitchcock, English filmmaker and producer, lived at 153 Cromwell Road. Dame Ellen Terry, leading Shakespearian stage actress in Britain in the 1880s and 1890s, Sir William Orpen, Irish portrait painter, lived at 8 South Bolton Gardens. Norman Lockyer, English scientist and astronomer credited with discovering the gas helium, hattie Jacques an English comedy actress of stage, radio and screen including the Carry On films, lived at 67 Eardley Crescent
14.
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
15.
Central London
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Central London is the innermost part of London, UK. Over time a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of central London for statistics, urban planning and local government. From 2004 to 2008, the London Plan included a sub-region called Central London comprising Camden, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth, Southwark, Wandsworth and it had a 2001 population of 1,525,000. The sub-region was replaced in 2008 with a new structure which amalgamated inner and outer boroughs together and this was altered in 2011 when a new Central London sub region was created, now including the City of London and excluding Wandsworth. However, districts at the edge of this subregion such as Streatham, Dulwich. During the Herbert Commission and the subsequent passage of the London Government Bill, the first two were detailed in the 1959 Memorandum of Evidence of the Greater London Group of the London School of Economics. It had an population of 350,000 and occupied 7,000 acres. The area had an population of 400,000 and occupied 8,000 acres. During the passage of the London Government Bill an amendment was put forward to create a central borough corresponding to the used at the 1961 census. The population was estimated to be 270,000
16.
Buffalo Bill
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William Frederick Buffalo Bill Cody was an American scout, bison hunter, and showman. Buffalo Bill started working at the age of eleven, after his fathers death, during the American Civil War, he served the Union from 1863 to the end of the war in 1865. Later he served as a scout for the US Army during the Indian Wars. One of the most colorful figures of the American Old West, shortly thereafter he started performing in shows that displayed cowboy themes and episodes from the frontier and Indian Wars. He founded Buffalo Bills Wild West in 1883, taking his company on tours in the United States and, beginning in 1887, in Great Britain. Cody was born on February 26,1846, on a farm just outside Le Claire and his father, Isaac Cody, was born on September 5,1811, in Toronto Township, Upper Canada, now part of Mississauga, Ontario, directly west of Toronto. Mary Ann Bonsell Laycock, Bills mother, was born about 1817 in New Jersey and she moved to Cincinnati to teach school, and there she met and married Isaac. She was a descendant of Josiah Bunting, a Quaker who had settled in Pennsylvania, there is no evidence to indicate Buffalo Bill was raised as a Quaker. In 1847 the couple moved to Ontario, having their son baptized in 1847, as William Cody, at the Dixie Union Chapel in Peel County, the chapel was built with Cody money, and the land was donated by Philip Cody of Toronto Township. They lived in Ontario for several years, in 1853, Isaac Cody sold his land in rural Scott County, Iowa, for $2000, and the family moved to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas Territory. In the years before the Civil War, Kansas was overtaken by political and physical conflict over the slavery question and he was invited to speak at Rivelys store, a local trading post where pro-slavery men often held meetings. His antislavery speech so angered the crowd that they threatened to kill him if he didnt step down, a man jumped up and stabbed him twice with a Bowie knife. Rively, the owner, rushed Cody to get treatment. In Kansas, the family was persecuted by pro-slavery supporters. Codys father spent time away from home for his safety and his enemies learned of a planned visit to his family and plotted to kill him on the way. Bill, despite his youth and being ill at the time, Isaac Cody went to Cleveland, Ohio, to organize a group of thirty families to bring back to Kansas, in order to add to the antislavery population. During his return trip he caught an infection which, compounded by the lingering effects of his stabbing and complications from kidney disease. After his death, the family suffered financially, at age 11, Bill took a job with a freight carrier as a boy extra
17.
British International Motor Show
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It then returned to London, for July 2006 and July 2008, at the new location of ExCeL. The 2010 and 2012 shows were subsequently cancelled, the event is recognised by the Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs dAutomobiles. The London Motor Show relaunched at Battersea Park from 5 to 8 May 2016, britains first motor show—for horseless carriages—was held in South Kensington in 1896 at the Imperial Institute under the auspices of Lawsons Motor Car Club. The July 2006, and July 2008 shows returned in ExCeL, London, prior to the cancellation of the 2010 and 2012 shows, London Motorfair, an alternative London show was held at Earls Court biannually from 1977 to 1999. In December 2014, it was announced by Prince Michael of Kent, the cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, the 2016 British Motor Show featured the United Kingdom’s land speed record attempt car, known as Bloodhound, which is designed to reach 1,000 mph. The cars listed are those announced in the late summer lead-up to the show or during the show, manufacturers did announce other cars at times to suit them and as that practice grew the public lost interest and the motor show finished its long run in the mid seventies
18.
Ideal Home Show
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The Ideal Home Show is an annual event in London held at Olympia, London since March 2015. The show was devised by the Daily Mail newspaper in 1908 and it was then sold to events and publishing company Media 10. Its goal is to bring together everything associated with having a home, such as the latest inventions for the modern house. A regular feature of the show for years was the Ideal House Competition, where designs were invited. The first exhibition was held in 1908 at the Olympia exhibition centre, with sections dedicated to phases of life such as construction, food and cookery, furniture. Demonstrations and contests included an Arts and Crafts competition and a competition to design the Ideal Home, wareham Smith, advertising manager of the Daily Mail, founded the exhibition as a marketing event for the newspaper. It was often visited by celebrities and royalty, stands became rooms with all the merchandise available for sale – offering the opportunity for people to see the latest designs for luxury living. A dispute about the content of a designed by members of the Omega Workshops for the 1913 show was instrumental in the secession of several artists from that group. In 1908 90% of the population rented their home and it took over 3,000 men a week to build the first Exhibition. Technological developments gathered pace throughout the 1920s and 1930s and new products were featured in demonstrations at the Show. The event became a point for the housewife to view the latest in household technology. Throughout the 1930s building was Britain’s chief industry, and the suburbs began to spread, mortgages were becoming more accessible and more people than ever before bought their first home. The Daily Mail was committed to the drive for greater efficiency, in 1937 the BBC broadcast television for the first time. The Second World War meant that the exhibition was suspended from 1940-1946 but from 1947 onwards it continued to grow, the show continued to ‘Educate and Entertain’ throughout the decades and in 1953, the Coronation year, it even featured a two-thirds scale copy of the state coach. The first microwave oven was launched at the show in 1947, the disco decade of the 1970s ushered in a new look for interiors featuring chrome and smoked glass and the show reflected trends in all the latest house designs and interiors. The last Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition to be held at Olympia was in 1978 Corner baths and conservatories caught the eye in the 1980s and new technology was still very much in evidence. Through the 1990s, a new shopping experience was developed for the Show, with entertainment high on the agenda, in 1997 a rainforest was created and visitors could experience a tropical downpour every hour from the shelter of a tree house. In 2008 people could take a trip down memory lane and see some of the highlights of the last century in the Century Street, in September 2009 the show changed hands for the first time in its history, after being sold by the Daily Mail to Media 10
19.
Brit Awards
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The Brit Awards are the British Phonographic Industrys annual pop music awards. The name was originally a form of British, Britain or Britannia. In addition, an equivalent awards ceremony for music, called the Classic Brit Awards, is held each May. Robbie Williams holds the record for the most Brit Awards,13 as a solo artist, the awards originated as an annual event in 1982 under the auspices of the British record industrys trade association, the BPI. In 1989 they were renamed the Brit Awards, masterCard has been the long-term sponsor of the event. The Brit Awards were broadcast live until 1989, when Samantha Fox, in subsequent years, the event was recorded and broadcast the following night. From 2007, the Brit Awards reverted to a live broadcast on British television, on 14 February on ITV. In that year, comedian Russell Brand was presenter and three awards were dropped from the ceremony, Best British Rock Act, Best British Urban Act, on 18 February 2009, the venue for the BRITs was once again the Earls Court, London. The Brit Awards were held at The O2 in London for the first time in 2011, the Brit Award statuette given to the winners features Britannia, the female personification of Britain. The first awards ceremony was in 1977, as The BRITish Record Industry BRITannia Awards, there have been 36 editions to date. The 2016 Brit Awards was held on 24 February 2016, the 1988 BPI Awards was the first of the ceremonies to be broadcast on live television. The BBC had previously broadcast the ceremony from 1985, with the shows from 1982 to 1984 not broadcast on television, the BBC continued to broadcast the renamed BRIT Awards, live in 1989 and pre-recorded from 1990 to 1992. ITV have broadcast the awards since 1993, pre-recorded until 2006, BBC Radio 1 has provided backstage radio coverage since 2008. In 1987 the BPI Awards ceremony was held in the Great Room at the Grosvenor House Hotel, at the time there was a BBC electricians strike in effect, and the organisers decided to use a non-TV events production company, called Upfront, to manage the show. Despite the show being picketed, the event was transmitted as intended, for a while the outdoor broadcast scanner was rocked on its wheels by the protesters and they managed to shut off the power to one of the big GE video screen projectors. In 1989, the ceremony was broadcast live and presented by Fleetwood Macs Mick Fleetwood, the inexperience of the hosts, an ineffective autocue and little preparation combined to create an unprofessional show that was poorly received. The 1990 awards ceremony saw the last public appearance of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, Queen appeared at the ceremony to receive the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. Mercury did not make a speech, as Brian May did the talking on behalf of the other members, in 1992, dance/art band The KLF were awarded Best British Group and were booked to open the show
20.
Crufts
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Crufts is an umbrella term for an international canine event held annually in the UK. The event is organised and hosted by the Kennel Club and it is held over four days in early March at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, England. The highest profile dog show in British culture, it is the largest show of its kind in the world, Crufts consists of several competitions occurring at the same time. The main competition is for the Best in Show award, which is contested by dogs. The programme led various sponsors to withdraw, the BBC dropped Crufts 2009 from their coverage after being unable to agree to terms with The Kennel Club. In 1886, Crufts first dog show, billed as the First Great Terrier Show, had 57 classes and 600 entries, the first show named Crufts—Crufts Greatest Dog Show—was held at the Royal Agricultural Hall, Islington, in 1891. It was the first at which all breeds were invited to compete, with around 2,000 dogs, with the close of the 19th century, entries had risen to over 3,000, including royal patronage from various European countries and Russia. The show continued annually and gained popularity each year until Charles death in 1938 and his widow ran the show for four years until she felt unable to do so due to its high demands of time and effort. To ensure the future and reputation of the show, she sold it to The Kennel Club, in 1936, The Jubilee Show had 10,650 entries with the number of breeds totalling 80. The 1948 show was the first to be held under the new owner and was held at Olympia in London, the first Obedience Championships were held in 1955. In 1959, despite an increase in fees, the show set a new world record with 13,211 entrants. By 1979, the show had to be moved to Earls Court exhibition centre as the amount of entries. Soon, the show had to be changed again—the duration had to be increased to three days in 1982, then again in 1987 to four days as the popularity continued to increase. Since 1991, the show has held in the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham. Including agility and other events, it is estimated that an average 28,000 dogs take part in Crufts each year, Crufts was formerly televised by the BBC, this ended after the 2008 event and the 2009 event was only shown via the Internet. Since 2010 the show has been broadcast on the commercial channel More4, Dogs can become qualified for life upon attaining their Kennel Club Stud Book Number. Dogs begin by competing against others of the breed, split by gender, age. These classes include Veteran, Special Puppy, Special Junior, Yearling, Post Graduate, Mid Limit, Limit, each is awarded once for dogs and once for bitches
21.
1948 Summer Olympics
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The 1948 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in London, England, United Kingdom. After a 12-year hiatus because of World War II, these were the first Summer Olympics since the 1936 Games in Berlin, the 1940 Games had been scheduled for Tokyo, and then for Helsinki, the 1944 Games had been provisionally planned for London. This was the occasion that London had hosted the Olympic Games. The 1948 games were the first of two summer Olympic Games under the IOC presidency of Sigfrid Edström, the event came to be known as the Austerity Games, because of the economic climate and post-war rationing. No new venues were built for the games, and athletes were housed in existing accommodation in the Wembley area instead of an Olympic Village, as were the 1936 Games and the subsequent 1952 Games. A record 59 nations were represented by 4,104 athletes,3,714 men and 390 women, germany and Japan were refused permission to participate, the USSR was invited but chose not to send any athletes. The United States team won the most total medals,84, the host nation won 23 medals, three of them gold. One of the performers at the Games was Dutch sprinter Fanny Blankers-Koen. Dubbed The Flying Housewife, the 30-year-old mother of two won four medals in athletics. In the decathlon, American Bob Mathias became the youngest male ever to win an Olympic gold medal at the age of 17, the most individual medals were won by Veikko Huhtanen of Finland who took three golds, a silver and a bronze in mens gymnastics. In June 1939, the International Olympic Committee awarded the 1944 Olympic Summer Games to London, ahead of Rome, Detroit, Budapest, Lausanne, Helsinki, Montreal, World War II stopped the plans and the Games were cancelled so London again stood as a candidate for 1948. Britain almost handed the 1948 games to the USA due to financial and rationing problems. The official report of the London Olympics shows that there was no case of London being pressed to run the Games against its will. As a result, a committee was set up by the British Olympic Council to work out in some detail the possibility of holding the Games. After several meetings they recommended to the council that the Lord Mayor of London should be invited to apply for the allocation of the Games in 1948. In March 1946 the IOC, through a vote, gave the summer Games to London. London was selected ahead of Baltimore, Minneapolis, Lausanne, Los Angeles, London, which had previously hosted the 1908 Summer Olympics, became the second city to host the Olympics twice, Paris hosted the event in 1900 and 1924. It became the first city to host the Olympics for the time when London hosted the 2012 Summer Olympics. E
22.
2012 Summer Olympics
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It took place in London and to a lesser extent across the United Kingdom from 25 July to 12 August 2012. The first event, the stage in womens football began on 25 July at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. 10,768 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees participated, London is the first and only city thus far to host the modern Olympic Games three times, having previously done so in 1908 and in 1948. Construction for the Games involved considerable redevelopment, with an emphasis on sustainability, the main focus was a new 200-hectare Olympic Park, constructed on a former industrial site at Stratford, East London. The Games also made use of venues that already existed before the bid, the Games received widespread acclaim for their organisation, with the volunteers, the British military and public enthusiasm praised particularly highly. During the Games, Michael Phelps became the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time, saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Brunei entered female athletes for the first time, so that every currently eligible country has sent a female competitor to at least one Olympic Games. Womens boxing was included for the first time, thus the Games became the first at which every sport had female competitors and these were the final Olympic Games under the IOC presidency of Jacques Rogge. The final medal tally was led by the United States, followed by China, several world and Olympic records were set at the games. Furthermore, the focus on sporting legacy and post-games venue sustainability was seen as a blueprint for future Olympics. On 18 May 2004, as a result of a technical evaluation. All five submitted their candidate files by 19 November 2004 and were visited by the IOC inspection team during February, throughout the process, Paris was widely seen as the favourite, particularly as this was its third bid in recent years. London was initially seen as lagging behind Paris by a considerable margin and its position began to improve after the appointment of Lord Coe as the new head of London 2012 on 19 May 2004. In late August 2004, reports predicted a tie between London and Paris, on 6 June 2005, the IOC released its evaluation reports for the five candidate cities. They did not contain any scores or rankings, but the report for Paris was considered the most positive, London was close behind, having closed most of the gap observed by the initial evaluation in 2004. New York and Madrid also received positive evaluations. On 1 July 2005, when asked who would win, Jacques Rogge said, but my gut feeling tells me that it will be very close. Perhaps it will come down to a difference of say ten votes, on 6 July 2005, the final selection was announced at the 117th IOC Session in Singapore. Moscow was the first city to be eliminated, followed by New York, the final two contenders were London and Paris
23.
Old Brompton Road
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Old Brompton Road is a major street in the South Kensington district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London. It starts from South Kensington tube station and runs south-west, through a residential area, until it reaches West Brompton. It runs through the SW5 and SW7 postcodes, there are several 5-star hotels and upmarket shops along the road. One of the most famous houses in the world, Christies, is located near the eastern end of the road at number 85. The Coleherne pub, located at number 261, has become infamous for being the ground for three serial killers, Dennis Nilsen, Michael Lupo and Colin Ireland. It is also mentioned in the song Hanging Around by The Stranglers, another landmark of the road is the Troubadour which has been a cultural hub for over fifty years. The coffee-house above, now a restaurant, has hosted the founding of Private Eye, the Drayton Arms is a Grade II listed pub and theatre at number 153. The most famous resident was Diana, Princess of Wales before her 1981 engagement and subsequent marriage to Charles and she shared a flat with three others before subsequently moving on to Clarence House, the home of the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. The road is sometimes confused with Brompton Road which lies further to the east, in Knightsbridge
24.
Empress State Building
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The Empress State Building is a high rise building on the West Brompton/Earls Court border in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. It was renovated in 2003 to a design by Wilkinson Eyre Architects, three floors and 17.3 metres were added to its height. Orbit is the given to the private revolving bar on the top floor which offers panoramic views of London. The building is named after the Empress Hall which formerly stood on the site, address, - Empress State Building, Empress Approach, Lillie Road, West Brompton, London, SW6 1TR. The building is occupied by staff from the Metropolitan Police Service who refer to it as ESB and it is used by the MPS to assess New Police Constable candidates. Some of the floors were occupied by staff from Transport for London until 2010. This building was designed as a hotel but was first used by the Admiralty. The Directorate of Naval Shore Telecommunications had their headquarters in the building in the 1980s and 90s. For many years, the Empress State building was seen on TV during Chelsea F. C. matches at their home ground Stamford Bridge and this would be when the camera zoomed from the West Stand looking over the North Stand. Tall buildings in London From emporis. com
25.
Ferris wheel
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Some of the largest modern Ferris wheels have cars mounted on the outside of the rim, with electric motors to independently rotate each car to keep it upright. These wheels are sometimes referred to as wheels and their cars referred to as capsules. The original Ferris Wheel was designed and constructed by George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. as a landmark for the 1893 Worlds Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The generic term Ferris wheel is now used for all such structures, since the original 1893 Chicago Ferris wheel there have been nine worlds tallest-ever Ferris wheels. The current record holder is the 167. 6-metre High Roller in Las Vegas, US, pleasure wheels, whose passengers rode in chairs suspended from large wooden rings turned by strong men, may have originated in 17th-century Bulgaria. A Frenchman, Antonio Manguino, introduced the idea to America in 1848, a much earlier description of a Ferris-type wheel can be seen in The Death of Arthur, a volume of the Vulgate Cycle dating from around 1220. The text describes King Arthur in a dream being approached by Fortuna, the following year he was granted the first U. S. patent for a Roundabout. George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. rode on Somers wheel in Atlantic City prior to designing his wheel for the Worlds Columbian Exposition, the original Ferris Wheel, sometimes also referred to as the Chicago Wheel, was designed and constructed by George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. With a height of 80.4 metres it was the largest attraction at the Worlds Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois and it was intended to rival the 324-metre Eiffel Tower, the centerpiece of the 1889 Paris Exposition. Ferris was a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and he began his career in the railroad industry and then pursued an interest in bridge building. Ferris understood the growing need for steel and founded G. W. G. Ferris & Co. in Pittsburgh, a firm that tested and inspected metals for railroads, the wheel rotated on a 71-ton,45. There were 36 cars, each fitted with 40 revolving chairs and able to accommodate up to 60 people, the Exposition ended in October 1893, and the wheel closed in April 1894 and was dismantled and stored until the following year. It was then rebuilt on Chicagos North Side, near Lincoln Park and this prompted William D. Boyce, then a local resident, to file a Circuit Court action against the owners of the wheel to have it removed, but without success. The Wiener Riesenrad is an example of nineteenth-century Ferris wheels. A demolition permit for the Riesenrad was issued in 1916, but due to a lack of funds with which to carry out the destruction, following the demolition of the 100-metre Grande Roue de Paris in 1920, the Riesenrad became the worlds tallest extant Ferris wheel. Still in operation today, it is one of Viennas most popular tourist attractions, chronology of worlds tallest-ever wheels 1893, the original Ferris Wheel was 80.4 metres tall. Built for the Worlds Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois, it was moved to St. Louis, Missouri, in 1904 for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, and demolished there in 1906
26.
Queen Victoria
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Victoria was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she adopted the title of Empress of India. Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, both the Duke of Kent and King George III died in 1820, and Victoria was raised under close supervision by her German-born mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She inherited the throne aged 18, after her fathers three brothers had all died, leaving no surviving legitimate children. The United Kingdom was already a constitutional monarchy, in which the sovereign held relatively little direct political power. Privately, Victoria attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments, publicly, Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840. Their nine children married into royal and noble families across the continent, tying them together, after Alberts death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, republicanism temporarily gained strength and her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration. Her reign of 63 years and seven months is known as the Victorian era and it was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. She was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover and her son and successor, Edward VII, belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the line of his father. Victorias father was Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, until 1817, Edwards niece, Princess Charlotte of Wales, was the only legitimate grandchild of George III. Her death in 1817 precipitated a crisis that brought pressure on the Duke of Kent. In 1818 he married Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, a widowed German princess with two children—Carl and Feodora —by her first marriage to the Prince of Leiningen and her brother Leopold was Princess Charlottes widower. The Duke and Duchess of Kents only child, Victoria, was born at 4.15 a. m. on 24 May 1819 at Kensington Palace in London. Victoria was christened privately by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Manners-Sutton, on 24 June 1819 in the Cupola Room at Kensington Palace and she was baptised Alexandrina, after one of her godparents, Emperor Alexander I of Russia, and Victoria, after her mother. Additional names proposed by her parents—Georgina, Charlotte, and Augusta—were dropped on the instructions of the Dukes eldest brother, George, the Duke of Clarence and the Duke of Kent married on the same day in 1818, but both of Clarences daughters died as infants. Victorias father died in January 1820, when Victoria was less than a year old, a week later her grandfather died and was succeeded by his eldest son, George IV. The Duke of York died in 1827, when George IV died in 1830, he was succeeded by his next surviving brother, William IV, and Victoria became heir presumptive
27.
White City, London
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White City is a district in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and forms the northern part of Shepherds Bush. Today, White City is home to the BBC Television Centre and BBC White City, and Loftus Road stadium, the area now called White City was level arable farmfields until 1908, when it was used as the site of the Franco-British Exhibition and the 1908 Summer Olympics. In 1909 the exhibition site hosted the Imperial International Exhibition and in 1910, the final two exhibitions to be held there were the Latin-British Exhibition and the Anglo-American Exhibition, which was brought to a premature end by the outbreak of the First World War. During this period it was known as the Great White City due to the marble cladding used on the exhibition pavilions. The White City Stadium in the north of the area, known as the Great Stadium, in 1931, a 440yd running track was installed for the Amateur Athletic Association Championships, held there from 1932 to 1970. It hosted one match during the 1966 World Cup, the stadium was demolished in 1985 to make way for the BBC White City building. The Marathon from these London Olympics played an important part in the development of the marathon race. In the early years of international sport, the long distance marathon race did not have a standard set distance. The distance run at the first seven Olympics from 1896 to 1920 varied between 40km and 42.75 km, the starting point of the race at the 1908 Olympics was at Windsor Castle creating a distance of 26 miles 385 yards to the finishing line at White City stadium. In 1921 this was adopted as the standard distance, to house the growing population of Shepherds Bush, a five-storey housing estate was built in the late 1930s, which also took the name of the White City. Streets were named after countries that had featured in the exhibitions, in 2001, BBC Television Centre was damaged by a car bomb attack by the Real IRA. The bomb went off on Wood Lane, in front of the Television Centre news building, on 30 October 2008, Westfield shopping centre was opened. Westfield Group has built a new shopping centre, bounded by the West Cross Route and this centre has been branded Westfield London. Shepherds Bush on the West London Line, to the east of the adjacent to the Holland Park roundabout. It is also a walking distance from Shepherds Bush tube station served by the Central line. In 2007, it was announced that the BBC would sell its landmark Television Centre as part of a cost-cutting programme, in 2008 English Heritage announced its recommendation to list parts of TV centre as an excellent example of 20th-century architecture. Following the sale of the Television Centre, White City has become a key area within Central London. A strong partnership between White City Living by St James, Westfield London, Stanhope and Imperial College London, has created a vision for the future of White City area
28.
Olympia, London
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Olympia is an exhibition centre, event space and conference centre in West Kensington, London, England. The venue is home to a range of trade and consumer exhibitions, conferences. The nearest railway station is Kensington which is a London Overground station, a London Underground station, the nearest underground stations are Barons Court, Hammersmith, Shepherds Bush and West Kensington. The direct District Line spur to the only runs on weekends. Olympias story began in May 1884, john Whitley had created the National Agricultural Hall Company with the aim of building and operating the countrys largest covered show centre. Opened on 26 December 1886 as the National Agricultural Hall, it changed its name to Olympia in keeping with its ideals. It was built by Andrew Handyside and Company of Derby and covered an area of 4 acres, the Grand Hall was said to be the largest building in the United Kingdom to be covered by one span of iron and glass. Olympia London now features four event venues and a conference centre, the event venues are Olympia Grand, Olympia National, Olympia Central and Olympia West. Having secured the site, the National Agricultural Hall Company commissioned Henry Edward Coe to design the building and he had already designed the Agricultural Hall in Islington twenty five years before and took its barrel-roof form as the basis for the new building. With fixed seating for 9000 people and at nearly an acre in size, the roof had to be high –115 ft at the apex – to enable its great weight to be carried down as near vertically as possible. The structure is strong, with the hurricane of 1987 achieving no more than the destruction of a loose ventilation hatch. The roof of the hall was erected in twelve weeks in midwinter in 1885 and its non-putty patent glazing ensuring free expansion and contraction of 2,500 sheets of quarter inch plate glass. The glass was replaced in 1991 with a sealed heat treated solar reflective system. There is a legend that surrounds the ‘Prince’s Apartments’ which is a suite tacked on to the side of the hall on two floors. This suite appears on the original plans under this name, the story goes that the suite was used by Edward, Prince of Wales for his amorous liaisons before he became King in 1901 – he had a notorious eye for the ladies. The block was rebuilt in 1937 as management offices and meeting rooms but is known as the ‘Prince’s Suite’. The other building of note was the stunning Minor Hall, long since renamed as the Pillar Hall and this is a sumptuous oak-panelled banqueting room with marble columns and a richly moulded and decorated ceiling. It is one of London’s least known public rooms, Olympia opened its doors on 26 December 1886
29.
Diana, Princess of Wales
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Diana, Princess of Wales, was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, who is the eldest child and heir apparent of Queen Elizabeth II. Diana was born into a family of British nobility with royal ancestry and was the child and third daughter of John Spencer, Viscount Althorp. She grew up in Park House, situated on the Sandringham estate, in 1975, after her father inherited the title of Earl Spencer, she became known as Lady Diana Spencer. She came to prominence in February 1981 when her engagement to Prince Charles was announced and her wedding to the Prince of Wales on 29 July 1981, held at St Pauls Cathedral, reached a global television audience of over 750 million people. While married, Diana bore the titles Princess of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Duchess of Rothesay, the marriage produced two sons, the princes William and Harry, who were then respectively second and third in the line of succession to the British throne. As Princess of Wales, Diana undertook royal duties on behalf of the Queen and she was celebrated for her charity work and for her support of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. She was involved with dozens of charities including Londons Great Ormond Street Hospital for children, Diana remained the object of worldwide media scrutiny during and after her marriage, which ended in divorce on 28 August 1996. Media attention and public mourning were extensive after her death in a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997, Diana was born on 1 July 1961, in Park House, Sandringham, Norfolk. She was the fourth of five children of John Spencer, Viscount Althorp, the Spencer family has been closely allied with the British Royal Family for several generations. Both of Dianas grandmothers had served as ladies-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, on 30 August 1961, Diana was baptised at St. Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham, with wealthy commoners as godparents. Diana had three siblings, Sarah, Jane, and Charles and her infant brother, John, died shortly after his birth one year before Diana was born. The desire for an added strain to the Spencers marriage. Diana grew up in Park House, situated on the Sandringham estate, the Spencers leased the house from its owner, Queen Elizabeth II. The Royal Family frequently holidayed at the neighbouring Sandringham House, and Diana played with Princes Andrew, Diana was seven years old when her parents divorced. Her mother later had an affair with Peter Shand Kydd and married him in 1969, Diana lived with her mother in London during her parents separation in 1967, but during that years Christmas holidays, Lord Althorp refused to let Diana return to London with Lady Althorp. Shortly afterwards he won custody of Diana with support from his former mother-in-law, Ruth Roche, in 1972, Lord Althorp began a relationship with Raine, Countess of Dartmouth, the only daughter of Alexander McCorquodale and Dame Barbara Cartland. They married at Caxton Hall, London in 1976, as an upper-class child at the time, Diana was first educated under the supervision of her governess, Gertrude Allen. She began her education at Silfield Private School in Gayton, Norfolk, and moved to Riddlesworth Hall School, an all-girls boarding school near Diss
30.
MPH Show
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The MPH Show was a supercar motor show. It was held every year at both London Earls Court and Birmingham NEC, the show took up either one or two halls at both venues, and there were usually two parts to it, the Exhibition and the Main Show. From 2011 the show was rebranded and relaunched as Top Gear Live, Top Gear Live has since expanded, and now is used by BBC Worldwide as a brand of touring stadium show. Visitors arrive and have the opportunity to take a look at exhibitors stands, many are there to advertise a product that they sell There are also exhibition stands advertising car lease, whilst showing actual cars that can be leased at the stand. These are the likes of the Ferrari Enzo, Lamborghini Murcielago LP640, There are also a few car manufacturers exhibiting, although not to the scale of the Sunday Times Motor Show. At MPH06, Land Rover turned half of the hall into a simulated environment with ramps and severe slopes. There are also VIP enclosures such as The Sunday Times enclosure, or the Auto Express enclosure in which people with VIP tickets can go, overall, the exhibition side of the show is very trade based and does not include many car manufacturers. The main reason many go to MPH show is to see the spectacular 90 minute show and it takes up an entire hall and the audience sit in stadium like seating whilst watching the show. The show features stunt driving shows and a catwalk style presentation of new cars, also included in the show are the usual Top Gear antics. At Mph 06 they placed James May in a shopping trolley, There are also spectacular 3D presentations during the show. At Mph 05, a virtual and life-size 3D Apache helicopter shot at a real Lotus Elise as it raced around the arena, pyrotechnics added live explosions to the experience, simulating missile hits and Ricocheting gunfire, leaving audiences marveling in the high-octane and explosive thrill of it all. It was that successful, it made a appearance in 2006. Also at MPH06 a 3D Hummer was dropped out of an aircraft, shot down by a Tornado jet, in 2009 Julian wrote and directed the London Eye 4D Experience, which is the UKs first ever live-action 4D experience and is in permanent residence at The London Eye. At MPH07 a 3D Gatso Camera/Dragon of the battles it out with the Stig. The Mph 06, the show was presented by Jeremy Clarkson and James May, at Mph 07 the presenters were Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond. Official MPH07 Site MPH07 Exhibitor List MPH Theatrical Show MPH06 Shopping Trolley Bowling MPH06 Car Football
31.
Jeremy Clarkson
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Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson is an English broadcaster, journalist and writer who specialises in motoring. He is best known for co-presenting the BBC TV show Top Gear with Richard Hammond and he also writes weekly columns for The Sunday Times and The Sun. From a career as a local journalist in northern England, Clarkson rose to prominence as a presenter of the original format of Top Gear in 1988. Since the mid-1990s, he has become a public personality, regularly appearing on British television presenting his own shows. As well as motoring, Clarkson has produced programmes and books on such as history. From 1998 to 2000, he hosted his own chat show. His opinionated but humorous tongue-in-cheek writing and presenting style has often provoked public reaction and his actions both privately and as a Top Gear presenter have also sometimes resulted in criticism from the media, politicians, pressure groups and the public. He also has a significant public following, being credited as a factor in the resurgence of Top Gear as one of the most popular shows on the BBC. On 25 March 2015, the BBC announced it would not renew Clarksons contract after he verbally and physically attacked a Top Gear producer over a dispute at a hotel while filming on location. In mid-2015 Clarkson, Hammond, May and producer Andy Wilman formed production company W. Chump & Sons to produce The Grand Tour for Amazon Video. Clarkson was born in Doncaster, the son of Shirley Gabrielle Clarkson, a teacher, and Edward Grenville Clarkson, according to his own account, he was expelled from Repton School for drinking, smoking and generally making a nuisance of himself. Clarkson attended Repton alongside Formula One engineer Adrian Newey and Top Gear Executive Producer, Clarkson played the role of a public schoolboy, Atkinson, in a BBC radio Childrens Hour serial adaptation of Anthony Buckeridges Jennings novels until his voice broke. Clarkson married Alexandra James in 1989, but she left him for one of his friends after six months, in May 1993 he married his manager, Frances Cain, daughter of VC recipient Robert Henry Cain, in Fulham. The couple lived in Chipping Norton, in the Cotswolds, with their three children, Clarkson has been described as a member of the Chipping Norton set. Known for buying him car-related gifts, for Christmas 2007 Clarksons second wife bought him a Mercedes-Benz 600 and she was reported to have filed divorce proceedings in April 2014. In September 2010 Clarkson was granted an injunction against his first wife to prevent her from publishing claims that their sexual relationship continued after his second marriage. He voluntarily lifted the injunction in October 2011, commenting that, Clarkson is a fan of the rock band Genesis and attended the bands reunion concert at Twickenham Stadium in 2007. He also provided notes for the reissue of the album Selling England by the Pound as part of the Genesis 1970–1975 box set
32.
National Exhibition Centre
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The National Exhibition Centre is an exhibition centre located in Birmingham, England. It is near junction 6 of the M42 motorway, and is adjacent to Birmingham Airport and it has 20 interconnected halls, set in grounds of 611 acres making it the largest exhibition centre in the UK. It is the busiest and seventh-largest exhibition centre in Europe, opened by Elizabeth II in February 1976, the first event to be staged at the venue was International Spring Fair, which has returned every year since. Growing annually, the event now occupies all of the NECs 20 halls, in November 1971, the Secretary of State for the Environment granted outline planning approval for the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. The NEC, originally comprising 89,000 m2 of exhibition space, was opened by the Queen on 2 February 1976, the building was designed by Edward Mills. In 1989, the Queen opened three further halls, increasing the space to 125,000 m2, four more halls were added in 1993, the total exhibition space increasing to 158,000 m2. Another four new halls, opened in September 1998 by Neil Kinnock, European Commissioner for Transport and these buildings were designed by Seymour Harris. The NEC is nearing completion of a five-year, £40 million venue improvement programme which has seen improvements made to everything from the car parking to signage, seating and catering. The most obvious result of development has been the redesign of the Piazza – the central space around Halls 1 to 5. The NEC was home to the British International Motorshow from 1978 to 2004, in addition, it also hosted the Classic Motor Show. Since 1991, the NEC has been the venue for the dog show Crufts. Held over four days and using five halls as well as the LG Arena, in May 2013, The National Exhibition Centre announced it would be hosting a series of corporate Christmas parties for the first time. The parties run from 8 to 21 December 2013 and it was also the venue for Great Britains Davis Cup match against Holland in 2007. The Genting Arena is part of the complex, the NEC has 29,000 car parking spaces spread around the site, with a shuttle bus service operating to and from the car parks. Parent company The NEC Group also owns and operates the Barclaycard Arena and International Convention Centre, official website The NEC Birmingham Business event calendar
33.
Military tattoo
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A tattoo is a military performance of music or display of armed forces in general. The tattoo was originally a form of music, but the practice has evolved into more elaborate shows involving theatrics. It is also used to designate military exhibitions such as the Royal International Air Tattoo, the term dates from around 1600 during the Thirty Years War in the Low Countries. The Dutch fortresses were garrisoned with troops that were under federal command since 1594. The Dutch States Army had become an army, consisting mostly of Scottish, English, German and Swiss mercenaries. Drummers from the garrison were sent out into the towns at 21,30 hrs each evening to inform the soldiers that it was time to return to barracks. The process was known as doe den tap toe, an instruction to innkeepers to stop serving beer, the drummers continued to play until the curfew at 22,00 hrs. Tattoo, earlier tap-too and taptoo, are alterations of the Dutch words tap toe which have the same meaning. Over the years, the became more of a show and often included the playing of the first post at 21,30 hrs. Bands and displays were included and shows were conducted by floodlight or searchlight. Tattoos were commonplace in the late 19th century with most military, between the First World War and the Second World War elaborate tattoos were held in many towns, with the largest in Aldershot, England. One of the best known tattoos is held on the Esplanade in front of Edinburgh Castle each August as part of the annual Edinburgh Festival. The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo was first staged in 1950, it combines the sounds of the bagpipes. In 2008, the Windsor Castle Royal Tattoo was launched, the events proceeds went to the Royal British Legion to help support recently returned troops from battle. Another well-known tattoo was the Royal Tournament which was held annually in London from 1880 to 1999, the last producer of the Royal Tournament was Major Sir Michael Parker. The British Military Tournament, its successor, was established in 2010 at the venue of the Royal Tournament, Earls Court. Another UK tattoo is the Birmingham Tattoo held annually at the National Indoor Arena in November, the Royal International Air Tattoo is the worlds largest military airshow, held annually at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire in aid of the RAF Charitable Trust. The Norwegian Military Tattoo is internationally famous for its quality and streamlined production and it has been held every second year since 1994 in the capital of Norway, Oslo
34.
ExCeL London
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ExCeL is an exhibitions and international convention centre in the London Borough of Newham. It is located on a 100-acre site on the quay of the Royal Victoria Dock in London Docklands. The centre was built by Sir Robert McAlpine and first opened in November 2000, in May 2008, it was acquired by Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company. Phase II of development, which included building Londons first International Convention Centre, the Royal Victoria Dock closed to commercial traffic in 1981, but it is still accessible to shipping. The centres waterfront location allows visiting vessels to moor alongside the centre, there are also three sets of function rooms, one overlooking the water, another above the western end of the central boulevard, and the third on the north side of the building. These are used for meetings, seminars, presentations. There are six hotels, more than 30 bars and restaurants, ExCeL London has hosted numerous consumer and trade, private and public events including exhibitions, conferences, concerts, weddings and religious events since its opening in 2000. In 2011, ExCeL London was awarded the Business Superbrand 2011, the site welcomed its 20 millionth visitor on June 18,2014. ExCeL has also been awarded Venue Of The Year on several occasions at various industry ceremonies, in 2014, ExCeL hosted the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, chaired by American actress and UN Special Envoy Angelina Jolie and attended by 79 Ministers from 123 country delegations. ExCeL London is served by two Docklands Light Railway stations, which span the full 600 metre length of the venue. The western entrance is directly linked to Custom House for ExCeL station and serves the Platinum Suite, the eastern entrance is connected to Prince Regent station. The eastern entrance serves the International Convention Centre, which was opened in 2010 by then-Mayor Boris Johnson and is the Londons first, ExCeL London is located near London City Airport station. The DLR and a number of roads connect the centre to the airport. Since June 2012, the Emirates Air Line cable car now links ExCeL to The O2 on the Greenwich Peninsula, as part of this scheme, ExCeL produces an annual communication on progress addressing the issues of Human Rights, Labour, Environment and Anti-Corruption. ExCeL publishes details of its social responsibility efforts publicly in the UN Global Compact report. Currently ExCeL invests in the community of Newham by supporting select charities, chiefly Newham All Star Sports Academy. ExCeL also provides free of charge to local schools and sports teams. A boxing match on 22 April 2008 between Amir Khan and Gairy St. Clair for the World Boxing Organization intercontinental lightweight title, the Triathlon celebrated its 20th year at ExCeL London in summer 2016
35.
Professional Lighting and Sound Association
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The Professional Lighting and Sound Association is a trade association based in Eastbourne, United Kingdom. Its membership is made up of companies involved with the events and entertainments technology sector, PLASA was originally known as the British Association of Discothèque Equipment Manufacturers, a name used between 1976 and 1983. In 2010 it merged with the Entertainment Services and Technology Association, in addition, the de-merger of the American arm of the organisation into a separate body and relocation of the PLASA Show to West London at a smaller venue were announced. Chris Toulmin, the organisations Director of Events, stated much of the difficulties faced by the organisation stemmed from the reducing profitability of the PLASA Show in London. In the same release, it was stated that the long-serving CEO Matthew Griffiths would be leaving his post, pLASAs activities include lobbying, organising trade show events, publishing both technical and industry news products, developing industry standards and developing industry certification schemes. After merging with ESTA, PLASA took on the role of maintaining the standards for DMX512. PLASA have also been responsible for the development of a UK National Rigging Certificate, each year, PLASA hands out PLASA Awards for Innovation and Sustainability Award. The PLASA Awards for Innovation aim to emphasise this focus on true innovation, the procedure ensures that all nominated products are vetted to show that they offer something new to the industry
36.
PLASA Show
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The PLASA Show is an annual trade show hosted at Olympia and organised by the Professional Lighting and Sound Association. The show was held at Earls Court Exhibition Centre and between 2013 and 2015 at the ExCeL Exhibition Centre. The show draws an international attendance of exhibitors and visitors in the lighting, audio, the show originally started in 1977 at the Bloomsbury Crest, London, launching under the name of Discotek 77. BADEM was subsequently renamed the Professional Lighting and Sound Association and thus in 1984, in 1985, it relocated to the Novotel in Hammersmith, then to Olympia 2 in 1988, where it stayed until 1992 before transferring to the larger Earls Court 2. It made the move from Earls Court 2 to Earls Court 1 in 1996 and in 2007 opened the back to Earls Court 2. In 2013 the show moved to the ExCeL exhibition centre and it stayed here for 3 years, announcing that the 2016 show would move back to West London and be hosted at Olympia during September. During its time at ExCeL PLASA had been hosted during the month of October - prior to this the show was held during September. The 2016 show will have 50% less floor space as part of an effort to contain the costs involved in the show. For much of its history, the show was run by an external company, however in 2007, PLASA took the management of the event in-house. The show draws an international attendance of exhibitors and visitors in the lighting, audio, the first show in ExCeL was held between 6-9 October 2013, approximately 1 month later than the September dates the show previously occupied at Earls Court. In 2014, the attendance reported by PLASA was unclear, stating a total attendance of 11,175 yet a visitor count of 9,260 and 1,850 exhibitors, a total attendance figure of 17,138 was also given which is likely to include returning/repeat visitors. Audited attendance figures from ABC were not available as the exhibition was no longer registered with ABC after 2013, the total attendance dropped by 17% compared to the previous year. In 2013, the attendance was reported by PLASA as being over 11,000 with over 2,200 international visitors. The ABC audited attendance for 2013 was 13,512, of which 2,564 were exhibitor attendees and 10,948 were visitors and this figure represents a drop of just over 3% in total visitor attendance compared to the final show held in Earls Court. In 2012, PLASAs audited exhibitor attendance was 2,774 and visitor attendance was 11,291, in 2011, PLASAs ABC audited exhibitor attendance was 3,243 and visitor attendance was 11,959. In 2010, PLASAs ABC audited attendance was 12,078, in 2007, PLASAs ABC audited attendance was 12,300, of which 28% were from outside the UK. Chart sources, Chart sources, PLASA Show website PLASA website
37.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
38.
Government of the United Kingdom
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Her Majestys Government, commonly referred to as the UK government or British government, is the central government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The government is led by the Prime Minister, who all the remaining ministers. The prime minister and the other most senior ministers belong to the supreme decision-making committee, the government ministers all sit in Parliament, and are accountable to it. After an election, the monarch selects as prime minister the leader of the party most likely to command a majority of MPs in the House of Commons. Under the uncodified British constitution, executive authority lies with the monarch, although this authority is exercised only by, or on the advice of, the prime minister, the Cabinet members advise the monarch as members of the Privy Council. They also exercise power directly as leaders of the Government Departments, the current prime minister is Theresa May, who took office on 13 July 2016. She is the leader of the Conservative Party, which won a majority of seats in the House of Commons in the election on 7 May 2015. Prior to this, Cameron and the Conservatives led a government from 2010 to 2015 with the Liberal Democrats. A key principle of the British Constitution is that the government is responsible to Parliament, Britain is a constitutional monarchy in which the reigning monarch does not make any open political decisions. All political decisions are taken by the government and Parliament and this constitutional state of affairs is the result of a long history of constraining and reducing the political power of the monarch, beginning with the Magna Carta in 1215. Parliament is split into two houses, the House of Lords and the House of Commons, the House of Commons is the lower house and is the more powerful. The House of Lords is the house and although it can vote to amend proposed laws. Parliamentary time is essential for bills to be passed into law, Ministers of the Crown are responsible to the House in which they sit, they make statements in that House and take questions from members of that House. For most senior ministers this is usually the elected House of Commons rather than the House of Lords, since the start of Edward VIIs reign, in 1901, the prime minister has always been an elected member of Parliament and therefore directly accountable to the House of Commons. Under the British system the government is required by convention and for reasons to maintain the confidence of the House of Commons. It requires the support of the House of Commons for the maintenance of supply, by convention if a government loses the confidence of the House of Commons it must either resign or a General Election is held. The support of the Lords, while useful to the government in getting its legislation passed without delay, is not vital, a government is not required to resign even if it loses the confidence of the Lords and is defeated in key votes in that House. The House of Commons is thus the Responsible house, the prime minister is held to account during Prime Ministers Question Time which provides an opportunity for MPs from all parties to question the PM on any subject
39.
Belgium
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Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a sovereign state in Western Europe bordered by France, the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, and the North Sea. It is a small, densely populated country which covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres and has a population of about 11 million people. Additionally, there is a group of German-speakers who live in the East Cantons located around the High Fens area. Historically, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg were known as the Low Countries, the region was called Belgica in Latin, after the Roman province of Gallia Belgica. From the end of the Middle Ages until the 17th century, today, Belgium is a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. It is divided into three regions and three communities, that exist next to each other and its two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. The Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. A German-speaking Community exists in eastern Wallonia, Belgiums linguistic diversity and related political conflicts are reflected in its political history and complex system of governance, made up of six different governments. Upon its independence, declared in 1830, Belgium participated in the Industrial Revolution and, during the course of the 20th century, possessed a number of colonies in Africa. This continuing antagonism has led to several far-reaching reforms, resulting in a transition from a unitary to a federal arrangement during the period from 1970 to 1993. Belgium is also a member of the Eurozone, NATO, OECD and WTO. Its capital, Brussels, hosts several of the EUs official seats as well as the headquarters of major international organizations such as NATO. Belgium is also a part of the Schengen Area, Belgium is a developed country, with an advanced high-income economy and is categorized as very high in the Human Development Index. A gradual immigration by Germanic Frankish tribes during the 5th century brought the area under the rule of the Merovingian kings, a gradual shift of power during the 8th century led the kingdom of the Franks to evolve into the Carolingian Empire. Many of these fiefdoms were united in the Burgundian Netherlands of the 14th and 15th centuries, the Eighty Years War divided the Low Countries into the northern United Provinces and the Southern Netherlands. The latter were ruled successively by the Spanish and the Austrian Habsburgs and this was the theatre of most Franco-Spanish and Franco-Austrian wars during the 17th and 18th centuries. The reunification of the Low Countries as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands occurred at the dissolution of the First French Empire in 1815, although the franchise was initially restricted, universal suffrage for men was introduced after the general strike of 1893 and for women in 1949. The main political parties of the 19th century were the Catholic Party, French was originally the single official language adopted by the nobility and the bourgeoisie
40.
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
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It contains the athletes Olympic Village and several of the sporting venues including the London Stadium and London Aquatics Centre, besides the London Olympics Media Centre. The park is overlooked by the ArcelorMittal Orbit, an observation tower and it was simply called Olympic Park during the Games but was later renamed to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II. The park occupies an area straddling four east London boroughs, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney, part of the park reopened in July 2013, with a large majority of the rest reopening in April 2014. The site covers parts of Stratford, Bow, Leyton, and Hackney Wick in east London, the site was previously a mixture of greenfield and brownfield land, including parts of Hackney Marshes. The Royal Mail gave the park and Stratford City the postcode E20, the park was designed by the EDAW Consortium, working with Arup and WS Atkins. Detailed landscape architecture was by LDA Design in conjunction with Hargreaves Associates, LDA design contracted Wallace Whittle to carry out various aspects of the M+E Building services design. The NHBC carried out the Sustainability assessments, the park was illuminated with a lighting scheme designed by Sutton Vane Associates. The fencing arena was also cancelled, with the events taking place at ExCeL London. The remaining indoor arenas are the Basketball Arena and the Copper Box, in addition to the Water Polo Arena, the Aquatics Centre, the final design of the park was approved by the Olympic Delivery Authority and its planning-decisions committee. The Legacy List is the independent charity for Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Sarah Weir, who is an Executive Director of the Almeida Theatre and was running Arts Council England, found The Legacy List, the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park charity. In autumn 2013 Sarah moved on to take up the role of Chief Executive at Waddesdon Manor, during its construction over 80,000 workers were engaged on the project. The construction of the Olympic Park was managed by CLM Delivery Partner, comprising CH2M Hill, Laing ORourke, CLM specifically managed the white space between the venue construction zones, including managing the internal road network. No one, except perhaps the admirable Oudolf, wants to do the quiet stuff, great care was taken to make the Athletes Village aesthetically orderly, to the point where it began to resemble Ceausescus Bucharest, this eruption makes such efforts futile. Robert Holden and Tom Turner, in a review of the Olympic Parks landscape architecture state that Our fundamental point is that the planning is much better than the landscape design. The landscape planning includes the opening up of the River Lea in the section of the park, the habitat-creation strategy. The landscape design is dominated by vast pedestrian concourses which will be busy during events, there is some good garden-type planting but it has not been used to make gardens, it is used more like strips of planting beside highways. The park has a number of uses after the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London finished, such as, a university exploiting the sporting facilities and high-tech communications infrastructure remaining specialising in sport science, digital media and green technology. 3,600 apartments, the East Village, next to the Stratford City neighbourhood of Stratford, the Orbit, a steel tower which is the largest public work of art in the UK and a major tourist attraction
Earl's Court
West Brompton
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