Greenford branch line
The Greenford branch line is a 2 3⁄4-mile Network Rail suburban railway line in west London, England. It runs northerly from a junction with the Great Western Main Line west of West Ealing to a central bay platform at Greenford station which is on the London Underground Central line. A triangular junction near Greenford connects to the Acton–Northolt line, the line serves mainly the suburbs of Ealing and Greenford. The passenger service is provided by Great Western Railway, trains from the branch terminate at West Ealing, except for one service each way from Paddington at the start of the day, and to Paddington at the end of the day. All services are operated with two-car Class 165 Turbo diesel trains, the Show ran from 15 June 1903 to 4 July 1903 during which period trains operated a circular service to and from Paddington via Park Royal and Ealing. Normal services started on 2 May 1904 and the links to Greenford station were put in on 1 October 1904, the loop formed by the GWML, the branch and the ANL is sometimes used for turning trains for operational reasons such as balancing wheel wear.
On two Sundays in February 2010, Chiltern and Wrexham & Shropshire trains were diverted to Paddington via the line while engineering work blocked the route to Marylebone, in the 1950s the service frequently ran with two auto-trailers, one either side of the engine. During the 1960s and 70s the service was operated by a Class 121 Bubble Car two-carriage diesel railcar. As Drayton Green, Castle Bar Park and South Greenford have short platforms the length of train that can be used is two cars. In preparation for Crossrail, a new platform 5 has been constructed at West Ealing and these are statistics of passenger usage on the National Rail network along the Greenford branch line from the year beginning April 2002 to the year beginning April 2011. At Greenford, London Underground Central line, At West Ealing, GWR local services and Heathrow Connect to Heathrow Airport
Greater London
London, or Greater London, is a region of England which forms the administrative boundaries of London. It is organised into 33 local government districts, the 32 London boroughs, the Greater London Authority, based in Southwark, is responsible for strategic local government across the region and consists of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. The county of Greater London was created on 1 April 1965 through the London Government Act 1963, Greater London was first established as a sui generis council area under the Greater London Council between 1963 and 1986. The area was re-established as a region in 1994, and the Greater London Authority formed in 2000, the region covers 1,572 km2 and had a population of 8,174,000 at the 2011 census. In 2012, it had the highest GVA per capita in the United Kingdom at £37,232, the Greater London Built-up Area—used in some national statistics—is a measure of the continuous urban area of London, and therefore includes areas outside of the administrative region.
The term Greater London has been and still is used to different areas in governance, history. In terms of ceremonial counties, London is divided into the small City of London, outside the limited boundaries of the City, a variety of arrangements has governed the wider area since 1855, culminating in the creation of the Greater London administrative area in 1965. The Greater London Arterial Road Programme was devised between 1913 and 1916, one of the larger early forms was the Greater London Planning Region, devised in 1927, which occupied 1,856 square miles and included 9 million people. The LCC pressed for an alteration in its boundaries soon after the end of the First World War, noting that within the Metropolitan, a Royal Commission on London Government was set up to consider the issue. The LCC proposed a vast new area for Greater London, with a boundary somewhere between the Metropolitan Police District and the home counties, protests were made at the possibility of including Windsor and Eton in the authority.
The Commission made its report in 1923, rejecting the LCCs scheme, two minority reports favoured change beyond the amalgamation of smaller urban districts, including both smaller borough councils and a central authority for strategic functions. The London Traffic Act 1924 was a result of the Commission, Greater London originally had a two-tier system of local government, with the Greater London Council sharing power with the City of London Corporation and the 32 London Borough councils. The GLC was abolished in 1986 by the Local Government Act 1985 and its functions were devolved to the City Corporation and the London Boroughs, with some functions transferred to central government and joint boards. Greater London was used to form the London region of England in 1994, a referendum held in 1998 established a public will to recreate an upper tier of government to cover the region. The Greater London Authority, London Assembly and the directly elected Mayor of London were created in 2000 by the Greater London Authority Act 1999, in 2000, the outer boundary of the Metropolitan Police District was re-aligned to the Greater London boundary.
The 2000 and 2004 mayoral elections were won by Ken Livingstone, the 2008 and 2012 elections were won by Boris Johnson. The 2016 election was won by Sadiq Khan, Greater London continues to include the most closely associated parts of the Greater London Urban Area and their historic buffers. Thus it includes, in five boroughs, significant parts of the Metropolitan Green Belt which protects designated greenfield land in a way to the citys parks
Harrow, London
Harrow /ˈhæroʊ/ is a large suburban town in the London Borough of Harrow, northwest London, England. It is centred 10.5 miles northwest of Charing Cross, harrow-on-the-Hill includes the conservation area with a high proportion of listed buildings with a residential and institutional array of Georgian architecture and a few 17th century examples. Harrow gives its initial letters to a postcode area. Harrow was a borough of Middlesex before its inclusion in Greater London in 1965. Harrow is home to a large Westminster polytechnic campus and its oldest secondary schools are Harrow School, harrows name comes from Old English hearg = temple, which was probably on the hill of Harrow, where St. Marys Church stands today. The name has been studied in detail by Keith Briggs, the first and only contemporary artist-led gallery in Harrow was set up in 2010 by the Usurp Art Collective. The space is called the Usurp Art Gallery & Studios and is based in West Harrow, Usurp Art provides professional support to artists and runs the only public artists studios in the borough.
It is a project for Arts Council England. Much of Kenton and before 1716 all of Pinner were parts of Harrow, geographical facts which root the importance of Harrow as a meeting place, Harrow Weald, is the district north of Wealdstone, both of which were historically part of Harrow. Harrow may include the wards of Roxeth, Headstone North and Harrow on the Hill as well as the Greenhill, West Harrow, the combined population of these wards is 80,213. In the 2011 census, the Greenhill ward was 42% white, 26% Indian, the West Harrow ward was 44% white, 23% Indian, and 12% Other Asian. In addition, Headstone South ward was 43% white, 24% Indian, Harrow on the Hill ward was 47% white, 19% Indian and 12% Other Asian. Major employers include Kodak Alaris, the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and Ladbrokes, on 7 August 1838 Thomas Port died from injuries received in a train accident near Harrow. With great fortitude, he bore a second amputation by the surgeons and died from loss of blood, August 7th 1838, on 26 November 1870 two trains collided at Harrow & Wealdstone station, killing 9 and injuring 44.
On 8 October 1952 three trains collided at Harrow and Wealdstone station, killing 112 people, of the dead,64 were railway employees on their way to work. Harrow is the hometown of renown fashion designer, Vivenne Westood whom went on to one of the notable pioneers of Punk culture. Harrow is twinned with, France Notes References Harrow Times newspaper Harrow Council Homepage Harrow Local Community News and Information
Blue plaque
The brainchild of British politician William Ewart in 1863, it is the oldest such scheme in the world. The worlds first blue plaques were erected in London in the 19th century to mark the homes and workplaces of famous people. This scheme continues to the present day, having been administered successively by the Society of Arts, the London County Council, the Greater London Council, many other plaque schemes have since been initiated in the United Kingdom. Some are restricted to a geographical area, others to a particular theme of historical commemoration. The plaques erected by these schemes are manufactured in a variety of designs, materials, the term blue plaque may be used narrowly to refer to the official English Heritage scheme, but is often used informally to encompass all similar schemes. There are commemorative plaque schemes throughout the world such as those in Paris, Oslo, and in cities in Australia, Russia. The forms these take vary, and they tend to be known as historical markers, the original blue plaque scheme was established by the Society of Arts in 1867, and since 1986 has been run by English Heritage.
It is the oldest such scheme in the world, since 1984 English Heritage have commissioned Frank Ashworth to make the plaques which have been inscribed by his wife, Sue, at their home in Cornwall. English Heritage plans to erect an average of twelve new blue plaques each year in London. After being conceived by politician William Ewart in 1863, the scheme was initiated in 1866 by Ewart, Henry Cole and the Society of Arts, the first plaque was unveiled in 1867 to commemorate Lord Byron at his birthplace,24 Holles Street, Cavendish Square. This house was demolished in 1889, the earliest blue plaque to survive, put up in 1867, commemorates Napoleon III in King Street, St Jamess. Byron’s plaque was blue, but the colour was changed by the manufacturer Minton, in total the Society of Arts put up 35 plaques, fewer than half of which survive today. The Society only erected one plaque within the square-mile of the City of London, in 1879, it was agreed that the City of London Corporation would be responsible for erecting plaques within the City to recognise its jurisdictional independence.
This demarcation has remained ever since, in 1901, the Society of Arts scheme was taken over by the London County Council, which gave much thought to the future design of the plaques. It was eventually decided to keep the shape and design of the Societys plaques, but to make them uniformly blue, with a laurel wreath. Though this design was used consistently from 1903 to 1938, some experimentation occurred in the 1920s, in 1921, the most common plaque design was revised, as it was discovered that glazed ceramic Doulton ware was cheaper than the encaustic formerly used. In 1938, a new design was prepared by an unnamed student at the LCCs Central School of Arts and Crafts and was approved by the committee. It omitted the decorative elements of earlier designs, and allowed for lettering to be better spaced and enlarged
Grand Union Canal
The Grand Union Canal in England is part of the British canal system. Its main line starts in London and ends in Birmingham, stretching for 137 miles with 166 locks and it has arms to places including Leicester, Aylesbury and Northampton. Tolls had been reduced to compete with the railways, but there was scope for further reduction. The Regents Canal and the Grand Junction Canal agreed that amalgamation and modernisation were the way to remain competitive. The Grand Union Canal in its current form came into being on 1 January 1929 and it was formed from the amalgamation of several different canals, and at 286. Although the Grand Union intended to buy the Oxford Canal and Coventry Canal, the onward sections from Braunston to Birmingham had been built as narrow canals – that is, the locks could accommodate only a single narrowboat. An Act of Parliament of 1931 was passed authorising a key part of the scheme of the Grand Union. The narrow locks between Napton and Camp Hill Top Lock in Birmingham were rebuilt to take widebeam boats or barges up to 12 feet 6 inches in beam, or two narrowboats.
Lock works were completed in 1934 when the Duke of Kent opened the new locks at Hatton. However, these improvements to depth and width were never carried out between Braunston and London. Camp Hill Locks in Birmingham were not widened, as it would have very expensive and of little point. A new basin and warehouse were constructed at Tyseley, above Camp Hill, the three sections between Norton junction and the River Trent are mixed in size. From Norton to Foxton, the route is a narrow canal, from below Foxton to Leicester it is a wide canal. From Leicester to the Trent, the route is effectively the River Soar, another Act of 1931 authorised the widening of the locks at Watford and Foxton, but with Government grants for this section not forthcoming, the work was not carried out. The Grand Union Canal was nationalised in 1948, control transferring to the British Transport Commission, commercial traffic continued to decline, effectively ceasing in the 1970s, though lime juice was carried from Brentford to Boxmoor until 1981, and aggregates on the River Soar until 1996.
However, leisure traffic took over, and the canal is now as busy as it ever was, with leisure boating complemented by fishing, towpath walking and gongoozling. One end of the Grand Union Canal is at Brentford on the River Thames in west London, the locks on the canal are numbered south from Braunston, and Thames Lock is lock number 101. From the Thames Lock, the canal and the River Brent are one and the same, and the waterway is semi-tidal until the double Gauging Lock at Brentford is reached
London Ambulance Service
It is one of the busiest ambulance services in the world, and the busiest in the United Kingdom, providing care to more than 8.6 million people, who live and work in London. The service is currently under the leadership of chief executive Dr Fionna Moore MBE, the service employ around 4,500 staff. In exceptional cases, or where the service deems in necessary, specialist teams can be deployed from within the service, such as the Hazardous Area Response Team and these teams are specially trained and equipped to deal with incidents such as working at height or in confined spaces. It is one of 10 ambulance trusts in England providing emergency medical services, there is no charge to patients for use of the service, as every person in England has the right to the attendance of an ambulance in an emergency. The LAS responded to over 1.8 million calls for assistance, incidents rose by 20,000 in 2015/16, putting more pressure on the service. All 999 calls from the public are answered at the Emergency Operations Centre in Waterloo, to assist, the services command and control system is linked electronically with the equivalent system for Londons Metropolitan Police.
This means that police updates regarding specific jobs will be updated directly on the computer-aided dispatch log, to be viewed by the EOC, the first became operational at The South Eastern Fever Hospital, Deptford, in October 1883. In all, six hospitals operated horse-drawn land ambulances, putting almost the whole of London within three miles of one of them, each ambulance station included accommodation for a married superintendent and around 20 drivers, horse keepers and attendants, laundry staff and domestic cleaners. At Deptford, in order to transfer patients between the hospitals at Joyce Green and Long Reach near Gravesend, a horse-drawn ambulance tramway was constructed in 1897, in 1902, the MAB introduced a steam driven ambulance and in 1904, their first motor ambulance. The last horse-drawn ambulances were used on 14 September 1912, although the MAB was legally supposed to be transporting only infectious patients, it increasingly carried accident victims and emergency medical cases.
Also in 1915, the MAB Ambulance Section were the first public body to women drivers. By July 1916 the London County Council Ambulance Corps was staffed entirely by women, the LCC took control of the River Ambulance Service, but it was disbanded in 1932. During World War II, the London Auxiliary Ambulance Service was operated by over 10,000 auxiliaries, mainly women and they ran services from 139 Auxiliary Stations across London. A plaque at one of the last to close, Station 39 in Weymouth Mews, near Portland Place, in 1948 the National Health Service Act made it a requirement for ambulances to be available for anyone who needed them. On 1 April 1996, the LAS left the control of the South West Thames Regional Health Authority, as an NHS Trust, the LAS has a Trust Board consisting of 12 members. The board includes, a chairman, five of the Service’s executive directors. Special events in London are co-ordinated from the Services event control room, located in east London, during mass casualty incidents, the command structure works on three levels, gold and bronze.
Silver control, tactical command, from a point in the vicinity of the incident, Bronze control
London Underground
The London Underground is a public rapid transit system serving London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. The network has expanded to 11 lines, and in 2015–16 carried 1.34 billion passengers, the 11 lines collectively handle approximately 4.8 million passengers a day. The system has 270 stations and 250 miles of track, despite its name, only 45% of the system is actually underground in tunnels, with much of the network in the outer environs of London being on the surface. In addition, the Underground does not cover most southern parts of Greater London, the current operator, London Underground Limited, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for London, the statutory corporation responsible for the transport network in Greater London. As of 2015, 92% of operational expenditure is covered by passenger fares, the Travelcard ticket was introduced in 1983 and Oyster, a contactless ticketing system, in 2003. Contactless card payments were introduced in 2014, the LPTB was a prominent patron of art and design, commissioning many new station buildings and public artworks in a modernist style.
Other famous London Underground branding includes the roundel and Johnston typeface, to prepare construction, a short test tunnel was built in 1855 in Kibblesworth, a small town with geological properties similar to London. This test tunnel was used for two years in the development of the first underground train, and was later, in 1861, the worlds first underground railway, it opened in January 1863 between Paddington and Farringdon using gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives. It was hailed as a success, carrying 38,000 passengers on the opening day, the Metropolitan District Railway opened in December 1868 from South Kensington to Westminster as part of a plan for an underground inner circle connecting Londons main-line termini. The Metropolitan and District railways completed the Circle line in 1884, built using the cut and this opened in 1890 with electric locomotives that hauled carriages with small opaque windows, nicknamed padded cells. The Waterloo and City Railway opened in 1898, followed by the Central London Railway in 1900, the Metropolitan Railway protested about the change of plan, but after arbitration by the Board of Trade, the DC system was adopted.
When the Bakerloo was so named in July 1906, The Railway Magazine called it an undignified gutter title, by 1907 the District and Metropolitan Railways had electrified the underground sections of their lines. In January 1913, the UERL acquired the Central London Railway, the Bakerloo line was extended north to Queens Park to join a new electric line from Euston to Watford, but World War I delayed construction and trains reached Watford Junction in 1917. During air raids in 1915 people used the stations as shelters. An extension of the Central line west to Ealing was delayed by the war, the Metropolitan promoted housing estates near the railway with the Metro-land brand and nine housing estates were built near stations on the line. Electrification was extended north from Harrow to Rickmansworth, and branches opened from Rickmansworth to Watford in 1925, the Piccadilly line was extended north to Cockfosters and took over District line branches to Harrow and Hounslow. In 1933, most of Londons underground railways and bus services were merged to form the London Passenger Transport Board, the Waterloo & City Railway, which was by in the ownership of the main line Southern Railway, remained with its existing owners.
In the same year that the London Passenger Transport Board was formed, in the following years, the outlying lines of the former Metropolitan Railway closed, the Brill Tramway in 1935, and the line from Quainton Road to Verney Junction in 1936
Aniline
Aniline is an organic compound with the formula C6H5NH2. Consisting of a group attached to an amino group, aniline is the prototypical aromatic amine. Its main use is in the manufacture of precursors to polyurethane, like most volatile amines, it possesses the odour of rotten fish. It ignites readily, burning with a smoky flame characteristic of aromatic compounds, the amine is nearly planar owing to conjugation of the lone pair with the aryl substituent. The C-N distance is correspondingly shorter, in aniline, the C-N and C-C distances are close to 1.39 Å, indicating the π-bonding between N and C. Industrial aniline production involves two steps, benzene is nitrated with a concentrated mixture of nitric acid and sulfuric acid at 50 to 60 °C to yield nitrobenzene. The nitrobenzene is hydrogenated in the presence of metal catalysts, the reduction of nitrobenzene to aniline was first performed by Nikolay Zinin in 1842 using inorganic sulfide as a reductant. Aniline can alternatively be prepared from ammonia and phenol derived from the cumene process, many analogues of aniline are known where the phenyl group is further substituted.
These include toluidines, chloroanilines, aminobenzoic acids and they often are prepared by nitration of the substituted aromatic compounds followed by reduction. For example, this approach is used to convert toluene into toluidines, the chemistry of aniline is rich because the compound has been cheaply available for many years. Below are some classes of its reactions, the oxidation of aniline has been heavily investigated, and can result in reactions localized at nitrogen or more commonly results in the formation of new C-N bonds. In alkaline solution, azobenzene results, whereas arsenic acid produces the violet-coloring matter violaniline, chromic acid converts it into quinone, whereas chlorates, in the presence of certain metallic salts, give aniline black. Hydrochloric acid and potassium chlorate give chloranil, potassium permanganate in neutral solution oxidizes it to nitrobenzene, in alkaline solution to azobenzene and oxalic acid, in acid solution to aniline black. Hypochlorous acid gives 4-aminophenol and para-amino diphenylamine, oxidation with persulfate affords a variety of polyanilines compounds.
These polymers exhibit rich redox and acid-base properties, like phenols, aniline derivatives are highly susceptible to electrophilic substitution reactions. Its high reactivity reflects that it is an enamine, which enhances the ability of the ring. For example, reaction of aniline with sulfuric acid at 180 °C produces sulfanilic acid, if bromine water is added to aniline, the bromine water is decolourised and a white precipitate of 2,4, 6-tribromophenylamine is formed. The largest scale industrial reaction of aniline involves its alkylation with formaldehyde, an idealized equation is shown,2 C6H5NH2 + CH2O → CH22 + H2O The resulting diamine is the precursor to 4, 4-MDI and related diisocyanates
Sudbury, London
Sudbury is a suburb in the London Boroughs of Brent and Harrow, located in northwest London, United Kingdom. Sudbury is an area having once extended from the South Manor- Sudbury to the area that is now known as Wembley Central. Much of the land once formed Sudbury Common until the 1930s has now been developed as a relatively green residential suburb of London. Much of Sudbury was once in the ownership of the Barham family who give their name to a number of landmarks including Barham School. Sudbury, in the parish of Harrow, was in the Hundred of Gore in the former County of Middlesex, the road to London and the proximity of Harrow School enhanced its status. Its upkeep was supported in part by Sir John Lyon, founder of Harrow School, opposite is Copland House, now a home for the elderly. The Coplands built Sudbury Lodge in the grounds of their fathers home in Crabbs House and this would change hands and be owned by another wealthy and philanthropist family, the Barhams. During the late Georgian period Sudbury was the home of the Express Dairy Company Limited run by the Barham Family and it even supplied milk to Queen Victoria.
For his services the owner and managing director George Barham Sr. was knighted in 1904 and he died in 1913 leaving his business to his son Titus Barham. Titus Barham died aged 77 years in 1937, on the day of his death he had been due to be made the first Mayor of the new ward. He left considerable lands for the benefit of the public in rural area. His former mansion in Barham Park was demolished in 1956, much of the area originally given over to arable land for use by dairy herds was lost during the interwar period. Urbanisation began in earnest in the late 19th century with the arrival of the railways, Sudbury town became part of the London commuter belt. The demand for housing was such that within the short interwar period much of the area became urbanised, despite this it remains a relatively green area mainly due to strict planning control. In 1928 land was given over for the Vale Farm sports fields, there has been a swimming pool on the site since 1932. Barham Park is a landscaped garden dating from the 18th century, the foundations of Sudbury Lodge, formerly the home of George Barham, founder of Express Dairies, still stand amidst his walled gardens.
Also in the park is a surviving Georgian building, formerly Crabbs House, the park has a floral display, three ponds, a conifer plantation, a large and modern childrens play area, and a war memorial. Sudbury was the home of London Wasps rugby union team who moved there in 1923
Pub
A pub, or public house, is an establishment licensed to sell alcoholic drinks, which traditionally include beer and cider. It is a relaxed, social drinking establishment and a prominent part of British, New Zealand, Canadian, in many places, especially in villages, a pub is the focal point of the community. In his 17th century diary Samuel Pepys described the pub as the heart of England, Pubs can be traced back to Roman taverns, through the Anglo-Saxon alehouse to the development of the tied house system in the 19th century. In 1393, King Richard II of England introduced legislation that pubs had to display a sign outdoors to make them easily visible for passing ale tasters who would assess the quality of ale sold, most pubs focus on offering beers and similar drinks. As well, pubs often sell wines and soft drinks, the owner, tenant or manager is known as the pub landlord or publican. The pub quiz was established in the UK in the 1970s and these alehouses quickly evolved into meeting houses for the folk to socially congregate and arrange mutual help within their communities.
Herein lies the origin of the public house, or Pub as it is colloquially called in England. They rapidly spread across the Kingdom, becoming so commonplace that in 965 King Edgar decreed that there should be no more than one alehouse per village. A traveller in the early Middle Ages could obtain overnight accommodation in monasteries, the Hostellers of London were granted guild status in 1446 and in 1514 the guild became the Worshipful Company of Innholders. A survey in 1577 of drinking establishment in England and Wales for taxation purposes recorded 14,202 alehouses,1,631 inns, Inns are buildings where travellers can seek lodging and, usually and drink. They are typically located in the country or along a highway, in Europe, they possibly first sprang up when the Romans built a system of roads two millennia ago. Some inns in Europe are several centuries old, in addition to providing for the needs of travellers, inns traditionally acted as community gathering places. In Europe, it is the provision of accommodation, if anything, the latter tend to provide alcohol, but less commonly accommodation.
Famous London inns include The George and The Tabard, there is however no longer a formal distinction between an inn and other kinds of establishment. In North America, the aspect of the word inn lives on in hotel brand names like Holiday Inn. The Inns of Court and Inns of Chancery in London started as ordinary inns where barristers met to do business, traditional English ale was made solely from fermented malt. The practice of adding hops to produce beer was introduced from the Netherlands in the early 15th century, alehouses would each brew their own distinctive ale, but independent breweries began to appear in the late 17th century. By the end of the century almost all beer was brewed by commercial breweries, the 18th century saw a huge growth in the number of drinking establishments, primarily due to the introduction of gin
Middlesex
Middlesex is a historic county in south-east England. It is now entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and its area is now mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in other neighbouring ceremonial counties. It was established in the Anglo-Saxon system from the territory of the Middle Saxons, the largely low-lying county, dominated by clay in its north and alluvium on gravel in its south, was the second smallest county by area in 1831. The City of London was a county in its own right from the 12th century and was able to exert control over Middlesex. Westminster Abbey dominated most of the financial and ecclesiastical aspects of the county. As London grew into Middlesex, the Corporation of London resisted attempts to expand the city boundaries into the county, in the 18th and 19th centuries the population density was especially high in the southeast of the county, including the East End and West End of London. From 1855 the southeast was administered, with sections of Kent and Surrey, the City of London, and Middlesex, became separate counties for other purposes and Middlesex regained the right to appoint its own sheriff, lost in 1199.
In the interwar years suburban London expanded further, with improvement and expansion of public transport, after the Second World War, the population of the County of London and inner Middlesex was in steady decline, with high population growth continuing in the outer parts. Since 1965 various areas called Middlesex have been used for cricket, Middlesex was the former postal county of 25 post towns. The name means territory of the middle Saxons and refers to the origin of its inhabitants. The word is formed from the Anglo-Saxon, i. e. Old English, middel, in an 8th-century charter the region is recorded as Middleseaxon and in 704 it is recorded as Middleseaxan. The Saxons derived their name from seax, a kind of knife for which they were known, the seax has a lasting symbolic impact in the English counties of Essex and Middlesex, both of which feature three seaxes in their ceremonial emblem. Their names, along with those of Sussex and Wessex, contain a remnant of the word Saxon, there were settlements in the area of Middlesex that can be traced back thousands of years before the creation of a county.
Middlesex was formerly part of the Kingdom of Essex It was recorded in the Domesday Book as being divided into the six hundreds of Edmonton, Gore, Hounslow and Spelthorne. The City of London has been self-governing since the century and became a county in its own right. Middlesex included Westminster, which had a degree of autonomy. Of the six hundreds, Ossulstone contained the districts closest to the City of London, during the 17th century it was divided into four divisions, along with the Liberty of Westminster, largely took over the administrative functions of the hundred. The divisions were named Finsbury, Holborn and Tower, the county had parliamentary representation from the 13th century
London Fire Brigade
The London Fire Brigade is the statutory fire and rescue service for London. It was formed by the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Act of 1865 under the leadership of superintendent Eyre Massey Shaw. Dany Cotton is the Commissioner for Fire and Emergency Planning, which includes the position of Chief Fire Officer, statutory responsibility for the running of the brigade lies with the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. In 2013/14 the LFB handled 171,067999 emergency calls, of the calls it actually mobilised to,20,934 were fires, including 10,992 that were of a serious nature, making it one of the busiest fire brigades in the world. In the same 12-month period, it received 3,172 hoax calls, the highest number of any UK fire service, in 2015/16 the LFB received 171,488 emergency calls. These consisted of,20,773 fires,30,066 special service callouts and it conducts emergency planning and performs fire safety inspections and education. He introduced a uniform that, for the first time, included personal protection from the hazards of firefighting.
With 80 firefighters and 13 fire stations, the unit was still a private enterprise, funded by the insurance companies, in 1904 it was renamed as the London Fire Brigade. The LFB moved into a new headquarters built by Higgs and Hill on the Albert Embankment in Lambeth in 1937, during the Second World War the countrys brigades were amalgamated into a single National Fire Service. The separate London Fire Brigade for the County of London was re-established in 1948, in 1986 the Greater London Council was disbanded and a new statutory authority, the London Fire and Civil Defence Authority, was formed to take responsibility for the LFB. The LFCDA was replaced in 2000 by the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, at the same time, the Greater London Authority was established to administer the LFEPA and coordinate emergency planning for London. Consisting of the Mayor of London and other elected members, the GLA takes responsibility for the Metropolitan Police Authority, Transport for London, in 2007 the LFB vacated its Lambeth headquarters and moved to a site in Union Street, Southwark.
In the same year, the Department for Communities and Local Government announced that LFB Commissioner Ken Knight had been appointed as the first Chief Fire, Knight was succeeded as Commissioner at that time by Ron Dobson, who served for almost ten years. Dany Cotton took over in 2017, becoming the brigades first female commissioner, dany Cotton is the current commissioner, having taken up the role on 1 January 2017. She holds the Queens Fire Service Medal, frank Jackson, CBE1938 to 1941, Cdr. Sir Aylmer Firebrace, CBE1933 to 1938, Maj. Cyril Morris 1918 to 1933, Arthur Reginald Dyer 1909 to 1918, sir Sampson Sladen 1903 to 1909, RAdm. James de Courcy Hamilton 1896 to 1903, lionel de Latour Wells 1891 to 1896, James Sexton Simmonds 1861 to 1891, Capt. Both divisions were divided into three districts, each under a Superintendent with his headquarters at a superintendent station, the superintendent stations themselves were commanded by District Officers, with the other stations under Station Officers
