1.
Greater London
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London, or Greater London, is a region of England which forms the administrative boundaries of London. It is organised into 33 local government districts, the 32 London boroughs, the Greater London Authority, based in Southwark, is responsible for strategic local government across the region and consists of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. The county of Greater London was created on 1 April 1965 through the London Government Act 1963, administratively, Greater London was first established as a sui generis council area under the Greater London Council between 1963 and 1986. The area was re-established as a region in 1994, and the Greater London Authority formed in 2000, the region covers 1,572 km2 and had a population of 8,174,000 at the 2011 census. In 2012, it had the highest GVA per capita in the United Kingdom at £37,232, the Greater London Built-up Area—used in some national statistics—is a measure of the continuous urban area of London, and therefore includes areas outside of the administrative region. The term Greater London has been and still is used to different areas in governance, statistics, history. In terms of ceremonial counties, London is divided into the small City of London, outside the limited boundaries of the City, a variety of arrangements has governed the wider area since 1855, culminating in the creation of the Greater London administrative area in 1965. The Greater London Arterial Road Programme was devised between 1913 and 1916, one of the larger early forms was the Greater London Planning Region, devised in 1927, which occupied 1,856 square miles and included 9 million people. The LCC pressed for an alteration in its boundaries soon after the end of the First World War, noting that within the Metropolitan, a Royal Commission on London Government was set up to consider the issue. The LCC proposed a vast new area for Greater London, with a boundary somewhere between the Metropolitan Police District and the home counties, protests were made at the possibility of including Windsor, Slough and Eton in the authority. The Commission made its report in 1923, rejecting the LCCs scheme, two minority reports favoured change beyond the amalgamation of smaller urban districts, including both smaller borough councils and a central authority for strategic functions. The London Traffic Act 1924 was a result of the Commission, Greater London originally had a two-tier system of local government, with the Greater London Council sharing power with the City of London Corporation and the 32 London Borough councils. The GLC was abolished in 1986 by the Local Government Act 1985 and its functions were devolved to the City Corporation and the London Boroughs, with some functions transferred to central government and joint boards. Greater London was used to form the London region of England in 1994, a referendum held in 1998 established a public will to recreate an upper tier of government to cover the region. The Greater London Authority, London Assembly and the directly elected Mayor of London were created in 2000 by the Greater London Authority Act 1999, in 2000, the outer boundary of the Metropolitan Police District was re-aligned to the Greater London boundary. The 2000 and 2004 mayoral elections were won by Ken Livingstone, the 2008 and 2012 elections were won by Boris Johnson. The 2016 election was won by Sadiq Khan, Greater London continues to include the most closely associated parts of the Greater London Urban Area and their historic buffers. Thus it includes, in five boroughs, significant parts of the Metropolitan Green Belt which protects designated greenfield land in a way to the citys parks
2.
Ordnance Survey National Grid
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The Ordnance Survey National Grid reference system is a system of geographic grid references used in Great Britain, different from using Latitude and Longitude. It is often called British National Grid, the Ordnance Survey devised the national grid reference system, and it is heavily used in their survey data, and in maps based on those surveys. Grid references are commonly quoted in other publications and data sources. The Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system is used to provide references for worldwide locations. European-wide agencies also use UTM when mapping locations, or may use the Military Grid Reference System system, the grid is based on the OSGB36 datum, and was introduced after the retriangulation of 1936–1962. It replaced the previously used Cassini Grid which, up to the end of World War Two, had issued only to the military. The Airy ellipsoid is a regional best fit for Britain, more modern mapping tends to use the GRS80 ellipsoid used by the GPS, the British maps adopt a Transverse Mercator projection with an origin at 49° N, 2° W. Over the Airy ellipsoid a straight grid, the National Grid, is placed with a new false origin. This false origin is located south-west of the Isles of Scilly, the distortion created between the OS grid and the projection is countered by a scale factor in the longitude to create two lines of longitude with zero distortion rather than one. Grid north and true north are aligned on the 400 km easting of the grid which is 2° W. 2° 0′ 5″ W. OSGB36 was also used by Admiralty nautical charts until 2000 after which WGS84 has been used, a geodetic transformation between OSGB36 and other terrestrial reference systems can become quite tedious if attempted manually. The most common transformation is called the Helmert datum transformation, which results in a typical 7 m error from true, the definitive transformation from ETRS89 that is published by the OSGB is called the National Grid Transformation OSTN02. This models the detailed distortions in the 1936–1962 retriangulation, and achieves backwards compatibility in grid coordinates to sub-metre accuracy, the difference between the coordinates on different datums varies from place to place. The longitude and latitude positions on OSGB36 are the same as for WGS84 at a point in the Atlantic Ocean well to the west of Great Britain. In Cornwall, the WGS84 longitude lines are about 70 metres east of their OSGB36 equivalents, the smallest datum shift is on the west coast of Scotland and the greatest in Kent. But Great Britain has not shrunk by 100+ metres, a point near Lands End now computes to be 27.6 metres closer to a point near Duncansby Head than it did under OSGB36. For the first letter, the grid is divided into squares of size 500 km by 500 km, there are four of these which contain significant land area within Great Britain, S, T, N and H. The O square contains an area of North Yorkshire, almost all of which lies below mean high tide
3.
Districts of England
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The districts of England are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government. As the structure of government in England is not uniform. Some districts are styled as boroughs, cities, or royal boroughs, these are purely honorific titles, prior to the establishment of districts in the 1890s, the basic unit of local government in England was the parish overseen by the parish church vestry committee. Vestries dealt with the administraction of both parochial and secular governmental matters, parishes were the successors of the manorial system and historically had been grouped into hundreds. Hundreds once exercised some supervising administrative function, however, these powers ebbed away as more and more civic and judicial powers were centred on county towns. From 1834 these parishes were grouped into Poor Law Unions, creating areas for administration of the Poor Law and these areas were later used for census registration and as the basis for sanitary provision. In 1894, based on these earlier subdivisions, the Local Government Act 1894 created urban districts and rural districts as sub-divisions of administrative counties, another reform in 1900 created 28 metropolitan boroughs as sub-divisions of the County of London. Meanwhile, from this date parish-level local government administration was transferred to civil parishes, the setting-down of the current structure of districts in England began in 1965, when Greater London and its 32 London boroughs were created. They are the oldest type of still in use. In 1974, metropolitan counties and non-metropolitan counties were created across the rest of England and were split into metropolitan districts, in London power is now shared again, albeit on a different basis, with the Greater London Authority. During the 1990s a further kind of district was created, the unitary authority, metropolitan boroughs are a subdivision of a metropolitan county. These are similar to unitary authorities, as the county councils were abolished in 1986. Most of the powers of the county councils were devolved to the districts but some services are run by joint boards, the districts typically have populations of 174,000 to 1.1 million. Non-metropolitan districts are second-tier authorities, which share power with county councils and they are subdivisions of shire counties and the most common type of district. These districts typically have populations of 25,000 to 200,000, the number of non-metropolitan districts has varied over time. Initially there were 296, after the creation of unitary authorities in the 1990s and late 2000s and these are single-tier districts which are responsible for running all local services in their areas, combining both county and district functions. They were created in the out of non-metropolitan districts, and often cover large towns. In addition, some of the smaller such as Rutland, Herefordshire
4.
London Borough of Ealing
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The London Borough of Ealing /ˈiːlɪŋ/ is a London Borough in west London, England, and forms part of Outer London. It is the 3rd largest London Borough in population, and 11th largest in size, covering part of west London and its administrative centre is Ealing Broadway. Other major centres include Acton, Greenford and Southall, the local authority is Ealing London Borough Council. The London borough was formed in 1965 by the merging the area of the Municipal Borough of Ealing, the Municipal Borough of Southall and the Municipal Borough of Acton. Along with Brentford, the London Borough of Ealing is the setting for much of the action in Robert Rankins series of novels, The Brentford Trilogy. Ealing is also the setting for The Sarah Jane Adventures. Within the borough are two garden suburbs, Brentham Garden Suburb and Bedford Park,330 hectares within the borough are designated as part of the Metropolitan Green Belt. Ealing Central and Acton Ealing North Ealing Southall There are four stations within the London Borough of Ealing. Southall and Northolt have similar-sized station grounds and both house two pumping appliances, Southall attended some 700 incidents more than their Northolt counterparts in 2006/07. Ealing, with two pumping appliances, and Acton, one pump and two fire investigation units, are the other two appliances in the area, interestingly, the ward of Northfield had over forty malicious calls made from it, more than twice as any other ward within Ealing. Ealing has a total of 91 state-run schools and nurseries, There are 13 high schools under the domain of the local education authority,12 of which are either comprehensive, foundation or voluntary-aided, and one city academy. The King Fahd Academy is an independent Saudi funded school within the borough, the Japanese School in London is a Japanese international school in Acton. The borough of Ealing is ethnically diverse, in 2011, 49% gave their ethnicity as white, 30% as Asian, 15% as Black and 4. 5% as of mixed or multiple ethnicity, the remander identifying as Arab or other ethnicity. The main religions of the population in 2011 were Christianity, Islam and Sikhism, 15% stated they had no religion. The borough has a long-standing Irish community which is visible through the number of established Irish pubs in the borough. Country flags for example can be flown on the outside or hung inside of various pubs in the area. St Benedicts School has also had a long affiliation with the Irish community in Ealing. Many Irish members of the Ealing borough attend Ealing Abbey which is linked to St Benedicts School, the Irish population is mostly concentrated within Hanwell
5.
Ceremonial counties of England
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The ceremonial counties, also referred to as the lieutenancy areas of England, are areas of England to which a Lord Lieutenant is appointed. The Local Government Act 1888 established county councils to assume the functions of Quarter Sessions in the counties. It created new entities called administrative counties, the Act further stipulated that areas that were part of an administrative county would be part of the county for all purposes. The greatest change was the creation of the County of London, which was both an administrative county and a county, it included parts of the historic counties of Middlesex, Kent. Other differences were small and resulted from the constraint that urban sanitary districts were not permitted to straddle county boundaries, apart from Yorkshire, counties that were subdivided nevertheless continued to exist as ceremonial counties. In 1974, administrative counties and county boroughs were abolished, at this time, Lieutenancy was redefined to use the new metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties directly. Following a further rearrangement in 1996, Avon, Cleveland, Hereford and Worcester, Cleveland was partitioned between North Yorkshire and Durham. Hereford and Worcester was divided into the counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Humberside was split between Lincolnshire and a new county of East Riding of Yorkshire. Rutland was restored as a ceremonial county, many county boroughs were re-established as unitary authorities, this involved establishing the area as an administrative county, but usually not as a ceremonial county. Most ceremonial counties are therefore entities comprising local authority areas, as they were from 1889 to 1974, the Association of British Counties, a traditional counties lobbying organisation, has suggested that ceremonial counties be restored to their ancient boundaries, as nearly as practicable. In present-day England, the ceremonial counties correspond to the shrieval counties, the Lieutenancies Act 1997 defines counties for the purposes of lieutenancies in terms of metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties as well as Greater London and the Isles of Scilly. Although the term is not used in the Act, these counties are known as ceremonial counties. gov. uk
6.
Regions of England
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The regions are the highest tier of sub-national division in England. Between 1994 and 2011, nine regions had officially devolved functions within Government, while they no longer fulfil this role, they continue to be used for statistical and some administrative purposes. They define areas for the purposes of elections to the European Parliament, Eurostat also uses them to demarcate first level Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics regions within the European Union. The regions generally follow the boundaries of the former standard regions, the London region has a directly elected Mayor and Assembly. Six regions have local authority leaders boards to assist with correlating the headline policies of local authorities, the remaining two regions no longer have any administrative functions, having abolished their regional local authority leaders boards. In 1998, regional chambers were established in the eight regions outside of London, the regions also had an associated Government Office with some responsibility for coordinating policy, and, from 2007, a part-time regional minister within the Government. House of Commons regional Select Committees were established in 2009, Regional ministers were not reappointed by the incoming Coalition Government, and the Government Offices were abolished in 2011. Regional development agencies were public bodies established in all nine regions in 1998 to promote economic development and they had certain delegated functions, including administering European Union regional development funds, and received funding the central government as well. After about 500 AD, England comprised seven Anglo-Saxon territories – Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, the boundaries of some of these, which later unified as the Kingdom of England, roughly coincide with those of modern regions. During Oliver Cromwells Protectorate in the 1650s, the rule of the Major-Generals created 10 regions in England, proposals for administrative regions within England were mooted by the British government prior to the First World War. In 1912 the Third Home Rule Bill was passing through parliament, the Bill was expected to introduce a devolved parliament for Ireland, and as a consequence calls were made for similar structures to be introduced in Great Britain or Home Rule All Round. On 12 September the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, within England, he suggested that London, Lancashire, Yorkshire, and the Midlands would make natural regions. While the creation of regional parliaments never became official policy, it was for a widely anticipated. In 1946 nine standard regions were set up, in central government bodies, statutory undertakings. However, these had declined in importance by the late 1950s, creation of some form of provinces or regions for England was an intermittent theme of post-Second World War British governments. The Redcliffe-Maud Report proposed the creation of eight provinces in England, one-fifth of the advisory councils would be nominees from central government. The boundaries suggested were the eight now existing for economic planning purposes, a minority report by Lord Crowther-Hunt and Alan T. Peacock suggested instead seven regional assemblies and governments within Great Britain, some elements of regional development and economic planning began to be established in England from the mid-1960s onwards
7.
Countries of the United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom comprises four countries, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Within the United Kingdom, a sovereign state, Northern Ireland, Scotland. England, comprising the majority of the population and area of the United Kingdom, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are not themselves listed in the International Organization for Standardization list of countries. However the ISO list of the subdivisions of the UK, compiled by British Standards, Northern Ireland, in contrast, is described as a province in the same lists. Each has separate governing bodies for sports and compete separately in many international sporting competitions. Northern Ireland also forms joint All-Island sporting bodies with the Republic of Ireland for most sports, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are dependencies of the Crown and are not part of the UK. Similarly, the British overseas territories, remnants of the British Empire, are not part of the UK, southern Ireland left the United Kingdom under the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922. * Figures for GVA do not include oil and gas revenues generated beyond the UKs territorial waters, various terms have been used to describe England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Wales was described as the country, principality, and dominion of Wales, outside Wales, England was not given a specific name or term. The Laws in Wales Acts have subsequently been repealed, the Acts of Union 1707 refer to both England and Scotland as a part of a united kingdom of Great Britain The Acts of Union 1800 use part in the same way to refer to England and Scotland. The Northern Ireland Act 1998, which repealed the Government of Ireland Act 1920, the Interpretation Act 1978 provides statutory definitions of the terms England, Wales and the United Kingdom, but neither that Act nor any other current statute defines Scotland or Northern Ireland. Use of the first three terms in other legislation is interpreted following the definitions in the 1978 Act and this definition applies from 1 April 1974. United Kingdom means Great Britain and Northern Ireland and this definition applies from 12 April 1927. In 1996 these 8 new counties were redistributed into the current 22 unitary authorities, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are regions in their own right while England has been divided into nine regions. The official term rest of the UK is used in Scotland, for example in export statistics and this term is also used in the context of potential Scottish independence to mean the UK without Scotland. The alternative term Home Nations is sometimes used in sporting contexts, the second, or civic group, contained the items about feeling British, respecting laws and institutions, speaking English, and having British citizenship. Contrariwise, in Scotland and Wales there was a much stronger identification with each country than with Britain, studies and surveys have reported that the majority of the Scots and Welsh see themselves as both Scottish/Welsh and British though with some differences in emphasis. The propensity for nationalistic feeling varies greatly across the UK, and can rise and it reported that 37% of people identified as British, whilst 29% identified as Irish and 24% identified as Northern Irish
8.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
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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
10.
Postcodes in the United Kingdom
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Postal codes used in the United Kingdom are known as postcodes. They are alphanumeric and were adopted nationally between 11 October 1959 and 1974, having been devised by the GPO, a full postcode is known as a postcode unit and designates an area with a number of addresses or a single major delivery point. For example, the postcode of the University of Roehampton in London is SW15 5PU, the postcode of GCHQ is GL51 0EX, where GL signifies the postal town of Gloucester. The postal town refers to an area and does not relate to a specific town. GL51 is one of the postcodes for the town of Cheltenham which is where GCHQ is located, the London post town covers 40% of Greater London. On inception it was divided into ten districts, EC, WC, N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W. The S and NE sectors were later abolished and these divisions changed little, usually only changed for operational efficiency. Some older road signs in Hackney still indicate the North East sector/district, following the successful introduction of postal districts in London, the system was extended to other large towns and cities. Liverpool was divided into Eastern, Northern, Southern and Western districts in 1864/65, in 1917 Dublin – then still part of the United Kingdom – was divided into numbered postal districts. These continue in use in a form by An Post. In 1923 Glasgow was divided in a way to London. In January 1932 the Postmaster General approved the designation of some urban areas into numbered districts. In November 1934 the Post Office announced the introduction of numbered districts in every town in the United Kingdom large enough to justify it. Pamphlets were issued to each householder and business in ten areas notifying them of the number of the district in which their premises lay, the pamphlets included a map of the districts, and copies were made available at local head post offices. The public were invited to include the district number in the address at the head of letters. A publicity campaign in the following year encouraged the use of the district numbers, the slogan for the campaign was For speed and certainty always use a postal district number on your letters and notepaper. A poster was fixed to every box in the affected areas bearing the number of the district. Every post office in the district was also to display this information
11.
Telephone numbers in the United Kingdom
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Telephone numbers in the United Kingdom are administered by the UK governments Office of Communications. For this purpose Ofcom established a telephone numbering plan, known as the National Telephone Numbering Plan, since 28 April 2001, almost all geographic numbers and most non-geographic numbers have 9 or 10 national numbers after the 0 trunk code. All mobile telephone numbers have 10 national numbers after the 0 trunk code, regions with shorter area codes, typically large cities, permit the allocation of more telephone numbers as the local number portion has more digits. Local customer numbers are four to eight figures long, the total number of digits is ten, but in a very few areas the total may be nine digits. The area code is referred to as an STD or a dialling code in the UK. The code allocated to the largest population is for London, the code allocated to the largest area is for all of Northern Ireland. The UK Numbering Plan also applies to three British Crown dependencies—Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man—even though they are not part of the UK itself. Possible number formats for UK telephone numbers are as follows, Number ranges starting 01 can have NSN length as 10 or 9 digits, the 0800 range can have NSN length as 10,9 or 7 digits. The 0845 range can have NSN length as 10 or 7 digits, the 0500 range has NSN length as 9 digits only. There are no numbers in the UK with an NSN length of 8 digits. Geographic telephone numbers in the UK always have nine or ten digits, four-digit area codes have either six-digit subscriber numbers or a mix of five- and six-digit subscriber numbers. Xxxxxx This is the used by most areas. It has an area code and a six digit subscriber number. These area codes were changed by adding a 1 directly after the zero as a part of PhONEday in 1995. Just short of 581 areas use this format, and the area range from 01200 to 01998. A small number of areas also have a few subscriber numbers that have only five digits. That is, almost all area codes now have only six digit local numbers, six of the four-digit area codes are known as mixed areas as they share those four digits with the twelve five-digit area codes. The numbers therefore have only nine digits after the initial zero trunk code and these area codes were changed by adding a 1 directly after the initial zero as a part of PhONEday in 1995
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Metropolitan Police Service
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As of March 2016, the Met employed 48,661 full-time personnel. This included 32,125 sworn police officers,9,521 police staff and this number excludes the 3,271 Special Constables, who work part-time and who have the same powers and uniform as their regular colleagues. This makes the Metropolitan Police the largest police force in the United Kingdom by a significant margin, the post of Commissioner was first held jointly by Sir Charles Rowan and Sir Richard Mayne. The post is occupied by the now-outgoing Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe. The Commissioners deputy, the Deputy Commissioner, is currently Craig Mackey, a number of informal names and abbreviations exists for the Metropolitan Police Service, the most common being the Met. In colloquial London, it is referred to as the Old Bill. The Met is also referred to by the metonym Scotland Yard after the location of its headquarters in a road called Great Scotland Yard in Whitehall. The Mets current headquarters is New Scotland Yard, in Victoria, the Metropolitan Police Service, whose officers became affectionately known as bobbies, was founded in 1829 by Robert Peel under the Metropolitan Police Act 1829. In 1839, the Marine Police Force, which had formed in 1798, was amalgamated into the Metropolitan Police. In 1837, it also incorporated with the Bow Street Horse Patrol that had organised in 1805. Since January 2012, the Mayor of London is responsible for the governance of the Metropolitan Police through the Mayors Office for Policing, the mayor is able to appoint someone to act on his behalf, the current office-holder is Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Sophie Linden. The work of MOPAC is scrutinised by the Police and Crime Committee of the London Assembly, the area policed by the Metropolitan Police Service is known as the Metropolitan Police District. In terms of policing, the Met is divided into a number of Borough Operational Command Units. The City of London is a police area and is the responsibility of the separate City of London Police. The British Transport Police are responsible for policing of the network in the United Kingdom. Within London, they are responsible for the policing of the London Underground, Tramlink, The Emirates Air Line. There is also a park police force, the Kew Constabulary, responsible for the Royal Botanic Gardens. Officers also have limited powers in Scotland and Northern Ireland, within the MPD, the Met will take over the investigation of any serious crime from the British Transport Police and Ministry of Defence Police, if it is deemed appropriate
13.
Fire services in the United Kingdom
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The fire services in the United Kingdom operate under separate legislative and administrative arrangements in England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland. Emergency cover is provided by over fifty fire and rescue services, many FRS were previously known as brigades or county fire services, but almost all now use the standard terminology. They are distinct from and governed by an authority, which is the legislative, public and administrative body. Fire authorities in England and Wales, and therefore fire and rescue services, Scotland and Northern Ireland have centralised fire and rescue services, and so their authorities are effectively committees of the devolved parliaments. The total budget for services in 2014-15 was £2.9 billion. The devolved government in Scotland has an agency, HMFSI Scotland. This Act provided for centralised co-ordination of fire brigades in Great Britain,1947, Fire Services Act 1947 This Act transferred the functions of the National Fire Service to local authorities. Now repealed entirely in England and Wales by Schedule 2 of the Fire,1959, Fire Services Act 1959 This Act amended the 1947 Act, it dealt with pensions, staffing arrangements and provision of services by other authorities. It was repealed in England and Wales along with the 1947 Act,1999, Greater London Authority Act 1999 This act was necessary to allow for the formation of the Greater London Authority and in turn the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. In 2002, there was a series of fire strikes. In December 2002, the Independent Review of the Fire Service was published with the action still ongoing. Bains report ultimately led to a change in the relating to firefighting. 2002, Independent Review of the Fire Service published 2004, Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004, generally only applying to England and it came into force on 1 October 2006. The DfCLG has published a set of guides for non-domestic premises,2006, The Government of Wales Act 2006 gave the National Assembly for Wales powers to pass laws on Fire, promotion of fire safety otherwise than by prohibition or regulation. But does not prevent future legislation being passed by the UK government which applies to two or more constituent countries, There are further plans to modernise the fire service according to the Local Government Association. The fire service in England and Wales is scrutinised by a House of Commons select committee, in June 2006, the fire and rescue service select committee, under the auspices of the Communities and Local Government Committee, published its latest report. For example, where FRSs were historically inspected by HMFSI, much of this work is now carried out by the National Audit Office, Fire Control On 8 February 2010 the House of Commons Communities and Local Government Select Committee heard evidence on the Fire Control project. Called to give evidence were Cllr Brian Coleman and Cllr James Pearson from the Local Government Association, also giving evidence Matt Wrack from the Fire Brigades Union and John Bonney Chief Fire Officers Association
14.
London Fire Brigade
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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 also 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 also 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, Capt, 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
15.
Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom
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Emergency care including ambulance and emergency department treatment is free to everyone, regardless of immigration or visitor status. The NHS commissions most emergency services through the 14 NHS organisations with ambulance responsibility across the UK. As with other services, the public normally access emergency medical services through one of the valid emergency telephone numbers. This led to the formation of predominantly county based ambulance services, which gradually merged up and changed responsibilities until 2006, when there were 31 NHS ambulance trusts in England. Following further changes as part of the NHS foundation trust pathway, the commissioners in each region are responsible for contracting with a suitable organisation to provide ambulance services within their geographical territory. The primary contract for each area is held by a public NHS body, of which there are 11 in England. The service was operated before reorganisation in 1974 by the St Andrews’ Ambulance Association under contract to the Secretary of State for Scotland, the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service was established in 1995 by parliamentary order, and serves the whole of Northern Ireland. The Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust was established on 1 April 1998, there is a large market for private and voluntary ambulance services, with the sector being worth £800m to the UK economy in 2012. This places the voluntary providers in direct competition with private services, expenditure on private ambulances in England increased from £37m in 2011−12 to £67. 5m in 2013/4, rising in London from £796,000 to more than £8. 8m. In 2014−15, these 10 ambulance services spent £57.6 million on 333,329 callouts of private or voluntary services - an increase of 156% since 2010−11, in 2013, the CQC found 97% of private ambulance services to be providing good care. These private, registered services are represented by the Independent Ambulance Association, there are also a number of unregistered services operating, who do not provide ambulance transport, but only provide response on an event site. These firms are not regulated, and are not subject to the checks as the registered providers, although they may operate similar vehicles. There are a number of ambulance providers, sometimes known as Voluntary Aid Services or Voluntary Aid Societies, with the main ones being the British Red Cross. The history of the ambulance services pre-dates any government organised service. As they are in competition for work with the private ambulance providers. Voluntary organisations have also provided cover for the public when unionised NHS ambulance trust staff have taken industrial action, there are a number of smaller voluntary ambulance organisations, fulfilling specific purposes, such as Hatzola who provide emergency medical services to the orthodox Jewish community in some cities. These have however run into difficulties due to use of vehicles not legally recognised as ambulances, all emergency medical services in the UK are subject to a range of legal and regulatory requirements, and in many cases are also monitored for performance. This framework is largely statutory in nature, being mandated by government through a range of primary and secondary legislation and this requires all providers to register, to meet certain standards of quality, and to submit to inspection of those standards
16.
London Ambulance Service
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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, nurses, 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 also 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 also 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, also located in east London, during mass casualty incidents, the command structure works on three levels, gold, silver and bronze. Silver control, tactical command, from a point in the vicinity of the incident, Bronze control
17.
London (European Parliament constituency)
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London is a constituency of the European Parliament. It currently elects 8 MEPs using the method of party-list proportional representation. The constituency corresponds to the Greater London region of England, in the south east of the United Kingdom, prior to 1999, London was represented by a number of single-member constituencies. The European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999 reduced this to a constituency returning a number of MEPs. Below are all the members since the creation of the London constituency, the number of seats allocated to London has been reduced from 10 to 8 between 1999 and 2009 due to EU enlargement. Members elected in 1999 who previously represented a London constituency were Pauline Green, elected candidates are shown in bold. Brackets indicate the number of votes per seat won, the 2014 results were delayed by Tower Hamlets, where there were recounts needed for six local election wards
18.
Ealing North (UK Parliament constituency)
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Ealing North is a constituency created in 1950 represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 1997 by Stephen Pound of the Labour Party. 1950-1974, The Municipal Borough of Ealing wards of Greenford Central, Greenford North, Greenford South, Hanger Hill, Northolt, 1974-1983, The London Borough of Ealing wards of Brent, Cleveland, Horsenden, Mandeville, Perivale, Ravenor, and West End. 1983-1997, The London Borough of Ealing wards of Argyle, Costons, Hobbayne, Mandeville, Perivale, Ravenor, West End, and Wood End. 1997-2010, The London Borough of Ealing wards of Argyle, Costons, Hanger Hill, Hobbayne, Horsenden, Mandeville, Perivale, Pitshanger, Ravenor, West End, and Wood End. 2010–present, The London Borough of Ealing wards of Cleveland, Greenford Broadway, Greenford Green, Hobbayne, North Greenford, Northolt Mandeville, Northolt West End, following its review of parliamentary representation in North London, the Boundary Commission for England made some minor changes to Ealing North. Part of Greenford Broadway ward, along with parts of Hobbayne ward. Tiny parts of Hobbayne ward and Dormers Wells ward were exchanged in return, parts of Ealing Broadway ward and Hanger Hill ward were removed to the new Ealing Central and Acton constituency which now avoids containing part of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. Note, This constituency underwent boundary changes after the 1979 election, new constituency boundaries introduced for the February 1974 general election. List of Parliamentary constituencies in Greater London Notes References
19.
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
20.
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
21.
Middlesex
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Middlesex is a historic county in south-east England. It is now entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and its area is now also mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in other neighbouring ceremonial counties. It was established in the Anglo-Saxon system from the territory of the Middle Saxons, the largely low-lying county, dominated by clay in its north and alluvium on gravel in its south, was the second smallest county by area in 1831. The City of London was a county in its own right from the 12th century and was able to exert control over Middlesex. Westminster Abbey dominated most of the financial, judicial and ecclesiastical aspects of the county. As London grew into Middlesex, the Corporation of London resisted attempts to expand the city boundaries into the county, in the 18th and 19th centuries the population density was especially high in the southeast of the county, including the East End and West End of London. From 1855 the southeast was administered, with sections of Kent and Surrey, the City of London, and Middlesex, became separate counties for other purposes and Middlesex regained the right to appoint its own sheriff, lost in 1199. In the interwar years suburban London expanded further, with improvement and expansion of public transport, after the Second World War, the population of the County of London and inner Middlesex was in steady decline, with high population growth continuing in the outer parts. Since 1965 various areas called Middlesex have been used for cricket, Middlesex was the former postal county of 25 post towns. The name means territory of the middle Saxons and refers to the origin of its inhabitants. The word is formed from the Anglo-Saxon, i. e. Old English, middel, in an 8th-century charter the region is recorded as Middleseaxon and in 704 it is recorded as Middleseaxan. The Saxons derived their name from seax, a kind of knife for which they were known, the seax has a lasting symbolic impact in the English counties of Essex and Middlesex, both of which feature three seaxes in their ceremonial emblem. Their names, along with those of Sussex and Wessex, contain a remnant of the word Saxon, there were settlements in the area of Middlesex that can be traced back thousands of years before the creation of a county. Middlesex was formerly part of the Kingdom of Essex It was recorded in the Domesday Book as being divided into the six hundreds of Edmonton, Elthorne, Gore, Hounslow, Ossulstone and Spelthorne. The City of London has been self-governing since the century and became a county in its own right. Middlesex also included Westminster, which also had a degree of autonomy. Of the six hundreds, Ossulstone contained the districts closest to the City of London, during the 17th century it was divided into four divisions, which, along with the Liberty of Westminster, largely took over the administrative functions of the hundred. The divisions were named Finsbury, Holborn, Kensington and Tower, the county had parliamentary representation from the 13th century
22.
Charing Cross
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Charing Cross denotes the junction of Strand, Whitehall and Cockspur Street, just south of Trafalgar Square in central London. It gives its name to several landmarks, including Charing Cross railway station, Charing Cross is named after the Eleanor cross that stood on the site, in what was once the hamlet of Charing. The site of the cross has been occupied since 1675 by a statue of King Charles I. A loose Victorian replica of the cross, the Queen Eleanor Memorial Cross, was erected a short distance to the east outside the railway station. Until 1931, Charing Cross referred to the part of Whitehall between Great Scotland Yard and Trafalgar Square, at least one property retains a Charing Cross postal address, Drummonds Bank, on the corner of Whitehall and The Mall, which is designated 49 Charing Cross. Since the early 19th century, Charing Cross has often been regarded as the centre of London. Erect a rich and stately carved cross, Whereon her statue shall with glory shine, George Peele The Famous Chronicle of King Edward the First The name of the area, Charing, is derived from the Old English word cierring, referring to a bend in the River Thames. Folk etymology suggests the name derives from chère reine — dear queen in French — and this wooden sculpted cross was the work of the medieval sculptor, Alexander of Abingdon. It was destroyed in 1647 on the orders of Parliament during the Civil War, a 70 ft -high stone sculpture in front of Charing Cross railway station is a copy of the original cross. Erected in 1865, it is situated a few hundred yards to the east of the original cross and it was designed by the architect E. M. Barry and carved by Thomas Earp of Lambeth out of Portland stone, Mansfield stone and Aberdeen granite. It is not a replica, being more ornate than the original. A variation on the name appears to be Charygcrouche, near St Martin in the Fields, since 1675 the site of the cross has been occupied by a statue of King Charles I mounted on a horse. The site is recognised by convention as the centre of London for the purpose of indicating distances by road in favour of other measurement points. Charing Cross is marked on maps as a road junction. Since 1 January 1931 this section of road has been designated part of the Whitehall thoroughfare, the cross has given its name to a railway station, a tube station, police station, hospital, a hotel, a theatre, and a music hall. Charing Cross Road the main route from the north was named after the railway station, at some time between 1232 and 1236, the Chapel and Hospital of St Mary Rounceval was founded at Charing. It occupied land at the corner of the modern Whitehall and into the centre of Northumberland Avenue and it was an Augustinian house, tied to a mother house at Roncesvalles in the Pyrenees. The house and lands were seized for the king in 1379, protracted legal action returned some rights to the prior, but in 1414, Henry V suppressed the alien houses
23.
London Underground
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The London Underground is a public rapid transit system serving London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. The network has expanded to 11 lines, and in 2015–16 carried 1.34 billion passengers, the 11 lines collectively handle approximately 4.8 million passengers a day. The system has 270 stations and 250 miles of track, despite its name, only 45% of the system is actually underground in tunnels, with much of the network in the outer environs of London being on the surface. In addition, the Underground does not cover most southern parts of Greater London, the current operator, London Underground Limited, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for London, the statutory corporation responsible for the transport network in Greater London. As of 2015, 92% of operational expenditure is covered by passenger fares, the Travelcard ticket was introduced in 1983 and Oyster, a contactless ticketing system, in 2003. Contactless card payments were introduced in 2014, the LPTB was a prominent patron of art and design, commissioning many new station buildings, posters and public artworks in a modernist style. Other famous London Underground branding includes the roundel and Johnston typeface, to prepare construction, a short test tunnel was built in 1855 in Kibblesworth, a small town with geological properties similar to London. This test tunnel was used for two years in the development of the first underground train, and was later, in 1861, the worlds first underground railway, it opened in January 1863 between Paddington and Farringdon using gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives. It was hailed as a success, carrying 38,000 passengers on the opening day, the Metropolitan District Railway opened in December 1868 from South Kensington to Westminster as part of a plan for an underground inner circle connecting Londons main-line termini. The Metropolitan and District railways completed the Circle line in 1884, built using the cut and this opened in 1890 with electric locomotives that hauled carriages with small opaque windows, nicknamed padded cells. The Waterloo and City Railway opened in 1898, followed by the Central London Railway in 1900, the Metropolitan Railway protested about the change of plan, but after arbitration by the Board of Trade, the DC system was adopted. When the Bakerloo was so named in July 1906, The Railway Magazine called it an undignified gutter title, by 1907 the District and Metropolitan Railways had electrified the underground sections of their lines. In January 1913, the UERL acquired the Central London Railway, the Bakerloo line was extended north to Queens Park to join a new electric line from Euston to Watford, but World War I delayed construction and trains reached Watford Junction in 1917. During air raids in 1915 people used the stations as shelters. An extension of the Central line west to Ealing was also delayed by the war, the Metropolitan promoted housing estates near the railway with the Metro-land brand and nine housing estates were built near stations on the line. Electrification was extended north from Harrow to Rickmansworth, and branches opened from Rickmansworth to Watford in 1925, the Piccadilly line was extended north to Cockfosters and took over District line branches to Harrow and Hounslow. In 1933, most of Londons underground railways, tramway and bus services were merged to form the London Passenger Transport Board, the Waterloo & City Railway, which was by then in the ownership of the main line Southern Railway, remained with its existing owners. In the same year that the London Passenger Transport Board was formed, in the following years, the outlying lines of the former Metropolitan Railway closed, the Brill Tramway in 1935, and the line from Quainton Road to Verney Junction in 1936
24.
Central line (London Underground)
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The Central line is a London Underground line that runs through central London, from Ealing and Ruislip in the west to Epping, Essex in the north-east. Coloured red on the map, the line serves 49 stations. It is the longest tube line and it is also one of only two lines on the London Underground network to cross the Greater London boundary, the other being the Metropolitan. One of Londons deep-level tube railways, the trains are smaller than those on British main lines. The line was opened as the Central London Railway in 1900, crossing central London on an east–west axis and it was later extended to the western suburb of Ealing. After the Second World War, the line was expanded considerably into the recently constructed suburbs, taking over steam-hauled outer suburban routes to the borders of London and beyond to the east. This realised plans that had delayed by the war, when construction stopped. The Central line has mostly operated by automatic train operation since a major refurbishment in the 1990s. In terms of passengers, the Central line is the busiest line on the London Underground. In the year 2011/12 over 260 million passenger journeys were made on the Central line, the tunnels were bored with the nominal diameter of 11 feet 8 1⁄4 inches, increased on curves, reduced to 11 feet 6 inches near to stations. The tunnels generally rise approaching a station, to aid braking, the Central London Railway was the first underground railway to have the station platforms illuminated electrically. All the platforms were lit by Crompton automatic electric arc lamps, with the white glazed tiling, all underground Central London Railway platforms were very brightly lit. Earlier tube lines generated DC power at the required to run the trains. The line between Shepherds Bush and Bank was formally opened on 30 June 1900, public services beginning on 30 July, with a uniform fare of 2d the railway became known as the Twopenny Tube. This allowed higher-speed and lighter motors to be used, which reduced the weight of the locomotive as well as the unsprung weight. The railway also tried an alternative approach, it converted four coaches to accommodate motors, two of these experimental motor coaches were used in a 6-coach train, the control gear being operated by the system used on the Waterloo and City Railway. The modified locomotives were an improvement, but the motor coaches of an even lower weight were much better still. The CLR ordered 64 new motor cars designed to use Spragues recently developed traction control system, the CLR was exclusively using the resulting electric multiple units by 1903
25.
Greenford branch line
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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 also 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
26.
Great Western Railway (train operating company)
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Great Western Railway is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup. It manages 208 stations and its trains call at over 270, GWR operates long-distance inter-city services along the Great Western Main Line to South West England and South Wales, as well as the Night Riviera sleeper service between London and Penzance. The company began operating in February 1996 as Great Western Trains, in December 1998 it became First Great Western after FirstGroup bought out its partners shares in Great Western Holdings. In April 2006, First Great Western, First Great Western Link and Wessex Trains were combined into the new Greater Western franchise and brought under the First Great Western brand. The company adopted its current name and a new livery in September 2015 to coincide with the start of a franchise that is due to run until April 2020. Great Western Holdings was owned by some former British Rail managers, FirstBus, in March 1998, FirstGroup bought out its partners stakes to give it 100% ownership. In December 1998, the franchise was rebranded as First Great Western, on 1 April 2004, First Great Western Link commenced operating the Thames Trains franchise. It operated local services from Paddington to Slough, Henley-on-Thames, Reading, Didcot, Oxford, Newbury, Bedwyn, Worcester, Hereford, Banbury. It also operated services from Reading to Gatwick Airport, and from Reading to Basingstoke, on 1 April 2006, the Great Western, Great Western Link and Wessex Trains franchises were combined into a new Greater Western franchise. FirstGroup, National Express and Stagecoach were shortlisted to bid for new franchise. On 13 December 2005, it was announced that FirstGroup had won the franchise, originally, First planned to subdivide its services into three categories based on routes. Following feedback from staff and stakeholders, the decision was taken to re-brand, in May 2011, FirstGroup announced that it had decided not to take up the option to extend its franchise beyond the end of March 2013. FirstGroup stated that, in the light of the plan to electrify the Great Western route from London via Bristol to Cardiff. CEO Tim OToole said, We believe we are best placed to manage these projects, in March 2012 Arriva, FirstGroup, National Express and Stagecoach were shortlisted to bid for the new franchise. The ITT ran from the end of July until October 2012, the winner would have been announced in March 2013, and taken on the franchise from 21 July 2013 until the end of July 2028. The new franchise would include the introduction of new Intercity Express Trains, capacity enhancements, the award of the franchise was again delayed in October 2012, while the Department for Transport reviewed the way rail franchises are awarded. In January 2013, the government announced that the current competition for the franchise had been terminated, a two-year franchise extension until September 2015 was agreed in October 2013, and subsequently extended until March 2019. A further extension to April 2019 was granted in March 2015, the company rebranded itself as Great Western Railway on 20 September 2015 and introduced a green livery in recognition of the former Great Western Railway
27.
South Greenford railway station
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South Greenford station is in the London Borough of Ealing in west London, and is on the Greenford branch in Travelcard Zone 4. It and the trains serving it, are operated by Great Western Railway, the Greenford branch of the Great Western Railway had been used for regular passenger services since 1904, but the halt at South Greenford did not open until 20 September 1926. Originally named South Greenford Halt, the suffix was dropped on 5 May 1969, at present, signage on the station carries, in smaller font, an alternative name for the station. The alternative name is West Perivale, oyster pay as you go can be used for journeys to and from South Greenford. As well as the trains serving South Greenford, the Greenford branch also carries freight traffic, mainly waste. London Buses route 95 serves the station, train times and station information for South Greenford railway station from National Rail
28.
Yeading
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Yeading is an area in London. It forms part of the London Borough of Hillingdon, Yeading is very early Saxon and was originally Geddingas or Geddinges, meaning the people of Geddi. The earliest surviving documented allusion to Yeading dates from 757 AD, in which year Æthelbald of Mercia made a grant which mentioned Geddinges. The first land grant including Yeading was made by Offa in 790 to Æthelhard, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the place called on linga Haese, anglo-Saxon settlement in Yeading therefore seems probable, but the history of Yeading in subsequent centuries is not as clear as that of Hayes. Such details as the names of many Yeading manor holders remain unknown, Yeading Dock was one of many docks built along the Grand Union Canal in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The main industry in Hayes and Yeading at this time was brickmaking, Yeadings brickworkers could be known to keep pigs as a second source of income. A bourgeois writer, one Elizabeth Hunt, wrote in 1861 that in Yeading dirt, ignorance, in 1874, however, one James Thorne wrote that the inhabitants of Yeading were always found civil. Yeading was still not developed in the 1920s, Yeading Lane was often flooded, and access beyond Yeading to Northolt seems to have been by footpath only before the First World War. During the War, a constructed road was built linking the Great Western Railway station at Hayes with the L. N. E. R. Yeading was still mainly a rural area, after the Second World War, a large prefab estate was erected in Yeading. The Yeading Lane estate underwent largescale development in the late 1960s and 70s, schools in Yeading include, Barnhill Community High School Yeading Infant and Nursery School Yeading Junior School Yeading has the following bus routes travelling through it,90,140,696, E6 and E9. Yeading Library, Yeading Lane, UB4 0EW. C. was assembled from the former Hayes F. C. and Yeading F. C. Yeadings parks, there are three Local Nature Reserves, Yeading Brook Meadows, Ten Acre Wood and Gutteridge Wood and Meadows. A community radio station,91.8 Hayes FM, serves Yeading, Yeadings commercial manager Bill Perryman was given a part in the film. Yeading F. C. s former ground was used to film scenes from the Vinnie Jones film Mean Machine. Location footage for British soap opera Family Affairs was mostly shot in West London, Yeading Library Hayes FM community radio West London Shooting School T. F. T. Baker et al, A History of the County of Middlesex, vol
29.
Hanwell
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Hanwell is a town in the London Borough of Ealing, west London, England. Hanwell is about 2.5 km west of Ealing Broadway and it is the westernmost location of the LONDON post town. The earliest surviving reference is AD959 when it is recorded as Hanewelle in pledge, the origin of the name is uncertain, various suggestions have been put forward. Near to the old Rectory and close to Hanwell spring is a stone of about a ton in weight. In Anglo-Saxon the word Han denoted a boundary stone and this juxtaposition of these two natural features could have given rise to the name Han-well which dates back to before the Domesday Book. The original borders of the parish stretched from the bend of the River Brent at Greenford and its geography, before the draining of the marshes, formed a natural boundary between the different tribes of the south east of England. This gives some support to the suggestion that Han came from the Saxon han for cockerel, if so, the name is derived from Han-créd-welle. Han-créd or cock-crow meant the border between night and day, and is neither one nor the other, so Hanwell would mean well upon the boundary. For more see, River Brent, Hydronymy, the only other Hanwell in Britain is a small parish in Oxfordshire on the boundary with Warwickshire. The Uxbridge Road was turnpiked between Uxbridge and Tyburn in 1714, the revenue from tolls enabled an all-weather metaled road surface of compacted gravel to be laid down. This constant movement of people along the road, brought about the establishment of coaching inns along the road as it crossed the River Brent and passed through the parish of Hanwell. In these inns, travellers could stable their horses, place their carts or goods in storage and secure board. The first inn on crossing the River Brent is The Viaduct which is on the north side, named after the Wharncliffe Viaduct, its original name was the Coach and Horses. At the back of the pub, some of the stable building can be seen. Early in the 20th century, The Viaduct received a new faïence façade which Nikolaus Pevsner succinctly described as a jolly tiled Edwardian pub, unfortunately, today the profusion of street furniture detracts somewhat from the original impact that these rich mid-browns and mid-cream glazed tiles gave the building. Next was the Duke of Wellington which lay approximately 400 m closer to London on the side of the road. However, this had been demolished by the 1920s and was not rebuilt, established in the 18th century, it has been subsequently rebuilt in the Tudorbethan style. The next pub occupies the site of what was probably the very first inn to be established on the Oxford Road as it ran through Hanwell and it lies on the south side of the road
30.
Perivale
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Perivale is a suburb in the London Borough of Ealing,9.5 miles west of Charing Cross, central London. Landmarks in the include the large Art Deco Hoover Building, as well as St Marys Church. Until the 18th century Perivale was called Little Greenford or Greenford Parva, Perivale is an ancient parish in the historic county of Middlesex. It formed part of Greenford Urban District from 1894 to 1926, although mainly residential, there are some office blocks and parades of shops on Bilton Road, the A40 slip road and in the Medway Village. Perivale has two courses, Ealing Golf Club and Perivale Golf Course. The BBC Archives are in Perivale, the River Brent runs through Perivale. On 30 November 2009 the Environment Agency warned residents of a watch along the River Brent from Hendon to Brentford. Several premises were flooded in Brentford and Perivale, the largest ethnic group, as of the 2011 census, was Other White, who were 22% of the population. The second largest was White British at 20%, followed by Indian at 15%, Perivale is one of the settings of Anthony Trollopes novel The Belton Estate. Perivale was the setting for the 1989 season twenty-six Doctor Who serial Survival as the hometown of the Seventh Doctors companion Ace, victorian Perivale was also the location for establishing shots of a manor which was the setting of another season twenty-six serial, Ghost Light. Parts of the film Snatch were filmed in Perivale and on the nearby Horsenden Hill, henry Perowne, the principal character in Ian McEwans novel Saturday, was born in Perivale. Only Fools and Horses used Horsenden Hill for location shooting in the episode where Del Boy and Rodney look after Marlene, non-League football club Hanwell Town F. C. have been playing in Perivale at Reynolds Field since 1981, on the southside of the district. This site was the playing fields of the former Reynolds High School in Acton. Perivale has a station on the Central line of the London Underground system, three bus routes link the town to Shepherds Bush, Ealing, Greenford, Southall, Wembley and Willesden
31.
Southall
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Southall is a large suburban district of west London, England, and part of the London Borough of Ealing. It is situated 10.7 miles west of Charing Cross, neighbouring places include Yeading, Hayes, Hanwell, Heston, Hounslow, Greenford and Northolt. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London, Southall is located on the Grand Union Canal which first linked London with the rest of the growing canal system. It was one of the last canals to carry significant commercial traffic and is open to traffic and is used by pleasure craft. The district of Southall has many other Anglo-Saxon place-names such as Elthorne and its earliest record, from ad 830, is of Warberdus bequeathing Norwood Manor and Southall Manor to the archbishops of Canterbury. Southall formed part of the chapelry of Norwood in the ancient parish of Hayes, for Poor Law it was grouped into the Uxbridge Union and was within Uxbridge Rural Sanitary District from 1875. The chapelry of Norwood had functioned as a parish since the Middle Ages. On 16 January 1891 the parish adopted the Local Government Act 1858, in 1894 it became the Southall Norwood Urban District. In 1936 the urban district was granted a charter of incorporation and became a municipal borough, in 1965 the former area of the borough was merged with that of the boroughs of Ealing and Acton to form the London Borough of Ealing in Greater London. The southern part of Southall used to be known as Southall Green and was centred on the historic Grade II* listed Tudor-styled Manor House which dates back to at least 1587. A building survey has much of the building is original. Minor 19th and 20th century additions exist in some areas and it is currently used as serviced offices. The extreme southernmost part of Southall is known as Norwood Green and it has few industries and is mainly a residential area, having remained for many years mainly agricultural whilst the rest of Southall developed industrially. Norwood Green borders, and part is inside, the London Borough of Hounslow, the main east west road through the town is Uxbridge Road, though the name changes in the main shopping area to The Broadway and for an even shorter section to High Street. In 1877, the Martin Brothers set up a factory in an old soap works next to the canal and until 1923, produced distinctive ceramics now known. A branch railway line from Southall railway station to the Brentford Dock on the Thames was also built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1856 and it features one of his engineering works, the Three Bridges. Brunel died shortly after its completion, sections of his bell-section rail can still be seen on the southern side being used as both fencing posts and a rope rail directly under the road bridge itself. It is listed as a Scheduled Ancient Monument, otto Monsted, a Danish margarine manufacturer, built a large factory at Southall in 1894
32.
Northolt
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Northolt is a town in north west London, England,11 miles west-northwest of Charing Cross and within the London Borough of Ealing, England. Essentially a suburban development, a feature is the Grand Union Canal, as is the A40 road, the medieval village had its origins in the Saxon period. Up to late Victorian times, the area was rural with predominantly arable crops being grown, the fourteenth century Northolt Manor existed behind the present Court Farm Road and was excavated from 1950 onwards. A barn constructed in the area in 1595 can now be seen in the Chiltern Open Air Museum, in the early part of the 18th century farmland was enclosed in order to provide hay for the City of London, alongside more traditional crops such as peas and beans. Suburban development began in the 1920s, most of the housing north of the Western Avenue was built in the 1920s–1930s, and is in the private housing sector. Most of the housing built to the south of the Western Avenue was built in the 1960s–1970s, two important transport links run through Northolt, the Grand Union Canal and the modern A40 road. In the 21st century, a new private housing development was built on the former site of the Taylor Woodrow company. This development is known as Grand Union Village and incorporates a new canal boat marina, St Mary the Virgin church stands on the hill overlooking the old village. The Welsh poet Goronwy Owen was briefly a curate here, bishop Samuel Lisle is buried here. In the centre of the village is a clock tower erected to commemorate the coronation of George VI in 1937. The White Hart public house is on the site of an old coaching inn, the roundabout immediately south of it is on the junction of the A312 with the A4180. The Yeading Lane also joins the roundabout, willow Cottages on the village green are said to have been built of bricks from the old manor house, which once stood behind the parish church. The two towers of the disused RAF radio station north of the town are situated in the Wood End wireless station recreation ground, the location is now home to a National Air Traffic Control base. Northala Fields is an area alongside the A40 road which has been redeveloped as an extension to the Northolt. The development consists of four large, man-made conical hills, which act as a barrier to block traffic noise from the Western Avenue. Behind the mounds are new ponds and a visitor centre, the Larkspur Rovers F. C. clubhouse is in Rowdell Road, Northolt. It received funding from Ealing Council and an Olympic legacy grant of £50,000 from Sport England’s Inspired Facilities Fund, there is a village community centre building in Ealing Road, opposite St Marys church, which incorporates an open-air miniature railway. Down Barns Moated Site, a Scheduled Ancient Monument, modern family homes were built in the 1920s and 1930s
33.
Ealing
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Ealing is a major suburban district of west London, England and the administrative centre of the London Borough of Ealing. It is one of the metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. It was historically a village in the county of Middlesex. Improvement in communications with London, culminating with the opening of the station in 1838. As part of the growth of London in the 20th century, Ealing significantly expanded and increased in population and it now forms a significant commercial and retail centre with a developed night time economy. Ealing has the characteristics of both suburban and inner-city developments, Ealings town centre is often colloquial with Ealing Broadway, the name of both a rail interchange & a shopping centre. Most of Ealing, including the district, South Ealing, Ealing Common, Montpelier, Pitshanger. Areas to the north-west of the centre such as Argyle Road. A small section north-east of the centre, near Hanger Hill. The population of Ealing, comprising the Ealing Broadway, Ealing Common, Cleveland, Walpole, the area of Hanwell is strongly associated with Ealing, however, it is a separate district with its own postcode. Northfields on the hand, despite sharing postcodes with Ealing is generally considered to be a separate area in its own right. The Saxon name for Ealing was recorded c.700 as Gillingas, meaning place of the associated with Gilla, from the personal name Gilla. Over the centuries, the name has changed, and has known as Illing,1130, Gilling,1243. Archaeological evidence shows that parts of Ealing have been occupied for more than 7,000 years Iron Age pots have been discovered in the vicinity on Horsenden Hill. A settlement is recorded here in the 12th century amid a great forest that carpeted the area to the west of London, the earliest surviving English census is that for Ealing in 1599. This list was a tally of all 85 households in Ealing village giving the names of the inhabitants, together with their ages, relationships and occupations. It survives in form at The National Archives, and was transcribed and printed by K J Allison for the Ealing Historical Society in 1961. Settlements were scattered throughout the parish, many of them were along what is now called St. Marys Road, near to the church in the centre of the parish
34.
Sudbury, London
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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 later 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
35.
Harrow, London
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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 also part of Harrow. Harrow may also include the wards of Roxeth, Marlborough, 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, Douai, France Notes References Harrow Times newspaper Harrow Council Homepage Harrow Local Community News and Information
36.
Wembley
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Wembley is an area of northwest London, England, and part of the London Borough of Brent. It is home to the Wembley Arena and Wembley Stadium, Wembley formed a separate civil parish from 1894 and was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1937. In 1965, the merged with the Municipal Borough of Willesden to create the London Borough of Brent. Wembley is derived from the Old English proper name Wemba and the Old English Lea for meadow or clearing, the name was first mentioned in the charter of 825 of Selvin. The village of Wembley grew up on the hill by the clearing with the Harrow Road south of it, much of the surrounding area remained wooded. In 1547 there were but six houses in Wembley, though small, it was one of the wealthiest parts of Harrow. At the dissolution of the monasteries in 1543, the manor of Wembley fell to Richard Andrews and Leonard Chamberlayne, who sold it to Richard Page, Esq. of Harrow on the Hill, the same year. The Page family continued as lords of the manor of Wembley for several centuries, Wembley Park thus derived its name from Reptons habit of referring to the areas he designed as parks. There was a mill on Wembley Hill by 1673, in 1837, the London and Birmingham Railway was opened from London Euston through Wembley to Hemel Hempstead, and completed to Birmingham the following year. The changing names of the local station demonstrated the importance of the Wembley name. Sudbury station opened in 1845, renamed as Sudbury and Wembley in 1882, renamed as Wembley for Sudbury in 1910, renamed as Wembley Central in 1948, at the time of the Olympic Games. To modernise the service, a new Watford DC Line was built alongside the lines and Bakerloo line trains. Electric trains to London Euston began running in 1922, since 1917, there have been six platforms at what is now Wembley Central station. In 1880, the Metropolitan Railway opened its line from Baker Street through the side of Wembley. There are now three separate services, the London to Aylesbury Line, the Metropolitan line, and the Jubilee line. Only the latter two services have platforms at Wembley Park station, in November 1905, the Great Central Railway opened a new route for fast expresses that by-passed the congested Metropolitan Railway tracks. It ran between Neasden Junction, south of Wembley, and Northolt Junction, west of London, where a new joint main line with the Great Western Railway began. After a long planning and redevelopment process dogged by a series of funding problems and construction delays, Wembley Hill station was renamed Wembley Complex in May 1978, before getting its present name of Wembley Stadium in May 1987
37.
Parish church
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A parish church in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. The church building reflects this status, and there is variety in the size. Many villages in Europe have churches that date back to the Middle Ages, in England, it is the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches. Nearly every part of England is in a parish, and most parishes have an Anglican parish church, in cities without a cathedral of a certain Christian denomination, the parish church may have administrative functions similar to that of a cathedral. However, the diocese will still have a cathedral, while smaller villages may only have a parish church, larger towns may have a parish church and then also smaller churches in various districts which do not have the status of parish church. Often the parish church will be the one to have a full-time minister. One sign of this is that the church is the only one to have a baptismal font. The Church of Scotland, the established Presbyterian church, also uses a system of parish churches, in Massachusetts, towns elected publicly funded parish churches from 1780 until 1834. Toward the end of the 20th century, a new resurgence in interest in parish churches emerged across the United States and this has given rise to efforts like the Slow Church Movement and The Parish Collective which focus heavily on localized involvement across work, home, and church life. Theologically, many Protestants have embraced the model as having roots in a Reformed view of eschatology. It’s a way of saying ‘I believe in the Incarnation, ’” says pastor Raymond F. Cannata, “Having an earthy eschatology is part of it. ”Roman Catholic parish church Church of England parish church Smith, C. Slow Church, Cultivating Community in the Patient Way of Jesus
38.
Old English
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Old English or Anglo-Saxon is the earliest historical form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers probably in the mid 5th century, Old English developed from a set of Anglo-Frisian or North Sea Germanic dialects originally spoken by Germanic tribes traditionally known as the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. As the Anglo-Saxons became dominant in England, their language replaced the languages of Roman Britain, Common Brittonic, a Celtic language, Old English had four main dialects, associated with particular Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Mercian, Northumbrian, Kentish and West Saxon. It was West Saxon that formed the basis for the standard of the later Old English period, although the dominant forms of Middle. The speech of eastern and northern parts of England was subject to strong Old Norse influence due to Scandinavian rule, Old English is one of the West Germanic languages, and its closest relatives are Old Frisian and Old Saxon. Like other old Germanic languages, it is different from Modern English. Old English grammar is similar to that of modern German, nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and verbs have many inflectional endings and forms. The oldest Old English inscriptions were using a runic system. Old English was not static, and its usage covered a period of 700 years, from the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain in the 5th century to the late 11th century, some time after the Norman invasion. While indicating that the establishment of dates is a process, Albert Baugh dates Old English from 450 to 1150, a period of full inflections. Perhaps around 85 per cent of Old English words are no longer in use, Old English is a West Germanic language, developing out of Ingvaeonic dialects from the 5th century. It came to be spoken over most of the territory of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which became the Kingdom of England and this included most of present-day England, as well as part of what is now southeastern Scotland, which for several centuries belonged to the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria. Other parts of the island – Wales and most of Scotland – continued to use Celtic languages, Norse was also widely spoken in the parts of England which fell under Danish law. Anglo-Saxon literacy developed after Christianisation in the late 7th century, the oldest surviving text of Old English literature is Cædmons Hymn, composed between 658 and 680. There is a corpus of runic inscriptions from the 5th to 7th centuries. The Old English Latin alphabet was introduced around the 9th century, with the unification of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms by Alfred the Great in the later 9th century, the language of government and literature became standardised around the West Saxon dialect. In Old English, typical of the development of literature, poetry arose before prose, a later literary standard, dating from the later 10th century, arose under the influence of Bishop Æthelwold of Winchester, and was followed by such writers as the prolific Ælfric of Eynsham. This form of the language is known as the Winchester standard and it is considered to represent the classical form of Old English
39.
Organic compound
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An organic compound is virtually any chemical compound that contains carbon, although a consensus definition remains elusive and likely arbitrary. Organic compounds are rare terrestrially, but of importance because all known life is based on organic compounds. The most basic petrochemicals are considered the building blocks of organic chemistry, for historical reasons discussed below, a few types of carbon-containing compounds, such as carbides, carbonates, simple oxides of carbon, and cyanides are considered inorganic. The distinction between organic and inorganic compounds, while useful in organizing the vast subject of chemistry. Organic chemistry is the science concerned with all aspects of organic compounds, Organic synthesis is the methodology of their preparation. The word organic is historical, dating to the 1st century, for many centuries, Western alchemists believed in vitalism. This is the theory that certain compounds could be synthesized only from their classical elements—earth, water, air, vitalism taught that these organic compounds were fundamentally different from the inorganic compounds that could be obtained from the elements by chemical manipulation. Vitalism survived for a while even after the rise of modern atomic theory and it first came under question in 1824, when Friedrich Wöhler synthesized oxalic acid, a compound known to occur only in living organisms, from cyanogen. A more decisive experiment was Wöhlers 1828 synthesis of urea from the inorganic salts potassium cyanate, urea had long been considered an organic compound, as it was known to occur only in the urine of living organisms. Wöhlers experiments were followed by others, in which increasingly complex organic substances were produced from inorganic ones without the involvement of any living organism. Even though vitalism has been discredited, scientific nomenclature retains the distinction between organic and inorganic compounds, still, even the broadest definition requires excluding alloys that contain carbon, including steel. The C-H definition excludes compounds that are considered organic, neither urea nor oxalic acid is organic by this definition, yet they were two key compounds in the vitalism debate. The IUPAC Blue Book on organic nomenclature specifically mentions urea and oxalic acid, other compounds lacking C-H bonds but traditionally considered organic include benzenehexol, mesoxalic acid, and carbon tetrachloride. Mellitic acid, which contains no C-H bonds, is considered an organic substance in Martian soil. The C-H bond-only rule also leads to somewhat arbitrary divisions in sets of carbon-fluorine compounds, for example, CF4 would be considered by this rule to be inorganic, whereas CF3H would be organic. Organic compounds may be classified in a variety of ways, one major distinction is between natural and synthetic compounds. Another distinction, based on the size of organic compounds, distinguishes between small molecules and polymers, natural compounds refer to those that are produced by plants or animals. Many of these are extracted from natural sources because they would be more expensive to produce artificially
40.
William Henry Perkin
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Sir William Henry Perkin, FRS was an English chemist best known for his accidental discovery of the first aniline dye, the purple mauveine. Though failing in trying to synthesise quinine for the treatment of malaria, William Perkin was born in the East End of London, the youngest of the seven children of George Perkin, a successful carpenter. His mother, Sarah, was of Scottish descent but moved to east London as a child and he was baptised in the parish church of St Pauls, Shadwell, which had been connected to such luminaries as James Cook, Jane Randolph Jefferson and John Wesley. At the age of 14, Perkin attended the City of London School, where he was taught by Thomas Hall, who fostered his scientific talent and encouraged him to pursue a career in chemistry. In 1853, at the age of 15, Perkin entered the Royal College of Chemistry in London. Hofmann had published a hypothesis on how it might be possible to synthesise quinine, perkin—who had by then become one of Hofmanns assistants—embarked on a series of experiments to try to achieve this end. Perkin, who had an interest in painting and photography, immediately became enthusiastic about this result and carried out trials with his friend Arthur Church. Since these experiments were not part of the work on quinine which had been assigned to Perkin and they satisfied themselves that they might be able to scale up production of the purple substance and commercialise it as a dye, which they called mauveine. Their initial experiments indicated that it dyed silk in a way which was stable when washed or exposed to light and they sent some samples to a dye works in Perth, Scotland, and received a very promising reply from the general manager of the company, Robert Pullar. Perkin filed for a patent in August 1856, when he was still only 18, at the time, all dyes used for colouring cloth were natural substances, many of which were expensive and labour-intensive to extract. Furthermore, many lacked stability, or fastness and its extraction was variable and complicated, and so Perkin and his brother realised that they had discovered a possible substitute whose production could be commercially successful. Everything seemed to fall into place by dint of hard work, with a little luck, after the discovery of mauveine, many new aniline dyes appeared, and factories producing them were constructed across Europe. This discovery was the subject of a question on the 2012 season of Eggheads, local lore has it that the colour of the nearby Grand Union Canal changed from week to week depending on the activity at Perkins Greenford dyeworks. During the next decade, the new German Empire was rapidly eclipsing Britain as the centre of Europes chemical industry, by the 1890s, Germany had a near-monopoly on the business and Perkin was compelled to sell off his holdings and retire. Perkin died in 1907 of pneumonia and other complications resulting from a burst appendix and he is buried in the grounds of Christchurch, Harrow, UK. Perkin married Jemima Harriet, the daughter of John Lissett, in 1859, Perkins second marriage was in 1866, to Alexandrine Caroline, daughter of Helman Mollwo, which resulted in one son and four daughters. Perkin received many honours in his lifetime, in June 1866, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1879, received their Royal Medal and, in 1889 and he was knighted in 1906, and in the same year was awarded the first Perkin Medal, established to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of his discovery of mauveine
41.
Grand Union Canal
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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, Slough, Aylesbury, Wendover 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, however, 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
42.
Aniline
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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, first, benzene is nitrated with a concentrated mixture of nitric acid and sulfuric acid at 50 to 60 °C to yield nitrobenzene. The nitrobenzene is then 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, xylidines, chloroanilines, aminobenzoic acids, nitroanilines 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, ammonia 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
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Mauveine
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Mauveine, also known as aniline purple and Perkins mauve, was the first synthetic organic chemical dye, discovered serendipitously in 1856. It is also among the first chemical dyes to have been mass-produced, mauveine is a mixture of four related aromatic compounds differing in number and placement of methyl groups. Its organic synthesis involves dissolving aniline, p-toluidine, and o-toluidine in sulfuric acid and water in a roughly 1,1,2 ratio, mauveine A incorporates 2 molecules of aniline, one of p-toluidine, and one of o-toluidine. Mauveine B incorporates one molecule each of aniline, p-toluidine, in 1879, Perkin showed mauveine B related to safranines by oxidative/reductive loss of the p-tolyl group. In fact, safranine is a 2, 8-dimethyl phenazinium salt, whereas the produced by Perkin is presumed to be the 1. The molecular structure of mauveine proved difficult to determine, finally being identified in 1994. In 2007, two more were isolated and identified, mauveine B2, an isomer of mauveine B with methyl on different aryl group, and mauveine C, in 2008, additional mauveines and pseudomauveines were discovered, bringing the total number of these compounds up to 12. In 1856, William Henry Perkin, then age 18, was given a challenge by his professor, August Wilhelm von Hofmann, in one attempt, Perkin oxidized aniline using potassium dichromate, whose toluidine impurities reacted with the aniline and yielded a black solid—suggesting a failed organic synthesis. Cleaning the flask with alcohol, Perkin noticed purple portions of the solution, suitable as a dye of silk and other textiles, it was patented by Perkin, who the next year opened a dyeworks mass-producing it at Greenford on the banks of the Grand Union Canal in London. It was originally called aniline purple or Tyrian purple, the name of an ancient natural dye derived from mollusks, in 1859, it attained the name mauve in England via the French name for the mallow flower, and chemists later called it mauveine. By 1870, its great demand succumbed to newer synthetic colors in the dye industry launched by mauveine. In the early 20th century, the U. S. Perkin anniversary website Rotatable 3D models of mauveine are available using Jmol
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Blue plaque
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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, shapes, 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 also commemorative plaque schemes throughout the world such as those in Paris, Rome, Oslo, Dublin, and in cities in Australia, Canada, 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 then 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, also 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
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Pub
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A pub, or public house, is an establishment licensed to sell alcoholic drinks, which traditionally include beer, ale and cider. It is a relaxed, social drinking establishment and a prominent part of British, Irish, 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, ales and similar drinks. As well, pubs often sell wines, spirits, and soft drinks, meals, 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, gossip 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, food 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, Southwark 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