1.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
2.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
3.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
4.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
5.
The Royal Parks
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The Royal Parks is an organisation within the UK Government that manages the eight Royal Parks and certain other areas of garden and parkland in London. The Royal Parks is an agency of the Department for Culture, Media. The Chief Executive of the agency is Andrew Scattergood, the agencys primary focus is on management and conservation of the 1976 hectares of Royal Parks. The agency runs programmes of activities and events to outdoor recreation. It also allows parties to run such activities within the grounds to further these objectives. The Royal Parks also regulates filming, audio recording and the taking of photographs in these areas for anything other than personal use through the issuing of licences and it also issues news permits to the media for the specific purpose of covering breaking news items relating to the Parks. In September 2005, the agency was awarded the EST Best Practice Award at the GreenFleet Awards, the awards recognise achievements in green fuels and alternative transport technologies. The agency negotiated a contract for the installation of LPG fuel bunkers, each new contract awarded by The Royal Parks requires the contractor to use green fuel. The plan was welcomed by Royal Parks but has not yet been implemented
6.
Green Park tube station
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Green Park is a London Underground station located on the north side of Green Park, close to the intersection of Piccadilly and the pedestrian Queens Walk. The station was originally named Dover Street due to its location in that street, the station is one of two tube stations serving Buckingham Palace, the other being St Jamess Park on the Circle and District lines. The station was opened on 15 December 1906 by the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway, the station name was changed at this time. With the rebuilding of the station and similar works at Hyde Park Corner, the Victoria line platforms opened on 7 March 1969, interchange between that line and the Piccadilly line was via the ticket hall. Even today changing between the Jubilee and Victoria lines and the Piccadilly line involves a long walk, when travelling south from Green Park on the Jubilee line, Green Park Junction, where the new line diverges from the old, is visible from the train. While passenger services no longer operate to Charing Cross on the Jubilee line, on 9 October 1975, terrorists belonging to the Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated a bomb outside Green Park tube station, killing 23-year-old Graham Ronald Tuck. Similar attacks during The Troubles resulted in deaths at West Ham station in 1976, in 2008 TfL proposed a project to provide step-free access to all three lines. The project was a TfL-funded Games-enabling project in its investment programme, the project was included in the strategy on accessible transport published by the London 2012 Olympic Delivery Authority and the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. All platforms have access to the trains, making the station fully accessible. The Diana Fountain was relocated from its site in the centre of the park to form the centrepiece of the new entrance. Each station had its own unique tile pattern and colours, the remains of the tile rings can still be seen at Green Park. London Buses routes 9,14,19,22,38, archived from the original on 2003-02-13. Archived from the original on 2008-03-18
7.
Royal Parks of London
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The Royal Parks of London are lands originally owned by the monarchy of the United Kingdom for the recreation of the royal family. They are part of the possessions of The Crown. With increasing urbanisation of London, some of these were preserved as freely accessible open space, there are today eight parks formally described by this name and they cover almost 2,000 hectares of land in Greater London. Bushy Park, Greenwich Park and Richmond Park are in the suburbs, the Royal Parks agency also manages Brompton Cemetery, Grosvenor Square Gardens, Victoria Tower Gardens and the gardens of 10,11 and 12 Downing Street. Hampton Court Park is also a park within Greater London. The public does not have any right to use the Parks, as public access depends on the grace and favour of The Crown. The Royal Parks Agency manages the Royal Parks under powers derived from section 22 of the Crown Lands Act 1851, the current regulations are the Royal Parks and Other Open Spaces Regulations 1997. They are managed by The Royal Parks and are policed by the Royal Parks Operational Command Unit of the Metropolitan Police, the main form of funding for the Royal Parks is a central government grant. This contrasts with most of Londons other parks, which are funded by local borough councils, the Royal Parks generate additional income from commercial activities such as catering and staging public events such as concerts. The Royal Parks Foundation is a charity which raises funds to protect, support. They have a number of schemes such as adoption and champion programmes. The plan was welcomed by Royal Parks but it is yet to be implemented following the 2012 London Olympic games, the Royal Parks Parks and open spaces in London Walking in London Thurston, Hazel. Royal Parks For The People, Londons Ten, UK and USA, David and Charles. Includes listing of the Parks with black-and-white photographic plates
8.
City of Westminster
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The City of Westminster is an Inner London borough which also holds city status. It occupies much of the area of Greater London including most of the West End. It is to the west of and adjoining the ancient City of London, directly to the east of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and it was created with the 1965 establishment of Greater London. Upon creation, Westminster was awarded city status, which had previously held by the smaller Metropolitan Borough of Westminster. Aside from a number of parks and open spaces, the population density of the district is high. Many sites commonly associated with London are in the borough, including St. Jamess Palace, Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament, much of the borough is residential, and in 2008 it was estimated to have a population of 236,000. The local authority is Westminster City Council, the current Westminster coat of arms were given to the city by an official grant on September 2,1964. Westminster had other arms before, which had an identical to the chief in the present arms. The symbols in the two thirds of the shield stand for former municipalities now merged with the city, Paddington. The original arms had a portcullis as the charge, which now forms the crest. The origins of the City of Westminster pre-date the Norman Conquest of England, in the mid-11th Century king Edward the Confessor began the construction of an abbey at Westminster, only the foundations of which survive today. For centuries Westminster and the City of London were geographically quite distinct, Westminster briefly became a city in 1540 when Henry VIII created the short-lived Diocese of Westminster. Following the dissolution of Westminster Abbey, a court of burgesses was formed in 1585 to govern the Westminster area, Jamess, Strand, Westminster, Pimlico, Belgravia, and Hyde Park. The Westminster Metropolitan Borough was itself the result of an amalgamation which took place in 1900. Sir John Hunt O. B. E was the First Town Clerk of the City of Westminster, the boundaries of the City of Westminster today, as well as those of the other London boroughs, have remained more or less unchanged since the Act of 1963. On 22 March 2017, a terrorist attack took place on Westminster Bridge, Bridge Street and Old Palace Yard, five people - three pedestrians, one police officer, and the attacker - died as a result of the incident. More than 50 people were injured, an investigation is ongoing by the Metropolitan Police. The city is divided into 20 wards, each electing three councillors, Westminster City Council is currently composed of 44 Conservative Party members and 16 Labour Party members
9.
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
10.
Hyde Park, London
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Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in London and one of its Royal Parks. The park is divided by the Serpentine and the Long Water, the park is contiguous with Kensington Gardens, which are often assumed to be part of Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens has been separate since 1728, when Queen Caroline divided them. To the southeast, outside the park, is Hyde Park Corner, during daylight, the two parks merge seamlessly into each other, but Kensington Gardens closes at dusk, and Hyde Park remains open throughout the year from 5 a. m. until midnight. The Great Exhibition of 1851 was held in the park, for which the Crystal Palace, the park became a traditional location for mass demonstrations. The Chartists, the Reform League, the suffragettes, and the Stop the War Coalition have all held protests there, many protesters on the Liberty and Livelihood March in 2002 started their march from Hyde Park. Hyde Park is also a ward of the City of Westminster, the population of the ward at the 2011 Census was 12,462. Hyde Park was created for hunting by Henry Vlll in 1536, Charles I created the Ring, and in 1637 he opened the park to the general public. In 1652, during the Interregnum, Parliament ordered the then 620-acre park to be sold for ready money and it realised £17,000 with an additional £765 6s 2d for the resident deer. In 1689, when William III moved his residence to Kensington Palace on the far side of Hyde Park, public transport entering London from the west runs parallel to the Kings private road along Kensington Gore, just outside the park. In the late 1800s, the row was used by the wealthy for horseback rides, the first coherent landscaping was undertaken by Charles Bridgeman for Queen Caroline, under the supervision of Charles Withers, the Surveyor-General of Woods and Forests, who took some credit. It was completed in 1733 at a cost to the public purse of £20,000, the 2nd Viscount Weymouth was made Ranger of Hyde Park in 1739 and shortly after began digging the Serpentine lakes at Longleat. The Serpentine is divided from the Long Water by a bridge designed by George Rennie, one of the most important events to take place in the park was the Great Exhibition of 1851. The Crystal Palace was constructed on the side of the park. The public did not want the building to remain after the closure of the exhibition and he had it moved to Sydenham Hill in South London. At the age of twenty-five, Decimus Burton was commissioned by the Office of Woods and he laid out the paths and driveways and designed a series of lodges, the Screen/Gate at Hyde Park Corner and the Wellington Arch. The Screen and the Arch originally formed a single composition, designed to provide a transition between Hyde Park and Green Park, although the arch was later moved. An early description reports, It consists of a screen of handsome fluted Ionic columns, the extent of the whole frontage is about 107 ft. The two side gateways, in their elevations, present two insulated Ionic columns, flanked by antae, all these entrances are finished by a blocking, the sides of the central one being decorated with a beautiful frieze, representing a naval and military triumphal procession
11.
St. James's Park
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St Jamess Park is a 23-hectare park in the City of Westminster, central London. The park lies at the southernmost tip of the St Jamess area, the park is the most easterly of a near-continuous chain of parks that comprises Green Park, Hyde Park, and Kensington Gardens. The park is bounded by Buckingham Palace to the west, the Mall to the north, Horse Guards to the east and it meets Green Park at Queens Gardens with the Victoria Memorial at its centre, opposite the entrance to Buckingham Palace. St Jamess Palace is on the side of The Mall. The closest London Underground stations are St Jamess Park, Green Park, Victoria, the park has a small lake, St Jamess Park Lake, with two islands, West Island, and Duck Island, named for the lakes collection of waterfowl. A resident colony of pelicans has been a feature of the park since pelicans were donated by a Russian ambassador in 1664 to Charles II. While most of the time the wings are clipped, there is a pelican who can be flying to the London Zoo in hopes of another meal. The Blue Bridge across the lake affords a view west towards Buckingham Palace framed by trees. Looking east the view includes the Swire Fountain to the north of Duck Island and, past the lake, the grounds of Horse Guards Parade, with Horse Guards, the Old War Office and Whitehall Court behind. To the south of Duck Island is the Tiffany Fountain on Pelican Rock, and past the lake is the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, with the London Eye, the Shell Tower, and the Shard behind. In 1532, Henry VIII bought an area of marshland through which the Tyburn flowed from Eton College. It lies to the west of York Place acquired by Henry from Cardinal Wolsey, it was purchased in order to turn York Palace, subsequently renamed Whitehall, a 775 metre by 38 metre canal was created as evidenced in the old plan. The king opened the park to the public and used the area to entertain guests and mistresses, such as Nell Gwyn. The park became notorious at the time as a place for impromptu acts of lechery, as described by John Wilmot. In the late-17th and early-18th centuries cows grazed on the park, at the same time, Buckingham House was expanded to create the palace, and Marble Arch was built at its entrance, whilst The Mall was turned into a grand processional route. It opened to public traffic 60 years later in 1887, the Marble Arch was moved to its current location at the junction of Oxford Street and Park Lane in 1851 and the Victoria Memorial was erected between 1906 and 1924. Media related to St Jamess Park at Wikimedia Commons Visitor information at the Royal Parks website
12.
Kensington Gardens
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Kensington Gardens, once the private gardens of Kensington Palace, are among the Royal Parks of London. The gardens are shared by the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and sit immediately to the west of Hyde Park, the gardens cover an area of 270 acres. The open spaces of Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Green Park, Kensington Gardens are Grade I listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. The Gardens are fenced and more formal than Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens are open only during the hours of daylight, whereas Hyde Park is open from 5 am until midnight all year round. Kensington Gardens has been regarded as smart because of its more private character around Kensington Palace. However, in the late 1800s, Hyde Park was considered fashionable, because of its location nearer to Park Lane. Kensington Gardens was originally the section of Hyde Park, which had been created by Henry VIII in 1536 to use as a hunting ground. Bridgeman created the Serpentine between 1726 and 1731 by damming the outflow of the River Westbourne from Hyde Park. The part of the Serpentine that lies within Kensington Gardens is known as The Long Water, at its north-western end in an area known as The Italian Garden, there are four fountains and a number of classical sculptures. At the foot of the Italian Gardens is a boundary marker. The land surrounding Kensington Gardens was predominantly rural and remained undeveloped until the Great Exhibition in 1851. Many of the original features survive along with the Palace, and now there are public buildings such as the Albert Memorial, the Serpentine Gallery. The park also contains the Elfin Oak, an elaborately carved 900-year-old tree stump, the park is the setting of J. M. Barries book Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, a prelude to the characters famous adventures in Neverland. The fairies of the gardens are first described in Thomas Tickells 1722 poem Kensington Gardens, both the book and the character are honoured with the Peter Pan statue by George Frampton located in the park. Rodrigo Fresáns novel Kensington Gardens concerns in part the life of J. M. Barrie and of his creation Peter Pan, the Infocom interactive fiction game Trinity begins in the Kensington Gardens. The player can walk around many sections of the gardens, which are described in moderate detail, list of public art in Kensington Gardens Citations Bibliography Official website The Garden a poem by Ezra Pound set in Kensington Gardens
13.
Buckingham Palace
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Buckingham Palace is the London residence and administrative headquarters of the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and it has been a focal point for the British people at times of national rejoicing and mourning. It was acquired by King George III in 1761 as a residence for Queen Charlotte. During the 19th century it was enlarged, principally by architects John Nash and Edward Blore, Buckingham Palace became the London residence of the British monarch on the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837. The palace chapel was destroyed by a German bomb during World War II, the original early 19th-century interior designs, many of which survive, include widespread use of brightly coloured scagliola and blue and pink lapis, on the advice of Sir Charles Long. King Edward VII oversaw a partial redecoration in a Belle Époque cream, many smaller reception rooms are furnished in the Chinese regency style with furniture and fittings brought from the Royal Pavilion at Brighton and from Carlton House. The palace has 775 rooms, and the garden is the largest private garden in London, the state rooms, used for official and state entertaining, are open to the public each year for most of August and September and on some days in winter and spring. In the Middle Ages, the site of the palace formed part of the Manor of Ebury. The marshy ground was watered by the river Tyburn, which flows below the courtyard. Where the river was fordable, the village of Eye Cross grew, ownership of the site changed hands many times, owners included Edward the Confessor and his queen consort Edith of Wessex in late Saxon times, and, after the Norman Conquest, William the Conqueror. William gave the site to Geoffrey de Mandeville, who bequeathed it to the monks of Westminster Abbey, in 1531, King Henry VIII acquired the Hospital of St James from Eton College, and in 1536 he took the Manor of Ebury from Westminster Abbey. These transfers brought the site of Buckingham Palace back into royal hands for the first time since William the Conqueror had given it away almost 500 years earlier, various owners leased it from royal landlords and the freehold was the subject of frenzied speculation during the 17th century. By then, the old village of Eye Cross had long fallen into decay. Needing money, James I sold off part of the Crown freehold, clement Walker in Anarchia Anglicana refers to new-erected sodoms and spintries at the Mulberry Garden at S. Jamess, this suggests it may have been a place of debauchery. Eventually, in the late 17th century, the freehold was inherited from the property tycoon Sir Hugh Audley by the great heiress Mary Davies, possibly the first house erected within the site was that of a Sir William Blake, around 1624. The next owner was Lord Goring, who from 1633 extended Blakes house and he did not, however, obtain the freehold interest in the mulberry garden. Unbeknown to Goring, in 1640 the document failed to pass the Great Seal before King Charles I fled London and it was this critical omission that helped the British royal family regain the freehold under King George III. The improvident Goring defaulted on his rents, Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington obtained the mansion and was occupying it, now known as Goring House, Arlington House rose on the site—the location of the southern wing of todays palace—the next year
14.
Whitehall
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Whitehall is a road in the City of Westminster, Central London, which forms the first part of the A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea. It is the main thoroughfare running south from Trafalgar Square towards Parliament Square, consequently, the name Whitehall is used as a metonym for British civil service, and as the geographic name for the surrounding area. The name was taken from the Palace of Whitehall that was the residence of Kings Henry VIII through to William III, before its destruction by fire in 1698, only the Banqueting House survived. Whitehall was originally a road that led to the front of the palace. As well as government buildings, the street is known for its statues and monuments, including Britains primary war memorial. The Whitehall Theatre, now the Trafalgar Studios, has been a place for farce comedies since the mid-20th century. The name Whitehall was used for buildings in the Tudor period. It either referred to a made of light stone, or as a general term for any festival building. This included the Royal Palace of Whitehall, which in turn gave its name to the street, the street is about 0.4 miles long and runs through the City of Westminster. It is part of the A3212, a road in Central London that leads towards Chelsea via the Houses of Parliament. It runs south from Trafalgar Square, past numerous government buildings, including the old War Office building, Horse Guards, the Ministry of Defence, the Cabinet Office and it ends at the Cenotaph, the road ahead being Parliament Street. Great Scotland Yard and Horse Guards Avenue branch off to the east, the nearest tube stations are Charing Cross at the north end, and Westminster at the south. Numerous London bus routes run along Whitehall, including 12,24,53,88,159 and 453. It had become a street by the 16th century, and had become a popular place to live by the 17th, with residents including Lord Howard of Effingham. The Palace of Whitehall, to the east of the road, was originally named York Palace, the palace was redesigned in 1531–32 and became the Kings main residence later in the decade. He married Ann Boleyn here in 1533, followed by Jane Seymour in 1536, Charles I owned an extensive art collection at the palace and several of William Shakespeares plays had their first performances here. It ceased to be a residence after 1689, when William III moved to Kensington Palace. The palace was damaged by fire in 1691, following which the front entrance was redesigned by Sir Christopher Wren, in 1698, most of the palace burned to the ground owing to an accident started by a careless washerwoman
15.
Victoria station (London)
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Victoria station is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Victoria, in the City of Westminster. It is near to Victoria Street, which along with the area and it is in Travelcard Zone 1. From the main lines, trains can connect to the Catford Loop Line, Dartford Loop Line, Southern operates the majority of commuter and regional services to south London, Sussex and parts of east Surrey, while Southeastern operates trains to south east London and Kent. Gatwick Express trains run direct from Victoria to Gatwick Airport, the Underground station is on the Circle and District lines between Sloane Square and St. Jamess Park, and the Victoria line between Pimlico and Green Park. With over 81 million passenger entries and exits in 2015/16, Victoria is the second-busiest station in London after Waterloo, combined with the Underground Station and interchanges in the national rail station, London Victoria handled about 170 million passengers in the 2015/2016 period. It is one of 19 stations managed by Network Rail, the area around the station is an important interchange for other forms of transport, a local bus station is in the forecourt and Victoria Coach Station is nearby. Victoria Station came about in a fashion to help address this problem for the London Brighton and South Coast Railway. It consisted of two adjacent main line railway stations which, from the viewpoint of passengers, were unconnected, the London and Brighton Railway terminus at London Bridge provided reasonable access to the City of London but was most inconvenient for travellers to and from Westminster. As early as 1842 John Urpeth Rastrick had proposed that the railway should build a branch to serve the West End, but his proposal came to nothing. During the summer of 1857 a scheme for an independent Grosvenor Basin Terminus in the West End of London, the station was originally referred to as the Grosvenor Terminus but later renamed Victoria as it was sited at the end of Victoria Street. Three other railway companies were seeking a terminus in Westminster, the Great Western, the London & North Western. The first two already had access to Battersea through their joint ownership of the West London Line with the LB&SCR. The new line followed part of the route of the Grosvenor Canal with Victoria station on the canal basin. It required the construction of a new bridge over the Thames, originally known as Victoria Bridge and it was of mixed gauge to cater for GWR trains. The LB&SCR had hoped to amalgamate with the VS&PR, and introduced a Parliamentary Bill to allow it to do so in 1860 and this was opposed by the GWR and LC&DR and rejected. By way of compromise the LB&SCR was permitted to lease Victoria station from the VS&PR, Victoria station proved to be unexpectedly popular for both the main companies, and by 1862 there were frequent delays due to congestion at Stewarts Lane Junction. In March 1863 the LB&SCR and the LC&DR jointly funded a new route into Victoria, avoiding Stewarts Lane. The work was completed during 1867/8, the LB&SCR side of Victoria station opened on 1 October 1860, the temporary terminus in Battersea having closed the day before
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Kensington
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Kensington is an affluent district within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London. Its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, the affluent and densely populated area contains the major museum district of South Kensington, which has the Royal Albert Hall for music and nearby Royal College of Music. The area is home to many of Londons European embassies, the first mention of the area is in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it was written in Latin as Chenesitone, which has been interpreted to have originally been Kenesignetun in Anglo-Saxon. A variation may be Kesyngton, in 1396 and he in turn granted the tenancy of Kensington to his vassal Aubrey de Vere I, who was holding the manor in 1086, according to Domesday Book. The bishops heir, Robert de Mowbray, rebelled against William Rufus, Aubrey de Vere I had his tenure converted to a tenancy in-chief, holding Kensington after 1095 directly of the crown. He granted land and church there to Abingdon Abbey at the deathbed request of his young eldest son, Geoffrey. As the Veres became the earls of Oxford, their estate at Kensington came to be known as Earls Court, while the Abingdon lands were called Abbots Kensington and the church St Mary Abbots. The original Kensington Barracks, built at Kensington Gate in the late 18th century, were demolished in 1858, the focus of the area is Kensington High Street, a busy commercial centre with many shops, typically upmarket. The street was declared Londons second best shopping street in February 2005 thanks to its range, however, since October 2008 the street has faced competition from the Westfield shopping centre in nearby White City. Kensingtons second group of buildings is at South Kensington, where several streets of small to medium-sized shops. This is also the end of Exhibition Road, the thoroughfare that serves the areas museums. To the west, a border is kept along the line of the Counter Creek marked by the West London railway line, in the north east, the large Royal Park of Kensington Gardens is a green buffer. The other main area in Kensington is Holland Park, just north of Kensington High Street. Kensington is, in general, an affluent area, a trait that it now shares with its neighbour to the south. In early 2007, houses sold in Upper Phillimore Gardens for in excess of £20 million, Kensington is also very densely populated, it forms part of the most densely populated local government district in the United Kingdom. This high density is not formed from high-rise buildings, instead, unlike northern extremities of the Borough, Kensington lacks high-rise buildings except for the Holiday Inns London Kensington Forum Hotel in Cromwell Road, which is a 27-storey building. The Olympia exhibition hall is just over the border in West Kensington. Kensington is part of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, the head office of newspaper group DMGT is located in Northcliffe House in Kensington, which is the office part of the large Barkers building
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Notting Hill
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Notting Hill is an affluent district in West London, located north of Kensington within the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea as well as Westminster. Notting Hill is known for being a neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting Hill Carnival. For much of the 20th century, the houses were subdivided into multi-occupancy rentals. Since it was first developed in the 1820s, Notting Hill has had an association with artists, the area in the west around Pottery Lane was used in the early 19th century for making bricks and tiles out of the heavy clay dug in the area. The clay was shaped and fired in a series of brick, the only remaining 19th-century tile kiln in London is on Walmer Road. In the same area, pig farmers moved in after being forced out of the Marble Arch area, avondale Park was created in 1892 out of a former area of pig slurry called the Ocean. This was part of a general clean-up of the area which had known as the Potteries and Piggeries. The area remained rural until the expansion of London reached Bayswater in the early 19th century. The main landowner in Notting Hill was the Ladbroke family, working with the architect and surveyor Thomas Allason, Ladbroke began to lay out streets and houses, with a view to turning the area into a fashionable suburb of the capital. Many of these bear the Ladbroke name, including Ladbroke Grove, the main north-south axis of the area, and Ladbroke Square. The original idea was to call the district Kensington Park, the local telephone prefix 7727 is based on the old telephone exchange name of PARk. Ladbroke left the business of developing his land to the firm of City solicitors, Smith, Bayley. In 1823 Allason completed a plan for the layout of the portion of the estate. This marks the genesis of his most enduring idea – the creation of large communal gardens, originally known as pleasure grounds, or paddocks. To this day these communal garden squares continue to provide the area much of its attraction for the wealthiest householders. In 1837 the Hippodrome racecourse was laid out, the racecourse ran around the hill, and bystanders were expected to watch from the summit of the hill. However, the venture was not a success, in due to a public right of way which traversed the course. The Hippodrome closed in 1841, after which development resumed and houses were built on the site, at the summit of hill stands the elegant St Johns church, built in 1845 in the early English style, and which formed the centrepiece of the Ladbroke Estate development
18.
Canada Memorial
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The Canada Memorial in Green Park, London, United Kingdom, commemorates members of the Canadian Forces killed during the First and Second World Wars. It was designed by the Canadian sculptor Pierre Granche, erected in 1992, the memorial was the result of lobbying and fund raising, much of it in Canada, by the former Canadian media tycoon Conrad Black. The inclined sculpture is inset with bronze maple leaves and the coat of arms. Water flows across the surface and creates an illusion of floating leaves. An inscription at the centre of the reads, In two world wars one million Canadians came to Britain and joined the fight for freedom. From danger shared, our friendship prospers, from 2004, following a change in fortunes of the memorials patron, Conrad Black, the memorial fell into disrepair and became subject to debate concerning its maintenance. As of October 2011, the memorial was fenced off and not operational, despite 50,000 pounds spent by Veterans Affairs Canada in renovations, after refurbishment of corroded pipes and fittings, the memorial has now reopened. At the same time as the Memorial was being built and unveiled, since the early 1990s that endowment has been sending British students to do post-graduate studies at Canadian universities. It is managed by trustees and is completely separate from the Green Park Memorial. However, the Foundation shares similar aims of encouraging the connections, Veterans Affairs Canada accessed 28 October 2011. Canada at War accessed 11 February 2010, CBC News accessed 2 February 2010. Internnation Business Times accessed 11 February 2010, edwardian London accessed 11 February 2010. Published by The Royal Collection, St. Jamess Palace, London ISBN 1-902163-36-2, the Royal Parks, St. Jamess accessed 2 February 2010. The Toronto Star Article by Mitch Potter August 2007, worcestershire County Council accessed 2 February 2010. Canada Gate Interactive map showing location of Canada Gate and the Canada Memorial accessed 2 February 2010
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Diana Fountain, Green Park
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The park and statue are located within the boundaries of the City of Westminster in central London. The statue was a gift of the Constance Fund, a trust fund set up in accordance with the wishes of the artist Sigismund Goetze to commission sculpture for Londons parks, the Constance Fund agreed to fund the statue in June 1950, and a design competition was organised. In October 1951 it was announced that Clack, a teacher at Blundells School in Devon, had won, the year the statue was unveiled is unclear, with different sources suggesting 1952 or 1954, although both sources agree that the statue was unveiled on the 30 June. From its unveiling until 2011, the statue stood in the centre of the park, in 2011, Clacks statue was removed from that site, and placed to form the centrepiece of a new entrance that gives direct access to the park from Green Park tube station. At the same time some gilding was added, media related to Diana Fountain, Green Park at Wikimedia Commons
20.
RAF Bomber Command Memorial
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The Royal Air Force Bomber Command Memorial is a memorial in Green Park, London, commemorating the crews of RAF Bomber Command who embarked on missions during the Second World War. Queen Elizabeth II unveiled the memorial on 28 June 2012, the year of her Diamond Jubilee, the controversy over the tactics employed by RAF Bomber Command during the Second World War meant that an official memorial to the aircrews had been delayed for many years. Despite describing bombers as the means of victory in 1940, British prime minister Winston Churchill did not mention Bomber Command in his speech at the end of the war. Robin Gibb, the singer, became a key figure behind the appeal, the Halifax, LW682 OW/M, had been removed from a swamp in 1997 with three of the crew found still at their posts. They were buried with military honours in Geraardsbergen and the remains of the aircraft were sent to Canada. Some of the metal was used for the restoration of a Halifax in Trenton, Ontario, the Museum provided ingots for the memorial to commemorate the 10,659 of 55,573 Bomber Command aircrew killed during the war that were Canadian. The plinth of the memorial is inscribed with the text by Pericles. There had been controversy in the lead-up to the official opening, a number of veterans put forward their own money as security for the event, making them liable for the costs if donations did not cover the total. The Ministry of Defence drew criticism for not providing any money, in particular the Defence Secretary, Philip Hammond, a number of veterans had also missed out on applying for tickets in the early stages, although many other parties returned theirs to allow them to attend. Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the memorial on 28 June 2012, the ceremony was attended by 6,000 veterans and family members of those killed, and the Avro Lancaster of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight dropped red poppy petals over Green Park. In October 2012 it was reported some of the trustees of the charity set up to fund the construction. In May 2013, less than a year after its unveiling, the word Islam was spray-painted on the Bomber Command Memorial and also on the Animals in War Memorial nearby. Munro died a few months later in August 2015, international Bomber Command Centre Bomber Command Memorial website Halifax LW682 Geraardsbergen Memorial Bomber Command Museum of Canada
21.
Narcissus (plant)
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Narcissus /nɑːrˈsɪsəs/ is a genus of predominantly spring perennial plants in the Amaryllidaceae family. Various common names including daffodil, daffadowndilly, narcissus, and jonquil are used to all or some members of the genus. Narcissus has conspicuous flowers with six petal-like tepals surmounted by a cup- or trumpet-shaped corona, the flowers are generally white or yellow, with either uniform or contrasting coloured tepals and corona. Narcissus were well known in ancient civilisation, both medicinally and botanically, but formally described by Linnaeus in his Species Plantarum, the genus is generally considered to have about ten sections with approximately 50 species. The number of species has varied, depending on how they are classified, the genus arose some time in the Late Oligocene to Early Miocene epochs, in the Iberian peninsula and adjacent areas of southwest Europe. The exact origin of the name Narcissus is unknown, but it is linked to a Greek word for intoxicated. The English word daffodil appears to be derived from asphodel, with which it was commonly compared, the species are native to meadows and woods in southern Europe and North Africa with a center of diversity in the Western Mediterranean, particularly the Iberian peninsula. Both wild and cultivated plants have naturalised widely, and were introduced into the Far East prior to the tenth century, Narcissi tend to be long-lived bulbs, which propagate by division, but are also insect-pollinated. Known pests, diseases and disorders include viruses, fungi, the larvae of flies, mites and nematodes, some Narcissus species have become extinct, while others are threatened by increasing urbanisation and tourism. Today narcissi are popular as cut flowers and as plants in private. The long history of breeding has resulted in thousands of different cultivars, for horticultural purposes, narcissi are classified into divisions, covering a wide range of shapes and colours. Like other members of their family, narcissi produce a number of different alkaloids, which provide protection for the plant. This property has been exploited for use in traditional healing and has resulted in the production of galantamine for the treatment of Alzheimers dementia. Long celebrated in art and literature, narcissi are associated with a number of themes in different cultures, ranging from death to good fortune, the daffodil is the national flower of Wales and the symbol of cancer charities in many countries. The appearance of the flowers in spring is associated with festivals in many places. Narcissus is a genus of perennial herbaceous bulbiferous geophytes, dying back after flowering to a storage bulb. They regrow in the year from brown-skinned ovoid bulbs with pronounced necks. Dwarf species such as N. asturiensis have a height of 5–8 cm
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Constitution Hill, London
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Constitution Hill is a road in the City of Westminster in London. It connects the end of The Mall with Hyde Park Corner. The term Hill is something of a misnomer, there is barely a detectable slope, an old lane on this route was enhanced in connection with the development of Buckingham Palace in the 1820s. It formed a route from the palace to Hyde Park. It is now closed to traffic on Sundays, the road obtained its name in the 17th century from King Charles IIs habit of taking constitutional walks there. In Strypes Map,1720, it is marked Road to Kensington, in John Smiths map of 1724, it is called Constitution Hill. It was the scene of three assassination attempts against Queen Victoria—in 1840,1842 and 1849. In 1850, the former Conservative Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel was thrown from his horse on Constitution Hill by the gate into Green Park, he suffered a fatal injury and died three days later. Wellington Arch at Hyde Park Corner was originally the culmination of the route, there is a recent war memorial to Commonwealth soldiers near the top of Constitution Hill, just before Hyde Park Corner, the memorial is known as the Memorial Gates. Large concrete lamp posts were installed in Constitution Hill in the 1960s, but thanks to the swift intervention of comedian and enthusiastic environmentalist Spike Milligan, they were removed within days and the old gas lamps are still there. There are other streets called Constitution Hill, for example in Birmingham, Commonwealth Gates War Memorial Images of Constitution Hill, London
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Piccadilly
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Piccadilly is a road in the City of Westminster, London to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road that connects central London to Hammersmith, Earls Court, Heathrow Airport, St Jamess is to the south of the eastern section, while the western section is built up only on the northern side. At just under 1 mile in length, Piccadilly is one of the widest and straightest streets in central London, Piccadilly has been a main road since at least medieval times, and in the middle ages was known as the road to Reading or the way from Colnbrook. Around 1611 or 1612, a Robert Baker acquired land in the area, shortly after purchasing the land, he enclosed it and erected several dwellings, including his home, Pikadilly Hall. Some of the most notable homes in London were built on the northern side of the street during this period, including Clarendon House. Berkeley House, constructed around the time as Clarendon House, was destroyed by a fire in 1733 and rebuilt as Devonshire House in 1737 by William Cavendish. It was later used as the headquarters for the Whig party. Burlington House has since been home to several noted societies, including the Royal Academy of Arts, the Geological Society of London, several members of the Rothschild family had mansions at the western end of the street. St Jamess Church was consecrated in 1684 and the area became St James Parish. The Old White Horse Cellar, at No,155, was one of the most famous coaching inns in England by the late-18th century, by which time the street had become a favourable location for booksellers. The Bath Hotel emerged around 1790, and Walsingham House was built in 1887, both the Bath and the Walsingham were purchased and demolished when the prestigious Ritz Hotel was built on the site in 1906. Piccadilly Circus station, at the east end of the street, was designed by Charles Holden and it was the first underground station to have no above-ground premises, the station is only accessible by subways from street level. The clothing store Simpsons was established at 203 -206 Piccadilly by Alec Simpson in 1936, during the 20th century, Piccadilly became known as a place to acquire heroin, and was notorious in the 1960s as the centre of Londons illegal drug trade. Today, Piccadilly is regarded as one of Londons principal shopping streets and its landmarks include the Ritz, Park Lane, Athenaeum and Intercontinental hotels, Fortnum & Mason, the Royal Academy, the RAF Club, Hatchards, the Embassy of Japan and the High Commission of Malta. Piccadilly has inspired works of fiction, including Oscar Wildes The Importance of Being Earnest. It is one of a group of squares on the London Monopoly board, the street has been part of a main road for centuries although there is no evidence that it was part of a Roman Road, unlike Oxford Street further north. In the Middle Ages it was known as the road to Reading or the way from Colnbrook, during the Tudor period, relatively settled conditions made expansion beyond Londons city walls a safer venture. Property speculation became an enterprise and developments grew so rapidly that the threat of disease
24.
Victoria Memorial (London)
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The Victoria Memorial is a monument to Queen Victoria, located at the end of The Mall in London, and designed and executed by the sculptor Thomas Brock. Designed in 1901, it was unveiled on 16 May 1911, like the earlier Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens, commemorating Victorias consort, the Victoria Memorial has an elaborate scheme of iconographic sculpture. The central pylon of the memorial is of Pentelic marble, and individual statues are in Carrara marble, the memorial weighs 2,300 tonnes and is 104 ft wide. In 1970 it was listed at Grade I, King Edward VII suggested that a joint Parliamentary committee should be formed to develop plans for a Memorial to Queen Victoria following her death. The first meeting place on 19 February 1901 at the Foreign Office. The first secretary of the committee was Arthur Bigge, 1st Baron Stamfordham, initially these meetings were behind closed doors, and the proceedings were not revealed to the public. However the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Joseph Dimsdale, publicly announced that the committee had decided that the Memorial should be monumental, reginald Brett, 2nd Viscount Esher, the secretary of the committee, submitted the proposal to the King on 4 March 1901. A number of sites were suggested, and the King visited both Westminster Abbey and the park near the Palace of Westminster. Several ideas were rumoured at this time, including a square in The Mall near to the Duke of York Column. On 26 March the decision was announced to locate the Memorial outside Buckingham Palace and it was estimated that the work would cost £250,000 and decided that there would be no grant given by the Government to the construction. Once the site was selected, a competition was conducted for the design, five architects were chosen to develop designs. This phase lasted until the beginning of July 1901, when the committee selected its primary choice for the construction and it was announced on 21 October 1902 that Thomas Brock had been chosen as the designer. The expectation was that the memorial would cost £200,000, funding for the memorial was gathered from around the British Empire as well as the public. The Australian House of Representatives granted a £25,000 contribution for the construction on 17 October 1905, the New Zealand government submitted a cheque for £15,000 towards the fund. By October 1901 some £154,000 had been gathered for the construction of the Memorial, during 1902 a number of tribes from the west coast of Africa sent goods to be sold, with the proceeds going towards the fund. Alfred Lewis Jones had arranged for these items to be brought from Africa to Liverpool free of charge on his ships, following the public and national donations towards the funds, there was more money collected than was necessary for the construction of the Victoria Memorial. Funds were therefore diverted towards the construction of Admiralty Arch at the end of The Mall. The initial preparatory stage was to re-route the road and modify The Mall, Brock hoped that work on constructing the Memorial itself could be started at some point in 1905
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The Mall (London)
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The Mall is a road in the City of Westminster, central London, between Buckingham Palace at its western end and Trafalgar Square via Admiralty Arch to the east. Before it terminates at Whitehall it is met by Horse Guards Road and Spring Gardens where the Metropolitan Board of Works and it is closed to traffic on Sundays, public holidays and on ceremonial occasions. The Mall began as a field for playing pall-mall, in the 17th and 18th centuries it was a fashionable promenade, bordered by trees. C. These routes were intended to be used for major national ceremonies, as part of the development – designed by Aston Webb – a new façade was constructed for Buckingham Palace, and the Victoria Memorial was erected. The Queen Victoria Memorial is immediately before the gates of the Palace, the length of The Mall from where it joins Constitution Hill at the Victoria Memorial end to Admiralty Arch is exactly 0.5 nautical miles. St. Jamess Park is on the side of The Mall, opposite Green Park and St Jamess Palace. Running off The Mall at its end is Horse Guards Parade. The surface of The Mall is coloured red to give the effect of a giant red carpet leading up to Buckingham Palace and this colour was obtained using synthetic iron oxide pigment from Deanshanger Oxide Works, which was created using the Deanox Process devised by chemist Ernest Lovell. It was David Eccles decision, as Minister of Works from 1951 to 1954 and these scenes were repeated in 2011 for the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, and again in 2012 for the Queens Diamond Jubilee, and the Jubilee concert. Scheduled buses are not allowed to use the Mall and go past Buckingham Palace except by permission of the monarch and this has only happened twice in history, in 1927 and in 1950. The annual London Marathon finishes on The Mall and it was also the start and finish line for the marathon course, the road race, and the race walks of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The womens marathon took place on 5 August and the mens Olympic marathon on 12 August, the mens 20 km walk took place on 4 August, with the mens 50 km walk and womens 20 km walk took place on 11 August. The Paralympic marathons were held on 9 September, media related to The Mall, London at Wikimedia Commons
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St James's Palace
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St Jamess Palace is the most senior royal palace in the United Kingdom. Built by King Henry VIII on the site of a hospital dedicated to Saint James the Less. The palace increased in importance during the reigns of the early Georgian monarchy, after decades of being used increasingly for only formal occasions, the move was formalised by Queen Victoria in 1837. Today the palace houses a number of offices, societies and collections and all ambassadors. Mainly built between 1531 and 1536 in red-brick, the architecture is primarily Tudor in style. A fire in 1809 destroyed parts of the structure, including the private apartments. Some 17th-century interiors survive, but most were remodelled in the 19th century, the palace was commissioned by Henry VIII, on the site of a former leper hospital dedicated to Saint James the Less. The new palace, secondary in the kings interest to Henrys Whitehall Palace, was constructed between 1531 and 1536 as a residence to escape formal court life. Much smaller than the nearby Whitehall, St Jamess was arranged around a number of courtyards, including the Colour Court, the Ambassadors Court and it is decorated with the initials H. A. for Henry and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Henry constructed the palace in red brick, with picked out in darker brick. The palace was remodelled in 1544, with ceilings painted by Hans Holbein, two of Henry VIIIs children died at Saint Jamess, Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset and Mary I. Elizabeth I often resided at the palace, and is said to have spent the night there while waiting for the Spanish Armada to sail up the Channel, in 1638, Charles I gave the palace to Marie de Medici, the mother of his wife Henrietta Maria. Marie remained in the palace for three years, but the residence of a Catholic former queen of France proved unpopular with parliament, Charles I spent his final night at St Jamess before his execution. Oliver Cromwell then took it over, and turned it into barracks during the English Commonwealth period, Charles II, James II, Mary II and Anne were all born at the palace. The palace was restored by Charles II following the demise of the Commonwealth, the first two monarchs of the House of Hanover used St Jamess Palace as their principal London residence. George I and George II both housed their mistresses, the Duchess of Kendal and the Countess of Suffolk respectively, at the palace. In 1757, George II donated the Palace library to the British Museum, in 1809, a fire destroyed part of the palace, including the monarchs private apartments at the south east corner. These apartments were not replaced, leaving the Queens Chapel in isolation, George III found St Jamess increasingly unsuitable
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Clarence House
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Clarence House is a royal residence in London, situated on The Mall, in the City of Westminster. It is attached to St. Jamess Palace and shares the palaces garden, for nearly 50 years, from 1953 to 2002, it was home to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. It has since been the residence of Charles, Prince of Wales. Clarence House also served as the residence for Prince William from 2003 until his 2011 marriage. It is open to visitors for one month each summer, usually August. Since 2003, the term Clarence House has often used as a metonym for the Prince of Waless private office. The term St. Jamess Palace had been previously used, Clarence House is Grade I listed on the National Heritage List for England. The house was built between 1825 and 1827 to a design by John Nash and it was commissioned by the Duke of Clarence, who in 1830 became King William IV of Great Britain and Ireland. He lived there in preference to the nearby St Jamess Palace, from William IV the house passed to his sister Princess Augusta Sophia and, following her death in 1840, to Queen Victorias mother, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. In 1866, it became the home of Queen Victorias second son and fourth child Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, also Duke of Edinburgh, anne, Princess Royal, was born there in 1950. In 1953, after the death of King George VI, the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret moved there, the house has four storeys, not including attics or basements, and is faced in pale stucco. It has undergone extensive remodelling and reconstruction over the years, most notably after the Second World War, the Prince of Wales moved there in 2003 after the house underwent massive refurbishment following the death of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. The house has been completely rewired, most of the rooms were redecorated by the interior designer Robert Kime. With a reception at Clarence House, Prince Charles welcomed representatives of all 14 nations for the 2013 Rugby League World Cup as well as tournament organisers
28.
Piccadilly line
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The Piccadilly line /ˌpɪkəˈdɪli/ is a line of the London Underground, coloured dark blue on the Tube map. It is the fourth busiest line on the Underground network on the basis of the number of passengers transported per year with 210,000,000. It is mainly a deep-level line, running from the north to the west of London via Zone 1, with a number of surface sections and it is named after the road above it between Hyde Park Corner and Piccadilly Circus. Some of its stations are shared with the District line and some are shared with the Metropolitan line and it is the second longest line on the system, after the Central line, and has the second most stations, after the District line. The GN&SRs and B&PCRs separate routes were linked with a section between Piccadilly Circus and Holborn. A section of the District Railways scheme for a tube line between South Kensington and Earls Court was also added in order to complete the route. When the GNP&BR was formally opened on 15 December 1906, the line ran from the Great Northern Railways station at Finsbury Park to the District Railways station at Hammersmith. On 30 November 1907, the branch from Holborn to the Strand opened. In 1905, plans were made to extend it the distance south under the River Thames to Waterloo. Although built with twin tunnels, single track shuttle operation became the norm on the branch from 1918 on, on 1 July 1910 the GNP&BR and the other UERL-owned tube railways were merged by private Act of Parliament to become the London Electric Railway Company. On 10 December 1928, a rebuilt Piccadilly Circus station was opened, There had been deputations made to Parliament asking for an early extension of the line either towards Tottenham and Edmonton or towards Wood Green and Palmers Green. The early 1930s was a time of recession, and in order to relieve unemployment, government capital was made available, the chief features of the scheme were an extension northwards from Finsbury Park to Cockfosters. However, a Ventilation station, in architectural style to tube stations of the time was provided at the site. There was also opposition from the London and North Eastern Railway to the line. The extension began from Finsbury Park to a point a little south of Arnos Grove, a Parliamentary report of 1919 recommended through running to Richmond and Ealing. By the end of the 1920s the priority had shifted to serving the areas around Hounslow and north, construction of the linking sections started in 1930, and the services opened as follows. To Uxbridge, the District Railway had operated services to Uxbridge since 1910 and this influence can be seen in the bold vertical and horizontal forms, which were combined with the use of traditional materials like brick. Many of these Holden-designed station are listed buildings and this idea was eventually rejected due to the inconvenience to passengers that would have been caused during rebuilding, as well as the costs of the new tunnels
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Victoria line
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The Victoria line is a deep-level London Underground route running from Brixton in the south in Zone 2 to Walthamstow Central in the north-east in Zone 3 of London. It is coloured blue on the Tube map. It is one of two lines to run entirely below ground, the other being the Waterloo & City line. The line has always operated using automatic train operation. The main purpose was to relieve congestion in the central area, the necessary Private Bill was introduced into Parliament in 1955. It described a line from Victoria to Walthamstow, there was also a proposal, though not included in the Bill, for a subsequent extension from Victoria to Fulham Broadway station on the District line. Construction began in 1962 on the initial Walthamstow to Victoria section, a test tunnel from Tottenham to Manor House under Seven Sisters Road had been bored in 1959 and was later incorporated into the running tunnels. In August 1967 the government gave approval for the Brixton extension, preparatory work had already started at Bessborough Gardens near Vauxhall Bridge Road in May 1967. In June 1968 a proposal to build a station at Pimlico was approved, the entire Walthamstow-Brixton line was completed in 1972. The name Victoria line dates back to 1955, other suggestions were Walvic line, during the planning stages, it was known as Route C and then was named the Victoria line after Victoria Station by David McKenna, whose suggestion was seconded by Sir John Elliot. It had been intended to build the line beyond Walthamstow Central to Wood Street, proposals were also made to extend the line as far north as South Woodford or Woodford, to provide interchange with the Central line. However, in a decision in 1961 the line was cut back to Walthamstow station. The first section to be opened was between Walthamstow Central and Highbury & Islington, there was no initial opening ceremony, instead the normal timetable started on Sunday 1 September 1968. The first train left Walthamstow Central for Highbury & Islington at about 6,30 am, later that year, the section between Highbury & Islington and Warren Street was opened, again without ceremony, on 1 December 1968. The official opening took place at Victoria station on 7 March 1969. After a short ceremony, she bought a 5d ticket and travelled to Green Park, the 3.5 mile extension from Victoria to Brixton was approved in August 1967. At the time, London Transport mentioned the possibility of extensions to Streatham, Dulwich and Crystal Palace. Princess Alexandra opened the Brixton extension on 23 July 1971, making a journey from Brixton to Vauxhall, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Edinburgh had previously visited the line during its construction, in July 1968, they visited tunnel workings under Vauxhall Park
30.
Jubilee line
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The Jubilee line is a London Underground line. Opened in 1979, it is the newest line on the network, although sections of track date back to 1932. The later stations are larger and have special safety features, both aspects being attempts to future-proof the line, the Jubilee line is coloured silver/grey on the Tube map, to mark the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II after which the line was named. Between Finchley Road and Wembley Park, the Jubilee line shares its route with the Metropolitan line, between Canning Town and Stratford, the line runs parallel to the Stratford International branch of the Docklands Light Railway. In 1932, the Metropolitan Railway built a branch from its line at Wembley Park to Stanmore. The line, as many others in the northwest London area, was designed to absorb commuter traffic from the new. At first, the Metropolitan had advocated a new line roughly following the line of the Edgware Road between the tube station and a point near Willesden Green. Indeed, construction advanced as far as the rebuilding of Edgware Road station to accommodate 4 platforms of 8-car length, things changed, though, with the formation of the London Passenger Transport Board and the subsequent absorption of the Metropolitan. The solution was now a new branch of the Bakerloo line from Baker Street to serve new stations at St, the new line rose between the Metropolitan tracks at Finchley Road, providing cross-platform interchange with the Metropolitan line. At Wembley Park, the new Bakerloo would run on to serve Kingsbury, Queensbury, Canons Park and Stanmore, the Bakerloo extension, built as above, opened in 1939. The planning for the Tube network immediately before and after World War II considered several new routes, Line C opened as the Victoria line, in stages, from 1968 to 1972. Work on the northeast–southwest route continued, the new line was to have been called the Fleet line after the River Fleet. In 1971, construction began on the new Fleet line, economic pressure and doubt over the final destination of the line had led to a staged approach. Under the first stage, the Baker Street-to-Stanmore branch of the Bakerloo line was joined at Baker Street to a new 2, the new tube was to offer cross-platform interchange between the Bakerloo and Fleet at Baker Street, as pioneered on the Victoria line. The work was completed in 1979, as part of the works, Trafalgar Square and Strand stations were combined into a single station complex, Charing Cross. The existing Charing Cross station on the sub-surface District and Circle lines was renamed Embankment, another part of the works included a section of test tunnel, built near New Cross. When the planned route was altered, this section was abandoned as it was effectively useless. However, this idea was rejected because of the costs involved
31.
Tyburn (stream)
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The River Tyburn is a river in London, which runs underground from South Hampstead through St Jamess Park to meet the River Thames by Whitehall Stairs. It is not to be confused with the Tyburn Brook which is a tributary of the River Westbourne that is the next Thames tributary to the west on the north bank. Before it was culverted, the Tyburn rose from the confluence of two tributary streams from the hills of South Hampstead and its main source is the Shepherds Well near Fitzjohns Avenue in Hampstead. Between St Jamess Park and Buckingham Palace the waters divided to create two distributaries, creating Thorney Island on which Westminster Abbey was built, Marylebone Lane, which defies the grid pattern of streets, follows the course of the Tyburn on what was its left bank through Marylebone village. From its source at the Shepherds Well near Fitzjohns Avenue in Hampstead it follows Scholars Pond Sewer south along Fitzjohns Avenue through South Hampstead under Avenue Road to Regents Park, to enter the parks perimeter the Tyburn is carried in an aqueduct over the Regents Canal then culverted. Tyburn gave its name to the predecessors of Oxford Street and Park Lane—Tyburn Road, tributaries of the River Thames Subterranean rivers of London List of rivers in England Tyburn. Silent UK – Urban Exploration, River Tyburn at the Wayback Machine
32.
Charles II of England
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Charles II was king of England, Scotland and Ireland. He was king of Scotland from 1649 until his deposition in 1651, Charles IIs father, Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War. Cromwell defeated Charles II at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651, Cromwell became virtual dictator of England, Scotland and Ireland, and Charles spent the next nine years in exile in France, the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Netherlands. A political crisis followed the death of Cromwell in 1658 resulted in the restoration of the monarchy. On 29 May 1660, his 30th birthday, he was received in London to public acclaim, after 1660, all legal documents were dated as if he had succeeded his father as king in 1649. Charless English parliament enacted laws known as the Clarendon Code, designed to shore up the position of the re-established Church of England, Charles acquiesced to the Clarendon Code even though he favoured a policy of religious tolerance. The major foreign policy issue of his reign was the Second Anglo-Dutch War. In 1670, he entered into the treaty of Dover. Louis agreed to aid him in the Third Anglo-Dutch War and pay him a pension, Charles attempted to introduce religious freedom for Catholics and Protestant dissenters with his 1672 Royal Declaration of Indulgence, but the English Parliament forced him to withdraw it. In 1679, Titus Oatess revelations of a supposed Popish Plot sparked the Exclusion Crisis when it was revealed that Charless brother, the crisis saw the birth of the pro-exclusion Whig and anti-exclusion Tory parties. Charles sided with the Tories, and, following the discovery of the Rye House Plot to murder Charles and James in 1683, Charles dissolved the English Parliament in 1681, and ruled alone until his death on 6 February 1685. He was received into the Roman Catholic Church on his deathbed, Charless wife, Catherine of Braganza, bore no live children, but Charles acknowledged at least twelve illegitimate children by various mistresses. He was succeeded by his brother James, Charles II was born in St Jamess Palace on 29 May 1630. His parents were Charles I and Henrietta Maria, Charles was their second son and child. Their first son was born about a year before Charles but died within a day, England, Scotland and Ireland were respectively predominantly Anglican, Presbyterian and Roman Catholic. At birth, Charles automatically became Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay, at or around his eighth birthday, he was designated Prince of Wales, though he was never formally invested. During the 1640s, when Charles was still young, his father fought Parliamentary, by spring 1646, his father was losing the war, and Charles left England due to fears for his safety. Charles I surrendered into captivity in May 1646, at The Hague, Charles had a brief affair with Lucy Walter, who later falsely claimed that they had secretly married
33.
Icehouse (building)
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Ice houses or icehouses are buildings used to store ice throughout the year, commonly used prior to the invention of the refrigerator. Some were underground chambers, usually man-made, close to sources of winter ice such as freshwater lakes. During the winter, ice and snow would be cut from lakes or rivers and taken into the ice house and packed with insulation and it would remain frozen for many months, often until the following winter, and could be used as a source of ice during summer months. The main application of the ice was the storage of foods, during its heyday a typical commercial ice house would store 2,700 tonnes in a 30-by-100-foot and 14-metre-high building. A cuneiform tablet from c.1780 BC records the construction of an icehouse in the northern Mesopotamian town of Terqa by Zimri-Lim, the King of Mari, which never before had any king built. In China, archaeologists have found remains of ice pits from the seventh century BC, alexander the Great around 300 BC stored snow in pits dug for that purpose. In Rome in the third century AD, snow was imported from the mountains, stored in straw-covered pits, the ice formed in the bottom of the pits sold at a higher price than the snow on top. Ice was often imported into the UK from Scandinavia up until the 1950s, usually only large mansions had purpose-built buildings to store ice. Many examples of ice houses exist in the UK, some of which have fallen into disrepair, an unusual example of an ice house that was converted from a redundant brick springhead can be found in the former grounds of Norton House, Midsomer Norton, Somerset. The ice house was introduced to Britain around 1660, various types and designs of ice house exist. However, British ice houses were commonly brick lined, domed structures, Ice houses varied in design depending on the date and builder, but were mainly conical or rounded at the bottom to hold melted ice. They usually had a drain to take any water. Ice houses may also be known as ice wells, ice pits or ice mounds, game larders and venison larders were sometimes marked on Ordnance Survey maps as ice houses. In 1985 a passage was discovered beneath Ardgillan Castle, Co, dublin, in the Republic of Ireland. This passage was found to be the ice house that was known to exist on the grounds, most notably was Frederic Tudor who formed the Tudor Ice Company in the early 19th century. In winter months, ice was chopped from a lake surface, in summer months icemen delivered it to residences in ice-wagons, where it would be stored in an icebox, which was used much like a modern refrigerator. As home and business refrigeration became common, ice houses disappeared. The home ice delivery business declined, and was gone by the late 1960s
34.
Caroline of Ansbach
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Wilhelmina Charlotte Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach, commonly known as Caroline of Ansbach, was Queen of Great Britain as the wife of King George II. Her father, Margrave John Frederick of Brandenburg-Ansbach, belonged to a branch of the House of Hohenzollern and was the ruler of a small German state, the Principality of Ansbach. Caroline was orphaned at an age and moved to the enlightened court of her guardians, King Frederick I. As a young woman, Caroline was much sought-after as a bride and they had eight children, seven of whom grew to adulthood. Caroline moved permanently to Britain in 1714 when her husband became Prince of Wales, as Princess of Wales, she joined her husband in rallying political opposition to his father King George I. In 1717, her husband was expelled from court after a family row, Caroline came to be associated with Robert Walpole, an opposition politician who was a former government minister. Walpole rejoined the government in 1720, and Carolines husband and King George I reconciled publicly, over the next few years, Walpole rose to become the leading minister. Caroline succeeded as queen and electress consort in 1727, when her husband became King George II and her eldest son, Frederick, became Prince of Wales. He was a focus for the opposition, like his father before him, as princess and as queen, Caroline was known for her political influence, which she exercised through and for Walpole. Her tenure included four regencies during her husbands stays in Hanover, Caroline was widely mourned following her death in 1737, not only by the public but also by the King, who refused to remarry. Caroline was born on 1 March 1683 at Ansbach, the daughter of John Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach and her father was the ruler of one of the smallest German states, he died of smallpox at the age of 32, when Caroline was three years old. Caroline and her full sibling, her younger brother Margrave William Frederick, left Ansbach with their mother. In 1692, Carolines widowed mother was pushed into a marriage with the Elector of Saxony. Eleonore Erdmuthe was widowed two years later, after her unfaithful husband contracted smallpox from his mistress. Eleonore remained in Saxony for another two years, until her death in 1696, the orphaned Caroline and William Frederick returned to Ansbach to stay with their elder half-brother, Margrave George Frederick II. Frederick and Sophia Charlotte became king and queen of Prussia in 1701, the queen was the daughter of Dowager Electress Sophia of Hanover, and the sister of George, Elector of Hanover. She was renowned for her intelligence and strong character, and her uncensored and liberal court attracted a great many scholars, Caroline was exposed to a lively intellectual environment quite different from anything she had experienced previously. Before she began her education under Sophia Charlottes care, Caroline had received formal education
35.
Highwaymen
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A highwayman was a robber who stole from travellers. This type of thief usually travelled and robbed by horse, as compared to a footpad who travelled and robbed on foot, such robbers operated in Great Britain from the Elizabethan era until the early 19th century. In many other countries, they persisted for a few decades longer, the word highwayman is first known to have been used in the year 1617, other euphemisms included knights of the road and gentlemen of the road. In the 19th-century American West, highwaymen were known as road agents, in Australia they were known as bushrangers. The great age of highwaymen was the period from the Restoration in 1660 to the death of Queen Anne in 1714. Some of them are known to have been disbanded soldiers and even officers of the English Civil War and French wars, no doubt the warlike character of the age multiplied crimes of violence. What favoured them most was the lack of governance and absence of a force, parish constables were almost wholly ineffective and commonplace detection. Most of the highwaymen held up travellers and took their money, some had channels by which they could dispose of bills of exchange. Others had a racket on the transport of an extensive district. Highwaymen, along with rioters and smugglers, defied the government of the time. They often attacked coaches for their lack of protection, including public stagecoaches, the famous demand to Stand and deliver. Was in use from the 17th century, the phrase Your money or your life. He clapped a bayonet to my breast, and said, with an oath, Your money and he had on a soldiers waistcoat and breeches. I put the bayonet aside, and gave him my silver, there were many famous victims of highwaymen. Horace Walpole, shot at in Hyde Park, wryly observed, One is forced to travel, even at noon, during this period, crime was rife and encounters with highwaymen could be bloody if the victim attempted to resist. There is a history of treating highway robbers as heroes. Originally they were admired by many as bold men who confronted their victims face-to-face and were ready to fight for what they wanted, the most famous English robber hero is the legendary medieval outlaw Robin Hood. In 17th- through early-19th-century Ireland, acts of robbery were often part of a tradition of resistance to British colonial rule
36.
Horace Walpole
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Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford — also known as Horace Walpole — was an English art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and Whig politician. He had Strawberry Hill House built in Twickenham, south-west London and his literary reputation rests on his Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto and his Letters, which are of significant social and political interest. He was the son of the first British Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole, as Horace Walpole was childless, on his death his barony descended to his cousin of the same surname, who was created the new Earl of Orford. Walpole was born in London, the youngest son of British Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole, like his father, he received early education in Bexley, he was also educated at Eton College and Kings College, Cambridge. Walpoles first friends were probably his cousins Francis and Henry Conway, to whom Walpole became strongly attached, at Eton he formed with Charles Lyttelton and George Montagu the Triumvirate, a schoolboy confederacy. More important were another group of friends dubbed the Quadruple Alliance, Walpole, Thomas Gray, Richard West, at Cambridge Walpole came under the influence of Conyers Middleton, an unorthodox theologian. Walpole came to accept the nature of Middletons attitude to some essential Christian doctrines for the rest of his life, including a hatred of superstition. Walpole ceased to reside at Cambridge at the end of 1738, according to one biographer his love for his mother was the most powerful emotion of his entire life. the whole of his psychological history was dominated by it. Walpole did not have any relationships with women, he has been called a natural celibate. Walpoles sexual orientation has been the subject of speculation, many contemporaries described him as effeminate. Biographers such as Timothy Mowl explore his possible homosexuality, including a passionate, some previous biographers such as Lewis, Fothergill, and Robert Wyndham Ketton-Cremer, however, have interpreted Walpole as asexual. Upon coming of age he became Comptroller of the Pipe and Clerk of the Estreats which gave him an income of £300 per annum, Walpole decided to go travelling with Thomas Gray and wrote a will whereby he left Gray all his belongings. They left Dover on 29 March and arrived at Calais later that day and they then travelled through Boulogne, Amiens and Saint-Denis, arriving at Paris on 4 April. Here they met many aristocratic Englishmen, in early June they left Paris for Rheims, then in September going to Dijon, Lyons, Dauphiné, Savoy, Aix-les-Bains, Geneva, and then back to Lyons. In October they left for Italy, arriving in Turin in November, then going to Genoa, Piacenza, Parma, Reggio, Modena, Bologna, and in December arriving at Florence. Here he struck up a friendship with Horace Mann, an assistant to the British Minister at the Court of Tuscany and wrote Epistle from Florence to Thomas Ashton, tutor to the Earl of Plymouth, a mixture of Whig history and Middletons teachings. In February 1740 Walpole and Gray left for Rome with the intention of witnessing the papal conclave upon the death of Pope Clement XII, Walpole wanted to attend fashionable parties and Gray wanted to visit all the antiquities. At social occasions in Rome he saw the Old Pretender James Francis Edward Stuart, Walpole and Gray returned to Florence in July
37.
Handel
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George Frideric Handel was a German, later British baroque composer who spent the bulk of his career in London, becoming well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, and organ concertos. Handel received important training in Halle and worked as a composer in Hamburg and Italy before settling in London in 1712 and he was strongly influenced both by the great composers of the Italian Baroque and by the middle-German polyphonic choral tradition. Within fifteen years, Handel had started three commercial opera companies to supply the English nobility with Italian opera, musicologist Winton Dean writes that his operas show that Handel was not only a great composer, he was a dramatic genius of the first order. As Alexanders Feast was well received, Handel made a transition to English choral works, after his success with Messiah he never composed an Italian opera again. Almost blind, and having lived in England for nearly fifty years, he died in 1759 and his funeral was given full state honours, and he was buried in Westminster Abbey in London. Handel was born in 1685 in Halle-on-Saal, Duchy of Magdeburg, to Georg Händel and his father,63 when George Frideric was born, was an eminent barber-surgeon who served the court of Saxe-Weissenfels and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. Georg Händel was the son of a coppersmith, Valentin Händel who had emigrated from Eisleben in 1608 with his first wife Anna Belching and they were Protestants and chose reliably Protestant Saxony over Silesia, a Hapsburg possession as religious tensions mounted in the years before the Thirty Years War. Halle was a prosperous city, home of a salt-mining industry. Even the smaller churches all had able organists and fair choirs, and humanities, the Thirty Years War brought extensive destruction to Halle, and by the 1680s it was impoverished. But since the middle of the war the city was under the administration of the Duke of Saxony, the arts and music, however, flourished only among the higher strata, which did not describe Handels family. Handel was the child of this marriage, the first son died still born. Two younger sisters were born after the birth of George Frideric, Dorthea Sophia, born 6 October 1687 and Johanna Christiana, born 10 January 1690. Early in his life Handel is reported to have attended the gymnasium in Halle, Mainwaring is the source for almost all information of Handels childhood, and much of that information came from J. C. Smith, Jr. Handels confidant and copyist. Whether they came from Smith or elsewhere, Mainwaring frequently relates misinformation and it is from Mainwaring that the portrait of Handels father as implacably opposed to any musical education comes. This did nothing to dampen young Handels inclination, in fact, Mainwaring tells the story of Handels secret attic spinnet, Handel found means to get a little clavichord privately conveyd to a room at the top of the house. To this room he constantly stole when the family was asleep, but Handel had to have had some experience with the keyboard to have made the impression in Weissenfels that resulted in his receiving formal musical training. Somehow Handel made his way to the organ, where he surprised everyone with his playing. Overhearing this performance and noting the youth of the performer caused the Duke to recommend to Georg Händel that Handel be given musical instruction, Handels father engaged the organist at the Halle parish church, the young Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, to instruct Handel
38.
Music for the Royal Fireworks
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The Music for the Royal Fireworks is a wind band suite composed by George Frideric Handel in 1749 under contract of George II of Great Britain for the fireworks in Londons Green Park on 27 April 1749. It was to celebrate the end of the War of the Austrian Succession, during the preparations Handel and John Montagu, responsible for the Royal Fireworks, had an argument about adding violins. The duke made clear to Handel that the King George II had a preference for only wind instruments, Handel left out the string instruments and against his will there was also a full rehearsal of the music at Vauxhall Gardens and not in Green Park. On 21 April 1749 over twelve thousand people, each paying 2/6 rushed for it, causing a traffic jam of carriages on the London Bridge. Six days later, on 27 April, the musicians were in a specially constructed building that had been designed by Servandoni, a theatre designer. Andrea Casali and Andrea Soldi designed the decorations, the fireworks themselves were devised and controlled by Gaetana Ruggieri and Giuseppe Sarti, both from Bologna. Charles Frederick was the controller, captain Thomas Desaguliers was the chief fire master, the display was not as successful as the music itself, the weather was rainy and in the middle of the show the right pavilion caught fire. Music for the Royal Fireworks opens with a French overture and includes a bourrée, Handel was specific about the numbers of instruments to each written part. In the overture there are assigned three players to each of the three parts, the 24 oboes are divided 12,8 and 4, and the 12 bassoons are divided 8 and 4. The side drums were instructed when to play in La Réjouissance and the second Menuet, Handel re-scored the suite for full orchestra and for a performance on 27 May, in the Foundling Hospital. Handel noted in the score, the violins to play the parts, the cellos, and double basses the bassoon part. Handels Water Music, although it was composed more than thirty years earlier, is paired with the Music for the Royal Fireworks as both were written for outdoor performance. Together, these works constitute Handels most famous music for what we would now consider the orchestra, older recordings tend to use arrangements of Handels score for the modern orchestra, for example, the arrangements by Hamilton Harty and Leopold Stokowski. More recent recordings tend to use more historically informed performance methods appropriate for baroque music, there are also arrangements for pipe organ, alone or with brass. This music was performed under the baton of Andrew Davis for the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II on 1 June 2002, at the Buckingham Palace gardens, Fireworks Music, Scores at the International Music Score Library Project Score of Fireworks Music
39.
William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath
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The son of William Pulteney by his first wife, Mary Floyd, he was born in March 1684 into an old Leicestershire family. He was educated at Westminster School and at Christ Church, Oxford and he acquired extensive classical knowledge, and on leaving Oxford made the usual tour on the continent. In 1705, he was brought into parliament by Henry Guy for the Yorkshire borough of Hedon and this seat was held by him without a break until 1734. Throughout the reign of Queen Anne William Pulteney played a prominent part in the struggles of the Whigs, and was involved in the prosecution of Henry Sacheverell. When the victorious Tories sent his friend Robert Walpole to the Tower of London in 1712, Pulteney championed his cause in the House of Commons and with the leading Whigs visited him in prison. Pulteney was secretary of war from 1714 to 1717 in the first ministry of George I, two years later, on 6 July 1716, he became one of the privy council. When Townshend was dismissed, in April 1717, from his post of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the crash of the South Sea Company restored Walpole to the highest position, but all he offered to Pulteney was a peerage. The offer was rejected, but in May 1723 Pulteney agreed to accept the lucrative, however, when he found himself neglected, he opposed the proposition of Walpole to discharge the debts of the civil list, and in April 1725 was dismissed from his sinecure. From the day of his dismissal to that of his triumph, Pulteney remained in opposition, forming the Patriot Whigs. Walpole attempts 1730 at conciliation with the offer of Townshends place, pulteneys resentment was not confined to his speeches in parliament. With Bolingbroke he started, in December 1726, a periodical called The Craftsman, Lord Hervey published an attack on the Craftsman, and Pulteney, either openly or behind the person of Amhurst, its editor, replied to the attack. In print Pulteney was inferior to Bolingbroke alone among the antagonists of Walpole, Walpole managed to avoid the fall of his ministry. Bolingbroke withdrew to France on the suggestion, it is said, of Pulteney, from the general election of 1734 until his elevation to the peerage, Pulteney sat for Middlesex. For some years after this election the ministers assailants made little progress in their attack, Walpole long argued for peace, but he was feebly supported by his own cabinet, and the frenzy of the people for war knew no bounds. In an evil moment for his own reputation he consented to remain in office and his downfall was not long deferred. War was declared in 1739, a new parliament was summoned in the summer of 1741 and this made him unpopular, and his influence dwindled to nothing. On 14 July 1742 Pulteney was created Baron Pulteney of Heydon, Viscount Pulteney of Wrington, Somerset, on 20 February he had been restored to his rank in the privy council. At Wilmingtons death in 1743 he made application to the king for the post of First Lord of the Treasury, on 10 February 1746, Pelhams administration resigned en masse, and the king turned to Bath to form an alternative ministry
40.
John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol
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John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol was an English politician. John Hervey was born in Bury St Edmunds, the son of Sir Thomas Hervey and he was educated in Bury and at Clare College, Cambridge. He became Member of Parliament for Bury St Edmunds in March 1694 and he died unmarried on 14 November 1723. It has been suggested that he was the father of Horace Walpole, on the death of his half-brother Carr in 1723 he took the courtesy title of Lord Hervey and gained some renown both as a writer and in politics. In 1733, he was summoned to the House of Lords through a writ of acceleration in his fathers title of Baron Hervey. Hon. Thomas Hervey, was one of the members for Bury from 1733 to 1747, held offices at court. He had very poor health, and his reckless life frequently brought him into pecuniary and he wrote numerous pamphlets, and when he died Dr. Johnson said of him, Tom Hervey, though a vicious man, was one of the genteelest men who ever lived. He appears in the foreground of Zoffanys The Tribuna of the Uffizi and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Bristol, Earls and Marquesses of. Leigh Rayments Historical List of MPs
41.
John Nash (architect)
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John Nash was a British architect responsible for much of the layout of Regency London under the patronage of the Prince Regent, and during his reign as George IV. Nash was also a pioneer in the use of the Picturesque in architecture and his best-known buildings are the Royal Pavilion, Brighton, and Buckingham Palace. Many of his buildings were built by the property developer James Burton, in return, Nash promoted the career of Burtons son, Decimus Burton, who assisted him with several of his designs and later became a famous architect in his own right. Nash was born during 1752 in Lambeth, south London, the son of a Welsh millwright also called John, from 1766 or 67, John Nash trained with the architect Sir Robert Taylor, the apprenticeship was completed in 1775 or 1776. On 28 April 1775, at the now demolished church of St Mary Newington, Nash married his first wife Jane Elizabeth Kerr, initially he seems to have pursued a career as a surveyor, builder and carpenter. This gave him an income of around £300 a year, the couple set up home at Royal Row Lambeth. He established his own practice in 1777 as well as being in partnership with a timber merchant. The couple had two children, both were baptised at St Mary-at-Lambeth, John on 9 June 1776 and Hugh on 28 April 1778. The claim that Jane had faked her pregnancies and then passed babies she had acquired off as her own was brought before the Consistory court of the Bishop of London. His wife was sent to Aberavon to lodge with Nashs cousin Ann Morgan, in an attempt at reconciliation Jane returned to London in June 1779, but she continued to act extravagantly so he sent her to another cousin, Thomas Edwards of Neath. She gave birth just after Christmas, and acknowledged Charles Charles as the father, in 1781 Nash instigated action against Jane for separation on grounds of adultery. The case was tried at Hereford in 1782, Charles who was guilty was unable to pay the damages of £76. The divorce was finally read 26 January 1787 and his career was initially unsuccessful and short-lived. After inheriting £1000 in 1778 from his uncle Thomas, he invested the money in building his first known independent works, 15–17 Bloomsbury Square, but the property failed to let and he was declared bankrupt on 30 September 1783. His debts were £5000, including £2000 he had been lent by Robert Adam, a blue plaque commemorating Nash was placed on 66 Great Russell Street by English Heritage in 2013. Nash left London in 1784 to live in Carmarthen, to where his mother had retired, in 1785 he and a local man Samuel Simon Saxon re-roofed the towns church for 600 Guineas. Nash and Saxon seem to have worked as building contractors and suppliers of building materials, Nashs London buildings had been standard Georgian terrace houses, and it was in Wales that he matured as an architect. He went on to design the prisons at Cardigan and Hereford and it was at Hereford that Nash met Richard Payne Knight, whose theories on the picturesque as applies to architecture and landscape would influence Nash
42.
Edward Oxford
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Edward Oxford was the first of eight people who tried to assassinate Queen Victoria. Edward was born in Birmingham in 1822, the third of Hannah Marklew and his father, a gold chaser, died when he was seven. His mother was able to work and support the family. When Oxford left school, he first took bar work with his aunt in Hounslow, then in public houses as a pot boy. Since his mother had returned to Birmingham on a trip to see family over a month before, Oxford was, in effect. On 4 May 1840, he bought a pair of pistols for £2, as well as a flask, and began practising in various shooting galleries in Leicester Square, the Strand. Gray sold him the powder, and told him where he could find the ammunition, at about 4,00 PM on 10 June 1840, Oxford took up a position on a footpath at Constitution Hill, near Buckingham Palace. When the royal couple appeared some two hours later and drew level with him, he fired both pistols in succession, missing both times and he was immediately seized by onlookers and disarmed. Oxford made no attempt to hide his actions, openly declaring, It was I and he was immediately arrested and charged with treason for attempting to assassinate the sovereign. When he was taken into custody at the station he asked if the Queen was hurt. When he was asked if the pistols had been loaded, he said they were, members were to be armed with a brace of pistols, a sword, a rifle and a dagger. Oxfords trial at the Old Bailey was postponed until 9 July, in spite of his earlier admissions, no bullets could be found at the scene, so that the Crown could not prove that the pistols were, in fact, armed and that he could have harmed anyone. Oxford later claimed that the guns contained only gunpowder, Oxford appeared to be oblivious for most of the proceedings. This carried a great deal of weight, as it was thought during this time that both drink and hereditary influence were strong causal factors for insanity, the following day, the jury acquitted Oxford, declaring him to be not guilty by reason of insanity. Like all such prisoners, he was sentenced to be detained until Her Majesty’s pleasure be known, in effect, this was an indefinite sentence, and the source of the asylum term pleasure men. Oxford was sent to the State Criminal Lunatic Asylum in Bethlem, Southwark, when he was transferred to Broadmoor Hospital in 1864, the notes taken on his arrival describe him as apparently sane. Oxford continued to be orderly and well-behaved at Broadmoor, working as a wood grainer and painter. While it was clear to the governors that Oxford was of sound mind and no longer a threat to society, George Grey
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Queen Victoria
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Victoria was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she adopted the title of Empress of India. Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, both the Duke of Kent and King George III died in 1820, and Victoria was raised under close supervision by her German-born mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She inherited the throne aged 18, after her fathers three brothers had all died, leaving no surviving legitimate children. The United Kingdom was already a constitutional monarchy, in which the sovereign held relatively little direct political power. Privately, Victoria attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments, publicly, Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840. Their nine children married into royal and noble families across the continent, tying them together, after Alberts death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, republicanism temporarily gained strength and her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration. Her reign of 63 years and seven months is known as the Victorian era and it was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. She was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover and her son and successor, Edward VII, belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the line of his father. Victorias father was Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, until 1817, Edwards niece, Princess Charlotte of Wales, was the only legitimate grandchild of George III. Her death in 1817 precipitated a crisis that brought pressure on the Duke of Kent. In 1818 he married Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, a widowed German princess with two children—Carl and Feodora —by her first marriage to the Prince of Leiningen and her brother Leopold was Princess Charlottes widower. The Duke and Duchess of Kents only child, Victoria, was born at 4.15 a. m. on 24 May 1819 at Kensington Palace in London. Victoria was christened privately by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Manners-Sutton, on 24 June 1819 in the Cupola Room at Kensington Palace and she was baptised Alexandrina, after one of her godparents, Emperor Alexander I of Russia, and Victoria, after her mother. Additional names proposed by her parents—Georgina, Charlotte, and Augusta—were dropped on the instructions of the Dukes eldest brother, George, the Duke of Clarence and the Duke of Kent married on the same day in 1818, but both of Clarences daughters died as infants. Victorias father died in January 1820, when Victoria was less than a year old, a week later her grandfather died and was succeeded by his eldest son, George IV. The Duke of York died in 1827, when George IV died in 1830, he was succeeded by his next surviving brother, William IV, and Victoria became heir presumptive
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Canada Gate
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Canada Gate forms part of the Queen Victoria Memorial scheme in London. The entire memorial, more an act of town planning than funerary monument, was designed by Sir Aston Webb and it takes the form of a processional route from Trafalgar Square to Buckingham Palace. Beginning at Admiralty Arch, the takes in The Mall and culminates in a rond point before the palace. The Canada Gate was commissioned, in 1905, along with the gates for Buckingham Palace, the commission was won by the Bromsgrove Guild who completed the work and had the gate in situ by 1911. From the gate, a double avenue stretches the width of the park through to Piccadilly. The gate is in the style as those of Buckingham Palace. The two wrought iron bays flanking the central gate contain smaller gates, while the two terminating bays contain smaller pedestrian gates, the screen is terminated by two massive pillars of Portland stone surmounted by patriotic statuary. The flanking inner columns are smaller and, like the iron posts, are crowned by gas lanterns of similar design to those on the pillars of the palace railings
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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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Bushy Park
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Bushy Park in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames is the second largest of Londons Royal Parks, at 445 hectares in area, after Richmond Park. The park, most of which is open to the public, is north of Hampton Court Palace. It is surrounded by Teddington, Hampton, Hampton Hill and Hampton Wick, the parks acid grasslands are mostly just above the 25-foot contour. In September 2014 most of it was designated a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest together with Hampton Court Park and Hampton Court Golf Course as Bushy Park, the park is Grade I listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. The area now known as Bushy Park has been settled for at least the past 4,000 years, there is also evidence that the area was used in the medieval period for agricultural purposes. A keen hunter, he established them as deer-hunting grounds and this period also saw the construction of the main thoroughfare, Chestnut Avenue, which runs from Park Road in Teddington to the Lion Gate entrance to Hampton Court Palace in Hampton Court Road. This avenue and the Arethusa Diana Fountain were designed by Sir Christopher Wren as an approach to Hampton Court Palace. The park has long been popular with locals, but also visitors from further afield. From the mid-19th century until World War II, Londoners came here to celebrate Chestnut Sunday, the customs were discovered and resurrected in 1993 by Colin and Mu Pain. Among those who served as ranger was King William IV, while Duke of Clarence, to ensure his consort Queen Adelaide, could remain at their long-time home after his death, he immediately appointed her as his successor as ranger. During World War I, Bushy Park housed the Kings Canadian Hospital, during World War II, General Dwight D. Eisenhower planned the D-Day landings from Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force at Camp Griffiss in the Park. A memorial by Carlos Rey dedicated to the Allied troops who fell on D-Day now marks the spot where General Eisenhowers tent stood, the nearby Eisenhower House is named in the Generals honour. Spaatz went on to command the US Army Air Forces throughout the European Theatre of Operations, also known by its US Army code, AAF-586, Camp Griffiss/Widewing was often confused with the wartime headquarters of Eighth Air Force Fighter Command at Bushey Hall, near Watford, Hertfordshire. It also has fishing and model boating ponds, horse rides, formal plantations of trees and other plants, wildlife conservation areas and herds of both red deer and fallow deer. As part of an upgrade of the facilities, the new Pheasantry Café was added. The work was supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, the closest railway stations are Hampton Court in East Molesey to the south, Hampton Wick to the east, Teddington and Fulwell to the north, and Hampton to the west. All are within a 10- to 20-minute walk, transport for London bus routes 111,216 and 411 pass the Hampton Court Gate on Hampton Court Road. R70, R68 and 285 buses stop near the two Hampton Hill Gates off the High Street, while the R68 also serves the Blandford Road Gate before continuing to Hampton Court Green via Hampton Hill
