1.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
2.
Kohn Pedersen Fox
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Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates is an American architecture firm which provides architecture, interior, programming and master planning services for clients in both the public and private sectors. KPF is one of the largest architecture firms in the world and is one of the largest in New York City. KPF’s projects over the last 10 years include Roppongi Hills in Tokyo, Unilever House in London, the Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas, the Stephen M. In New York, KPF is presently designing the Hudson Yards Redevelopment Project, KPF recently completed One Jackson Square and served as Executive Architect for the 10-year phased expansion and renovation of New Yorks Museum of Modern Art. Current projects around the world include the Midfield Terminal Complex at the Abu Dhabi International Airport, kPFs philosophy is firmly rooted in the belief that success is the result of collaboration and dialogue. KPF explains, “A similar sentiment is central to the manner in which we weave our buildings into the environmental fabric, for a firm of its size, KPF takes on an unusually large number of restoration and renovation projects. Examples of this work include The World Bank Headquarters, Unilever House, KPF has been recognized for workplace collaboration. Shortly after its founding in 1976, the American Broadcasting Company chose KPF to redevelop a former building on Manhattan’s West Side to house TV studios. This experience led to 14 more projects for ABC over the next 11 years, as well as commissions from major corporations across the country, including the AT&T, by the mid-1980s, KPF had nearly 250 architects working on projects in cities throughout the United States. It remains a Chicago landmark, and was voted “Favorite Building” by the readers of the Chicago Tribune in both 1995 and 1997. In 1986, KPF’s Procter & Gamble Headquarters in Cincinnati, which included an open plan interior design by Patricia Conway, was recognized for its design with the AIA National Honor Award. In the 1990s, KPF also took on a number of government and civic projects. Courthouse in New York, the Mark O. Hatfield U. S, courthouse in Portland, OR, the U. S. Courthouse of Minneapolis, the Buffalo Niagara International Airport and the multiple award-winning redevelopment of The World Bank Headquarters in Washington, D. C. KPF’s winning entry in the competition for the World Bank Headquarters. KPF’s sensitive design solution for the World Bank, its first D. C. project, KPF completed the design for two blocks of the large-scale Canary Wharf redevelopment and the Goldman Sachs Headquarters on Fleet Street. KPF has been selected for projects in the Canary Wharf area through the present day, KPF’s subsequent work in the U. K. includes Thames Court in London, the Rothermere American Institute at Oxford University and the master plan for the London School of Economics. KPFs introduction to the Asian market began with the 4,500, within 10 years, KPF had projects in Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China
3.
Arup Group
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The firm has over 14,000 staff based in 92 offices across 42 countries, and is present in Africa, the Americas, Australasia, East Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Arup has participated in projects in over 160 countries, Arup is owned by trusts, the beneficiaries of which are Arups past and present employees, who receive a share of the firms operating profit each year. The firm was founded in London in 1946, as the Ove N. Arup Consulting Engineers by Ove Arup and he set out to build a firm where professionals of diverse disciplines could work together to produce projects of greater quality than was achievable by them working in isolation. In 1963, together with the architect Philip Dowson, Arup Associates was formed, in 1970, the firm reformed as Ove Arup & Partners. It is best known for its work for the built environment. Projects to which it has contributed include the Sydney Opera House,3, Nevada, USA Druk White Lotus School was built to survive the Ladakhi weather. Kingdom Centre, The third tallest skyscraper in Saudi Arabia, and the second tallest in Riyadh and this group continues to work under the banner of Arup Associates following a streamlining of the Arup brand. Many of Arups modern stadia are designed with a contemporary, distinctive edge, the most notable stadium projects led by Arup remain the City of Manchester Stadium, Allianz Arena, Beijing National Stadium, Donbass Arena and the Singapore Sports Hub. Arups multidisciplinary sports venue design and engineering scope on the Singapore Sports Hub won the 2013 World Architecture Festival Award in the Future Projects, the Casa da Música, Oporto, designed by Arup and Office for Metropolitan Architecture was nominated for the 2007 Stirling Prize. Arup was awarded the Worldaware Award for Innovation for its Vawtex air system in Harare International School, Arup Fire has won the Fire Safety Engineering Design award four times since its creation in 2001. The 2001 inaugural award was won for Arups contribution to the Eden Project in Cornwall, UK, in 2004, the design for Londons City Hall was appointed joint winner. In 2005, the Temple Mills Eurostar Depot won, the 2006 winning entry was for Amethyst House, a nine-storey building with an atrium from the ground to the top, in Manchester, UK. Arup was also awarded Royal Town Planning Institute Consultancy of the award in 2008. Mike Glover is the recipient of the 2008 Institution of Structural Engineers Gold Medal, the Evelyn Grace Academy, London designed by Zaha Hadid Architects and Arup won the prestigious RIBA Stirling Prize 2011. Arup was named Tunnel Design Firm of the Year at the 2012 ITA AITES International Tunnelling Awards, Arup Fellow is a lifelong honorary title awarded to selected honorary individuals in the firm. It acknowledges the highest design and technical achievements of people, not only within the firm and they are considered role models who possess world-class expertise who put theory into effective practice. Sir Ove Nyquist Arup, structural engineer and philosopher, founder of the company, recipient of the RIBA Royal Gold Medal for Architecture 1966, peter Dunican, structural engineer, first chairman of Ove Arup Partnership, and President of the Institution of Structural Engineers in 1977 and 1978. Sir Jack Zunz, civil engineer, and principal designer of the Sydney Opera House
4.
Skyscraper
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A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building having multiple floors. When the term was used in the 1880s it described a building of 10 to 20 floors. Mostly designed for office, commercial and residential uses, a skyscraper can also be called a high-rise, for buildings above a height of 300 m, the term supertall can be used, while skyscrapers reaching beyond 600 m are classified as megatall. One common feature of skyscrapers is having a steel framework that supports curtain walls and these curtain walls either bear on the framework below or are suspended from the framework above, rather than resting on load-bearing walls of conventional construction. Some early skyscrapers have a frame that enables the construction of load-bearing walls taller than of those made of reinforced concrete. Modern skyscrapers walls are not load-bearing, and most skyscrapers are characterized by surface areas of windows made possible by steel frames. However, skyscrapers can have curtain walls that mimic conventional walls with a surface area of windows. Modern skyscrapers often have a structure, and are designed to act like a hollow cylinder to resist wind, seismic. To appear more slender, allow less wind exposure, and transmit more daylight to the ground, many skyscrapers have a design with setbacks, a relatively big building may be considered a skyscraper if it protrudes well above its built environment and changes the overall skyline. The maximum height of structures has progressed historically with building methods and technologies, the Burj Khalifa is currently the tallest building in the world. High-rise buildings are considered shorter than skyscrapers, the first steel-frame skyscraper was the Home Insurance Building in Chicago, Illinois in 1885. Even the scholars making the argument find it to be purely academic and this definition was based on the steel skeleton—as opposed to constructions of load-bearing masonry, which passed their practical limit in 1891 with Chicagos Monadnock Building. What is the characteristic of the tall office building. The force and power of altitude must be in it, the glory and it must be every inch a proud and soaring thing, rising in sheer exaltation that from bottom to top it is a unit without a single dissenting line. Some structural engineers define a highrise as any vertical construction for which wind is a significant load factor than earthquake or weight. Note that this criterion fits not only high-rises but some other tall structures, the word skyscraper often carries a connotation of pride and achievement. A loose convention of some in the United States and Europe draws the limit of a skyscraper at 150 m or 490 ft. The tallest building in ancient times was the 146 m Great Pyramid of Giza in ancient Egypt and it was not surpassed in height for thousands of years, the 14th century AD Lincoln Cathedral being conjectured by many to have exceeded it
5.
City of London
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The City of London is a city and county within London. It constituted most of London from its settlement by the Romans in the 1st century AD to the Middle Ages, the City is now only a tiny part of the metropolis of London, though it remains a notable part of central London. Administratively, it one of the 33 local authority districts of Greater London, however, the City of London is not a London borough. The City of London is widely referred to simply as the City and is colloquially known as the Square Mile. Both of these terms are often used as metonyms for the United Kingdoms trading and financial services industries. The name London is now used for a far wider area than just the City. London most often denotes the sprawling London metropolis, or the 32 London boroughs and this wider usage of London is documented as far back as 1888, when the County of London was created. The local authority for the City, namely the City of London Corporation, is unique in the UK and has some unusual responsibilities for a local council and it is also unusual in having responsibilities and ownerships beyond its boundaries. The Corporation is headed by the Lord Mayor of the City of London, the current Lord Mayor, as of November 2016, is Andrew Parmley. The City is a business and financial centre. Throughout the 19th century, the City was the primary business centre. London came top in the Worldwide Centres of Commerce Index, published in 2008, the insurance industry is focused around the eastern side of the City, around Lloyds building. A secondary financial district exists outside of the City, at Canary Wharf,2.5 miles to the east, the City has a resident population of about 7,000 but over 300,000 people commute to and work there, mainly in the financial services sector. It used to be held that Londinium was first established by merchants as a trading port on the tidal Thames in around 47 AD. However, this date is only supposition, many historians now believe London was founded some time before the Roman conquest of Britain in 43 AD. They base this notion on evidence provided by both archaeology and Welsh literary legend, archaeologists have claimed that as much as half of the best British Iron Age art and metalwork discovered in Britain has been found in the London area. One of the most prominent examples is the famously horned Waterloo Helmet dredged from the Thames in the early 1860s and now exhibited at the British Museum. Also, according to an ancient Welsh legend, a king named Lud son of Heli substantially enlarged and improved a pre-existing settlement at London which afterwards came to be renamed after him, the same tradition relates how this Lud son of Heli was later buried at Ludgate
6.
The Shard
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Standing 309.7 metres high, the Shard is the tallest building in the United Kingdom, the fourth-tallest building in Europe and the 107th-tallest building in the world. It is also the second-tallest free-standing structure in the United Kingdom, the Shards construction began in March 2009, it was topped out on 30 March 2012 and inaugurated on 6 July 2012. Practical completion was achieved in November 2012, the towers privately operated observation deck, The View from The Shard, was opened to the public on 1 February 2013. The glass-clad pyramidal tower has 72 habitable floors, with a gallery and open-air observation deck on the 72nd floor. It was designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano and replaced Southwark Towers, the Shard was developed by Sellar Property Group on behalf of LBQ Ltd and is jointly owned by Sellar Property and the State of Qatar. Sellar flew to Berlin in the spring of 2000 to meet the Italian architect Renzo Piano for lunch, the inquiry took place in April and May 2003, and on 19 November 2003, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister announced that planning consent had been approved. The government stated that, Mr Prescott would only approve skyscrapers of exceptional design, for a building of this size to be acceptable, the quality of its design is critical. He is satisfied that the tower is of the highest architectural quality. This enabled them to pay off the costs incurred and to buy out the Southwark Towers occupational lease from the buildings tenants. Vacant possession of the site was secured a year later, after PricewaterhouseCoopers completed the relocation of their operations, in September 2007, preparations for the demolition of Southwark Towers began. However, later that month, turbulence in the financial markets reportedly put the Shards construction in jeopardy. In November 2007, building contractor Mace was awarded the contract to build the Shard for a price of no more than £350 million. However, this increased to almost £435 million in October 2008. In April 2008, demolition of Southwark Towers was visibly under way, and by October, the building had been reduced in height. The demolition was completed in early 2009, and site preparation began for the construction of the Shard, in late 2007, the gathering uncertainty in the global financial markets sparked concerns about the viability of the Shard. However, in January 2008, Sellar announced that it had secured funding from a consortium of Qatari investors, the consortium included Qatar National Bank, QInvest, Qatari Islamic Bank and the Qatari property developer Barwa Real Estate, as well as Sellar Property. The deal involved a buyout of the Halabi and CLS Holdings stakes, the new owners promised to provide the first tranche of finance, allowing construction of the tower to begin. In 2009, the State of Qatar consolidated its ownership of London Bridge Quarter, including the Shard, London Bridge Quarter is today jointly owned by the State of Qatar and Sellar Property
7.
One Canada Square
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One Canada Square, often referred to simply as Canary Wharf, is a skyscraper in Canary Wharf, London. It was the tallest building in the United Kingdom from 1990 to 2010, standing at 770 feet above ground level, in late 2010, it was surpassed by the Shard. The building is clad with stainless steel rather than natural stone. One of the predominant features of the building is the roof, which contains a flashing aircraft warning light. The distinctive pyramid pinnacle is 800 feet above sea level, One Canada Square is primarily used for offices, though there are some retail units on the lower ground floor. It is a location for offices and as of November 2015 was 100% let. The building is recognised as a London landmark, and it has gained attention through film, television. The original plans for a district on Canary Wharf came from G Ware Travelstead. He proposed three 260 m towers, Travelstead was unable to find the money for his project, so he sold the plans to Olympia & York in 1987. Olympia & York grouped all three towers into a known as Docklands Square, and the main tower was designated DS7 during planning. Docklands Square was later renamed Winston Square before finally being renamed as Canada Square, the architects chosen to design One Canada Square were Cesar Pelli & Associates, Adamson Associates, and Frederick Gibberd Coombes & Partners. They designed the tower with a shape to Three World Financial Center, New York City. The shape was also reminiscent of Big Ben. To comply with air safety regulations, the architects took five floors off the tower. The final height of 824 feet was permitted, otherwise, the developers would have had to dismantle what was necessary to fit the height restriction, the design of the tower received a fair share of criticism. According to Cesar Pelli, the most damaging criticism came from Prince Charles, other criticisms came from former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who said that the building was not quite stunning. Construction on the began in 1988. Lehrer McGovern contracted out most of the work to Balfour Beatty because the Canary Wharf Tower was a building to build
8.
Bishopsgate
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Bishopsgate is one of the 25 wards of the City of London and also the name of a major road between Gracechurch Street and Norton Folgate in the northeast corner of Londons main financial district. Bishopsgate is named one of the original eight gates in the London Wall. The site of this gate is marked by a stone bishops mitre, fixed high upon a building located at Bishopsgates junction with Wormwood Street, by the gardens there. Although tens of thousands of people commute to and work in the ward, the ward is bounded by Worship Street to the north, where the edge of the City meets the boroughs of Islington and Hackney. It neighbours Portsoken ward and the borough of Tower Hamlets in the east, the western boundary is formed by Old Broad Street and Broad Street ward itself. Bishopsgate also bounds the wards of Aldgate, Coleman Street, Cornhill, Bishopsgate ward straddles the line of the Wall and the old gate and is often divided into Within and Without parts, with a deputy appointed for each part. Since the 1994 and 2003 boundary changes, almost all of the ward is Without, no changes to Bishopsgates ward boundaries occurred in the 2013 boundary changes. Originally Roman, the Bishops Gate was rebuilt by the Hansa merchants in 1471 in exchange for Steelyard privileges and its final form was erected in 1735 by the City authorities and demolished in 1760. This gate often displayed the heads of criminals on spikes, London Wall divided the ward and road into an intramural portion called Bishopsgate Within and an extramural portion called Bishopsgate Without. The Bishopsgate thoroughfare forms part of the A10 and the section to the north of the site of the original Gate is the start of Roman Ermine Street, the parish church for the area of Bishopsgate Without is St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate. This is located just to the north of the original Gate on the west side of the road, Bishopsgate was originally the location of many coaching inns which accommodated passengers setting out on the Old North Road. Others included the Dolphin, the Flower Pot, the Green Dragon, the Wrestlers, the Angel, the latter was a venue for the Queens Men theatrical troupe in the 16th century. The name of an inn called the Catherine Wheel is commemorated by Catherine Wheel Alley which leads off Bishopsgate to the east, in the 18th century this grand residence became a tavern called Sir Paul Pindars Head, another notable venue was the London Tavern. Also demolished was the old Crosby Hall, at one time the residence of Richard III, Bishopsgate is also the site of Dirty Dicks, the Bishopsgate Institute, and many offices and skyscrapers. Police had received a warning, but were still evacuating the area at the time of the explosion. The area had suffered damage from the Baltic Exchange bombing one year before. The street is home to the main London offices of major banks, including the Royal Bank of Scotland. Within the ward falls the Broadgate Estate, only electors who are Freemen of the City of London are eligible to stand
9.
Tower 42
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Tower 42 is the third-tallest skyscraper in the City of London and the eighth tallest in Greater London. Its original name was the NatWest Tower, having built to house NatWests international headquarters. It is still referred to as the NatWest Tower. Seen from above, the shape of the tower resembles that of the NatWest logo, the tower, designed by Richard Seifert and engineered by Pell Frischmann, is located at 25 Old Broad Street. It was built by John Mowlem & Co between 1971 and 1980, first occupied in 1980, and formally opened on 11 June 1981 by Queen Elizabeth II, the construction cost was £72 million. It is 183 metres high, which made it the tallest building in the United Kingdom until the topping out of One Canada Square at Canary Wharf in 1990 and it was the tallest building to have been built in London in the 1980s. It held the status of tallest building in the City of London for 30 years, in 2011 it was bought by the South African businessman Nathan Kirsh for £282.5 million. The original concept dates back to the early 1960s, predating the formation of the National Westminster Bank, the site was then the headquarters of the National Provincial Bank, with offices in Old Broad Street backing onto its flagship branch at 15 Bishopsgate. Early designs envisaged a tower of 137 m, this developed into a design with a 197 m tower as its centrepiece, visitors were invited to vote and overwhelmingly chose the single tower design. The final design preserved the Gibson banking hall and the height was reduced to 183 m. An annual fundraising event called Vertical Rush takes place inside Tower 42 and it is a vertical run of 932 steps to the top of the tower. Demolition of the site commenced in 1970 and the tower was completed in 1980, in total, there are 47 levels above ground, of which 42 are cantilevered. The lowest cantilevered floor is designated Level 1, but is in fact the fourth level above ground, the cantilevered floors are designed as three segments, or leaves, which approximately correspond to the three chevrons of the NatWest logo when viewed in plan. The two lowest cantilevered levels are formed of a leaf, and the next two are formed of two leaves. This pattern is repeated at the top, so that only levels 5 to 38 extend around the whole of the building and this unit remained in its existing location at 53 Threadneedle Street. Other international banking units, such as International Westminster Banks London Branch, innovative features in the design included double-decked elevators, which provide an express service between the ground/mezzanine levels and the sky lobbies at levels 23 and 24. Double decked elevators and sky lobbies were both new to the UK at the time, the tower also had its own telephone exchange in one of the basement levels – this area was decorated with panoramic photographs of the London skyline, creating the illusion of being above ground. Fire suppression design features included pressurised stairwells, smoke venting and fire retardant floor barriers, however, at the time of design, fire sprinkler systems were not mandatory in the UK and so were not installed
10.
St Paul's Cathedral
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St Pauls Cathedral, London, is an Anglican cathedral, the seat of the Bishop of London and the mother church of the Diocese of London. It sits on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grade 1 listed building and its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD604. The present church, dating from the late 17th century, was designed in the English Baroque style by Sir Christopher Wren and its construction, completed in Wrens lifetime, was part of a major rebuilding programme in the City after the Great Fire of London. The cathedral is one of the most famous and most recognisable sights of London and its dome, framed by the spires of Wrens City churches, dominated the skyline for 300 years. At 365 feet high, it was the tallest building in London from 1710 to 1967, the dome is among the highest in the world. St Pauls is the second-largest church building in area in the United Kingdom after Liverpool Cathedral, St Pauls Cathedral occupies a significant place in the national identity. It is the subject of much promotional material, as well as of images of the dome surrounded by the smoke. St Pauls Cathedral is a church with hourly prayer and daily services. The entry fee is £18 for adults, the location of Londiniums original cathedral is unknown. In 1995, however, a large and ornate 5th century building on Tower Hill was excavated, the Elizabethan antiquarian William Camden argued that a temple to the goddess Diana had stood during Roman times on the site occupied by the medieval St Pauls Cathedral. Wren reported that he had no trace of any such temple during the works to build the new cathedral after the Great Fire. Bede records that in AD604 St Augustine consecrated Mellitus as the first bishop to the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Saxons and their king, Sæberht. Sæberhts uncle and overlord, Æthelberht, king of Kent, built a dedicated to St Paul in London. It is assumed, although unproven, that this first Anglo-Saxon cathedral stood on the site as the later medieval. On the death of Sæberht in about 616, his sons expelled Mellitus from London. The fate of the first cathedral building is unknown and this building, or a successor, was destroyed by fire in 962, but rebuilt in the same year. King Æthelred the Unready was buried in the cathedral on his death in 1016, the cathedral was burnt, with much of the city, in a fire in 1087, as recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The fourth St Pauls, generally referred to as Old St Pauls, was begun by the Normans after the 1087 fire, a further fire in 1136 disrupted the work, and the new cathedral was not consecrated until 1240
11.
Waterloo Bridge
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Waterloo Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge crossing the River Thames in London, between Blackfriars Bridge and Hungerford Bridge. Its name commemorates the victory of the British, the Dutch, thanks to its location at a strategic bend in the river, the views from the bridge are widely held to be the finest from any spot in London at ground level. The first bridge on the site was designed in 1809–10 by John Rennie for the Strand Bridge Company, before its opening it was known as the Strand Bridge. During the 1840s the bridge gained a reputation as a place for suicide attempts. In 1841 the American daredevil Samuel Gilbert Scott was killed performing a act in which he hung by a rope from a scaffold on the bridge. In 1844 Thomas Hood wrote the poem The Bridge of Sighs, paintings of the bridge were created by the French Impressionist Claude Monet and the English Romantic John Constable. The bridge was nationalised in 1878 and placed under the control of the Metropolitan Board of Works, Michael Faraday tried in 1832 to measure the potential difference between each side of the bridge caused by the ebbing salt water flowing through the Earths magnetic field. From 1884 serious problems were found in Rennies bridge piers, after scour from the river flow after Old London Bridge was demolished damaged their foundations. In 1925, a steel framework was built on top of the existing bridge. London County Council decided to demolish the bridge and replace it with a new designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. The engineers were Ernest Buckton and John Cuerel of Rendel Palmer & Tritton, Scott, by his own admission, was no engineer and his design, with reinforced concrete beams under the footways, leaving the road to be supported by transverse slabs, was difficult to implement. The beams were shaped to look as much like arches as and they are clad in Portland stone, which cleans itself whenever it rains. To guard against the possibility of further subsidence from scour each pier was given a number of jacks that can be used to level the structure, the new bridge was partially opened on Tuesday 11 March 1942 and was completed in 1945. It is the only Thames bridge to have been damaged by German bombers during the Second World War, the building contractor was Peter Lind & Company Limited. It is frequently asserted that the force was largely female. Granite stones from the bridge were subsequently presented to various parts of the British world to further historic links in the British Commonwealth of Nations. The monument, built in 1945, is on Queens Wharf and it includes a bronze likeness of Paddy, a drinking fountain and drinking bowls below for dogs. The north end of the bridge passes above the Victoria Embankment where the road joins the Strand and this end housed the southern portal of the Kingsway Tramway Subway until the late 1950s
12.
English Heritage
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English Heritage is a registered charity that manages the National Heritage Collection. This comprises over 400 of Englands historic buildings, monuments and sites spanning more than 5,000 years of history, within its portfolio are Stonehenge, Dover Castle, Tintagel Castle and the best preserved parts of Hadrians Wall. English Heritage also manages the London Blue Plaques scheme, which links influential historical figures to particular buildings and it was created to combine the roles of existing bodies that had emerged from a long period of state involvement in heritage protection. The British government gave the new charity an £80 million grant to establish it as an independent trust. Over the centuries, what is now called Heritage has been the responsibility of a series of state departments. There was the Kings Works after the Norman Conquest, the Office of Works, the Office of Woods, Forests, Land Revenues and Works, and the Ministry of Works. Responsibility subsequently transferred to the Ministry of Public Building and Works then to the Department of the Environment and now the Department for Culture, Media, the states legal responsibility for the historic environment goes back to the Ancient Monuments Protection Act 1882. Central government subsequently developed several systems of protection for different types of assets, introducing listing for buildings after WW2. The Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission was formed under the terms of the National Heritage Act 1983 on 1 April 1984, soon after, the commission gained the operating name of English Heritage by its first Chairman, Lord Montagu of Beaulieu. A national register of parks and gardens, was set up in 1984. Registration is a consideration in the planning process. In 2010–2011 it recorded 4.3 million unique online user sessions, in 2012 the section responsible for archive collections was renamed the English Heritage Archive. As a result of the National Heritage Act 2002, English Heritage acquired administrative responsibility for historic wrecks, the administration of the listed building system was transferred from DCMS to English Heritage in 2006. It was retained on grounds of performing a function which should remain independent from Government. However the department also suffered from budget cuts during the recession of the 2010s resulting in a deficit of £100 million. In June 2013 the British Government announced plans to provide an £80 million grant to enable English Heritage to become a self-financing charity, the national portfolio of historic properties remain in public ownership, but the new English Heritage will be licensed to manage them. The change occurred on 1 April 2015 with the planning and heritage protection functions remaining an independent, non-departmental public body. The new trust has a licence to operate the properties until 2023, English Heritage is the guardian of over 400 sites and monuments, the most famous of which include Stonehenge, Iron Bridge and Dover Castle
