1.
Henry Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland
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Henry Richard Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland, of Holland, and 3rd Baron Holland, of Foxley PC was an English politician and a major figure in Whig politics in the early 19th century. His paternal grandparents were Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland, and Lady Caroline Lennox, the eldest of the famous Lennox sisters and a great-granddaughter of King Charles II. He succeeded in the barony in December 1774, aged one, on the death of his father. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, where he became the friend of George Canning, Lord Hollands uncle was the great Whig orator Charles James Fox, and he remained steadily loyal to the Whig party. On a visit to Paris in 1791, Holland became acquainted with Lafayette and he took his seat in the House of Lords on 5 October 1796. According to the 1911 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica he for a while almost, constituted the Whig party in the upper house. Holland led the opposition to the Regency bill in 1811, and he attacked the orders in council and other strong measures of the government taken to counteract Napoleons Berlin decrees. He denounced the treaty of 1813 with Sweden which bound Britain to consent to the union of Norway. He was Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster between 1830 and 1834 and 1835 and 1840 in the cabinets of Lord Grey and Lord Melbourne, and he was still in office when he died in October 1840. Hollands protests against the measures of the Tory ministers were collected and published, as the Opinions of Lord Holland, Lord Hollands Foreign Reminiscences contain much amusing gossip from the Revolutionary and Napoleonic era. His Memoirs of the Whig Party is an important contemporary authority and he also published a small work on Lope de Vega and a 2-volume work on the lives and writings of Lope de Vega and Guillén de Castro. After visiting Paris in 1791 Holland again went abroad to travel in France, at Florence he met Elizabeth Vassall, at that time Lady Webster, wife of Sir Godfrey Webster, 4th Baronet. She and her husband obtained a divorce, and she married Holland on 6 July 1797, becoming Elizabeth Fox, an illegitimate son, Charles Richard Fox, was born to them. He later rose to become a General in the British Army and they had three more children, the Hon. Stephen Fox, Henry Edward Fox, 4th Baron Holland, and Hon. Mary Elizabeth Fox, married to Thomas Powys, 3rd Baron Lilford. In 1800 he was authorized to take the name of Vassall, Lord Holland died in October 1840, aged 66, and was succeeded in his titles by his eldest and only surviving legitimate son, Henry. Lady Holland died in November 1845, Vassall ward in the London Borough of Lambeth is named after Henry Richard Vassall-Fox who was responsible for the first building development in the area in the 1820s. Roads in the such as Holland Grove, Lord Holland Lane, Foxley Square
2.
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
3.
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
4.
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
5.
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
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The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is an inner London borough of Royal borough status, to the west of the centre. As the smallest borough in London and the second smallest district in England, the borough is immediately to the west of the City of Westminster and to the east of London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. It contains major museums and universities in Albertopolis, department stores such as Harrods, Peter Jones and Harvey Nichols and it is home to the Notting Hill Carnival, Europes largest. It contains many of the most expensive places in the world. The local authority is Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council, the boroughs motto is Quam Bonum in Unum Habitare, which can be roughly translated as How good to dwell in unity. The borough was created in 1965 from the boroughs of Kensington. Kensingtons Royal Borough status was inherited by the new borough, the new borough was originally to be called just Kensington – the inclusion of Chelsea was locally supported. Due to its high French population it has held the unofficial title of the 21st arrondissement of Paris. In 2005, the borough had more of its covered by domestic buildings than anywhere else in England at 19%. It also had the fifth highest proportion of land covered by buildings at 12%. As of 2010, statistics released by the Office for National Statistics showed that life expectancy at birth for females was 89.8 years in 2008–2010, male life expectancy at birth for the same period was 85.1 years. The figures in 1991–1993 were significantly lower,73.0 years for males and 80.0 for females, the borough has a higher proportion of high earners than any other local government district in the country. It has the highest proportion of workers in the financial sector, in December 2006, Sport England published a survey which showed that the boroughs residents were the fourth most active in England in sports and other fitness activities. 27. 9% of the population participate at least three times a week for 30 minutes, the top quarter earn at least £41 per hour, three and a half times the level of the lowest quarter at £12 per hour or less. Two of its more notable leaders were Nicholas Freeman, from 1977 until 1989. The Council has 42 Conservative,9 Labour and 3 Liberal Democrat councillors, the borough has combined a number of services and departments with its neighbours, Hammersmith & Fulham and Westminster City Council. Chelsea has less Underground access than Kensington, the station within Chelsea being Sloane Square. There are long-term plans for the Chelsea-Hackney line, with a station in the Kings Road near Chelsea Old Town Hall, buses Many London bus routes pass through the borough, most of them along Kings Road, Fulham Road, Kensington High Street and Ladbroke Grove
6.
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
7.
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
8.
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
9.
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
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London postal district
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The London postal district is the area in England of 241 square miles to which mail addressed to the LONDON post town is delivered. It was integrated by the Post Office into the national system of the United Kingdom during the early 1970s and corresponds to the N, NW, SW, SE, W, WC, E. The postal district has also known as the London postal area. The County of London was much smaller at 117 square miles, by the 1850s, the rapid growth of the metropolitan area meant it became too large to operate efficiently as a single post town. A Post Office inquiry into the problem had been set up in 1837, in 1854 Charles Canning, the Postmaster General, set up a committee at the Post Office in St. Martins Le Grand to investigate how London could best be divided for the purposes of directing mail. In 1856, of the 470 million items of mail sent in the United Kingdom during the year, approximately one fifth were for delivery in London, the General Post Office thus at the control of the Postmaster General devised the area in 1856 project-managed by Sir Rowland Hill. Hill produced an almost perfectly circular area of 12 miles radius from the central post office at St. Martins Le Grand, within the district it was divided into two central areas and eight compass points which operated much like separate post towns. Each was constituted London with a suffix indicating the area it covered, the system was introduced during 1857 and completed on 1 January 1858. The remaining eight letter prefixes have not changed, at the same time, the London postal district boundary was retracted in the east, removing places such as Ilford for good. In 1868 the S district was split between SE and SW, the NE and S codes have been re-used in the national postcode system and now refer to the NE postcode area around Newcastle upon Tyne and the S postcode area around Sheffield. In 1917, as a measure to improve efficiency, the districts were further subdivided with a number applied to each sub-district. Exceptionally and esoterically, W2 and SW11 are also head districts, the numbered sub-districts became the outward code of the postcode system as expanded into longer codes during the 1970s. Ad hoc changes have taken place to the organisation of the districts, subdivisions of postcode sub-districts Owing to heavier demand, seven high-density postcode districts in central London have been subdivided to create new, smaller postcode districts. This is achieved by adding a letter after the postcode district. Where such sub-districts are used such as on street signs and maps. The districts subdivided are E1, N1, EC SW1, W1, WC1, similarly, there are solely non-geographic suffixed sub-districts for PO boxes in NW1 and SE1. The London postal district has never been aligned with the London boundary, when the initial system was designed, the London boundary was restricted to the square mile of the small, ancient City of London. The wider metropolitan area covered parts of Middlesex, Surrey, Kent, Essex
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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
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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
15.
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
16.
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
17.
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
18.
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
19.
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
20.
Kensington (UK Parliament constituency)
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Kensington is a constituency in Greater London created in 2010 represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Victoria Borwick, a Conservative. An earlier version of the existed between 1974 and 1997 covered by this article. From 1983 to 1997 the constituency comprised electoral wards, Avondale, Campden, Colville, Golborne, Holland, Kelfield, Norland, Pembridge, Queens Gate and St Charles. The first incarnation of a Kensington seat in Westminster was for the February 1974 general election, summary of results The old seat returned Conservative MPs from 1974 up to and including its last general election in 1992. At its sole by-election in 1988 the seat was won by its smallest majority, summary of results The 2015 result was a narrower result than 2010 and gave the seat the 126th most marginal majority of the Conservative Partys 331 seats by percentage of majority. The runner-up party remained the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats share of the fell by 13. 9% to 5. 6% of votes cast. South Kensington also borders Hyde Park and includes Science Museum, the Natural History Museum, earls Court, Brompton, Holland Park and Notting Hill have their own characters. Notting Hill is an affluent and trendy area which hosts the Notting Hill Carnival, list of Parliamentary constituencies in Greater London Notes References
21.
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
22.
West End of London
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Use of the term began in the early 19th century to describe fashionable areas to the west of Charing Cross. The West End covers much of the boroughs of Westminster and Camden, while the City of London, or the Square Mile, is the main business and financial district in London, the West End is the main commercial and entertainment centre of the city. It is one of the most expensive locations in the world in which to rent office space and it was also close to the royal seat of power at Westminster, and is largely contained within the City of Westminster. Developed in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, it was built as a series of palaces, expensive town houses, fashionable shops. The areas closest to the City around Holborn, Seven Dials, as the West End is a term used colloquially by Londoners and is not an official geographical or municipal definition, its exact constituent parts are up for debate. The Edgware Road to the north-west and the Victoria Embankment to the south-east were also covered by the document but were treated as adjacent areas to the West End. According to Ed Glinerts West End Chronicles the districts falling within the West End are Mayfair, Soho, Covent Garden, Fitzrovia, one of the local government wards within the City of Westminster is called West End. This covers a area that defined by Glinert, Mayfair, Soho. The population of this ward at the 2011 Census was 10,575, the New West End Company is a business improvement district and runs services including street cleaning and security on Oxford Street, Regent Street and Bond Street. NWEC also runs the Red Caps service, the West End is laid out with many notable public squares and circuses, the latter being the original name for roundabouts in London. London West End Things to do General overview of what to do in the West End
23.
Townhouse
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A townhouse, or town house as used in North America, Asia, Australia, South Africa and parts of Europe, is a type of terraced housing. A modern town house is one with a small footprint on multiple floors. The term originally referred in British usage to the city residence of someone whose main or largest residence was a country house. Historically, a house was the city residence of a noble or wealthy family. From the 18th century, landowners and their servants would move to a townhouse during the social season, in the United Kingdom most townhouses were terraced. Only a small minority of them, generally the largest, were detached, for example, the Duke of Norfolk owned Arundel Castle in the country, while his London house, Norfolk House, was a terraced house in St Jamess Square over 100 feet wide. In the United States and Canada, a townhouse has two connotations, the older predates the automobile and denotes a house on a small footprint in a city, but because of its multiple floors, it has a large living space, often with servants quarters. The small footprint of the townhouse allows it to be walking or mass-transit distance of business. Townhouses are expensive where detached single-family houses are uncommon, such as in New York City, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Toronto, Washington, DC, and San Francisco. A townhouse is where there is a roof and foundation and a single wall divides adjacent townhouses. A rowhouse will generally be smaller and less luxurious than a called a townhouse. The name townhouse or townhome was later used to describe non-uniform units in areas that are designed to mimic detached or semi-detached homes. Today, the term, townhouse, is used to describe units mimicking a detached home that are attached in a multi-unit complex, such homes have multiple units vertically, normally each with its own private entrance from the street or at least from the outside. They can be side by side in a row of three or more, in case they are sometimes referred to as rowhouses. A townhouse in a group of two could be referred to as a townhouse, but in Canada and the US, it is called a semi-detached home and in some areas of western Canada. Freehold, where one owns exclusively the land and the dwelling without any condominium aspects and these may share the foundation as well but have narrow air spaces between and still referred to as a townhouse. Condominium townhouses, just like condominium apartments, are referred to as condos. All types of dwellings can be condos, and this is true of townhouses
24.
Housing estate
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A housing estate is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country, accordingly, a housing estate is usually built by a single contractor, with only a few styles of house or building design, so they tend to be uniform in appearance. In the British Isles, the term is quite broad, and can include anything from high rise government-subsidised housing, right through to more upmarket, developer-led suburban tract housing. Housing estates are the form of residential design used in new towns. Such estates are designed to minimise through-traffic flows, and to provide recreational space in the form of parks. The use of the term may have arisen from an area of housing being built on what had been an estate as towns and cities expanded in. Reduction of the phrase to mere estate is common in the United Kingdom and Ireland, bahria Town is largest private housing society in Asia. Bahria has been featured by international magazines and news agencies such as GlobalPost, Newsweek, Los Angeles Times and Emirates 24/7, gated communities in Pakistan are targeted towards upper middle class and upper class, and are mostly immune from problems of law enforcement. Housing estates were produced by local corporations or by private developers. The former tended to be a means of producing public housing leading to monotenure estates full of houses often known as council estates. The latter can refer to higher end tract housing for the middle class, in addition, the problems incurred by the early attempts at high density tower-block housing turned people away from this style of living. The resulting demand for land has many towns and cities increase enormously in size for only moderate increases in population. This has been largely at the expense of rural and greenfield land, nevertheless, the demand for housing continues to rise, and in the UK at least has precipitated a significant housing crisis. In the UK, some of the post war new towns were constructed en masse from housing estates rather than as organic growth from a population centre, in the former Czechoslovakia during the Communist era a construction of large housing estates was an important part of then urban planning. The government wanted to provide large quantities of affordable housing and to slash costs by employing uniform designs over the whole country and they also sought to foster a collectivistic nature in the people. Large housing estates of concrete panel buildings now dominate the suburbs of Prague, Bratislava, the largest such suburb in the former Czechoslovakia and central Europe can be found in Petržalka, a part of the Slovak capital of Bratislava. They may vary in scale, and are located in the remote or less accessible parts of the territory. Although some units are destined exclusively for rental, some of the flats within each development are earmarked for sale at prices which are lower than for private developments
25.
Hyde Park, London
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Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in London and one of its Royal Parks. The park is divided by the Serpentine and the Long Water, the park is contiguous with Kensington Gardens, which are often assumed to be part of Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens has been separate since 1728, when Queen Caroline divided them. To the southeast, outside the park, is Hyde Park Corner, during daylight, the two parks merge seamlessly into each other, but Kensington Gardens closes at dusk, and Hyde Park remains open throughout the year from 5 a. m. until midnight. The Great Exhibition of 1851 was held in the park, for which the Crystal Palace, the park became a traditional location for mass demonstrations. The Chartists, the Reform League, the suffragettes, and the Stop the War Coalition have all held protests there, many protesters on the Liberty and Livelihood March in 2002 started their march from Hyde Park. Hyde Park is also a ward of the City of Westminster, the population of the ward at the 2011 Census was 12,462. Hyde Park was created for hunting by Henry Vlll in 1536, Charles I created the Ring, and in 1637 he opened the park to the general public. In 1652, during the Interregnum, Parliament ordered the then 620-acre park to be sold for ready money and it realised £17,000 with an additional £765 6s 2d for the resident deer. In 1689, when William III moved his residence to Kensington Palace on the far side of Hyde Park, public transport entering London from the west runs parallel to the Kings private road along Kensington Gore, just outside the park. In the late 1800s, the row was used by the wealthy for horseback rides, the first coherent landscaping was undertaken by Charles Bridgeman for Queen Caroline, under the supervision of Charles Withers, the Surveyor-General of Woods and Forests, who took some credit. It was completed in 1733 at a cost to the public purse of £20,000, the 2nd Viscount Weymouth was made Ranger of Hyde Park in 1739 and shortly after began digging the Serpentine lakes at Longleat. The Serpentine is divided from the Long Water by a bridge designed by George Rennie, one of the most important events to take place in the park was the Great Exhibition of 1851. The Crystal Palace was constructed on the side of the park. The public did not want the building to remain after the closure of the exhibition and he had it moved to Sydenham Hill in South London. At the age of twenty-five, Decimus Burton was commissioned by the Office of Woods and he laid out the paths and driveways and designed a series of lodges, the Screen/Gate at Hyde Park Corner and the Wellington Arch. The Screen and the Arch originally formed a single composition, designed to provide a transition between Hyde Park and Green Park, although the arch was later moved. An early description reports, It consists of a screen of handsome fluted Ionic columns, the extent of the whole frontage is about 107 ft. The two side gateways, in their elevations, present two insulated Ionic columns, flanked by antae, all these entrances are finished by a blocking, the sides of the central one being decorated with a beautiful frieze, representing a naval and military triumphal procession
26.
Kensington Gardens
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Kensington Gardens, once the private gardens of Kensington Palace, are among the Royal Parks of London. The gardens are shared by the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and sit immediately to the west of Hyde Park, the gardens cover an area of 270 acres. The open spaces of Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Green Park, Kensington Gardens are Grade I listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. The Gardens are fenced and more formal than Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens are open only during the hours of daylight, whereas Hyde Park is open from 5 am until midnight all year round. Kensington Gardens has been regarded as smart because of its more private character around Kensington Palace. However, in the late 1800s, Hyde Park was considered fashionable, because of its location nearer to Park Lane. Kensington Gardens was originally the section of Hyde Park, which had been created by Henry VIII in 1536 to use as a hunting ground. Bridgeman created the Serpentine between 1726 and 1731 by damming the outflow of the River Westbourne from Hyde Park. The part of the Serpentine that lies within Kensington Gardens is known as The Long Water, at its north-western end in an area known as The Italian Garden, there are four fountains and a number of classical sculptures. At the foot of the Italian Gardens is a boundary marker. The land surrounding Kensington Gardens was predominantly rural and remained undeveloped until the Great Exhibition in 1851. Many of the original features survive along with the Palace, and now there are public buildings such as the Albert Memorial, the Serpentine Gallery. The park also contains the Elfin Oak, an elaborately carved 900-year-old tree stump, the park is the setting of J. M. Barries book Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, a prelude to the characters famous adventures in Neverland. The fairies of the gardens are first described in Thomas Tickells 1722 poem Kensington Gardens, both the book and the character are honoured with the Peter Pan statue by George Frampton located in the park. Rodrigo Fresáns novel Kensington Gardens concerns in part the life of J. M. Barrie and of his creation Peter Pan, the Infocom interactive fiction game Trinity begins in the Kensington Gardens. The player can walk around many sections of the gardens, which are described in moderate detail, list of public art in Kensington Gardens Citations Bibliography Official website The Garden a poem by Ezra Pound set in Kensington Gardens
27.
Kensington High Street
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Kensington High Street is the main shopping street in Kensington, London. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London, Kensington High Street is the continuation of Kensington Road and part of the A315. It starts by the entrance to Kensington Palace and runs westward through central Kensington, near Kensington station, where the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea ends and London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham begins, it ends and becomes Hammersmith Road. The street is served by High Street Kensington underground station, Kensington High Street is one of western Londons most popular shopping streets, with upmarket shops serving a wealthy area. From the late 19th century until the mid-1970s the street had three classic department stores, Barkers of Kensington, Derry & Toms and Pontings, Barkers bought Pontings in 1906 and Derry & Toms in 1920, but continued to run all three as separate entities. In a big building project started in 1930 and was not complete until 1958. In 1957 House of Fraser bought the Barkers Group and started to dismantle it, Pontings was closed in 1971, Derry & Toms in 1973, and a much condensed Barkers was allowed to continue until January 2006, when the 135-year-old department store was closed for good. Part of the Barker premises has now taken over by American Whole Foods Market. The rest was added to existing office space used by the headquarters of Associated Newspapers, Kensington High Street was also the site of Biba in the 1960s and early 1970s. When Derry & Toms closed, the store took the building. But the 1970s recession, coupled with business ideas, killed Biba in 1975. The Derry & Toms roof gardens still remain, now known as the Kensington Roof Gardens, Kensington High Streets future as a shopping street has been threatened by the large Westfield London, which opened a short distance away in Shepherds Bush in late 2008. However, these factors may be offset to some extent - or even outweighed - by recent changes to the road layout, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea decided to experiment with the concept of shared space, which deputy leader Daniel Moylan had studied abroad. Railings and pedestrian crossings were removed, thereby enabling pedestrians to cross the street wherever they choose, bicycle racks were placed on the central reservation. The effect over two years was a cut in accidents, down 44% against a London average of 17%. The only Bristol Cars dealership in all of the UK is located on this street as well. Kensington High Street is served by bus routes 9,10,27,28,49,52,70,328,452, C1, night routes N9, N28, N31, N52 and Greenline routes 701 and 702. It is also served by High Street Kensington tube station, on the Circle and District lines
28.
Notting Hill
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Notting Hill is an affluent district in West London, located north of Kensington within the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea as well as Westminster. Notting Hill is known for being a neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting Hill Carnival. For much of the 20th century, the houses were subdivided into multi-occupancy rentals. Since it was first developed in the 1820s, Notting Hill has had an association with artists, the area in the west around Pottery Lane was used in the early 19th century for making bricks and tiles out of the heavy clay dug in the area. The clay was shaped and fired in a series of brick, the only remaining 19th-century tile kiln in London is on Walmer Road. In the same area, pig farmers moved in after being forced out of the Marble Arch area, avondale Park was created in 1892 out of a former area of pig slurry called the Ocean. This was part of a general clean-up of the area which had known as the Potteries and Piggeries. The area remained rural until the expansion of London reached Bayswater in the early 19th century. The main landowner in Notting Hill was the Ladbroke family, working with the architect and surveyor Thomas Allason, Ladbroke began to lay out streets and houses, with a view to turning the area into a fashionable suburb of the capital. Many of these bear the Ladbroke name, including Ladbroke Grove, the main north-south axis of the area, and Ladbroke Square. The original idea was to call the district Kensington Park, the local telephone prefix 7727 is based on the old telephone exchange name of PARk. Ladbroke left the business of developing his land to the firm of City solicitors, Smith, Bayley. In 1823 Allason completed a plan for the layout of the portion of the estate. This marks the genesis of his most enduring idea – the creation of large communal gardens, originally known as pleasure grounds, or paddocks. To this day these communal garden squares continue to provide the area much of its attraction for the wealthiest householders. In 1837 the Hippodrome racecourse was laid out, the racecourse ran around the hill, and bystanders were expected to watch from the summit of the hill. However, the venture was not a success, in due to a public right of way which traversed the course. The Hippodrome closed in 1841, after which development resumed and houses were built on the site, at the summit of hill stands the elegant St Johns church, built in 1845 in the early English style, and which formed the centrepiece of the Ladbroke Estate development
29.
Westbourne Grove
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Westbourne Grove is a retail road running across Notting Hill, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the City of Westminster, a section of west London. It runs from Kensington Park Road in the west to Queensway in the east and it contains a mixture of independent and chain retailers, and has been termed both fashionable and up-and-coming. The Notting Hill Carnival passes along the part of Westbourne Grove. There are a number of popular shopping destinations located on Westbourne Grove and adjoining streets, pre-eminently, Portobello Market, Queensway and it was here that Madonna headed during breaks in filming Evita - to the funky boutiques, the avant-garde florists, the designer jewellery and futuristic furniture. In February 2004, the London Plan was first issued and, paired with Queensway, around 2007, the roads eastern Bayswater-end, underwent a rapid period of transformation, east of Chepstow Road. Upon lease expiry, rents increased significantly and pricing-out many incumbent family businesses, the development of Westbourne Grove began in the 1840s and proceeded from the east to the west, where it became the principal east-west artery into the Ladbroke Estate. The far western end of the street became known as Westbourne Grove relatively recently in 1938. Cronin opened his own practice at 152 Westbourne Grove. Westbourne Grove takes its name from Westbourne Green - a settlement that developed to the west of the bourne that later took the name River Westbourne and this river currently runs underground at Ossington Street. The area is first recorded in 1222 as Westeburn, Westbourne Green is first recorded as Westborne Grene in 1548. Westbourne Green formed part of the parish of Paddington, there was a small settlement to the north of what is now Westbourne Grove at Westbourne Green. The central third was topped by a pediment and contained the main door. The lower two storeys were formed into bays at each end, which contained three windows each, the house was demolished in 1836 to make way for the houses and gardens of what is now Westbourne Park Villas. Thomas Hardy lived in area, mainly at no 16 Westbourne Park Villas. Also north of what is now Westbourne Grove was Westbourne Farm which was the home, the Farm was at the point where the Harrow Road, the Westway and the canal converge. Mrs Siddons was buried at St Marys Church, the church of Paddington, on Paddington Green. He was known for his violent evictions of tenants with legally fixed rents and he operated from an office in Westbourne Grove. Part of the area, including streets between Ledbury Rd & Shrewsbury Road to the south of Westbourne Park Road, became derelict and was compulsorily purchased and demolished
30.
Ledbury Road
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Ledbury Road is situated near Notting Hill Gate and within the area known as Portobello. The road is intersected by Westbourne Grove and it has a number of restaurants and bars running down its length, examples of these are The Ledbury and the Bleach Blank Babylon bar. The road is home to a number of fashionable boutiques including Reiss. The High Commission of Gambia is also located on the road, well known local residents include Mike Atherton, Carol Wyatt. The road has appeared in films, including Notting Hill and Match Point. Londons Best Shops, The Essential London Sourcebook, time Out Guides,1 August 2010. Pg.75 Media related to Ledbury Road at Wikimedia Commons
31.
Portobello Road
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Portobello Road is a street in the Notting Hill district of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in west London. It runs almost the length of Notting Hill from south to north, on Saturdays it is home to Portobello Road Market, one of Londons notable street markets, known for its second-hand clothes and antiques. Every August since 1996, the Portobello Film Festival has been held in locations around Portobello Road. Portobello Road was known prior to 1740 as Greens Lane - a winding path leading from Kensington Gravel Pits, in what is now Notting Hill Gate. In 1740, Portobello Farm was built in the area near what is now Golborne Road, the farm got its name from a popular victory during the lost War of Jenkins Ear, when Admiral Edward Vernon captured the Spanish-ruled town of Puerto Bello. Vernon Yard, which runs off Portobello Road, still honours the Admirals name to this day, the Portobello farming area covered the land which is now St. Charles Hospital. Portobello Farm was sold to an order of nuns after the railways came in 1864 and they built St Josephs Convent for the Dominican Order - or the Black Friars as they were known in England. Portobello Road is a construction of the Victorian era, before about 1850, it was little more than a country lane connecting Portobello Farm with Kensal Green in the north and what is today Notting Hill in the south. Much of it consisted of hayfields, orchards and other open land, the road ultimately took form piecemeal in the second half of the 19th century, nestling between the large new residential developments of Paddington and Notting Hill. Portobello Roads distinctiveness does not rely only on its market, a range of communities inhabiting the street and the district contributes to a cosmopolitan and energetic atmosphere, as do the many restaurants and pubs. The architecture plays a part too, as the road meanders and curves gracefully along most of its length, mid- to late-Victorian terrace houses and shops predominate, squeezed tightly into the available space, adding intimacy and a pleasing scale to the streetscape. The Friends of Portobello campaign seeks to preserve the unique dynamic. Portobello Road is also home to the Grade II* Electric Cinema, the average grade of ascent or descent between the northern end and the lowest point is about 1.77 percent. The main market day for antiques is Saturday, however, there are also fruit and vegetable stalls in the market, which trade throughout the week and are located further north than the antiques, near the Westway Flyover. The market began as a market in the 19th century, antiques dealers arrived in the late 1940s and 50s. It is the largest antiques market in the UK, the market section of Portobello Road runs in a direction generally between the north-northwest and the south-south-east. The northern terminus is at Golborne Road, the end is at Westbourne Grove. The market area is about 1,028 yards long, about one third of the way from its north end, the market runs beneath adjacent bridges of the A40 road and the Hammersmith & City line of the London Underground
32.
Notting Hill Carnival
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In 2006, the UK public voted it onto the list of icons of England. Despite its name, it is not part of the global Carnival season preceding Lent, professor David Dabydeen has stated, Carnival is not alien to British culture. Bartholomew Fair and Southwark Fair in the 18th century were moments of great festivity, there was juggling, pickpocketing, whoring, drinking, masquerade — people dressed up as the Archbishop of Canterbury and indulged in vulgar acts. It allowed people a space to free-up but it was banned for moral reasons, Carnival allowed people to dramatise their grievances against the authorities on the street. Notting Hill Carnival single-handedly revived this tradition and is a contribution to British cultural life. Bartholomews Fair was suppressed in 1855 by the City authorities for encouraging debauchery, the roots of the Notting Hill Carnival that took shape in the mid-1960s come from two separate but connected strands. The other important strand was the hippie London Free School-inspired festival in Notting Hill that became the first organised outside event in August 1966, the prime mover was Rhaune Laslett, who was not aware of the indoor events when she first raised the idea. This festival was a more diverse Notting Hill event to promote cultural unity, a street party for neighbourhood children turned into a carnival procession when Russell Hendersons steel band went on a walkabout. By 1970, the Notting Hill Carnival consisted of 2 music bands, among the early bands to participate were Ebony Steelband and Metronomes Steelband. Notting Hill Carnival became a festival in 1975 when it was organised by a young teacher. Palmer, who was director from 1973 to 1975, is credited with getting sponsorship, recruiting more steel bands, reggae groups and sound systems, introducing generators, the carnival was also popularised by live radio broadcasts by Pascall on his daily Black Londoners programme for BBC Radio London. Notting Hill Carnival is very reminiscent of Jamaican dancehall sessions due to the sounding of the event creating a space, Notting Hill Carnival’s use of sound systems invokes cultural and personal associations for listeners, bringing about another space, or a home for populations of the Black Atlantic Diaspora. Physically, the dominance of the sound envelops the crowd, creating a setting for the Carnival even though there are no physical boundaries, the fact that the sound systems are in the streets precipitates an environment where participants hear the sounds before they can actually see the systems themselves. Emslie Hornimans Pleasance, with Kensal Green and Westbourne Park tube stations its closest tube station, has been the traditional starting point. By 1976, the event had become definitely Caribbean in flavour, during this period, there was considerable press coverage of the disorder, which some felt took an unfairly negative and one-sided view of the carnival. For a while it looked as if the event would be banned, prince Charles was one of the few establishment figures who supported the event. Concerns about the size of the event resulted in Londons then mayor, Ken Livingstone, an interim report by the review resulted in a change to the route in 2002. In 2003, the Notting Hill Carnival was run by a limited company, a report by the London Development Agency on the 2002 Carnival estimated that the event contributes around £93 million to the London and UK economy
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Holland House
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Holland House, originally known as Cope Castle, was a great house in Kensington in London, situated in what is now Holland Park. The house was destroyed by German firebombing during the Blitz in 1940, today only the east wing. Cope commissioned the house in 1604 from the architect John Thorpe, the building was of a common shape for large houses of the time, containing a centre block and two porches. The building received a large expansion between 1625 and 1635 at the direction of Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland, Copes son-in law and owner of the building, who added two wings and arcades. In 1629, Rich commissioned Inigo Jones to design and the master mason Nicholas Stone to carve a pair of Portland stone piers, in order to support large wooden gates for the house. The piers, still extant, take the form of Doric columns on pedestals, the piers have been moved to new positions on several occasions. While their exact position is not known, a survey in 1694 showed them as being on the drive leading to the houses main entrance on its south side. In 1848, as part of a restructuring of the house by the 4th Lord Holland. Following the houses destruction in the Second World War, and the conversion in 1959 of the remains of the east wing into a youth hostel, Copes son-in-law, Henry Rich eventually inherited the house. Rich was granted the titles of Baron Kensington and Earl of Holland by James I and he was later beheaded for his Royalist activities during the Civil War and the house was then used as an army headquarters, being regularly visited by Oliver Cromwell. Lord Hollands headless ghost was reported as haunting the house. King William III had been a lifelong sufferer from asthma, attempting to improve his health, he decided to move his court. In 1719, Joseph Addison, the English essayist, poet and politician, Holland House passed to the Edwardes family in 1721. At its peak, Copes estate had comprised some five hundred acres of land, by the time it was purchased by Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland, from William Edwardes in 1768, it had shrunk to two hundred acres. Fox had begun living at the mansion in 1746, and in 1749 obtained a lease from Edwardes of the house, Fox died at Holland House in 1774 and thereafter it was inherited by his descendants. The figure of the political and historical writer John Allen was so associated with the house that he was known as Holland House Allen, the prestige of Holland House extended to British colonies. In 1831 Henry John Boulton, who was born in Holland House, Henry John Boulton had been born in the famous English house, and he commemorated that fact by naming the Toronto home Holland House. Harpers New Monthly Magazine described Holland House as having had a Gilt Chamber, where the figures over the fireplace were painted in flesh colour wherever bare, the rest was in shaded gold
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Kensington
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Kensington is an affluent district within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London. Its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, the affluent and densely populated area contains the major museum district of South Kensington, which has the Royal Albert Hall for music and nearby Royal College of Music. The area is home to many of Londons European embassies, the first mention of the area is in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it was written in Latin as Chenesitone, which has been interpreted to have originally been Kenesignetun in Anglo-Saxon. A variation may be Kesyngton, in 1396 and he in turn granted the tenancy of Kensington to his vassal Aubrey de Vere I, who was holding the manor in 1086, according to Domesday Book. The bishops heir, Robert de Mowbray, rebelled against William Rufus, Aubrey de Vere I had his tenure converted to a tenancy in-chief, holding Kensington after 1095 directly of the crown. He granted land and church there to Abingdon Abbey at the deathbed request of his young eldest son, Geoffrey. As the Veres became the earls of Oxford, their estate at Kensington came to be known as Earls Court, while the Abingdon lands were called Abbots Kensington and the church St Mary Abbots. The original Kensington Barracks, built at Kensington Gate in the late 18th century, were demolished in 1858, the focus of the area is Kensington High Street, a busy commercial centre with many shops, typically upmarket. The street was declared Londons second best shopping street in February 2005 thanks to its range, however, since October 2008 the street has faced competition from the Westfield shopping centre in nearby White City. Kensingtons second group of buildings is at South Kensington, where several streets of small to medium-sized shops. This is also the end of Exhibition Road, the thoroughfare that serves the areas museums. To the west, a border is kept along the line of the Counter Creek marked by the West London railway line, in the north east, the large Royal Park of Kensington Gardens is a green buffer. The other main area in Kensington is Holland Park, just north of Kensington High Street. Kensington is, in general, an affluent area, a trait that it now shares with its neighbour to the south. In early 2007, houses sold in Upper Phillimore Gardens for in excess of £20 million, Kensington is also very densely populated, it forms part of the most densely populated local government district in the United Kingdom. This high density is not formed from high-rise buildings, instead, unlike northern extremities of the Borough, Kensington lacks high-rise buildings except for the Holiday Inns London Kensington Forum Hotel in Cromwell Road, which is a 27-storey building. The Olympia exhibition hall is just over the border in West Kensington. Kensington is part of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, the head office of newspaper group DMGT is located in Northcliffe House in Kensington, which is the office part of the large Barkers building
35.
Holland Road, London
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Holland Road, Holland Park, London W14 is a road in Kensington London, England, which connects Kensington High Street with the Holland Park roundabout. The southernmost section is one-way and forms part of the Kensington/Earls Court one-way system, the Road forms part of the A3220 road. To the east is Addison Road and Holland Park, to the west is West Kensington and Kensington station. Holland Road Kensington London W14 is a prominent residential road situated in the district of Holland Park within The Royal Borough of Kensington and this partly tree lined boulevard runs roughly North - South and is characterised by its imposing splendid period Victorian architecture. Most of the town houses are 4 or 5 storeys high and feature either painted Italianate stucco or ornate brick facades. As with many very large Kensington townhouses constructed in the 1870s, most of the houses have since been converted into spacious. Part of the stretch of the Road, between 40 and 94 is also within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Holland Conservation area. The greenery of Holland Park itself is five minutes walk away to the East. The road attracts well heeled, creative and vibrant cosmopolitan residents from all over the world, famous former residents include the legendary lead singer of the rock group Queen, the late Freddie Mercury. He wrote the classic bestseller Bohemian Rhapsody whilst living at 100 Holland Road in the 1970s, the front cover from a record album is from a photo session of Queen taken at Freddies flat in Holland Road. Continuing with the musical artist theme, the Corporate Headquarters of Universal Music are actually located on the corner of Holland Road and Kensington High Street. Universal Music is the UK’s leading music company and is home to artists from Queen to Mumford & Sons—who wrote a song entitled Holland Road—. The Society of Science, Letters and Art, a late 19th century bogus learned society, had its headquarters at Addison House,160 Holland Road
36.
Holland Park Avenue
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Holland Park Avenue is a street located in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in west central London. Holland Park Avenues present design was out in the 19th century. Politically, Holland Park Avenue is located at the boundaries of four CAS wards, Norland, Holland, Pembridge, to the south of the street is Holland Park, one of Londons largest and most romantic parks, featuring a Japanese garden, opera house, and numerous peacocks. The street was largely rural until the 19th century, most of the surrounding neighbourhood was formerly the grounds of the Jacobean mansion Holland House. In the later decades of the 19th century the owners of the house sold off land for development. Holland Park was for the most part comfortably upper middle class when originally developed, of the 19th century residential developments of the area one of the most architecturally interesting is The Royal Crescent, designed in 1839, and located just north of Holland Park Avenue. Architecturally, Royal Crescent incorporates parts of the side of Holland Park Avenue and was designed by planner Robert Cantwell. The stucco fronted crescent and its neighbours on Holland Park Avenue are painted white, today many of these four storey houses have been converted to flats, though a few remain as private houses. The Royal Crescent, and the terraces on Holland Park Avenue which adjoin it, are listed Grade 2*, a number of countries maintain embassies in the neighbourhood, with the Embassy of Turkmenistan located on the road itself. Holland Park Avenue is home to a variety of stores, restaurants, cafes and it is the location of the upmarket butcher Lidgate, as well as the baker Maison Blanc, and the independent bookseller Daunt books. The avenue is also on the route of the 94,31 and 148 buses as well as the night bus N207 and the 24-hour Oxford Tube service. There are several bus stops along both sides of Holland Park Avenue and although there are no taxi ranks on the street itself it is easy to hail a Black Cab almost anywhere, the heart of London is off the map to the right. The local councils page on the park Shopping on Holland Park Avenue at www. allinlondon. co. uk
37.
Richard Branson
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Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English business magnate, investor and philanthropist. He founded the Virgin Group, which more than 400 companies. Branson expressed his desire to become an entrepreneur at a young age, at the age of sixteen his first business venture was a magazine called Student. In 1970, he set up a mail-order record business, in 1972, he opened a chain of record stores, Virgin Records, later known as Virgin Megastores. Bransons Virgin brand grew rapidly during the 1980s, as he set up Virgin Atlantic airline, in March 2000, Branson was knighted at Buckingham Palace for services to entrepreneurship. For his work in retail, music and transport, his taste for adventure, in 2002 he was named in the BBCs poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. In January 2016, Forbes listed Bransons estimated net worth at $5.2 billion, Branson was born in Blackheath, London, the eldest of three children of Eve Branson, a former ballet dancer and air hostess, and Edward James Branson, a barrister. His grandfather, the Right Honourable Sir George Arthur Harwin Branson, was a judge of the High Court of Justice, Branson was educated at Scaitcliffe School, a prep school in Berkshire, before briefly attending Cliff View House School in Sussex. His third great-grandfather, John Edward Branson, left England for India in 1793 and his father, Harry Wilkins Branson, later joined him in Madras. On the show Finding Your Roots, Branson was shown to have 3. 9% South Asian DNA, Branson attended Stowe School, an independent school in Buckinghamshire until the age of sixteen. Branson has dyslexia and had poor performance, on his last day at school, his headmaster, Robert Drayson. Bransons parents were supportive of his endeavours from an early age, One of her most successful ventures was building and selling wooden tissue boxes and wastepaper bins. Branson started his business from a church where he ran Student magazine. Branson interviewed several prominent personalities of the late 1960s for the magazine including Mick Jagger, Branson advertised popular records in The Student and it was an overnight success. Trading under the name Virgin, he records for considerably less than the High Street outlets. Branson once said, There is no point in starting your own business unless you do it out of a sense of frustration, the name Virgin was suggested by one of Bransons early employees because they were all new at business. At the time, many products were sold under restrictive marketing agreements that limited discounting, Branson eventually started a record shop in Oxford Street in London. In 1971, Branson was questioned in connection with the selling of records in Virgin stores that had been declared export stock, the matter was never brought before a court because Branson agreed to repay any unpaid tax and a fine
38.
David Beckham
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David Robert Joseph Beckham, OBE is an English former professional footballer. He is the first English player to win titles in four countries, England, Spain. He announced his retirement in May 2013 after a 20-year career and he was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2008. A global ambassador for the sport, Beckham is regarded as a British cultural icon, Beckhams professional club career began with Manchester United, where he made his first-team debut in 1992 aged 17. With United, he won the Premier League title six times, the FA Cup twice, and he then played four seasons with Real Madrid, winning the La Liga championship in his final season with the club. In July 2007 Beckham signed a contract with Major League Soccer club LA Galaxy. While a Galaxy player, he spent two spells in Italy with Milan in 2009 and 2010. He was the first British footballer to play 100 UEFA Champions League games, in international football, Beckham made his England debut on 1 September 1996 at the age of 21. He was captain for six years, earning 58 caps during his tenure and he made 115 career appearances in total, appearing at three FIFA World Cup tournaments, in 1998,2002 and 2006, and two UEFA European Championship tournaments, in 2000 and 2004. Beckham has consistently ranked among the highest earners in football, and in 2013 he was listed as the player in the world. He has been married to Victoria Beckham since 1999 and they have four children and he has been a UNICEF UK ambassador since 2005, and in 2015 he launched 7, The David Beckham UNICEF Fund. In 2014, MLS announced Beckham and a group of investors would own a team in Miami. Beckham was born at Whipps Cross University Hospital in Leytonstone, London and he is the son of Sandra Georgina, a hairdresser, and David Edward Alan Ted Beckham, a kitchen fitter, who married at the London Borough of Hackney in 1969. He has a sister, Lynne Georgina, and a younger sister. He regularly played football in Ridgeway Park, Chingford, as a child, in a 2007 interview, Beckham said that, At school whenever the teachers asked, What do you want to do when youre older. Id say, I want to be a footballer, and theyd say, No, what do you really want to do, for a job. But that was the only thing I ever wanted to do, Beckhams maternal grandfather was Jewish, and Beckham has referred to himself as half Jewish and wrote in his autobiography Ive probably had more contact with Judaism than with any other religion. In his book Both Feet on the Ground, he stated that growing up he attended every week with his parents
39.
Victoria Beckham
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Victoria Caroline Beckham, OBE is an English businesswoman, fashion designer, model, and singer. In the late 1990s, Beckham rose to fame with the pop group Spice Girls. After the Spice Girls split, she was signed to Virgin Records and her first release, Out of Your Mind, reached #2 in the UK Singles Chart. She has since made a appearance in an episode of Ugly Betty, and been a guest judge on Project Runway, Germanys Next Topmodel. In the past decade, Beckham has become an internationally recognised style icon and fashion designer, following high-profile collaborations with other brands, she launched an eponymous label in 2008, and a lower-priced label in 2011. The Victoria Beckham label was named designer brand of the year in the UK in 2011 and she is married to David Beckham, and they have four children. As of September 2015, the couples joint wealth is estimated at £508 million, Beckham was born at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, Essex, United Kingdom, and raised in Goffs Oak, Hertfordshire. She is the eldest of three children of Jacqueline Doreen, an insurance clerk and hairdresser, and Anthony William Adams. They founded a wholesale business which allowed a comfortable upbringing for Victoria, her sister, Louise. In 1980, she watched the musical film Fame and subsequently made the decision to pursue a musical career, Jacqueline and Anthony Adams enrolled her at Jason Theatre School. In 1991, Beckham entered Laine Theatre Arts in Epsom, Surrey and studied dance, Beckham attended St. Marys High School in Cheshunt, where she was embarrassed by her familys wealth and often begged her father not to drop her off outside the school in their Rolls Royce. Eventually, she became a member of a band called Persuasion, Beckham made a guest appearance on the catwalk for Maria Grachvogel on 17 February 2000, marking her debut as a model at London Fashion Week. Beckham also acted as a British ambassador for Dolce and Gabbana and was briefly the face of Rocawear in 2003. Beckham designed a fashion line for Rock & Republic called VB Rocks in 2004, consisting mainly of jeans for the high end of the market. On 16 January 2006, Beckham walked the runway for Roberto Cavalli at Milan Fashion Week, for the March 2006 issue of Harpers Bazaar, Beckham acted as fashion editor when she styled her close friend, Katie Holmes, for a fashion shoot. She has admitted to a love of sunglasses, saying Im quite obsessed with sunglasses. I collect vintage Guccis and Carreras – they can make virtually any outfit look cool, after Beckhams departure from Rock & Republic, in September 2006, she furthered her fashion ventures by launching her own denim label, dvb Style. Beckham then launched a new website, dvbstyle. com to promote her fashion work
40.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
41.
Commonwealth Institute
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The Commonwealth Institute was established, as the Imperial Institute, by royal charter from Queen Victoria in 1888. Its name was changed to the Commonwealth Institute in 1958, the organisation in corporate form proved not to be viable and in 2002 the members resolved to close the operations and sell the property which was too costly for the charity to maintain. The name is no longer associated with the property in Kensington, no funding was given by Her Majestys Government. The Imperial Institute building was opened in 1893 by Queen Victoria, the Institutes early activities are detailed in its journals. This was effected in 1902 by statute with the then Prince of Wales remaining as President of the Institute, the building and endowment fund set up from the initial collection were recognised as charity assets which were consequently vested in its Trustees. With its President as Trustee and also as the responsible Minister, the Board of Trade was required to fulfil the purposes of the Institute, which remained unchanged. Its purposes were reconfigured with a change in prominence from the exhibition galleries, the Imperial Institute was housed in a substantial and architecturally noted building of the same name on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, from 1893. The building was designed by T. E, collcutt and built by John Mowlem & Co from 1887 to 1894, and was paid for almost entirely by public subscription. At the time the responsible Minister was the Minister of Education, in 1962, the Commonwealth Institute moved to a distinctive copper-roofed building on Kensington High Street, immediately south of Holland Park. The building, designed by Robert Matthew Johnson-Marshall & Partners, was opened on Tuesday,6 November 1962, by Queen Elizabeth II. It was open to the public and contained a permanent exhibition about the nations of the Commonwealth, in addition to the exhibition, the Institute ran an important library of Commonwealth literature and hosted cultural and educational events. Later that year the building was given a Grade II* listing with associated restrictions on any building works or development possibilities, in 1989 a further estimate of £10m was given for more extensive refurbishment. In 1993 the FCO announced that funding would cease completely in 1996 and this failed to attract further funds and in 2002 the countries decided it would cease its activities and the building would be sold. Funding of £3,996,435 was also provided for specified works to the building incorporating comprehensive repairs to the roof, the arrangements also included an indemnity in favour of the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs as responsible Minister. The Statutes governing the Institute were not repealed until 2003 when the remainder of the original Victorian endowment fund was also released to the company without restrictions, by April 2002, the financial model of the Institute as a corporate entity had been recognised as not sustainable. A revised plan was put in place immediately and all funded activities were closed by the end of November, in late 2002 in a general meeting the members agreed to the disposal of the building and to the application of the proceeds to advancing education in the Commonwealth. The Institute held a number of ethnographic objects and an art collection that had been acquired during the period from the opening of the Imperial Institute. From 1958 to 2003 these were under control of the responsible Minister under the legislation until 2003, the remainder are now held under trust by the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery
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Orangery
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The orangery provided a luxurious extension of the normal range and season of woody plants, extending the protection which had long been afforded by the warmth offered from a masonry fruit wall. As imported citrus fruit, pineapples, and other tender fruit became generally available and much cheaper, the orangery originated from the Renaissance gardens of Italy, when glass-making technology enabled sufficient expanses of clear glass to be produced. This soon created a situation where orangeries became symbols of status among the wealthy, the glazed roof, which afforded sunlight to plants that were not dormant, was a development of the early 19th century. The 1617 Orangerie at the Palace of the Louvre inspired imitations that culminated in Europes largest orangery, notable for his 1851 design of the Crystal Palace, his great conservatory at Chatsworth House was an orangery and glass house of monumental proportions. The orangery, however, was not just a greenhouse but a symbol of prestige and wealth, owners would conduct their guests there on tours of the garden to admire not only the fruits within but also the architecture without. Often the orangery would contain fountains, grottos, and an area in which to entertain in inclement weather, as early as 1545, an orangery was built in Padua, Italy. The first orangeries were practical and not as ornamental as they later became, most had no heating other than open fires. In England, John Parkinson introduced the orangery to the readers of his Paradisus in Sole, the building of orangeries became most widely fashionable after the end of the Eighty Years War in 1648. Orangeries were generally built facing south to take advantage of the possible light, and were constructed using brick or stone bases, brick or stone pillars. Insulation at these times was one of the biggest concerns for the building of these orangeries, straw became the material used. An early example of the type of construction can be seen at Kensington Palace, domestic orangeries also typically feature a roof lantern. The first examples were basic constructions and could be removed during summer, notably not only noblemen but also wealthy merchants, e. g. those of Nuremberg, used to cultivate citrus plants in orangeries. This became further influenced by the demand for beautiful exotic plants in the garden. This created the demand in garden design for the wealthy to have their own exotic private gardens. This in turn created the need for orangeries to be constructed using even better techniques such as underfloor heating, creating microclimates for the propagation of more and more exotic plants for the private gardens that were becoming creations of beauty all around Europe. At a length of 28 metres, it was the largest glasshouse in Britain when it was built, although designed as an arcade with end pavilions to winter oranges, the light levels under its solid roof were too low for it to be successful. The orangery at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, was designed in 1761 by Sir William Chambers, the orangery at Margam Park, Wales, was built between 1787 and 1793 to house a large collection of orange, lemon, and citron trees inherited by Thomas Mansel Talbot. The original house has been razed, but the surviving orangery, an orangery dating from about 1700 is at Kenwood House in London, and a slightly earlier one at Montacute
