1.
Greater London Authority
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The Greater London Authority is a top-tier administrative body for Greater London, England. It consists of an elected executive Mayor of London, currently Sadiq Khan. The authority was established in 2000, following a referendum, and derives most of its powers from the Greater London Authority Act 1999. It is a regional authority, with powers over transport, policing, economic development. Three functional bodies — Transport for London, the Mayors Office for Policing and Crime, the planning policies of the Mayor of London are detailed in a statutory London Plan that is regularly updated and published. The Greater London Authority is mostly funded by government grant and it is also a precepting authority. The GLA is unique in the British local government system, in terms of structure, elections, the GLA is responsible for the strategic administration of the 1579 km² of Greater London. It shares local government powers with the councils of 32 London boroughs and it was created to improve the co-ordination between the local authorities in Greater London, and the Mayor of Londons role is to give London a single person to represent it. The Mayor proposes policy and the GLAs budget, and makes appointments to the capitals strategic executive such as Transport for London, the primary purpose of the London Assembly is to hold the Mayor of London to account by scrutiny of his or her actions and decisions. The assembly must also accept or amend the Mayors budget on an annual basis, the GLA is based at City Hall, a new building on the south bank of the River Thames, next to Tower Bridge. The GLA is different from the Corporation of the City of London with its largely ceremonial Lord Mayors, in 1986, the Greater London Council was abolished by the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher. On abolition, the functions of the GLC were transferred to bodies controlled by central government or joint boards nominated by the London Borough councils. Some of the service functions were transferred down to the councils themselves. For the next 14 years there was no single elected body for the whole of London, the Labour Party never supported the abolition of the GLC and made it a policy to re-establish some form of citywide elected authority. After the Labour party won the 1997 general election, the policy was outlined in a White paper entitled A Mayor and Assembly for London. Simultaneously with the elections to the London Borough councils, a referendum was held on the establishment of the GLA in May 1998, the Greater London Authority Act 1999 passed through Parliament, receiving the Royal Assent in October 1999. In a controversial campaign, the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, attempted to block Livingstones nomination. In reaction, Livingstone stood as an independent candidate, resulting in his expulsion from the Labour Party, following an interim period in which the Mayor and Assembly had been elected but had no powers, the GLA was formally established on 3 July 2000
2.
Unicameralism
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In government, unicameralism is the practice of having one legislative or parliamentary chamber. Thus, a parliament or unicameral legislature is a legislature which consists of one chamber or house. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multicameralism, many multicameral legislatures were created to give separate voices to different sectors of society. Multiple chambers allowed for guaranteed representation of different social classes, ethnic or regional interests, where these factors are unimportant, in unitary states with limited regional autonomy, unicameralism often prevails. Unicameral legislatures are also common in official Communist states such as the Peoples Republic of China, similarly, many formerly Communist states, such as Ukraine, Moldova and Serbia, have retained their unicameral legislatures, though others, such as Romania and Poland, adopted bicameral legislatures. Both the former Russian SFSR and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics were bicameral, the two chambers were the Soviet of Nationalities and the Soviet of the Union. The Russian Federation retained bicameralism after the dissolution of the USSR, the principal advantage of a unicameral system is more efficient lawmaking, as the legislative process is much simpler and there is no possibility of deadlock. Proponents of unicameralism have also argued that it costs, even if the number of legislators stay the same, since there are fewer institutions to maintain. There is also the risk that important sectors of society may not be adequately represented, approximately half of the worlds sovereign states are currently unicameral, including both the most populous and the least populous. Many subnational entities have unicameral legislatures, and all of the Brazilian states. In the United Kingdom, the devolved Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales, Congress of Deputies of Second Spanish Republic was unicameral between 1931 and 1936. Dissolved at the end of Spanish Civil War, the actual Spanish Parliament is bicameral, Supreme Assembly of Uzbekistan was unicameral before being replaced in 2005 by the current, bicameral Supreme Assembly. National Assembly of Cameroon was unicameral before being replaced in 2013 by the current, chamber of Peoples Representative of Equatorial Guinea was unicameral before being replaced in 2013 by the current, bicameral Parliament of Equatorial Guinea. National Assembly of Kenya was the unicameral legislature before becoming the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Kenya in 2013. National Assembly of Ivory Coast was the unicameral legislature before becoming the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Ivory Coast in 2016. Nebraskas state legislature is also unique in the sense that it is the state legislature that is entirely nonpartisan. In 1999, Governor Jesse Ventura proposed converting the Minnesota Legislature into a unicameral chamber. Although debated, the idea was never adopted, if those constitutional changes had been approved, Puerto Rico could have switched to a unicameral legislature as early as 2015
3.
London Government Act 1963
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The Act significantly reduced the number of local government districts in the area, resulting in local authorities responsible for larger areas and populations. The upper tier of government was reformed to cover the whole of the Greater London area and with a more strategic role. The Act classified the boroughs into inner and outer London groups, the City of London and its corporation were essentially unreformed by the legislation. Subsequent amendments to the Act have significantly amended the upper tier arrangements, with the Greater London Council abolished in 1986, and the Greater London Authority introduced in 2000. As of 2016, the London boroughs are more or less identical to those created in 1965, although with some enhanced powers over services such as waste management and education. The Act set up a local government system, with powers divided between the newly formed Greater London Council,32 new London borough councils and the existing City of London. The provisions of the Act came into effect on 1 April 1965, twelve of the boroughs, corresponding to the former County of London, were designated Inner London boroughs. The remaining twenty boroughs were designated Outer London boroughs, none of the boroughs were given names in the Act. Section 2 declared that the area comprising the areas of the London boroughs, the City, an elected Greater London Council was to govern the new area. No part of Greater London was to part of any administrative county, county district or parish. Three Middlesex urban districts not included in Greater London were transferred to other counties, Potters Bar to Hertfordshire, the Act also established the Inner London Education Authority to administer schools and colleges in the 12 inner London boroughs. The remaining 20 outer boroughs became local education authorities in their own right, the London Traffic Area and the London and Home Counties Traffic Advisory Committee, set up in 1924, were abolished, with the GLC gaining powers to regulate road traffic. An alteration was made to the Metropolitan Police District to include the whole of Greater London. The composition of the London boroughs was given in Schedule 1 of the Act, The metropolitan boroughs of Westminster, Paddington, the metropolitan boroughs of Hampstead, Holborn and St Pancras. The metropolitan boroughs of Finsbury and Islington, the metropolitan boroughs of Hackney, Shoreditch and Stoke Newington. The metropolitan boroughs of Bethnal Green, Poplar and Stepney, the metropolitan borough of Greenwich and so much of the metropolitan borough of Woolwich as lay south of the centre of the navigable channel of the River Thames at low water. The metropolitan boroughs of Deptford and Lewisham, the metropolitan boroughs of Bermondsey, Camberwell and Southwark. The metropolitan borough of Battersea and the remainder of the borough of Wandsworth not included in borough 9
4.
Local Government Act 1985
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The Local Government Act 1985 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. In their place many single purpose authorities known collectively as joint authorities were established for service, police. An ad hoc education authority was established for Inner London and an authority for Greater London. The legislation permitted councils to form joint arrangements for waste disposal, time-limited residuary bodies were created to dispose of the assets of the former authorities. All of the authorities were controlled by, or came under the control of the opposition Labour Party during Thatchers first term, the Conservative manifesto for the 1983 general election pledged their abolition, describing the councils as a wasteful and unnecessary tier of government. Having won a victory, the government published a white paper, Streamlining the cities. The core provision, section 1, stated that the Greater London Council, the measures enacted by the act had been proposed in the white paper Streamlining the cities in 1983. At the time of the Act, one third of the population of England were living in Greater London, time-limited residuary bodies were created to handle the disposal of the councils assets. Part III of the Act also set up the Inner London Education Authority and this was to remain in existence for only three years. Six metropolitan county councils were abolished and the authority of Greater London. A number of single purpose authorities were established, collectively known as joint authorities in the legislation
5.
London County Council
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It covered the area today known as Inner London and was replaced by the Greater London Council. The LCC was the largest, most significant and most ambitious English municipal authority of its day, by the 19th century the City of London Corporation covered only a small fraction of metropolitan London. From 1855 the Metropolitan Board of Works had certain powers across the metropolis, many powers remained in the hands of traditional bodies such as parishes and the counties of Middlesex, Surrey and Kent. While the Conservative government of the day would have preferred not to create a body covering the whole of London. It was established as a council on 31 January 1889. Shortly after its creation a Royal Commission on the Amalgamation of the City and County of London considered the means for amalgamation with the City of London. The LCC inherited the powers of its predecessor the MBW, but had authority over matters such as education, city planning. It took over the functions of the London School Board in 1903, from 1899 the Council progressively acquired and operated the tramways in the county, which it electrified from 1903. One of the LCCs most important roles during the late 19th and early 20th century, was in the management of the expanding city, in the Victorian era, new housing had been intentionally urban and large-scale tenement buildings dominated. Beginning in the 1930s, the LCC incentivized an increase in suburban housing styles. The LCC set the standard for new construction at 12 houses per acre of land at a time when some London areas had as many as 80 housing units per acre. By 1938,76,877 units of housing had been built under the auspices of the LCC in the city and its periphery, many of these new housing developments were genuinely working-class, though the poorest could rarely afford even subsidized rents. They relied on an expanding London Underground network that ferried workers en masse to places of employment in the city center and these housing developments were broadly successful, and they resisted the slummification that blighted so many Victorian tenement developments. The LCC undertook between 1857 and 1929 to standardize and clarify street names across London, many streets in different areas of the city had similar or identical names, and the rise of the automobile as a primary mode of transportation in the city made these names unworkable. In an extreme case, there were more than 60 streets called Cross Street spread across the city when the LCC began its process of systematic renaming and these were given names from an approved list that was maintained by the LCC, containing only suitably English names. If street names were deemed un-English, they were slated for change, Zulu Crescent in Battersea, for instance. By 1939, the council had the powers and duties. The LCC initially used the Spring Gardens headquarters inherited from the Metropolitan Board of Works, the building had been designed by Frederick Marrable, the MBWs supeintending architect, and dated from 1860
6.
Inner London Education Authority
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The Inner London Education Authority was an ad hoc local education authority for the City of London and the 12 Inner London boroughs from 1965 until its abolition in 1990. The authority was reconstituted as an elected body corporate on 1 April 1986. The Inner London Education Authority was established when the Greater London Council replaced the London County Council as the local authority for London in 1965. The LCC had taken responsibility for education in Inner London from the London School Board in 1904. In what was to become Outer London, education was administered by the relevant county councils and county boroughs. The Herbert Commission report in 1960 recommended the establishment of the Greater London Council and it advocated a London-wide division of educational powers between the GLC and the London boroughs. The GLC would be responsible for control of schools. This part of the report was rejected by the government, the London Government Act 1963 therefore created the ILEA to inherit the educational responsibilities of the LCC, and gave Outer London boroughs LEA status. The ILEA was originally conceived as a body whose status would be reviewed before 1970. The ILEA did not cover the area of North Woolwich. The ILEA had a somewhat anomalous legal status, technically the GLC itself was the education authority for inner London, but it was both administratively difficult and politically unjust to allow outer London members of the GLC to have an input. Members of the GLC/ILEA tended to concentrate on one duty only and it was possible for the ILEA to have a majority of Labour members when the GLC had a majority of Conservative members, and this happened from 1970 to 1973 and 1977 to 1981. In addition, most of the important decisions taken by the ILEA were taken by its Education Committee, the Education Committee could also co-opt members with experience of education, some of them representing the teaching unions. The initial composition of the ILEA in 1964 was 43 Labour members to 9 Conservatives, after the 1967 election the Conservatives won a majority, and Christopher Chataway became Leader. However, Labour won control in 1970 and Ashley Bramall began his long leadership and his term saw the ILEA go over to comprehensive education, and the abolition of school corporal punishment. He retained power despite the Conservative election victory in the 1977 GLC elections, when the Left, under Ken Livingstone, won control of the GLC after the 1981 elections, Bramall lost his position in an internal Labour Party vote, being replaced by Bryn Davies. Livingstone later expressed regret for this decision and expressed his admiration for Bramalls leadership abilities, the remaining years of the ILEA saw a succession of left-wing leaderships, none of which lasted long or established a strong reputation. Frances Morrell, formerly an assistant to Tony Benn, led a feminist ILEA from 1983 to 1987 which threatened to defy its rate-capping in November 1984, before Neil Fletcher took over
7.
County Hall, London
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County Hall is a building in London that was the headquarters of London County Council and later the Greater London Council. The building is on the South Bank of the River Thames, with Westminster Bridge being next to it and it faces west toward the City of Westminster and is close to the Palace of Westminster. The nearest London Underground stations are Waterloo and Westminster, today, County Hall is the site of businesses and attractions, including the London Sea Life Aquarium, London Dungeon and a Namco Station amusement arcade. The London Eye is next to County Hall, and its centre is inside the building. There is also a suite of rooms which was home to the Saatchi Gallery from 2003 to 2006. Other parts of the house two hotels, several restaurants, and some flats. Various spaces are available for hire for functions, including the chamber at the heart of the building. Until January 2010 the Dali Universe was also in the building but this has now closed, confirmed in early 2014, the building will become the home of the new Merlin Entertainments attraction and was opening in July 2015. The area is home to three other Merlin Entertainments attractions. In 2016 London event venue company etc. venues announced plans to open a conference, based on the 4th floor overlooking the Thames, which opened in January 2017. The main six storey building was designed by Ralph Knott and it is faced in Portland stone in an Edwardian Baroque style. The construction, which was undertaken by Holland, Hannen & Cubitts, started in 1911, the North and South blocks, which were built by Higgs and Hill, were added between 1936 and 1939. The Island block was not completed until 1974, for 64 years County Hall served as the headquarters of local government for London. During the 1980s the then powerful Labour-controlled GLC led by Ken Livingstone was locked in conflict with the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher. Since the Parliament buildings were just across the river from County Hall, when the government of Margaret Thatcher abolished the GLC in 1986, County Hall lost its role as the seat of Londons government. Today, the majority of the building, including the fourth and fifth floors. Another small section of the building is occupied as a Premier Inn, the County Hall Island Block, an annex of the main building, was demolished in 2006 to make way for a hotel, the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge. The building, also known as No 1 Westminster Bridge Road, had been disused since 1986 and had become a derelict eyesore, a blue plaque commemorates the LCC, GLC and the Inner London Education Authority at County Hall
8.
Lambeth
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Lambeth is a district in Central London, England, located in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is situated 1 mile south of Charing Cross, the population of Lambeth was 23,937 in 2011. The area experienced some growth in the medieval period as part of the manor of Lambeth Palace. By the Victorian era the area had seen significant development as London expanded, the changes brought by World War II altered much of the fabric of Lambeth. Subsequent development in the late 20th century and early 21st century has seen an increase in the number of high-rise buildings, the area is home to the International Maritime Organization. The origins of the name of Lambeth come from its first record in 1062 as Lambehitha, meaning landing place for lambs, in the Domesday Book, Lambeth is called Lanchei, likely in error. The name refers to a harbour where lambs were either shipped from or to and it is formed from the Old English lamb and hythe. South Lambeth is recorded as Sutlamehethe in 1241 and North Lambeth is recorded in 1319 as North Lamhuth, the manor of Lambeth is recorded as being under ownership of the Archbishop of Canterbury from at least 1190. The Archbishops led the development of much of the manor, with Archbishop Hubert Walter creating the residence of Lambeth Palace in 1197, Lambeth and the palace were the site of two important 13th century international treaties, the Treaty of Lambeth 1217 and the Treaty of Lambeth 1212. Edward, the Black Prince lived in Lambeth in the 14th century in an estate that incorporated the land not belonging to the Archbishops, which also included Kennington. As such, much of the land of Lambeth to this day remains under Royal ownership as part of the estate of the Duchy of Cornwall. The road names, Norfolk Place and Norfolk Row reflect the history, Lambeth Palace lies opposite the southern section of the Palace of Westminster on the Thames. The two were linked by a horse ferry across the river. Until the mid-18th century the north of Lambeth was marshland, crossed by a number of roads raised against floods, the marshland in the area, known as Lambeth Marshe, was drained in the 18th century but is remembered in the Lower Marsh street name. The subsequent growth in road and marine transport, along with the development of industry in the wake of the revolution brought great change to the area. The area grew with a population at this time, many of whom were considerably poor. As a result, Lambeth opened a workhouse in 1726. In 1777 a parliamentary report recorded a parish workhouse in operation accommodating up to 270 inmates and its operation was overseen by an elected Board of twenty Guardians
9.
Greater London
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London, or Greater London, is a region of England which forms the administrative boundaries of London. It is organised into 33 local government districts, the 32 London boroughs, the Greater London Authority, based in Southwark, is responsible for strategic local government across the region and consists of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. The county of Greater London was created on 1 April 1965 through the London Government Act 1963, administratively, Greater London was first established as a sui generis council area under the Greater London Council between 1963 and 1986. The area was re-established as a region in 1994, and the Greater London Authority formed in 2000, the region covers 1,572 km2 and had a population of 8,174,000 at the 2011 census. In 2012, it had the highest GVA per capita in the United Kingdom at £37,232, the Greater London Built-up Area—used in some national statistics—is a measure of the continuous urban area of London, and therefore includes areas outside of the administrative region. The term Greater London has been and still is used to different areas in governance, statistics, history. In terms of ceremonial counties, London is divided into the small City of London, outside the limited boundaries of the City, a variety of arrangements has governed the wider area since 1855, culminating in the creation of the Greater London administrative area in 1965. The Greater London Arterial Road Programme was devised between 1913 and 1916, one of the larger early forms was the Greater London Planning Region, devised in 1927, which occupied 1,856 square miles and included 9 million people. The LCC pressed for an alteration in its boundaries soon after the end of the First World War, noting that within the Metropolitan, a Royal Commission on London Government was set up to consider the issue. The LCC proposed a vast new area for Greater London, with a boundary somewhere between the Metropolitan Police District and the home counties, protests were made at the possibility of including Windsor, Slough and Eton in the authority. The Commission made its report in 1923, rejecting the LCCs scheme, two minority reports favoured change beyond the amalgamation of smaller urban districts, including both smaller borough councils and a central authority for strategic functions. The London Traffic Act 1924 was a result of the Commission, Greater London originally had a two-tier system of local government, with the Greater London Council sharing power with the City of London Corporation and the 32 London Borough councils. The GLC was abolished in 1986 by the Local Government Act 1985 and its functions were devolved to the City Corporation and the London Boroughs, with some functions transferred to central government and joint boards. Greater London was used to form the London region of England in 1994, a referendum held in 1998 established a public will to recreate an upper tier of government to cover the region. The Greater London Authority, London Assembly and the directly elected Mayor of London were created in 2000 by the Greater London Authority Act 1999, in 2000, the outer boundary of the Metropolitan Police District was re-aligned to the Greater London boundary. The 2000 and 2004 mayoral elections were won by Ken Livingstone, the 2008 and 2012 elections were won by Boris Johnson. The 2016 election was won by Sadiq Khan, Greater London continues to include the most closely associated parts of the Greater London Urban Area and their historic buffers. Thus it includes, in five boroughs, significant parts of the Metropolitan Green Belt which protects designated greenfield land in a way to the citys parks
10.
Conurbation
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In most cases, a conurbation is a polycentric urbanised area, in which transportation has developed to link areas to create a single urban labour market or travel to work area. The term conurbation was coined in 1915 by Patrick Geddes in his book Cities In Evolution, the term as described is used in Britain, whereas the term in the United States is most closely equivalent to metropolitan area as used by the Census Bureau. It may consist of a city and its suburbs. A conurbation should also be contrasted with a megalopolis, where the areas are close but not physically contiguous. The cities and towns of Port Louis, Beau Bassin-Rose Hill, Curepipe, Quatre Bornes, Vacoas-Phoenix and other urbanized villages form a large, a large part of this conurbation is located in the district of Plaines Wilhems. This network of urban areas has a population of 530,920 as of 2011. Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni, and Tshwane are currently merging to form a region that comprises a population of 14.6 million people, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region consists of Mumbai and its satellite towns. Developing over a period of about 20 years, it consists of seven municipal corporations, the region has an area of 4,355 km² and with a population of 20,998,395, and is among the top ten most populated urban agglomerations in the world. It is linked together through the Mumbai Suburban Railway system and a network of roads. The population of the NCR region is 21.7 million, Dhaka has recently been linked with Narayanganj and Gazipur city such that there are no gaps between Dhaka and those two cities. The Klang Valley conurbation in the state of Selangor is composed of, Kuala Lumpur, the second largest conurbation by population in Malaysia is Greater Penang. Centred in George Town, the city of the state of Penang, the conurbation also includes the following towns in Penang. Lahore–Raiwind–Kala Shah Kaku, the second largest city in Pakistan with its towns of Kala Shah Kaku. Metro Manila, Philippines Bangkok Metropolitan Region, Thailand Ho Chi Minh City Metropolitan Region, comprising Ho Chi Minh City, Bình Dương, Đồng Nai, Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu, Tây Ninh, and Tân An. Hanoi Metropolitan Region, comprising Hanoi, Bắc Ninh, Thái Nguyên, Vĩnh Phúc, and Việt Trì. Qui Nhơn-Nha Trang-Da Lat Conurbation Belt, comprising Qui Nhơn, An Nhơn, Sông Cầu, Tuy Hòa, Vân Phong Bay, Ninh Hòa, Nha Trang, Dien Khánh, Cam Lâm, Cam Ranh, Trường Sa, Phan Rang, and Da Lat. Huế-Da Nang-Quảng Ngãi Conurbation Belt, comprising Huế, Hương Tra, Hương Thủy, Lăng Cô, Da Nang, Hòa Vang, Hoàng Sa, Hội An, Tam Kỳ, Chu Lai, Dung Quất, Sơn Tịnh and this area is colloquially known as the Area Metropolitana. The Flemish Diamond is the Flemish reference to a network of four areas in Belgium
11.
London boroughs
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London boroughs are 32 of the 33 local authority districts of the Greater London administrative area and are each governed by a London borough council. The London boroughs were all created at the time as Greater London on 1 April 1965 by the London Government Act 1963 and are a type of local government district. Twelve were designated as Inner London boroughs and twenty as Outer London boroughs, London boroughs have populations of around 150,000 to 300,000. Inner London boroughs tend to be smaller, in population and area, and more densely populated than Outer London boroughs. The London boroughs were created by combining groups of local government units. A review undertaken between 1987 and 1992 led to a number of small alterations in borough boundaries. London borough councils provide the majority of government services, in contrast to the strategic Greater London Authority. The councils were first elected in 1964 and acted as shadow authorities until 1 April 1965, each borough is divided into electoral wards, subject to periodic review, for the purpose of electing councillors. Council elections take place four years, with the most recent elections in 2014. The political make-up of London borough councils is dominated by the Conservative, Labour, twenty-eight councils follow the leader and cabinet model of executive governance, with directly elected mayors in Hackney, Lewisham, Newham, and Tower Hamlets. The City of London is instead governed by the City of London Corporation, from the mid-1930s, the Greater London area comprised four types of local government authorities. There were county boroughs, municipal boroughs, urban districts and metropolitan boroughs, the large county boroughs provided all local government services and held the powers usually invested in county councils. The municipal borough and urban district authorities had fewer powers, reform of London local government sought to regularise this arrangement. The Royal Commission on Local Government in Greater London was established in 1957 and it proposed 52 Greater London Boroughs with a population range of 100,000 to 250,000. This was made up of a mixture of existing units. In December 1961 the government proposed that there would be 34 boroughs rather than 52, the proposed number was further reduced to 32 in 1962. On 1 April 1965, the 32 London boroughs and Greater London were created by the London Government Act 1963,12 boroughs in the former County of London area were designated Inner London boroughs and the 20 others were designated Outer London boroughs. The City of London continued to be administered by the City of London Corporation, elections were held on 7 May 1964, with the new councils acting as shadow authorities before coming into their powers the following year
12.
County of London
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The County of London was a county of England from 1889 to 1965, corresponding to the area known today as Inner London. It was created as part of the introduction of elected county government in England. The Act created an administrative County of London, which included within its territory the City of London, however, the City of London and the County of London formed separate counties for non-administrative purposes. The local authority for the county was the London County Council, which performed only a limited range of functions. The LCC provided very few services within the City of London, in 1900 the lower-tier civil parishes and district boards were replaced with 28 new metropolitan boroughs. The territory of the county was 74,903 acres in 1961, in 1965, the London Government Act 1963 replaced the county with the much larger Greater London administrative area. The county occupied an area of just under 75,000 acres and it was divided into two parts by the River Thames, which was the most significant geographic feature. It was bordered by Essex to the north-east, Kent to the south-east, Surrey the south-west, the highest point was Hampstead Heath in the north of the county at 440 feet, which is one of the highest points in London. In 1900 a number of anomalies were abolished. These included the loss of the Alexandra Park exclave to Middlesex, gaining South Hornsey in return, the local government arrangements in London had last been reformed in 1855. This reform created an indirectly elected Metropolitan Board of Works which initially provided basic services for the metropolitan area. Over time the board gained more functions and became the de facto local authority, the board operated in those parts of the counties of Middlesex, Surrey and Kent that had been designated by the General Register Office as the Metropolis for the purposes of the Bills of Mortality. This area had been administered separately from the City of London and these had all been defeated in Parliament, in part because of the agency power of the City Corporation. Ultimately, the Local Government Act 1888 and the introduction of county councils in England provided the mechanism for creating a territory, for expediency, the area of the metropolitan board was chosen for the new county, and no attempt was made to select new boundaries. This area had been out of line with the expansion of London even in 1855, for example, it anomalously omitted built-up and expanding areas such as West Ham, but included some sparsely populated areas on the metropolitan fringe. The City of London and the County of London each formed counties for non-administrative purposes, with a separate Lord Lieutenant, however, the administrative county, which corresponded to the area of control of the county council, also included the City of London. In practice, the county council had very little authority over the ancient City, with powers over drainage, roads, fire brigade, embankment of the river. The local authority for the county was the London County Council, initially, the LCC provided the services it had inherited from the Metropolitan Board of Works
13.
Middlesex
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Middlesex is a historic county in south-east England. It is now entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and its area is now also mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in other neighbouring ceremonial counties. It was established in the Anglo-Saxon system from the territory of the Middle Saxons, the largely low-lying county, dominated by clay in its north and alluvium on gravel in its south, was the second smallest county by area in 1831. The City of London was a county in its own right from the 12th century and was able to exert control over Middlesex. Westminster Abbey dominated most of the financial, judicial and ecclesiastical aspects of the county. As London grew into Middlesex, the Corporation of London resisted attempts to expand the city boundaries into the county, in the 18th and 19th centuries the population density was especially high in the southeast of the county, including the East End and West End of London. From 1855 the southeast was administered, with sections of Kent and Surrey, the City of London, and Middlesex, became separate counties for other purposes and Middlesex regained the right to appoint its own sheriff, lost in 1199. In the interwar years suburban London expanded further, with improvement and expansion of public transport, after the Second World War, the population of the County of London and inner Middlesex was in steady decline, with high population growth continuing in the outer parts. Since 1965 various areas called Middlesex have been used for cricket, Middlesex was the former postal county of 25 post towns. The name means territory of the middle Saxons and refers to the origin of its inhabitants. The word is formed from the Anglo-Saxon, i. e. Old English, middel, in an 8th-century charter the region is recorded as Middleseaxon and in 704 it is recorded as Middleseaxan. The Saxons derived their name from seax, a kind of knife for which they were known, the seax has a lasting symbolic impact in the English counties of Essex and Middlesex, both of which feature three seaxes in their ceremonial emblem. Their names, along with those of Sussex and Wessex, contain a remnant of the word Saxon, there were settlements in the area of Middlesex that can be traced back thousands of years before the creation of a county. Middlesex was formerly part of the Kingdom of Essex It was recorded in the Domesday Book as being divided into the six hundreds of Edmonton, Elthorne, Gore, Hounslow, Ossulstone and Spelthorne. The City of London has been self-governing since the century and became a county in its own right. Middlesex also included Westminster, which also had a degree of autonomy. Of the six hundreds, Ossulstone contained the districts closest to the City of London, during the 17th century it was divided into four divisions, which, along with the Liberty of Westminster, largely took over the administrative functions of the hundred. The divisions were named Finsbury, Holborn, Kensington and Tower, the county had parliamentary representation from the 13th century
14.
Essex
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Essex /ˈɛsᵻks/ is a county in England immediately north-east of London. It borders the counties of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, the county town is Chelmsford, which is the only city in the county. Essex occupies the part of the old Kingdom of Essex, before this. As well as areas, the county also includes London Stansted Airport, the new towns of Basildon and Harlow, Lakeside Shopping Centre, the port of Tilbury. Originally recorded in AD527, Essex occupied territory to the north of the River Thames, incorporating all of what later became Middlesex and its territory was later restricted to lands east of the River Lea. In changes before the Norman conquest the East Saxons were subsumed into the Kingdom of England and, following the Norman conquest, Essex became a county. During the medieval period, much of the area was designated a Royal forest, including the county in a period to 1204. Gradually, the subject to forest law diminished, but at various times included the forests of Becontree, Chelmsford, Epping, Hatfield, Ongar. County-wide administration Essex County Council was formed in 1889, however County Boroughs of West Ham, Southend-on-Sea and East Ham formed part of the county but were unitary authorities. 12 boroughs and districts provide more localised services such as rubbish and recycling collections, leisure and planning, parish-level administration – changes A few Essex parishes have been transferred to other counties. Before 1889, small areas were transferred to Hertfordshire near Bishops Stortford, Essex became part of the East of England Government Office Region in 1994 and was statistically counted as part of that region from 1999, having previously been part of the South East England region. Two unitary authorities In 1998 the boroughs of Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock were granted autonomy from the county of Essex after successful requests to become unitary authorities. Essex Police covers the county and the two unitary authorities. The county council chamber and main headquarters is at the County Hall in Chelmsford, before 1938 the council regularly met in London near Moorgate, which with significant parts closer to that point and the dominance of railways had been more convenient than any place in the county. It currently has 75 elected councillors, before 1965, the number of councillors reached over 100. The highest point of the county of Essex is Chrishall Common near the village of Langley, close to the Hertfordshire border, the pattern of settlement in the county is diverse. Epping Forest also acts as a barrier to the further spread of London. Part of the southeast of the county, already containing the population centres of Basildon, Southend and Thurrock, is within the Thames Gateway
15.
Kent
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Kent /ˈkɛnt/ is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south west, the county also shares borders with Essex via the Dartford Crossing and the French department of Pas-de-Calais through the Channel Tunnel. France can be clearly in fine weather from Folkestone and the White Cliffs of Dover. Hills in the form of the North Downs and the Greensand Ridge span the length of the county, because of its relative abundance of fruit-growing and hop gardens, Kent is known as The Garden of England. The title was defended in 2006 when a survey of counties by the UKTV Style Gardens channel put Kent in fifth place, behind North Yorkshire, Devon. Haulage, logistics, and tourism are industries, major industries in north-west Kent include aggregate building materials, printing. Coal mining has played its part in Kents industrial heritage. Large parts of Kent are within the London commuter belt and its transport connections to the capital. Twenty-eight per cent of the county forms part of two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the North Downs and The High Weald, the area has been occupied since the Palaeolithic era, as attested by finds from the quarries at Swanscombe. The Medway megaliths were built during the Neolithic era, There is a rich sequence of Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Roman era occupation, as indicated by finds and features such as the Ringlemere gold cup and the Roman villas of the Darent valley. The modern name of Kent is derived from the Brythonic word Cantus meaning rim or border and this describes the eastern part of the current county area as a border land or coastal district. Julius Caesar had described the area as Cantium, or home of the Cantiaci in 51 BC, the extreme west of the modern county was by the time of Roman Britain occupied by Iron Age tribes, known as the Regnenses. East Kent became a kingdom of the Jutes during the 5th century and was known as Cantia from about 730, the early medieval inhabitants of the county were known as the Cantwara, or Kent people. These people regarded the city of Canterbury as their capital, in 597, Pope Gregory I appointed the religious missionary as the first Archbishop of Canterbury. In the previous year, Augustine successfully converted the pagan King Æthelberht of Kent to Christianity, the Diocese of Canterbury became Britains first Episcopal See with first cathedral and has since remained Englands centre of Christianity. The second designated English cathedral was in Kent at Rochester Cathedral, in the 11th century, the people of Kent adopted the motto Invicta, meaning undefeated. This naming followed the invasion of Britain by William of Normandy, the Kent peoples continued resistance against the Normans led to Kents designation as a semi-autonomous county palatine in 1067. Under the nominal rule of Williams half-brother Odo of Bayeux, the county was granted powers to those granted in the areas bordering Wales
16.
Surrey
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Surrey is a county in the south east of England. It shares borders with Kent to the east, East Sussex to the south-east, West Sussex to the south, Hampshire to the west and south-west, Surrey County Council sits extraterritorially at Kingston upon Thames, administered as part of Greater London since 1965. With a resident population of 1.1 million, Surrey is the most densely populated and third most populated county in the South East region, after Kent, the London boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark, Wandsworth, and parts of Lewisham and Bromley were in Surrey until 1889. The boroughs of Croydon, Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Sutton and Richmond upon Thames south of the River Thames were part of Surrey until 1965, when they too were absorbed into Greater London. In the same year, the county was extended north of the Thames by the addition of Spelthorne, due to this expansion, modern Surrey also borders on the London boroughs of Hounslow and Hillingdon. It has the highest GDP per capita of any English county, Surrey is divided in two by the chalk ridge of the North Downs, running east-west. To the north of the Downs the land is mostly flat, the geology of this area is dominated by London Clay in the east, Bagshot Sands in the west and alluvial deposits along the rivers. Much of Surrey is in the Metropolitan Green Belt and it contains a good deal of mature woodland. Among its many notable beauty spots are Box Hill, Leith Hill, Frensham Ponds, Newlands Corner and Puttenham & Crooksbury Commons. Surrey is the most wooded county in England, with 22. 4% coverage compared to an average of 11. 8%. Box Hill has the oldest untouched area of woodland in the UK. Surrey also contains Englands principal concentration of lowland heath, on soils in the west of the county. Agriculture not being intensive, there are many commons and access lands, together with a network of footpaths and bridleways including the North Downs Way. Accordingly, Surrey provides much in the way of leisure activities. The highest elevation in Surrey is Leith Hill near Dorking and it is either 293,294 or 295 metres above sea level and is the second highest point in southeastern England after Walbury Hill 297 metres in West Berkshire. Surrey has a population of approximately 1.1 million people and its largest town is Guildford, with a population of 66,773, Woking comes a close second with 62,796. They are followed by Ewell with 39,994 people and Camberley with 30,155, towns of between 25,000 and 30,000 inhabitants are Ashford, Epsom, Farnham, Staines and Redhill. Guildford is the county town, although the county administration was moved to Newington in 1791
17.
Hertfordshire
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Hertfordshire is a county in southern England, bordered by Bedfordshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Buckinghamshire to the west and Greater London to the south. For government statistical purposes, it is placed in the East of England region, in 2013, the county had a population of 1,140,700 living in an area of 634 square miles. Four towns have between 50,000 and 100,000 residents, Hemel Hempstead, Stevenage, Watford and St Albans. Hertford, once the market town for the medieval agricultural county derives its name from a hart. Elevations are high for the region in the north and west and these reach over 240m in the western projection around Tring which is in the Chilterns. The countys borders are approximately the watersheds of the Colne and Lea, hertfordshires undeveloped land is mainly agricultural and much is protected by green belt. The countys landmarks span many centuries, ranging from the Six Hills in the new town of Stevenage built by local inhabitants during the Roman period, Leavesden filmed much of the UK-based $7.7 Bn box office Harry Potter film series and has the countrys studio tour. Saint Alban, a Romano-British soldier, took the place of a Christian priest and was beheaded on Holywell Hill and his martyrs cross of a yellow saltire on a blue background is reflected in the flag and coat of arms of Hertfordshire. Hertfordshire is well-served with motorways and railways, providing access to London. The largest sector of the economy of the county is in services, Hertfordshire was the area assigned to a fortress constructed at Hertford under the rule of Edward the Elder in 913. Hertford is derived from the Anglo-Saxon heort ford, meaning deer crossing, the name Hertfordshire is first recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 1011. Deer feature in many county emblems, there is evidence of humans living in Hertfordshire from the Mesolithic period. It was first farmed during the Neolithic period and permanent habitation appeared at the beginning of the Bronze Age and this was followed by tribes settling in the area during the Iron Age. 293 the first recorded British martyrdom is believed to have taken place. Saint Alban, a Romano-British soldier, took the place of a Christian priest and was beheaded on Holywell Hill. His martyrs cross of a saltire on a blue background is reflected in the flag. He is the Patron Saint of Hertfordshire, with the departure of the Roman Legions in the early 5th century, the now unprotected territory was invaded and colonised by the Anglo-Saxons. By the 6th century the majority of the county was part of the East Saxon kingdom
18.
County borough
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County borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control. They were abolished by the Local Government Act 1972 in England and Wales, in the Republic of Ireland they remain in existence but have been renamed cities under the provisions of the Local Government Act 2001. The Local Government Act 1994 re-introduced the term for certain areas in Wales. Scotland did not have county boroughs but instead counties of cities and these were abolished on 16 May 1975. All four Scottish cities of the time — Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, there was an additional category of large burgh in the Scottish system, which were responsible for all services apart from police, education and fire. Some cities and towns were already independent counties corporate, and most were to become county boroughs, the Local Government Act 1888 as eventually passed required a population of over 50,000 except in the case of existing counties corporate. This resulted in 61 county boroughs in England and two in Wales, several exceptions were allowed, mainly for historic towns, Bath, Dudley and Oxford were all under the 50,000 limit in the 1901 census. Various new county boroughs were constituted in the decades as more boroughs reached the 50,000 minimum. The granting of county status was the subject of much disagreement between the large municipal boroughs and the county councils. County boroughs to be constituted in this era were a bag, including some towns that would continue to expand such as Bournemouth. Other towns such as Burton upon Trent and Dewsbury were not to increase in population much past 50,000, the threshold was raised to 100,000 by the Local Government Act 1958. The viability of the county borough of Merthyr Tydfil came into question in the 1930s. Due to a decline in the industries of the town, by 1932 more than half the male population was unemployed. At the same time the population of the borough was lower than when it had created in 1908. A royal commission was appointed in May 1935 to investigate whether the status of Merthyr Tydfil as a county borough should be continued. In the event county borough status was retained by the town, after the Second World War the creation of new county boroughs in England and Wales was effectively suspended, pending a local government review. The policy in the paper also ruled out the creation of new county boroughs in Middlesex owing to its special problems, the Local Government Boundary Commission was appointed on 26 October 1945, under the chairmanship of Sir Malcolm Trustram Eve, delivering its report in 1947. The report envisaged the creation of 47 two-tiered new counties,21 one-tiered new counties and 63 new county boroughs, although the Commissions did not complete their work before being dissolved, a handful of new county boroughs were constituted between 1964 and 1968
19.
County Borough of Croydon
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The County Borough of Croydon was a local government district in and around the town of Croydon in north east Surrey, England from 1889 to 1965. Since 1965 the district has been part of the London Borough of Croydon within Greater London, a local board of health was formed for the parish of Croydon St John the Baptist in 1849. On 9 March 1883 the town received a charter of incorporation to become a municipal borough, the borough was granted a commission of the peace and a separate court of quarter sessions in 1885 and 1889 respectively. Under the Local Government Act 1888 it became a county borough in 1889. The area of the borough included part of Norwood and Addiscombe, Bensham, Croham, Coombe, Haling, Norbury, Shirley, Waddon. From 1894 to 1915 it was adjacent to Croydon Rural District to the south, east and west, the rural district was abolished in 1915, but the county borough was unsuccessful in its attempt to annex the area. The only significant extension of the boundaries was in 1925. The borough ran trams until they became the responsibility of the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933, the borough ran its own fire brigade and ambulance service until it became a London Borough. In 1954 Croydon Corporation unsuccessfully petitioned the Queen for the grant of city status, at the time, Croydon was the only county borough with a population in excess of 200,000 not to be a city. In 1965 the county borough was abolished and its area transferred to Greater London to be combined with that of Coulsdon. On incorporation the borough was divided into six wards each returning six councillors, together with 12 aldermen and a mayor, these formed the town council. In 1905 a new North ward was formed, and the council was enlarged to 14 aldermen and 42 councillors, from its incorporation the council was controlled by parties allied to the Conservative Party, known as the Coalition Party or Ratepayers Association. The Ratepayers Association was more formally organised as an anti-Labour Party grouping after 1900, Croydon was constituted a parliamentary constituency in 1885, with the same boundaries as the borough. In 1918 the county borough was divided into North and South constituencies, for the general election of 1950 representation increased to three, Croydon North, East and West. In 1955 the boundaries were altered to create Croydon North East, North West, the municipal borough was granted a coat of arms on 16 October 1886 by the College of Arms, and this was inherited by the county borough. With its quartered shield and its design, the coat of arms was in a style typical of grants to municipal corporations by Albert Woods. Most of the emblems on the shield were related to the Archbishops of Canterbury, the three choughs are associated with Thomas Becket and appear in the arms of the city of Canterbury. The cross crosslets came from the arms of the Diocese of Canterbury, the flory cross bearing three gold discs was taken from the arms of Archbishop John Whitgift
20.
County Borough of East Ham
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East Ham was a local government district in the far south west of Essex from 1878 to 1965. It extended from Wanstead Flats in the north to the River Thames in the south and it was part of the London postal district and Metropolitan Police District. East Ham Local Government District was created in 1878, when the parish of East Ham adopted the Local Government Act 1858, in 1886 the local government district was extended to include the civil parish of Little Ilford, and the board was increased to 12 in number. The Local Government Act 1894 reconstituted the area as an urban district, in 1900 Little Ilford parish was abolished and its area absorbed into an enlarged East Ham. On 27 August 1904 East Ham was granted a charter of incorporation constituting the town as a municipal borough, a new town council consisting of a mayor, six aldermen and eighteen councillors replaced the urban district council. The four wards of the district were replaced by six new wards. In 1915 the borough gained independence from county administration as a county borough, the borough included most of the current-day London Borough of Newham east of Green Street including Little Ilford, Manor Park, East Ham and Beckton. It excluded North Woolwich, as historically this was part of the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich, the borough ran its own tram services until they became the responsibility of the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933. The borough ran its own fire brigade which was absorbed into the London Fire Brigade in 1965, East Hams Town Hall now serves as Newham Town Hall. The borough did not have a coat of arms. In a 1916 book on the arms of Essex boroughs the pseudo-heraldic device was dismissed as an obvious imitation of the arms of West Ham. In common with most boroughs, early elections were officially non-political and were often uncontested, in 1906 a Labour Representation Committee was formed in East Ham, and it affiliated with the national Labour Party in 1908. In response, and in imitation of the highly successful London Municipal Reform Party, the Alliance, which also embraced independent and ratepayer candidates, secured a large majority at the municipal elections of 1907, with Labour forming the opposition on the council. In 1928 the elections produced a hung council, with Labour, in the following year a single gain saw Labour take control, which they were to retain for the remainder of the boroughs existence. The defeated opposition group stood as Anti-Labour from the elections in 1929 and were retitled as the Civic Party in 1933. When local elections were resumed after the Second World War, Labour faced official Conservative candidates for the first time, conservatives formed a small opposition group, later supplanted by Independents. After the final elections in 1963, Labour held 30 seats and Independents 10. The county borough, along with the County Borough of West Ham, was abolished, discussions are continuing between county and London Borough archivists which may lead to the return of records to their originating districts
21.
County Borough of West Ham
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West Ham was a local government district in the extreme south west of Essex from 1886 to 1965, forming part of the built-up area of London, although outside the County of London. It was immediately north of the River Thames and east of the River Lea, the borough included Plaistow, West Ham, Stratford, Canning Town and Silvertown – all of the current-day London Borough of Newham west of Green Street. At the time of the 1901 census it was the ninth most populous town or district in England with a population of 267,308, the borough formed part of Londons built-up area, was part of the London postal district and the Metropolitan Police District. West Ham underwent rapid growth from 1844 following the Metropolitan Building Act, the Act restricted dangerous and noxious industries from operating in the metropolitan area, the eastern boundary of which was the River Lea. Consequently, many of these activities were relocated to the side of the river and to West Ham, then a parish in Essex centred on All Saints Church. As a result, West Ham became one of Victorian Britains major manufacturing centres for pharmaceuticals, chemicals and this rapid growth earned it the name London over the border. Many workers lived in conditions close to where they worked, leading to periodic outbreaks of contagious diseases. Problems centred on provision of paving, water supply, fire fighting. In 1853 a group of ratepayers initiated moves to local administration. This led to an enquiry by Charles Dickens brother Alfred, a medical officer. Accordingly, the Public Health Act 1848 was applied to the parish, the board had 15 members,12 elected and 3 nominated by the Commissioners of Sewers. In November 1878 the inhabitants of the decided to petition the privy council for a charter. However, encouraged by the 1883 incorporation of Croydon, a petition was submitted in May 1885. Following an inquiry in October 1885, a scheme for the creation of the borough and dissolution of the board of health was made in June, a corporation consisting of a mayor,12 aldermen and 36 councillors replaced the board, with the first elections held on 1 November. The first mayor was John Meeson, head of a lime burning and cement making firm. The Local Government Act 1888 created elected county councils to administer services throughout England, where a municipal borough had a population of more than 50,000 at the 1881 Census it was created a county borough, with the powers and duties of both a borough and county council. As West Ham had an 1881 population of 128,953 it duly became a county borough on 1 April 1889, the borough, while independent of Essex County Council for local government, remained part of the county for purposes such as the administration of justice and lieutenancy. The borough acquired the tram services in its area in 1898, electrified them in 1904
22.
Chigwell Urban District
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Chigwell was a local government district in south west Essex, England. It contained the settlements of Chigwell, Loughton and Buckhurst Hill, extensive council house building by the Chigwell Urban District itself took place between Buckhurst Hill and Loughton. The large LT Hainault depot was also mostly in the U. D, the coat of arms were granted in 1951 and represent Or, a stag at rest proper, on a chief gules three axe-heads bendwise sinister with blades down-words argent. The population of area in 1961 was 7,071. On 1 April 1974 the remainder of the district was abolished by the Local Government Act 1972 and the area has since formed part of the Epping Forest district
23.
Sunbury-on-Thames Urban District
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In 1894, under the Local Government Act 1894, Sunbury on Thames was created an urban district of the administrative county of Middlesex. It adopted planning, lighting and sanitary responsibilities, by 1795 the parish had a fire engine for which a keeper and assistant keeper were appointed. Before 1859 the beadle looked after it and from year to 1879 the overseer was responsible. A volunteer brigade was proposed in 1879, and had formed by 1895. The vestry agreed to sell the old parish cage or round house in 1859, in or before 1879 part of the parish was made a lighting district. Serious agitation for better drainage began in 1890, and in 1892 the vestry decided to press for urban status, a parochial committee was formed in the same year using the Public Health Act 1875. At a local inquiry which was held in 1893 it was said that property in the parish was depreciating because of the Staines rural sanitary authoritys apathy about drainage. The latter was not represented at the inquiry and there was no opposition to the urban district. The council had 12 members until 1930, when it was increased to 17 on the addition of Shepperton and Littleton parishes, by 1957 it had been further increased to 20. In 1931 all the councillors were independents and from World War II until its demise the councillors were predominantly Conservative, during the first few years the council met twice monthly, but in the few years to 1957 it met thirteen times a year. The first meeting, in January 1895, was held at the Institute, thereafter the council met at the Assembly Rooms in Thames Street until it acquired the lease of Church Villa later in 1895. By 1930 the building was too small and a one was erected in the grounds. The house known as Benwell, which now contains the offices, was purchased in 1932. Church Villa was bought by the council after 1929 and was used as a station until the early 1960s. Since World War II additional office buildings were put up in the grounds, in 1895 one person was appointed surveyor and inspector of nuisances, a collector and medical officer were appointed, and the vestry clerk was made clerk to the council. In 1957 there were five officers, including the joint post of public health inspector and chief housing officer. The councils own expenditure within the rose from £7,152 in 1906-7 to £293,872 in 1956-7. In 1896 there were committees for finance, highways and lighting, by-laws, fire brigade, Church Green improvement, sanitary and general purposes, the last comprised the whole council and a sewerage scheme absorbed much attention at first
24.
Staines Urban District
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Staines was a local government district from 1894 to 1974 named after the English town of Staines. In the far north, Stanwell and Staines Moor formed the main area at the time of disbandment of the area. During its existence a significant amount of Staines Urban Districts land was transferred to the Metropolitan Water Board to form two reservoirs and a small percentage of a third. An aqueduct and pumping station were made c, between the two wars building spread along the London Road, where the London Transport garage was opened in 1934. The chief area of development was to the south, around the Kingston, the bungalow town of what were initially simply brick-built retirement properties with gardens in South Staines or the tithing of Penton towards Penton Hook was in existence by 1919. By the demise of the many of these plots had been transformed into the two-storey houses of London commuters. Between the Second World War and 1964 much of the land in the south of the parish was built over. In 1894, under the Local Government Act 1894, Staines was changed to a district of Middlesex. It originally just covered the parish of Staines, in 1930 the civil parishes of Ashford, Laleham and Stanwell were added from the disbanded Staines Rural District. At the outset 12 members convened, on the addition of the three settlements mentioned in 1930 this number doubled. The council met fortnightly until 1897, and until its demise generally met once a month, in 1886 there were seven committees, for the town hall, commons, cemetery, highways, hospital, finance, and drainage. The hospital committee was dissolved soon after it was formed, without having provided a hospital, in 1957 the council had ten committees, and two standing sub-committees. By 1939 the urban district contained 500 council houses, of which 94 were in Staines itself, between 1947 and 1957 a further 1,369 were built almost all in the former Rural District - two, were in Staines parish and these are described as sold. In 1896-7 the council spent nearly £8,000, and in 1955-6 nearly £624,000, of which £525,000 went to the county council and Metropolitan Police. Apart from those employed on the roads, cemeteries, and others, the staff comprised the clerk, surveyor. By 1957 there was also a treasurer, and the four officers had a subordinate staff of about 100. The surveyors department moved to the London Road in 1950 and the department to no. A school board of five members was formed for Staines in 1885 and this took over all the existing elementary schools, but did not build any new ones until 1896
25.
Potters Bar Urban District
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South Mimms Rural District succeeded by Potters Bar Urban District was a local government district occupying the area around the village, then urban village or town of Potters Bar, England. The change from a district to an urban district occurred in 1934. The urban district was transferred from Middlesex to Hertfordshire in 1965, South Mimms Rural District was created in 1894 by the Local Government Act 1894 and consisted entirely of the parish of South Mimms in Middlesex. The South Mimms parish and rural district was affected by boundary changes in 1894,1896,1924 and 1926 In 1934 the rural district was abolished. The rural district was replaced with Potters Bar Urban District, which covered the same area, the district was part of the review area of the Royal Commission on Local Government in Greater London, however it did not form part of the proposed Greater London area
26.
Fire department
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Other life safety services, such as technical rescue, hazardous materials, and emergency medical services may also be provided by the agency. In the United States a fire brigade is the private firefighting organization of a company or enterprise, a fire department usually contains one or more fire stations within its boundaries, and may be staffed by career firefighters, volunteer firefighters, or a combination thereof. A fire department may provide fire protection or fire prevention services, whereby firefighters visit homes and give fire safety advice. In many countries fire protection or prevention is seen as an important role for the service, as preventing a fire from occurring in the first place can save lives. Fire departments are organized in a system of administration, services, training, and operations, for example, Administration is responsible for supervision, budgets, policy, Service offers protection, safety, and education to the public. Training prepares skilled people with the knowledge to perform their duties, operations performs the tasks to successfully save the public from harm. Larger departments have branches within themselves to increase efficiency, composed of volunteers, support, volunteers give advantages to the department in a state of emergency. Support organizing the resources within and outside of the department, research is to give advantages in new technologies for the department. A fire departments jurisdiction is organized by the body that controls the department. This comes from a municipality, county, prefecture, state, province, the most common type of government control is at the municipality level. The jurisdiction size and organisation would be set up by a department or the government in charge of these duties and this deals with the placement of fire stations, equipment, and personnel within the area of control. Fire departments periodically survey their areas and use the data for redeploying proper coverage. This data comes from time, range from station, and/or a population survey. This brings equal service to the community and gives the department efficient places to launch operations. The earliest known firefighting service was formed in Ancient Rome by Egnatius Rufus who used his slaves to provide a fire service. These men fought fires using bucket chains and also patrolled the streets with the authority to impose corporal punishment upon those who violated fire-prevention codes, the Emperor Augustus established a public fire department in 24 BCE, composed of 600 slaves distributed amongst seven fire stations in Rome. Fire departments were formed by property insurance companies beginning in the 17th century after the Great Fire of London in 1666. The first insurance brigades were established the following year, each company had its own fire mark, a durable plaque that would be affixed to the building exterior
27.
Urban planning
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Urban planning is also referred to as urban and regional planning, regional planning, town planning, city planning, rural planning or some combination in various areas worldwide. It takes many forms and it can share perspectives and practices with urban design, urban planning guides orderly development in urban, suburban and rural areas. Practitioners of urban planning are concerned with research and analysis, strategic thinking, architecture, urban design, public consultation, policy recommendations, implementation and management. Urban planners work with the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, civil engineering. Early urban planners were often members of these cognate fields, today urban planning is a separate, independent professional discipline. The discipline is the category that includes different sub-fields such as land-use planning, zoning, economic development, environmental planning. There is evidence of planning and designed communities dating back to the Mesopotamian, Indus Valley, Minoan. Archeologists studying the ruins of cities in these areas find paved streets that were out at right angles in a grid pattern. The idea of a planned out urban area evolved as different civilizations adopted it, beginning in the 8th century BCE, Greek city states were primarily centered on orthogonal plans. The ancient Romans, inspired by the Greeks, also used orthogonal plans for their cities, city planning in the Roman world was developed for military defense and public convenience. The spread of the Roman Empire subsequently spread the ideas of urban planning, as the Roman Empire declined, these ideas slowly disappeared. However, many cities in Europe still held onto the planned Roman city center, cities in Europe from the 9th to 14th centuries, often grew organically and sometimes chaotically. But many hundreds of new towns were built according to preconceived plans. Most of these were realized from the 12th to 14th centuries, from the 15th century on, much more is recorded of urban design and the people that were involved. In this period, theoretical treatises on architecture and urban planning start to appear in which questions are addressed and designs of towns. During the Enlightenment period, several European rulers ambitiously attempted to redesign capital cities, during the Second French Republic, Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann, under the direction of Napoleon III, redesigned the city of Paris into a more modern capital, with long, straight, wide boulevards. Planning and architecture went through a shift at the turn of the 20th century. The industrialized cities of the 19th century grew at a tremendous rate, the pace and style of this industrial construction was largely dictated by the concerns of private business
28.
Transport in London
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London has an extensive and developed transport network which includes both private and public services. Journeys made by transport systems account for 25% of Londons journeys while private services accounted for 41% of journeys. Londons public transport network serves as the hub for the United Kingdom in rail, air. Public transport services are dominated by the agency for transport in London. TfL controls the majority of transport, including the Underground, Buses, Tramlink, the Docklands Light Railway, London River Services. Other rail services are either franchised to train operating companies by the national Department for Transport, TfL also controls most major roads in London, but not minor roads. In addition, there are several independent airports operating in London, including Heathrow, early public transport in London began with horse-drawn omnibus services in 1829, which were gradually replaced by the first motor omnibuses in 1902. Over the years the companies which began these services amalgamated with the London General Omnibus Company to form a unified bus service. The Underground Group became part of the new London Passenger Transport Board in 1933, Underground trains, buses, the London Transport name continued in use until 2000, although the political management of transport services changed several times. The LPTB oversaw transport from 1933 to 1947 until it was re-organised into the London Transport Executive, responsibility for London Transport was subsequently taken over to the London Transport Board, the Greater London Council and London Regional Transport. Following the privatisation of London bus services in 1986, bus services were spun off to a separate operation based on competitive tendering, Transport for London operates three different railway systems across London. The largest is the London Underground, a transit system operating on sub-surface lines. TfL also operates the Docklands Light Railway, a light rail system in the east of the city. The London Underground and the DLR account for 40 percent of the journeys between Inner London and Outer London, making them the most highly used systems in all of London and these three systems extend to most points of London, creating a comprehensive and extensive system. One major area missed by these systems is South London, which is dominated by a suburban rail network. Colloquially known as the Tube, the London Underground was the first rapid transit system in the world, more than 3 million passengers travel on the Underground every day, amounting to over 1 billion passenger journeys per year for the first time in 2006. The Underground serves North London much more extensively than South London and this is the result of a combination of unfavourable geology, historical competition from surface railways and the historical geography of London which was focused to the north of the River Thames. South London is served primarily by surface railways Carrying nearly 50% of Londons commuters, the Docklands Light Railway is an automated light rail system serving the Docklands area of east London
29.
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
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Parks and open spaces in London
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There are many parks and open spaces in Greater London, England. Green space in central London consists of eight Royal Parks, supplemented by a number of garden squares scattered throughout the city centre. The centrepieces of Greater Londons park system are the eight Royal Parks of London, covering 1976 hectares, they are former royal hunting grounds which are now open to the public. Green Park 16 ha St. Notable examples open to the public are Russell Square in Bloomsbury, Lincolns Inn Fields in Holborn, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea contains over a hundred garden squares whose use is restricted to residents. The upkeep of these squares is paid for through a levy on top of residents council tax, in addition to these spaces, a large number of council-owned parks were developed between the mid 19th century and the Second World War. Crystal Palace Park, South London 80 ha Victoria Park 86.18 ha, some cemeteries provide extensive green land within the city — notably Highgate Cemetery, burial place of Karl Marx and Michael Faraday amongst others. All Outer London boroughs contain sections of the green belt. There are over a hundred registered commons in London, ranging in size from small fragments of land to large expanses, there are two historic lavender fields in the London Borough of Sutton. One, at Oaks Way, Carshalton Beeches is three acres in size and is run as a community project. The other, a 25-acre commercial site in Croydon Lane called Mayfield, is popular with tourists, situated on the North Downs of Surrey, the locality is ideal for lavender cultivation, owing to the chalky free-draining nature of the soil. It was known as the Lavender Capital of the World from the 18th to the early 20th centuries, with production of the plant centred here. There are several types of London greenways including The Greenway and the Thames Path
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Covent Garden
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Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martins Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and with the Royal Opera House. The area was settled in the 7th century when it became the heart of the Anglo-Saxon trading town of Lundenwic. By 1200 part of it had been walled off by Westminster Abbey for use as arable land, referred to as the garden of the Abbey and Convent, and later the Covent Garden, it was seized by Henry VIII and granted to the Earls of Bedford in 1552. The 4th Earl commissioned Inigo Jones to build fine houses to attract wealthy tenants. Jones designed the Italianate arcaded square along with the church of St Pauls, the design of the square was new to London and had a significant influence on modern town planning, acting as the prototype for new estates as London grew. By 1654 a small open-air fruit-and-vegetable market had developed on the side of the fashionable square. Gradually, both the market and the area fell into disrepute, as taverns, theatres, coffee-houses. By the 18th century it had become a well-known red-light district, an Act of Parliament was drawn up to control the area, and Charles Fowlers neo-classical building was erected in 1830 to cover and help organise the market. The market grew and further buildings were added, the Floral Hall, Charter Market, by the end of the 1960s traffic congestion was causing problems, and in 1974 the market relocated to the New Covent Garden Market about three miles south-west at Nine Elms. With the postcode WC2, Covent Garden falls within the London boroughs of Westminster and Camden, the area has been served by the Piccadilly line at Covent Garden tube station since 1907, the journey from Leicester Square, at 300 yards, is the shortest in London. What would become the Strand on the boundary of the future Covent Garden was used during the Roman period as part of a route to Silchester. Excavations in 2006 at St Martin-in-the-Fields revealed a late Roman grave and these revealed Covent Garden as the centre of a trading town called Lundenwic, developed around 600 AD, which stretched from Trafalgar Square to Aldwych. Alfred the Great gradually shifted the settlement into the old Roman town of Londinium from around 886 AD onwards, leaving no mark of the old town, a document from 1200 AD mentions a walled garden owned by the Benedictine monks of the Abbey of St Peter, Westminster. A later document, dated between 1250 and 1283, refers to the garden of the Abbot and Convent of Westminster. By the 13th century this had become a 40-acre quadrangle of mixed orchard, meadow, pasture and arable land and this is how it was recorded from then on. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1540, Henry VIII took the land belonging to Westminster Abbey for himself and his son, Edward VI, granted it to John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford, in 1552. The Russell family, who in 1694 were advanced in their peerage from Earl to Duke of Bedford, held the land until 1918
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Liberal Party (UK)
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The Liberal Party was a liberal political party which was one of the two major parties in the United Kingdom in the 19th and early 20th century. The party arose from an alliance of Whigs and free-trade Peelites and Radicals favourable to the ideals of the American, by the end of the nineteenth century, it had formed four governments under William Gladstone. Despite splitting over the issue of Irish Home Rule, the party returned to power in 1906 with a landslide victory, by the end of the 1920s, the Labour Party had replaced the Liberals as the Conservatives main rival. The party went into decline and by the 1950s won no more than six seats at general elections, apart from notable by-election victories, the partys fortunes did not improve significantly until it formed the SDP–Liberal Alliance with the newly formed Social Democratic Party in 1981. At the 1983 General Election, the Alliance won over a quarter of the vote, at the 1987 General Election, its vote fell below 23% and the Liberal and Social Democratic parties merged in 1988 to form the Liberal Democrats. A splinter group reconstituted the Liberal Party in 1989 and it was formed by party members opposed to the merger who saw the Lib Dems diluting Liberal ideals. Prominent intellectuals associated with the Liberal Party include the philosopher John Stuart Mill, the economist John Maynard Keynes, the Liberal Party grew out of the Whigs, who had their origins in an aristocratic faction in the reign of Charles II, and the early 19th century Radicals. The Whigs were in favour of reducing the power of the Crown, although their motives in this were originally to gain more power for themselves, the more idealistic Whigs gradually came to support an expansion of democracy for its own sake. The great figures of reformist Whiggery were Charles James Fox and his disciple, after decades in opposition, the Whigs returned to power under Grey in 1830 and carried the First Reform Act in 1832. The Reform Act was the climax of Whiggism, but it brought about the Whigs demise. As early as 1839 Russell had adopted the name of Liberals, the leading Radicals were John Bright and Richard Cobden, who represented the manufacturing towns which had gained representation under the Reform Act. They favoured social reform, personal liberty, reducing the powers of the Crown and the Church of England, avoidance of war and foreign alliances, for a century, free trade remained the one cause which could unite all Liberals. This allowed ministries led by Russell, Palmerston, and the Peelite Lord Aberdeen to hold office for most of the 1850s and 1860s, a leading Peelite was William Ewart Gladstone, who was a reforming Chancellor of the Exchequer in most of these governments. The formal foundation of the Liberal Party is traditionally traced to 1859 and this was brought about by Palmerstons death in 1865 and Russells retirement in 1868. After a brief Conservative government Gladstone won a victory at the 1868 election. The establishment of the party as a membership organisation came with the foundation of the National Liberal Federation in 1877. John Stuart Mill was a Liberal MP from 1865 to 1868, for the next thirty years Gladstone and Liberalism were synonymous. William Ewart Gladstone served as prime minister four times, called the Grand Old Man later in life, Gladstone was always a dynamic popular orator who appealed strongly to the working class and to the lower middle class
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Ken Livingstone
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He also served as the Member of Parliament for Brent East from 1987 to 2001. A suspended member of the Labour Party, he was on the hard left. Livingstone was heavily criticised in the media for supporting controversial issues like republicanism, LGBT rights, and a United Ireland. Livingstone was an opponent of the Conservative Party government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Elected as MP for Brent East in 1987, he closely associated with anti-racist campaigns. He unsuccessfully stood for Labour Party leader on a leftist platform in 1992 and 1994, after failing to become Labours candidate in the 2000 London mayoral election, Livingstone successfully contested the election as an independent candidate. In his first term as Mayor of London, he introduced the congestion charge, Oyster card, and articulated buses and he stood unsuccessfully as Labour candidate in Londons mayoral elections of 2008 and 2012, losing both to the Conservative candidate Boris Johnson. Characterised as the truly successful Left-wing British politician of modern times. Livingstone was born in his grandmothers house in Lambeth, south London, on 17 June 1945. His family was working class, his mother, Ethel Ada, had born in Southwark before training as an acrobatic dancer. Kens Scottish father, Robert Bob Moffat Livingstone, had born in Dunoon before joining the Merchant Navy in 1932. Having first met in April 1940 at a hall in Workington. After the war the couple moved in with Ethels aggressive mother, Zona Ann, Livingstones sister Lin was born 2 1⁄2 years later. Livingstones parents were working class Tories, and unlike many Conservative voters at the time did not hold to socially conservative views on race and sexuality, opposing racism, the family was nominally Anglican, although Livingstone abandoned Christianity when he was 11, becoming an atheist. In 1957, his family purchased their own property at 66 Wolfington Road, rather shy at school, he was bullied, and got into trouble for truancy. One year, his master was Philip Hobsbaum, who encouraged his pupils to debate current events. He related that he became an argumentative cocky little brat at home and his interest in politics was furthered by the 1958 Papal election of Pope John XXIII – a man who had a strong impact on Livingstone – and the United States presidential election,1960. At school he attained four O-levels in English Literature, English Language, Geography and Art and he started work rather than stay on for the non-compulsory sixth form, which required six O-levels
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Margaret Thatcher
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She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century, and the first woman to have held the office. A Soviet journalist dubbed her The Iron Lady, a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics, as Prime Minister, she implemented policies that have come to be known as Thatcherism. A research chemist before becoming a barrister, Thatcher was elected Member of Parliament for Finchley in 1959, Edward Heath appointed her Secretary of State for Education and Science in his 1970 government. In 1975, Thatcher defeated Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election to become Leader of the Opposition and she became Prime Minister after winning the 1979 general election. Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasised deregulation, flexible labour markets, the privatisation of state-owned companies and she narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in 1984. Thatcher was re-elected for a term in 1987. During this period her support for a Community Charge was widely unpopular and she resigned as Prime Minister and party leader in November 1990, after Michael Heseltine launched a challenge to her leadership. After retiring from the Commons in 1992, she was given a peerage as Baroness Thatcher which entitled her to sit in the House of Lords. After a series of strokes in 2002, she was advised to withdraw from public speaking. Despite this, she managed to pre-record a eulogy to Ronald Reagan prior to his death, in 2013, she died of another stroke in London, at the age of 87. Always a controversial figure, she has described as one of the greatest and most influential politicians in British history. Thatcher was born Margaret Hilda Roberts on 13 October 1925, in Grantham and her father was Alfred Roberts, originally from Northamptonshire, and her mother was Beatrice Ethel from Lincolnshire. She spent her childhood in Grantham, where her father owned two grocery shops, Prior to the Second World War, in 1938 the Roberts family gave sanctuary to a teenage Jewish girl escaping Nazi Germany. Thatcher was to describe this in her memoirs as among the significant events of her formative years, Alfred Roberts was an alderman and a Methodist local preacher, and brought up his daughter as a strict Wesleyan Methodist attending the Finkin Street Methodist Church. He came from a Liberal family but stood as an Independent and he was Mayor of Grantham in 1945–46 and lost his position as alderman in 1952 after the Labour Party won its first majority on Grantham Council in 1950. Margaret Roberts attended Huntingtower Road Primary School and won a scholarship to Kesteven and her school reports showed hard work and continual improvement, her extracurricular activities included the piano, field hockey, poetry recitals, swimming and walking. She was head girl in 1942–43, in her upper sixth year she applied for a scholarship to study chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford, but she was initially rejected and was offered a place only after another candidate withdrew. Her dissertation was on the structure of the antibiotic gramicidin, even while working on chemistry, she was already thinking towards law and politics
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Public housing in the United Kingdom
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Public housing in the United Kingdom provides the largest proportion of rented accommodation in the country. Houses built for public or social housing use are built by local authorities, before 1865 housing for the poor was provided solely by the private sector. Council houses were built on estates, where frequently other amenities like schools. From the 1950s blocks of flats and three or four blocks of maisonnettes were widely built too. Flats and houses were built in mixed estates. Council homes were built to supply uncrowded, well-built homes on secure tenancies at reasonable rents to primarily working-class people, Public housing in the mid-20th century included many large suburban council estates and numerous urban developments featuring tower blocks. Many of these developments did not live up to the hopes of their supporters, in 1979, the role of council housing was to change. Housing stock has sold off through Right to Buy legislation. A substantial part of the UK population still lives in council housing, approximately 55% of the countrys social housing stock is owned by local authorities, and 45% by housing associations. In Scotland, council estates are known as schemes, the history of public housing is the history of the housing of the poor. Even that statement is controversial, as before 1890 the state was not involved in housing policy, Public housing became needed to provide homes fit for heroes in 1919, then to enable slum clearance. Standards were set to high quality homes. The Labour government of Harold Wilson built houses and flats to the point where there was a surplus in the late 1960s. The documented history of housing in Britain starts with almshouses which were established from the 10th century, to provide a place of residence for poor, old. The first recorded almshouse was founded in York by King Æthelstan, the public workhouse was the final fall back solution for the destitute. Rural poverty had been increased by the Enclosure Acts leaving many in need of assistance. This was divided into outside relief, or handouts to keep the family together, the workhouse provided for two groups of people - the transient population roaming the country looking for seasonal work, and the long-term residents. The two were kept separate where possible, the City of London Corporation built tenements in the Farringdon Road in 1865, but this was an isolated instance
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