1.
Marble
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Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Geologists use the marble to refer to metamorphosed limestone, however. Marble is commonly used for sculpture and as a building material and this stem is also the basis for the English word marmoreal, meaning marble-like. In Hungarian it is called márvány, Marble is a rock resulting from metamorphism of sedimentary carbonate rocks, most commonly limestone or dolomite rock. Metamorphism causes variable recrystallization of the carbonate mineral grains. The resulting marble rock is composed of an interlocking mosaic of carbonate crystals. Primary sedimentary textures and structures of the carbonate rock have typically been modified or destroyed. Pure white marble is the result of metamorphism of a very pure limestone or dolomite protolith, green coloration is often due to serpentine resulting from originally magnesium-rich limestone or dolostone with silica impurities. These various impurities have been mobilized and recrystallized by the intense pressure, examples of historically notable marble varieties and locations, White marble has been prized for its use in sculptures since classical times. This preference has to do with its softness, which made it easier to carve, relative isotropy and homogeneity, construction marble is a stone which is composed of calcite, dolomite or serpentine which is capable of taking a polish. More generally in construction, specifically the dimension stone trade, the marble is used for any crystalline calcitic rock useful as building stone. For example, Tennessee marble is really a dense granular fossiliferous gray to pink to maroon Ordovician limestone that geologists call the Holston Formation. Ashgabat, the city of Turkmenistan, was recorded in the 2013 Guinness Book of Records as having the worlds highest concentration of white marble buildings. According to the United States Geological Survey, U. S. domestic marble production in 2006 was 46,400 tons valued at about $18.1 million, compared to 72,300 tons valued at $18.9 million in 2005. Crushed marble production in 2006 was 11.8 million tons valued at $116 million, of which 6.5 million tons was finely ground calcium carbonate and the rest was construction aggregate. For comparison,2005 crushed marble production was 7.76 million tons valued at $58.7 million, of which 4.8 million tons was finely ground calcium carbonate, U. S. dimension marble demand is about 1.3 million tons. The DSAN World Demand for Marble Index has shown a growth of 12% annually for the 2000–2006 period, the largest dimension marble application is tile. In 1998, marble production was dominated by 4 countries that accounted for almost half of production of marble
2.
Triumphal arch
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A triumphal arch is a monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road. The main structure is decorated with carvings, sculpted reliefs. More elaborate triumphal arches may have multiple archways, Triumphal arches are one of the most influential and distinctive types of architecture associated with ancient Rome. The survival of great Roman triumphal arches such as the Arch of Titus inspired many states and rulers, up to the present day. Triumphal arch is also the given to the arch above the entrance to the chancel of a medieval church where a rood can be placed. The origins of the Roman triumphal arch are unclear, Triumphal arch look similar to Mesopotamian Arch entrances like the Ishtar Gate but there is no evidence to support that the Romans got their influence from there. The development of the arch is often associated with ancient Roman architecture. To fully understand this development however it is important to understand the importance of basic arches in Roman civilization, the Romans had learned how to construct effective arches from the Etruscans, who lived in central Italy. This knowledge had a impact on the architecture of Roman civilization. As a result, the Romans used arches for things such as aqueducts, amphitheaters, bridges and they had effectively used the arch in various aspects of their civilization and city structure. Since the Romans had effectively perfected this architectural structure, one could conclude that the arch symbolized perfection, monumental gateways had already been in use for hundreds of years by civilizations such as the Hittites, Assyrians, Babylonians and Myceneans. There were precursors to the arch within the Roman world, in Italy. Surviving examples of Etruscan arches can still be seen at Perugia, the two key elements of the triumphal arch – a round-topped arch and a square entablature – had long been in use as separate architectural elements in ancient Greece. Entablatures were a part of the structural fabric of such buildings. The great innovation of the Romans was to combine a round arch, the first recorded Roman triumphal arches were set up in the time of the Roman Republic. Generals who were granted a triumph were termed triumphators and would erect fornices or honorific arches bearing statues to commemorate their victories, a number of fornices were built in Rome during the Republican era. Lucius Steritinus erected two in 196 BC to commemorate his victories in Hispania, another fornix was built on the Capitoline Hill by Scipio Africanus in 190 BC, and Quintus Fabius Maximus Allobrogicus constructed one in the Roman Forum in 121 BC. None of them today and little is known about their appearance
3.
John Nash (architect)
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John Nash was a British architect responsible for much of the layout of Regency London under the patronage of the Prince Regent, and during his reign as George IV. Nash was also a pioneer in the use of the Picturesque in architecture and his best-known buildings are the Royal Pavilion, Brighton, and Buckingham Palace. Many of his buildings were built by the property developer James Burton, in return, Nash promoted the career of Burtons son, Decimus Burton, who assisted him with several of his designs and later became a famous architect in his own right. Nash was born during 1752 in Lambeth, south London, the son of a Welsh millwright also called John, from 1766 or 67, John Nash trained with the architect Sir Robert Taylor, the apprenticeship was completed in 1775 or 1776. On 28 April 1775, at the now demolished church of St Mary Newington, Nash married his first wife Jane Elizabeth Kerr, initially he seems to have pursued a career as a surveyor, builder and carpenter. This gave him an income of around £300 a year, the couple set up home at Royal Row Lambeth. He established his own practice in 1777 as well as being in partnership with a timber merchant. The couple had two children, both were baptised at St Mary-at-Lambeth, John on 9 June 1776 and Hugh on 28 April 1778. The claim that Jane had faked her pregnancies and then passed babies she had acquired off as her own was brought before the Consistory court of the Bishop of London. His wife was sent to Aberavon to lodge with Nashs cousin Ann Morgan, in an attempt at reconciliation Jane returned to London in June 1779, but she continued to act extravagantly so he sent her to another cousin, Thomas Edwards of Neath. She gave birth just after Christmas, and acknowledged Charles Charles as the father, in 1781 Nash instigated action against Jane for separation on grounds of adultery. The case was tried at Hereford in 1782, Charles who was guilty was unable to pay the damages of £76. The divorce was finally read 26 January 1787 and his career was initially unsuccessful and short-lived. After inheriting £1000 in 1778 from his uncle Thomas, he invested the money in building his first known independent works, 15–17 Bloomsbury Square, but the property failed to let and he was declared bankrupt on 30 September 1783. His debts were £5000, including £2000 he had been lent by Robert Adam, a blue plaque commemorating Nash was placed on 66 Great Russell Street by English Heritage in 2013. Nash left London in 1784 to live in Carmarthen, to where his mother had retired, in 1785 he and a local man Samuel Simon Saxon re-roofed the towns church for 600 Guineas. Nash and Saxon seem to have worked as building contractors and suppliers of building materials, Nashs London buildings had been standard Georgian terrace houses, and it was in Wales that he matured as an architect. He went on to design the prisons at Cardigan and Hereford and it was at Hereford that Nash met Richard Payne Knight, whose theories on the picturesque as applies to architecture and landscape would influence Nash
4.
Cour d'honneur
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The Palace of Versailles and Blenheim Palace both feature such entrance courts. Its open courtyard is presented like the permanent theatre set of a proscenium stage. Like the theatre set the environment is defined and enclosed from the more public space by ornate wrought iron gilded railings. Other 16th century urban palazzi remained resolutely enclosed, like Palazzo Farnese, in Rome, the wings of Carlo Madernos Palazzo Barberini design, were the first that reached forward from a central block to create a cour dhonneur floorplan. On a condensed, urban scale the formula is expressed in Parisian private houses, hôtels particuliers built entre cour et jardin, between court and garden. Nearby, the Tuileries Palace is gone, but the cour dhonneur with its Arc du Carrousel remains, vanderbilt House on the Plaza were the rare exceptions. The much-photographed front façade of Buckingham Palace was refashioned by Sir Aston Webb in 1913, the cour dhonneur, now known as The Quadrangle, still retains the principal entrance to the palace however
5.
Buckingham Palace
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Buckingham Palace is the London residence and administrative headquarters of the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and it has been a focal point for the British people at times of national rejoicing and mourning. It was acquired by King George III in 1761 as a residence for Queen Charlotte. During the 19th century it was enlarged, principally by architects John Nash and Edward Blore, Buckingham Palace became the London residence of the British monarch on the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837. The palace chapel was destroyed by a German bomb during World War II, the original early 19th-century interior designs, many of which survive, include widespread use of brightly coloured scagliola and blue and pink lapis, on the advice of Sir Charles Long. King Edward VII oversaw a partial redecoration in a Belle Époque cream, many smaller reception rooms are furnished in the Chinese regency style with furniture and fittings brought from the Royal Pavilion at Brighton and from Carlton House. The palace has 775 rooms, and the garden is the largest private garden in London, the state rooms, used for official and state entertaining, are open to the public each year for most of August and September and on some days in winter and spring. In the Middle Ages, the site of the palace formed part of the Manor of Ebury. The marshy ground was watered by the river Tyburn, which flows below the courtyard. Where the river was fordable, the village of Eye Cross grew, ownership of the site changed hands many times, owners included Edward the Confessor and his queen consort Edith of Wessex in late Saxon times, and, after the Norman Conquest, William the Conqueror. William gave the site to Geoffrey de Mandeville, who bequeathed it to the monks of Westminster Abbey, in 1531, King Henry VIII acquired the Hospital of St James from Eton College, and in 1536 he took the Manor of Ebury from Westminster Abbey. These transfers brought the site of Buckingham Palace back into royal hands for the first time since William the Conqueror had given it away almost 500 years earlier, various owners leased it from royal landlords and the freehold was the subject of frenzied speculation during the 17th century. By then, the old village of Eye Cross had long fallen into decay. Needing money, James I sold off part of the Crown freehold, clement Walker in Anarchia Anglicana refers to new-erected sodoms and spintries at the Mulberry Garden at S. Jamess, this suggests it may have been a place of debauchery. Eventually, in the late 17th century, the freehold was inherited from the property tycoon Sir Hugh Audley by the great heiress Mary Davies, possibly the first house erected within the site was that of a Sir William Blake, around 1624. The next owner was Lord Goring, who from 1633 extended Blakes house and he did not, however, obtain the freehold interest in the mulberry garden. Unbeknown to Goring, in 1640 the document failed to pass the Great Seal before King Charles I fled London and it was this critical omission that helped the British royal family regain the freehold under King George III. The improvident Goring defaulted on his rents, Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington obtained the mansion and was occupying it, now known as Goring House, Arlington House rose on the site—the location of the southern wing of todays palace—the next year
6.
Park Lane (road)
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Park Lane is a major road in the City of Westminster, in Central London. It is part of the London Inner Ring Road and runs from Hyde Park Corner in the south to Marble Arch in the north and it separates Hyde Park to the west from Mayfair to the east. The road has a number of important properties and hotels and has been one of the most sought after streets in London. The road was originally a country lane on the boundary of Hyde Park. Aristocratic properties appeared during the late 18th century, including Breadalbene House, Somerset House, notable residents included the 1st Duke of Westminsters residence at Grosvenor House, the Dukes of Somerset at Somerset House and the British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli at No.93. Other historic properties include Dorchester House, Brook House and Dudley House, flats and shops began appearing on the road, including penthouse flats. A number of properties on the road today are owned by some of the wealthiest businessmen from the Middle East, current residents include business mogul Mohamed Al-Fayed and former council leader Dame Shirley Porter. The road has suffered traffic congestion since the mid 19th century. Improved crossings for cyclists appeared in the early 21st century, despite the changes, property prices along the road are still among the highest in London. Its prestigious status has been commemorated by being the second-most expensive property square on the London Monopoly board, Park Lane is about 0.7 miles long, and runs north from Hyde Park Corner to Marble Arch, along the eastern flank of Hyde Park. The road is a route, classified A4202. The street is one of the key bus corridors in Central London. It is used by London bus routes 2,10,13,16,36,73,74,137,148,414,436 and night bus routes N16, N73, N74 and N137. The nearest tube stations are Hyde Park Corner on the Piccadilly line near the southern end. What is now Park Lane was originally a track running along farm boundaries, when Hyde Park was opened in the 16th century, the lane ran north-south along eastern boundary from Piccadilly to Marble Arch. Tyburn Lane took its name from the former Tyburn village which had declined in the 14th century, the Tyburn gallows, or Tyburn Tree, at the end of what is now Park Lane, was Londons primary public place of execution until 1783. In 1741, the Kensington Turnpike Trust took over its maintenance, Breadalbene House was built on the street in 1776. The politician and entrepreneur Richard Sharp, also known as Conversation Sharp, in the 1760s, Londonderry House, on the corner of Park Lane and Hertford Street, was bought by the Sixth Earl of Holdernesse
7.
Oxford Street
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Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running from Marble Arch to Tottenham Court Road via Oxford Circus. It is Europes busiest shopping street, with half a million daily visitors. It is designated as part of the A40, a road between London and Fishguard, though it is not signed as such, and traffic is regularly restricted to buses. The road was originally a Roman road, part of the Via Trinobantina between Essex and Hampshire via London and it was known as Tyburn Road through the Middle Ages and was once notorious as a street where prisoners from Newgate Prison would be transported towards a public hanging. The first department stores in Britain opened on Oxford Street in the early 20th century, including Selfridges, John Lewis, unlike nearby shopping streets such as Bond Street, it has retained an element of downmarket street trading alongside more prestigious retail stores. The street suffered heavy bombing during World War II, and several longstanding stores including John Lewis were completely destroyed, the annual switching on of Christmas lights by a celebrity has been a popular event since 1959. However, the combination of a popular retail area and a main thoroughfare for London buses and taxis has caused significant problems with traffic congestion, safety. Various traffic management schemes have proposed by Transport for London, including a ban on private vehicles during daytime hours on weekdays and Saturdays. Oxford Street runs for approximately 1.2 miles, the eastward continuation is New Oxford Street, and then Holborn. The road is entirely within the City of Westminster and it is within the London Congestion Charging Zone. Numerous bus routes run along Oxford Street, including 10,25,55,73,98,390 and Night Buses N8, N55, N73, N98 and N207. Oxford Street follows the route of a Roman road, the Via Trinobantina, between the 12th century and 1782, it was variously known as Tyburn Road, Uxbridge Road, Worcester Road and Oxford Road. Despite being a major coaching route, there were several obstacles along it, a turnpike trust was established in the 1730s to improve upkeep of the road. It became notorious as the route taken by prisoners on their journey from Newgate Prison to the gallows at Tyburn near Marble Arch. Spectators drunkenly jeered at prisoners as they carted along the road, by about 1729, the road had become known as Oxford Street. The street began to be redeveloped in the 18th century after many of the fields were purchased by the Earl of Oxford. In 1739, local gardener Thomas Huddle began to build property on the north side, John Rocques Map of London, published in 1746, shows urban buildings as far as North Audley Street, but only intermittent rural property thereafter. Buildings began to be erected on the corner of Oxford Street, further development along the street occurred between 1763 and 1793
8.
Edgware Road
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Edgware Road is a major road through north-west London, starting at Marble Arch in the City of Westminster and running north to Edgware in the London Borough of Barnet. It is also a boundary between several North London boroughs, the route has its origins as a Roman road and therefore runs for 10 miles in an almost perfect straight line, which is unusual in London. It is part of the modern A5 road, the road runs north-west from Marble Arch to Edgware on the outskirts of London. It crosses the Harrow Road and Marylebone Road, passing beneath the Marylebone flyover, the road passes through the areas of Maida Vale, Kilburn and Cricklewood. It then crosses the North Circular Road before West Hendon at Staples Corner, after this, the road continues in the same direction, through the Hyde, Colindale, Burnt Oak, and then reaches Edgware. The southernmost part of the Edgware Road forms part of the London Inner Ring Road and as such is part of the boundary of the London congestion charge zone. However, when the zone was extended in February 2007, the became part of the free through routes which allows vehicles to cross the zone during its hours of operation without paying the charge. Along the entire route, it retains its identity as the A5 road under the Great Britain road numbering scheme, the A5 continues beyond the end of the Edgware Road, following the old Roman road for much of its route and terminating at Holyhead, Wales. The name Edgware Road is also used to refer to an area of London. The districts northern boundary is the Marylebone flyover, the postal codes of the area are W1, W2, NW1 and NW2. The part of the road between Marble Arch and the Marylebone Flyover also separates the areas of Marylebone and Bayswater, before the Romans, todays Edgware Road began as an ancient trackway within the Great Middlesex Forest. The Romans later incorporated the track into Watling Street, during the 18th century, it was a destination for Huguenot migrants. By 1811, Thomas Telford produced a re-design for what was known as a section of the London to Holyhead road. Telfords redesign emerged only a year after the area saw the establishment of Great Britains first Indian restaurant, the area began to attract Arab migrants in the late 19th century during a period of increased trade with the Ottoman Empire. They established the present-day mix of bars and shisha cafes, which make the area known to Londoners by nicknames such as Little Cairo and these shisha cafés have been hard hit by the enforcement of the England-wide smoking ban in 2007. One of the two Edgware Road tube stations was one of the sites of the 7 July bombings, a bomb was detonated on a train leaving the tube station serving the Circle, District and Hammersmith & City lines and heading for Paddington tube station. Six people were killed in the blast, Colin Morley,52, Jennifer Vanda Ann Nicholson,24, Johnathan Downey,34, Laura Webb,29, Michael Brewster,52, the perpetrator was the ringleader of the 7 July bombings, Mohammed Siddique Khan. On the first anniversary of the bombings, a plaque to the victims was unveiled at the station
9.
British Royal Family
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The British royal family comprises the monarch of the United Kingdom and her close relations. There is no legal or formal definition of who is or is not a member of the British royal family. Different terms may be applied to the same or similar group of relatives of the monarch in his or her role as sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realms, for example, in Canada, the family is known as the Canadian royal family. Some members of the family have official residences named as the places from which announcements are made in the Court Circular about official engagements they have carried out. The state duties and staff of some members of the family are funded from a parliamentary annuity. Since 1917, when King George V changed the name of the house from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, members of the royal family belong, either by birth or by marriage. In 2014, the family were regarded as British cultural icons. Today, they often perform ceremonial and social duties throughout the United Kingdom, in the other countries of the Commonwealth royalty do not serve as Counsellors of State, although they may perform ceremonial and social duties on behalf of individual states or the organisation. Wives of the said enjoy their husbands precedence, and husbands of princesses are unofficially but habitually placed with their wives as well and she did not alter the relative precedence of other born-princesses, such as the daughters of her younger sons. The Oxford Illustrated History of the British Monarchy and they Serve the Queen, A New and Authoritative Account of the Royal Household. The Lives of the Kings & Queens of England, symbol and Privilege, The Ritual Context of British Royalty. Britains Royal Families, The Complete Genealogy, Royal Family is a celebrated and reverential BBC documentary made by Richard Cawston to accompany the investiture of the current Prince of Wales. The documentary is frequently responsible for the greater press intrusion into the royal familys private life since its first broadcast. Official website of the royal family Official YouTube Channel House of Windsor Family Tree, archived from the original on 2010-12-02
10.
King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery
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The Kings Troop, Royal Horse Artillery is a ceremonial unit of the British Army, quartered at Woolwich. Its duties include the firing of royal salutes on royal anniversaries and state occasions, the unit is most often seen providing gun salutes on state occasions in Hyde Park, and Green Park. Accordingly the Riding Troop was reformed on 17 April 1946 at Shoeburyness as a six-gun Royal Horse Artillery battery for the Household Division, at the suggestion of Brigadier John Anquetil Norman, the King declared that the Riding Troop would be known as The Kings Troop. The King enacted his proclamation on 24 October 1947 by amending the page on the book by striking out the word Riding and inserting Kings. On her accession, Queen Elizabeth II declared that the name The Kings Troop would remain in honour of her father, on 6 September 1997, the coffin of Diana, Princess of Wales was carried on a gun carriage by members of the Kings Troop Royal Horse Artillery. The King’s Troop was for 65 years stationed at St Johns Wood Barracks before it was relocated to Napier Lines at the traditional Royal Artillery Barracks at Woolwich in February 2012. The Kings Troop Royal Horse Artillery performed their Musical Drive at every Royal Tournament from its formation in 1947 to the final Royal Tournament on 2 August 1999. The Musical Drive can be seen at shows around the United Kingdom, many of the manoeuvres of the Musical Drive have remained unchanged since it was first performed in 1897. The start, known as the Big Drive, features the Scissors, another manoeuvre, the Wagon Wheel, depicts an inner wheel, spokes, and an outer wheel. A display may then finish with a Battery Charge, for a Heros Welcome event in Windsor in May 2008 there were six gun teams, each of ten horses and seven riders. Women, first admitted to the Kings Troop in 1996, made up one-third of the display team, major Erica Bridge was the first female officer commanding the Kings Troop. At the end of the event, the Kings Troop ranks past the Queen, in the British Army Order of Precedence, the Household Cavalry is listed first and normally parades at the extreme right of the line. However when the Royal Horse Artillery is on parade with its guns, a 35mm CinemaScope film, The Troop, was filmed in Windsor Great Park and at The Wood barracks. The film had a royal premiere before the Princess Royal at BAFTA in September 1999, the Glory Film Co. production was produced by Marcus Dillistone and Paul-Anthony Viollet, and directed by Marcus Dillistone with an introduction spoken by Sir John Mills. Music was composed by Julian Scott and performed by The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, British Army Honourable Artillery Company List of Royal Artillery Batteries Royal Artillery Royal Horse Artillery Royal Tournament Trooping the Colour Clarke, W. G. Horse Gunners, The Royal Horse Artillery,200 Years of Panache, official site Col Anand We Gunners An History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery
11.
Marble Arch tube station
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Marble Arch is a London Underground station in the City of Westminster. The station is between Lancaster Gate and Bond Street stations on the Central line, and is in Travelcard Zone 1, the station was opened on 30 July 1900 by the Central London Railway. Like all the stations on the CLR, Marble Arch was served by lifts to the platforms. The new arrangements came into use on 15 August 1932, the original surface building was later demolished. The platforms, originally lined in white tiles, were refitted with decorative vitreous enamel panels in 1985. The panel graphics were designed by Annabel Grey, the station was modernised resulting in new finishes in all areas of the station, apart from the retention of various of the decorative enamel panels at platform level. The station is named after the Marble Arch nearby and is located at the north east side of the Marble Arch junction, there is a shunting neck to the west of the station allowing trains from Oxford Circus to terminate here. London Buses routes 2,10,13,16,30,36,73,74,94,98,137,148,159,189,274,390,414 and 436 serve the station. The Mysterious Planet, a serial of Doctor Who which uses Marble Arch as a plot point, London Homesick Blues, a 1974 song by Gary P. Nunn references Marble Arch Station. London Transport Museum Photographic Archive Ticket hall with doors,1924 Rebuilt ticket hall,1932 More photographs of this station
12.
Arch of Constantine
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The Arch of Constantine is a triumphal arch in Rome, situated between the Colosseum and the Palatine Hill. It was erected by the Roman Senate to commemorate Constantine Is victory over Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312, dedicated in 315, it is the largest Roman triumphal arch. The arch spans the Via triumphalis, the way taken by the emperors when they entered the city in triumph. Though dedicated to Constantine, much of the material incorporated earlier work from the time of the emperors Trajan, Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius. This earned it the nickname of Cornacchia di Esopo Aesops Crow. The arch is 21 m high,25.9 m wide and 7.4 m deep. It has three archways, the one being 11.5 m high and 6.5 m wide. Above the archways is placed the attic, composed of brickwork reveted with marble, a staircase within the arch is entered from a door at some height from the ground, on the west side, facing the Palatine Hill. The general design with a main part structured by detached columns, not only did the Roman senate give the arch for Constantines victory, they also were celebrating decennia, a series of games that happens every decade for the romans. In this occasion they also said many prayers, however, Constantine had actually entered Rome on 29 October 312, amidst great rejoicing, and the Senate then commissioned the monument. Constantine then left Rome within two months and did not return till 326, the location, between the Palatine Hill and the Caelian Hill, spanned the ancient route of Roman triumphs at its origin, where it diverged from the Via sacra. This route was taken by the emperors when they entered the city in triumph. During the Middle Ages, the Arch of Constantine was incorporated into one of the strongholds of ancient Rome, as shown in the painting by Herman van Swanevelt. Works of restoration were first carried out in the 18th century, the arch served as the finish line for the marathon athletic event for the 1960 Summer Olympics. Another theory holds that it was erected, or at least started, by Maxentius, ), whatever the faults of Maxentius, his reputation in Rome was influenced by his contributions to public building. This factor contributed to his ability to seize power, by contrast Maxentius concentrated on restoring the capital, his epithet being conservator urbis suae. Thus Constantine was perceived amongst other things as the deposer of one of the citys greatest benefactors, much controversy has surrounded the patronage of the public works of this period. The German philosopher, Walter Benjamin observed that history is seen through the eyes of the victor, issuing a damnatio memoriae he set out to systematically erase the memory of Maxentius
13.
Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel
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The Place du Carrousel is a public square in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, located at the open end of the courtyard of the Louvre Palace, a space occupied, prior to 1883, by the Tuileries Palace. Sitting directly between the museum and the Tuileries Garden, the Place du Carrousel delineates the end of the gardens just as the Place de la Concorde defines its western end. The name carrousel refers to a type of military dressage, an equine demonstration now commonly called military drill, the Place du Carrousel was named in 1662, when it was used for such a display by Louis XIV. The king and queen were installed in the Tuileries Palace under surveillance, during this time, there were many plots designed to help members of the royal family escape from France. The queen rejected several because she would not leave without the king, other opportunities to rescue the family were ultimately frittered away by the indecisive king. After many delays, the escape occurred on 21 June 1791. An hour and a later, the palace was invaded by the mob. They massacred the Swiss Guards, who fought with blind dedication and desperation, some seven hundred were killed, and their bloodied bodies decorated the yard in front of the palace, in the gardens of the palace, and along the banks of the Seine. On 13 August, the family was imprisoned in the tower of the Temple in the Le Marais district. On 21 August 1792, the guillotine was erected in the Place du Carrousel, in total, thirty-five people were guillotined there. On 2 August 1793, at the site of the guillotine. It bore an inscription, To the spirit of the late Marat,13 July, from his underground tomb, he still makes the traitors tremble. A treacherous hand thwarted the affections of the people, there was also an exhibit of the famous hip bath of Marat and his desk where some of his most impassioned polemics were drafted. These items stayed in place until 9 Thermidor Year II, during the revolution of 1848, the Tuileries Palace was looted and severely damaged by rioters. The fire lasted for hours and entirely consumed the palace. The ruins of the Tuileries stood on the site for eleven years, in 1882, the French National Assembly voted for the demolition of the ruins, and, despite much contrary sentiment, this was accomplished in 1883. The salvageable remains of the building were sold to a private entrepreneur, once the palace had been cleared away, the ground, which had been known as the Place du Carrousel since 1662, could, once again, be used as a public square. It is an arch that was commissioned in 1806 to commemorate Napoleons military victories of the previous year
14.
Carrara
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Carrara is a city and comune in the Province of Massa and Carrara, notable for the white or blue-grey marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some 100 kilometres west-northwest of Florence and its motto is Fortitudo mea in rota. There were known settlements in the area as early as the 9th century BC, the current town originated from the borough built to house workers in the marble quarries created by the Romans after their conquest of Liguria in the early 2nd century BC. Carrara has been linked with the process of quarrying and carving marble since the Roman Age, Marble was exported from the nearby harbour of Luni at the mouth of river Magra. The Bishops acquired it again in 1230, their ending in 1313. Later it was acquired by Gian Galeazzo Visconti of Milan, Carrara and Massa formed the Duchy of Massa and Carrara from the 15th to the 19th century. Under the last Malaspina, Maria Teresa, who had married Ercole III dEste, after the short Napoleonic rule of Elisa Bonaparte, it was given back to Modena. During the unification of Italy age, Carrara was the seat of a revolt led by Domenico Cucchiari. At the end of the 19th century Carrara became the cradle of anarchism in Italy, the quarry workers, including the stone carvers, had radical beliefs that set them apart from others. Ideas from outside the city began to influence the Carrarese, anarchism and general radicalism became part of the heritage of the stone carvers. According to a New York Times article of 1894 many violent revolutionists who had expelled from Belgium and Switzerland went to Carrara in 1885. Carrara has remained a hotbed of anarchism in Italy, with several organizations located openly in the city. The Anarchist marble workers were also the force behind organising labour in the quarries. They were also the protagonists of the Lunigiana revolt in January 1894. In 1929, the municipalities of Carrara, Massa and Montignoso were merged in a single municipality, in 1945 the previous situation was restored. Carrara is the birthplace of the International Federation of Anarchists, formed in 1968, as a titular Duke of Modena, the current holder of the title of Prince of Carrara would be Prince Lorenz of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este. Ducal Palace, now the seat of the Fine Arts Academy, built over pre-existing Lombard fortification, it dates to the reign of Guglielmo Malaspina, becoming in 1448 the permanent seat of the dynasty. It includes two distinct edifices, the Castello Malaspiniano, dating to the 13th century, and the Renaissance palace, under the medieval loggia are exposed several ancient Roman findings
15.
Seravezza
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Seravezza is a town and comune belonging to the Province of Lucca, in northern Tuscany, Italy. It is located in Versilia, close to the Apuan Alps, forte dei Marmi Massa Montignoso Pietrasanta Stazzema Seravezzas patron saint is St. Lawrence. His feast occurs annually on 10 August, according to historian Lorenzo Marcuccetti the battle remembered by historian Titus Livius of 186 BC was fought between apuan Ligures and Romans in Ponte Stazzemese. The battle was fought on a hill named Colle Marcio from the name of the defeated consul, the frazione of Querceta has St. Joseph, celebrated on 19 March. The patron saint of the frazione of Pozzi is St. Roch, seravezza is twinned with, Calatorao, Spain Official website
16.
Richard Westmacott
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Sir Richard Westmacott RA was a British sculptor. Westmacott studied with his father, also named Richard Westmacott, at his studio in Mount Street, on returning to England in 1797, he set up a studio, where John Edward Carew and Musgrave Watson gained experience. Westmacott had his own foundry at Pimlico, in London, where he cast both his own works, and those of other sculptors, including John Flaxmans statue of Sir John Moore for Glasgow. Late in life he was asked by the Office of Works for advice on the casting of the reliefs for Nelson’s Column and he exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1797 and 1839. His name is given in the catalogues as R. Westmacott, Junr. until 1807, when the Junr. was dropped. He was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1805, and an academician in 1811, his diploma work. He was professor of sculpture at the academy from 1827 until his death and he received his knighthood on 19 July 1837. His statue of Horatio Nelson, Birmingham was the first statue of Nelson in Britain. There are other monuments to the admiral by Westmacott at Bull Ring, Birmingham, in Liverpool there is also an equestrian statue of King George III sculpted by Westmacott, which was unveiled in 1822. He was responsible for the statue of the agriculturalist and developer Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford in Russell Square, and the one of the Duke of York on top of the column in Waterloo place. His Achilles in Hyde Park, a copy of an antique sculpture from Monte Cavallo in Rome, is a tribute to the Duke of Wellington. He created a group for the marble arch of the Cumberland Gate to Hyde Park. Westmacott lived and died at 14 South Audley Street, Mayfair and his son, also called Richard Westmacott, followed closely in his footsteps also becoming a notable sculptor, a Royal Academician and professor of sculpture at the academy. Westmacott is buried in a tomb at St Marys Church at Chastleton, Oxfordshire, chisholm, Hugh, ed. Westmacott, Sir Richard. Richard Westmacott Collection of Letters finding aid from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries, consisting primarily of letters written to Westmacott
17.
Edward Hodges Baily
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Edward Hodges Baily RA FRS was an English sculptor who was born in Downend in Bristol. At the age of fourteen Baily was placed in a mercantile house, at the age of sixteen he abandoned his commercial career and began executing portraits in wax. In 1809 he entered the Royal Academy Schools and he was elected ARA in 1817 and RA in 1821 when he exhibited one of his best pieces, Eve at the Fountain. In 1857, the year of his retirement from the Royal Academy, Bailys election as a fellow of the Royal Society came in 1842. Amongst his pupils was William Theed, a leading Victorian sculptor who produced a number of portrait busts, among Bailys assistants were Musgrave Watson and Joseph Durham ARA. Financial insecurity was a theme in his life. He was first declared bankrupt in 1831, and again in 1838, on the first occasion questions were asked in Parliament on his behalf because his financial distress had resulted from delays in receiving payment for sculptures at Buckingham Palace. Baily died at 99 Devonshire Road, Holloway on 22 May 1867 and is buried in Londons Highgate Cemetery and his nephew was William Hellier Baily, the paleontologist. Some of Edward Bailys descendants still live in Bristol, East Grinstead, the Isle of Wight, and in Canada today. Also, Cambridge. Edward Bowring Stephens Jordan, Caroline, The very spirit of purity and chastity, Eve at the Fountain by Edward Hodges Baily, Sculpture Journal,15, 19–35, doi,10. 3828/sj.15.1.2
18.
John Charles Felix Rossi
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John Charles Felix Rossi RA, often simply known as Charles Rossi, was an English sculptor. Some time later, when Locatelli had moved on, and was occupying premises in Union Street, near the Middlesex Hospital, Rossi became his pupil. On completing his apprenticeship he remained with his master for wages of 18 shillings a week, until he found more lucrative employment at Coade, Rossi entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1781. He won the medal in November of that year. In 1785 he won the travelling studentship, and went to Rome for three years, during which he executed a Mercury in marble, and a figure of Eve. In around 1790 he went into business in partnership with John Bingley and their works included the statues of Music and Dancing for the Assembly Rooms at Leicester. Rossi later told Joseph Farington that he had lost a large amount money through this enterprise, the partnership with Bingley was formally dissolved in December 1800. Between 1798 and 1810 Rossi leased premises in Marylebone Park, next to those of James Wyatt and they were described in the St Marylebone rate books as consisting of A Cottage, Artificial Stone Manufactory and Stable etc. In 1800 Rossi made a stone folly in the form of a Hindu temple at Melchet Park. It was built a tribute to Warren Hastings, and contained his bust, rising out of a lotus flower, in 1800-2 he again used artificial stone for the colossal seated figure of Minerva for the dome of Liverpool Town Hall. Rossi became an associate of the Royal Academy in 1798, and his diploma work, a marble bust of George Dance, is still in the possession of the Academy. In the monument to Captain Faulkner, Neptune is seated on a rock, in the act of catching the naked figure of a dying sailor, Lord Rodney is represented with allegorical figures of Fame and History. In 1809 Rossi worked with John Flaxman on two friezes for the facade of the Covent Garden Theatre and he carved one, of Ancient Drama, from a model by Flaxman. For the other, of Modern Drama, he worked from Flaxmans drawings, making a model himself, for the south wing of the theatre, he made a seven-foot high statue of Tragedy as a pendant to Flaxmans Comedy. They were paid £4300 for the work, the decorations included two sets of caryatids. Modelled on those at the Erechtheum in Athens, they were built up in sections cemented around structural cast-iron columns and he told the committee that they were the best sculptures he had ever seen, superior both to the Apollo Belvedere and the Laocoön. Rossi owned a house in Lisson Grove. By 1817 his prosperity had declined, and he rented out part of it to the painter Benjamin Robert Haydon, Haydon was to remain Rossis tenant until his imprisonment for debt in 1823
19.
Equestrian statue of George IV, Trafalgar Square
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The statue of George IV in Trafalgar Square, London, is a bronze equestrian statue by Sir Francis Legatt Chantrey. It depicts the King dressed in ancient Roman attire and riding bareback, the sculpture was originally designed to sit on top of the Marble Arch at the entrance to Buckingham Palace, but was placed in its current location following the Kings death. Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey originally designed the statue to stand on top of Marble Arch in its position as the entrance to Buckingham Palace. Edward Blore took over the work, and his redesign to reduce costs removed the Chantrey statue, chantreys work was funded by George IV himself, rather than by public subscription. The statue was cast in 1828, George IV died in 1830, and the statue was placed on an empty plinth in Trafalgar Square in December 1843, which was expected to be on a temporary basis, however it has remained there ever since. It was unveiled to little ceremony, with The Times describing it as somewhat suddenly erected and it was the first statue erected on one of the pedestals, which were installed three years earlier with architect Charles Barry expecting them to be filled by groups of statues. An inscription was added towards the end of the 19th century as the public were no longer aware of whom it was a statue, media related to Equestrian statue of George IV, Trafalgar Square, London at Wikimedia Commons
20.
Francis Chantrey
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Sir Francis Legatt Chantrey RA was an English sculptor. He became the leading sculptor in Regency era Britain, producing busts. He left the Chantrey Bequest or Chantrey Fund for the purchase of works of art for the nation, Chantrey was born at Jordanthorpe near Norton, where his father had a small farm. His father, who dabbled in carpentry and wood-carving, died when Francis was twelve. In 1802 Chantrey paid £50 to buy out of his apprenticeship with Ramsay and immediately set up a studio as a portrait artist in Sheffield. For several years he divided his time between Sheffield and London, studying intermittently at the Royal Academy Schools, in the summer of 1802 he travelled to Dublin, where he fell very ill, losing all his hair. He exhibited pictures at the Royal Academy for a few years from 1804, but from 1807 onwards devoted himself mainly to sculpture. Asked later in life, as a witness in a case, whether he had ever worked for any other sculptors, he replied, No. His first recorded marble bust was one of the Rev. James Wilkinson and his first imaginative sculpture, a head of Satan was shown at the Royal Academy in 1808. Three of them were shown at the Royal Academy that year, on 23 November 1809 he married his cousin, Mary Ann Wale at St Marys Church, Twickenham. He also bought land to two more houses, a studio and offices. In 1811 he showed six busts in the Royal Academy, the subjects included Horne Tooke and Sir Francis Burdett, two political figures he greatly admired, his early mentor John Raphael Smith, and Benjamin West. Joseph Nollekens placed the bust of Tooke between two of his own, and the given to it is said to have had a significant influence on Chantreys career. In the wake of the exhibition he received commissions amounting to £2,000, in 1813 he was able to raise his price for a bust to a hundred and fifty guineas, and in 1822 to two hundred. He visited Paris in 1814, and again in 1815, this time with his wife, Thomas Stothard, in 1819 he went to Italy, accompanied by the painter John Jackson, and an old friend named Read. In Rome he met Thorvaldsen and Canova, getting to know the latter especially well, in 1828 Chantrey set up his own foundry in Eccleston Place, not far from his house and studio, where large-scale works in bronze, including equestrian statues, could be cast. His assistants would make a clay model based on the drawings. A plaster cast would be made of the model
21.
William IV of the United Kingdom
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William IV was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death. The third son of George III and younger brother and successor to George IV, he was the last king, William served in the Royal Navy in his youth and was, both during his reign and afterwards, nicknamed the Sailor King. He served in North America and the Caribbean, in 1789, he was created Duke of Clarence and St Andrews. Since his two brothers died without leaving legitimate issue, he inherited the throne when he was 64 years old. Although William did not engage in politics as much as his brother or his father, through his brother, the Viceroy of Hanover, he granted his German kingdom a short-lived liberal constitution. William was succeeded in the United Kingdom by his niece, Victoria, William was born in the early hours of the morning on 21 August 1765 at Buckingham House, the third child and son of King George III and Queen Charlotte. He had two brothers, George and Frederick, and was not expected to inherit the Crown. He was baptised in the Great Council Chamber of St Jamess Palace on 20 September 1765 and his godparents were his paternal uncles, the Duke of Gloucester and Prince Henry, and his paternal aunt, Princess Augusta, then hereditary duchess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. He spent most of his life in Richmond and at Kew Palace. At the age of thirteen, he joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman and his experiences in the navy seem to have been little different from those of other midshipmen, though in contrast to other sailors he was accompanied on board ships by a tutor. He did his share of the cooking and got arrested with his shipmates after a brawl in Gibraltar. He served in New York during the American War of Independence, I am fully persuaded, that it is unnecessary to caution you against offering insult or indignity to the persons of the Prince or Admiral. The plot did not come to fruition, the British heard of it and assigned guards to William and he became a lieutenant in 1785 and captain of HMS Pegasus the following year. The two were friends, and dined together almost nightly. At Nelsons wedding, William insisted on giving the bride away and he was given command of the frigate HMS Andromeda in 1788, and was promoted to rear-admiral in command of HMS Valiant the following year. William sought to be made a duke like his brothers, and to receive a similar parliamentary grant. To put pressure on him, William threatened to stand for the House of Commons for the constituency of Totnes in Devon, Williams political record was inconsistent and, like many politicians of the time, cannot be certainly ascribed to a single party. William ceased his active service in the Royal Navy in 1790, the following year he spoke in favour of the war, expecting a command after his change of heart, none came
22.
Palace of Westminster
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The Palace of Westminster is the meeting place of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Commonly known as the Houses of Parliament after its occupants, the Palace lies on the bank of the River Thames in the City of Westminster. The palace is owned by the monarch in right of the Crown and for ceremonial purposes, the building is managed by committees appointed by both houses, which report to the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Lord Speaker. The first royal palace was built on the site in the 11th century, part of the New Palaces area of 3.24 hectares was reclaimed from the Thames, which is the setting of its nearly 300-metre long façade, called the River Front. Barry was assisted by Augustus Pugin, an authority on Gothic architecture and style. The Palace is one of the centres of political life in the United Kingdom, Westminster has become a metonym for the UK Parliament, the Palace of Westminster has been a Grade I listed building since 1970 and part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987. The Palace of Westminster site was important during the Middle Ages. Known in medieval times as Thorney Island, the site may have been first-used for a residence by Canute the Great during his reign from 1016 to 1035. St Edward the Confessor, the penultimate Anglo-Saxon monarch of England, Thorney Island and the surrounding area soon became known as Westminster. Neither the buildings used by the Anglo-Saxons nor those used by William I survive, the oldest existing part of the Palace dates from the reign of William Is successor, King William II. The Palace of Westminster was the principal residence in the late Medieval period. The predecessor of Parliament, the Curia Regis, met in Westminster Hall, simon de Montforts parliament, the first to include representatives of the major towns, met at the Palace in 1265. The Model Parliament, the first official Parliament of England, met there in 1295, in 1512, during the early years of the reign of King Henry VIII, fire destroyed the royal residential area of the palace. In 1534, Henry VIII acquired York Place from Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, renaming it the Palace of Whitehall, Henry used it as his principal residence. Although Westminster officially remained a royal palace, it was used by the two Houses of Parliament and by the various law courts. Because it was originally a residence, the Palace included no purpose-built chambers for the two Houses. Important state ceremonies were held in the Painted Chamber which had originally built in the 13th century as the main bedchamber for King Henry III. The House of Commons, which did not have a chamber of its own, the Commons acquired a permanent home at the Palace in St Stephens Chapel, the former chapel of the royal palace, during the reign of Edward VI
23.
Edward Blore
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Edward Blore was a 19th-century British landscape and architectural artist, architect and antiquary. He was born in Derby, the son of the antiquarian writer Thomas Blore, Blores background was in antiquarian draughtsmanship rather than architecture, in which he had no formal training. Charles Locke Eastlake, writing in 1872, believed that he had apprenticed to an engraver. In around 1822 Blore supplied the illustrations to Thomas Frognall Dibdins Aedes Althorpianæ, in 1823 he toured Northern England, making drawings for a work called the Monumental Remains of Noble and Eminent Persons. It was issued in parts with text by the Rev. Philip Bliss, Blore engraved many of the plates himself. In 1826, he was appointed surveyor to Westminster Abbey, the following year he was engaged to furnish plans for the chancel fittings of Peterborough Cathedral. Shortly afterwards he was employed to restore Lambeth Palace, then in a state of near ruin and his work there included the construction of a fire-proof room for the preservation of manuscripts and archives. Eastlake praised Blores careful detail in his work at Westminster Abbey, adding this was, in short and he had studied and drawn detail so long and zealously that its design came quite naturally to him, and in this respect he was incomparably superior to his contemporaries. Blore is most notable for his completion of John Nashs design of Buckingham Palace and he completed the palace in a style similar to but plainer than that intended by Nash. In 1847, Blore returned to the palace and designed the facade facing The Mall thus enclosing the central quadrangle. He also worked St James Palace in London, and a number of other designs in both England and Scotland, including restoring Salisbury Tower at Windsor Castle. Blore was a friend of Sir Walter Scott, having been introduced by Daniel Terry. This led to Prince Vorontsovs suggestion to design his extensive Vorontsovs Palace in Alupka, the Alupka palace was built between 1828 and 1846, in a mixture of styles ranging from Gothic Revival to Moorish Revival. The palaces guidebook describes the building as Blores tribute to Muslim architecture, the structure features two facades, contrasting the starkness of Scottish Baronial on its landward side with Arabian fantasy facing the sea. Such designs were unusual and display a more side to Blores work than can be seen from his work in London. Around 1840 he was responsible for alterations at Wythenshawe Hall. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1841, Blore died in London on 4 September 1879, and was buried in Highgate Cemetery, Highgate, London. The architects Philip Charles Hardwick and Frederick Marrable and Henry Clutton were his pupils, william Mason worked for him before going to Australia and New Zealand
24.
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
25.
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
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Elizabeth II has been Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand since 6 February 1952. Elizabeth was born in London as the eldest child of the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth and her father acceded to the throne on the abdication of his brother Edward VIII in 1936, from which time she was the heir presumptive. She began to undertake duties during the Second World War. Elizabeths many historic visits and meetings include a visit to the Republic of Ireland. She has seen major changes, such as devolution in the United Kingdom, Canadian patriation. She has reigned through various wars and conflicts involving many of her realms and she is the worlds oldest reigning monarch as well as Britains longest-lived. In October 2016, she became the longest currently reigning monarch, in 2017 she became the first British monarch to commemorate a Sapphire Jubilee. Elizabeth has occasionally faced republican sentiments and press criticism of the family, however, support for the monarchy remains high. Elizabeth was born at 02,40 on 21 April 1926, during the reign of her paternal grandfather and her father, Prince Albert, Duke of York, was the second son of the King. Her mother, Elizabeth, Duchess of York, was the youngest daughter of Scottish aristocrat Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and she was delivered by Caesarean section at her maternal grandfathers London house,17 Bruton Street, Mayfair. Elizabeths only sibling, Princess Margaret, was born in 1930, the two princesses were educated at home under the supervision of their mother and their governess, Marion Crawford, who was casually known as Crawfie. Lessons concentrated on history, language, literature and music, Crawford published a biography of Elizabeth and Margarets childhood years entitled The Little Princesses in 1950, much to the dismay of the royal family. The book describes Elizabeths love of horses and dogs, her orderliness, others echoed such observations, Winston Churchill described Elizabeth when she was two as a character. She has an air of authority and reflectiveness astonishing in an infant and her cousin Margaret Rhodes described her as a jolly little girl, but fundamentally sensible and well-behaved. During her grandfathers reign, Elizabeth was third in the line of succession to the throne, behind her uncle Edward, Prince of Wales, and her father, the Duke of York. Although her birth generated public interest, she was not expected to become queen, many people believed that he would marry and have children of his own. When her grandfather died in 1936 and her uncle succeeded as Edward VIII, she became second-in-line to the throne, later that year, Edward abdicated, after his proposed marriage to divorced socialite Wallis Simpson provoked a constitutional crisis. Consequently, Elizabeths father became king, and she became heir presumptive, if her parents had had a later son, she would have lost her position as first-in-line, as her brother would have been heir apparent and above her in the line of succession
26.
John Betjeman
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Sir John Betjeman, CBE was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster who described himself in Whos Who as a poet and hack. He was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1972 until his death and he was a founding member of the Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture. He began his career as a journalist and ended it as one of the most popular British Poets Laureate and his parents, Mabel and Ernest Betjemann, had a family firm at 34–42 Pentonville Road which manufactured the kind of ornamental household furniture and gadgets distinctive to Victorians. The family name was changed to the less German-looking Betjeman during the First World War, Betjeman was baptised at St Annes Church, Highgate Rise, a 19th-century church at the foot of Highgate West Hill. The family lived at Parliament Hill Mansions in the Lissenden Gardens private estate in Highgate in north London, in 1909, the Betjemanns moved half a mile north to more opulent Highgate. Betjemans early schooling was at the local Byron House and Highgate School, after this, he boarded at the Dragon School preparatory school in North Oxford and Marlborough College, a public school in Wiltshire. In his penultimate year, he joined the secret Society of Amici in which he was a contemporary of both Louis MacNeice and Graham Shepard and he founded The Heretick, a satirical magazine that lampooned Marlboroughs obsession with sport. While at school, his exposure to the works of Arthur Machen won him over to High Church Anglicanism, Betjeman entered the University of Oxford with difficulty, having failed the mathematics portion of the universitys matriculation exam, Responsions. He was, however, admitted as a commoner at Magdalen College and entered the newly created School of English Language, at Oxford, Betjeman made little use of the academic opportunities. His tutor, a young C. S. Lewis, regarded him as an idle prig and Betjeman in turn considered Lewis unfriendly, demanding, at Oxford he was a friend of Maurice Bowra, later to be Warden of Wadham. Betjeman had a poem published in Isis, the university magazine and his first book of poems was privately printed with the help of fellow student Edward James. Much of this period of his life is recorded in his verse autobiography Summoned by Bells published in 1960. In Hilary term 1928, Betjeman failed Divinity for the second time and he had to leave the university for the Trinity term to prepare for a retake of the exam, he was then allowed to return in October. Betjeman then wrote to the Secretary of the Tutorial Board at Magdalen, lee, asking to be entered for the Pass School, a set of examinations taken on rare occasions by undergraduates who are deemed unlikely to achieve an honours degree. Permission to sit the Pass School was granted, Betjeman famously decided to offer a paper in Welsh. Osbert Lancaster tells the story that a tutor came by train twice a week from Aberystwyth to teach Betjeman, however, Jesus College had a number of Welsh tutors who more probably would have taught him. Betjeman finally had to leave at the end of the Michaelmas term,1928, Betjeman did pass his Divinity examination on his third try but was sent down after failing the Pass School. He had achieved a result in only one of the three required papers
27.
Metropolitan Police
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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
28.
Samuel Parkes (VC)
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Samuel Parkes VC was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. Parkes was awarded his VC for his actions during the Charge of the Light Brigade, within the family, it is said that he was known as George. He had two sisters, Elizabeth and Mary, no siblings are recorded in St Edithas baptismal register. He died on 14 November 1864 at Stanhope Lodge, Hyde Park and he was buried in Brompton Cemetery, London in an unmarked paupers grave on 19 November 1864 after a funeral at St Georges, Hanover Square. A memorial stone was placed on his grave in May 1999, thanks to the efforts of Peter Elkin, a new memorial was unveiled in the village of his birth on 14 September 2011 following a fund-raising campaign by the people of Wigginton. Was he born in 1813 or 1815, according to the Army, he was born in 1813. His own declaration on enlistment declares his age as 18 years old while his discharge papers state precisely that he was 44 years 3 months. His death certificate and the Brompton Cemetery burial register both say, however, that he was aged 49 at death, in case he was born in 1815. Furthermore, birth and baptism usually followed each other rapidly at that time, on balance,1815 would seem to be the more likely year of his birth. Described as a labourer, he enlisted in the 4th Queens Own Light Dragoons on 30 July 1831 and was discharged on 1 December 1857 with four good conduct badges, as an out-pensioner of Chelsea Hospital. He served 11 years with the 4th Light Dragoons in India, including the First Afghan War, peacetime service with the 4th saw Parkes in Wales and Ireland as well as in England. At Balaklava, he was serving as an orderly to the commanding officer. Parkes discharge papers show a military career. He earned four good conduct badges, but he won and lost the first badge five times between 1838 and 1850 and he gained the second only in January 1852 and then lost it the same year, regaining it in 1853. He then managed to gain a third in November 1855 and was awarded the only on 18 November 1857. In addition, he was sentenced to 56 days imprisonment in Galway Gaol in 1848 by a court martial in Ireland. Parkes was confined on 9 November 1848, convicted on 21 November 1848, the offence itself is not specified in the Regimental Muster Roll. Neither is it mentioned in Parkes discharge papers and this blemished record explains why Parkes was not awarded the Army Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, which for the cavalry then required 20 years of irreproachable character
29.
Victoria Cross
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The Victoria Cross is the highest award of the United Kingdom honours system. It is awarded for gallantry in the face of the enemy to members of the British armed forces and it was previously awarded to Commonwealth countries, most of which have established their own honours systems and no longer recommend British honours. It may be awarded to a person of any rank in any service. Since the first awards were presented by Queen Victoria in 1857 and these investitures are usually held at Buckingham Palace. The VC was introduced on 29 January 1856 by Queen Victoria to honour acts of valour during the Crimean War, since then, the medal has been awarded 1,358 times to 1,355 individual recipients. Only 15 medals,11 to members of the British Army, the traditional explanation of the source of the metal from which the medals are struck is that it derives from Russian cannon captured at the Siege of Sevastopol. Some research has suggested a variety of origins for the material, research has established that the metal for most of the medals made since December 1914 came from two Chinese cannons that were captured from the Russians in 1855. Owing to its rarity, the VC is highly prized and the medal has fetched over £400,000 at auction, a number of public and private collections are devoted to the Victoria Cross. The private collection of Lord Ashcroft, amassed since 1986, contains over one-tenth of all VCs awarded, following a 2008 donation to the Imperial War Museum, the Ashcroft collection went on public display alongside the museums Victoria and George Cross collection in November 2010. These are unique awards of honours system, recommended, assessed, gazetted and presented by each country. In 1854, after 39 years of peace, Britain found itself fighting a war against Russia. The Crimean War was one of the first wars with modern reporting, before the Crimean War, there was no official standardised system for recognition of gallantry within the British armed forces. This structure was limited, in practice awards of the Order of the Bath were confined to officers of field rank. Brevet promotions or Mentions in Despatches were largely confined to those who were under the notice of the commanders in the field. Other European countries had awards that did not discriminate against class or rank, France awarded the Légion dhonneur and The Netherlands gave the Order of William. There was a feeling among the public and in the Royal Court that a new award was needed to recognise incidents of gallantry that were unconnected with a mans lengthy or meritorious service. Queen Victoria issued a Warrant under the Royal sign-manual on 29 January 1856 that officially constituted the VC, the order was backdated to 1854 to recognise acts of valour during the Crimean War. Queen Victoria had instructed the War Office to strike a new medal that would not recognise birth or class, the medal was meant to be a simple decoration that would be highly prized and eagerly sought after by those in the military services
30.
Charge of the Light Brigade
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The Charge of the Light Brigade was a charge of British light cavalry led by Lord Cardigan against Russian forces during the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854, in the Crimean War. Although the Light Brigade reached the battery under withering fire and scattered some of the gunners. Thus, the assault ended with very high British casualties and no decisive gains, the events are best remembered as the subject of Alfred, Lord Tennysons narrative poem The Charge of the Light Brigade. Published just six weeks after the event, its lines emphasize the valour of the cavalry in bravely carrying out their orders, also present that day was the Heavy Brigade, commanded by Major General James Yorke Scarlett, who was a past Commanding Officer of the 5th Dragoon Guards. The Heavy Brigade was made up of the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards, the 5th Dragoon Guards, the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons, the two brigades were the only British cavalry force at the battle. The Light Brigade, as the name suggests, were the British light cavalry force and it mounted light, fast horses which were unarmoured. The men were armed with lances and sabres, optimized for maximum mobility and speed, they were intended for reconnaissance and skirmishing. They were also ideal for cutting down infantry and artillery units as they attempted to retreat, the Heavy Brigade under James Scarlett was the British heavy cavalry force. The men were equipped with helmets and armed with cavalry swords for close combat. They were intended as the primary British shock force, leading frontal charges in order to break enemy lines, overall command of the British cavalry resided with Lieutenant General George Bingham, 3rd Earl of Lucan. Cardigan and Lucan were brothers-in-law who disliked each other intensely, French cavalry is on your left. Raglan could see what was happening from his vantage point on the west side of the valley. However, the lie of the land around Lucan and the cavalry prevented him seeing the Russians efforts to remove the guns from the redoubts. The order was drafted by Brigadier Richard Airey and carried by Captain Louis Edward Nolan, Nolan carried the further oral instruction that the cavalry was to attack immediately. His reasons for the misdirection are unknown because he was killed in the ensuing battle, in response to the order, Lucan instructed Cardigan to lead his command of about 670 troopers of the Light Brigade straight into the valley between the Fedyukhin Heights and the Causeway Heights. In his poem, The Charge of the Light Brigade, Tennyson famously dubbed this hollow The Valley of Death, the opposing Russian forces were commanded by Pavel Liprandi and included approximately 20 battalions of infantry supported by over 50 artillery pieces. These forces were deployed on both sides and at the end of the valley. Lucan himself was to follow with the Heavy Brigade, the semi-suicidal nature of this charge was surely evident to the troopers of the Light Brigade, but if there were any objection to the orders, it was not recorded
31.
Crimean War
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The Crimean War was a military conflict fought from October 1853 to March 1856 in which the Russian Empire lost to an alliance of France, Britain, the Ottoman Empire, and Sardinia. The immediate cause involved the rights of Christian minorities in the Holy Land, the French promoted the rights of Roman Catholics, while Russia promoted those of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The longer-term causes involved the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the unwillingness of Britain and France to allow Russia to gain territory and power at Ottoman expense. While the churches eventually worked out their differences and came to an agreement, Nicholas I of Russia, Nicholas issued an ultimatum that the Orthodox subjects of the Empire be placed under his protection. Britain attempted to mediate and arranged a compromise that Nicholas agreed to, when the Ottomans demanded changes, Nicholas refused and prepared for war. Having obtained promises of support from France and Britain, the Ottomans declared war on Russia in October 1853. The war started in the Balkans, when Russian troops occupied the Danubian Principalities, until then under Ottoman suzerainty and now part of modern Romania, led by Omar Pasha, the Ottomans fought a strong defensive campaign and stopped the advance at Silistra. A separate action on the town of Kars in eastern Anatolia led to a siege. Fearing an Ottoman collapse, France and Britain rushed forces to Gallipoli and they then moved north to Varna in June, arriving just in time for the Russians to abandon Silistra. Aside from a skirmish at Köstence, there was little for the allies to do. Karl Marx quipped that there they are, the French doing nothing, after extended preparations, the forces landed on the peninsula in September 1854 and fought their way to a point south of Sevastopol after a series of successful battles. The Russians counterattacked on 25 October in what became the Battle of Balaclava and were repulsed, a second counterattack, ordered personally by Nicholas, was defeated by Omar Pasha. The front settled into a siege and led to conditions for troops on both sides. Smaller actions were carried out in the Baltic, the Caucasus, Sevastopol fell after eleven months, and neutral countries began to join the Allied cause. Isolated and facing a bleak prospect of invasion from the west if the war continued and this was welcomed by France and Britain, as their subjects were beginning to turn against their governments as the war dragged on. The war was ended by the Treaty of Paris, signed on 30 March 1856, Russia was forbidden from hosting warships in the Black Sea. The Ottoman vassal states of Wallachia and Moldavia became largely independent, Christians there were granted a degree of official equality, and the Orthodox Church regained control of the Christian churches in dispute. The Crimean War was one of the first conflicts to use technologies such as explosive naval shells, railways
32.
Mayfair
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Mayfair is an affluent area in the West End of London towards the east edge of Hyde Park, in the City of Westminster, between Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly and Park Lane. It is one of the most expensive districts in London and the world, the area around Mayfair was originally part of the manor of Eia and remained largely rural in nature until the early 18th century. It became well known for the annual May Fair that took place from 1686 to 1764 in what is now Shepherd Market, the fair attracted an unpleasant, downmarket element and gradually became a public nuisance. The Grosvenor family, later to become the Dukes of Westminster, acquired land through marriage, the work included three major squares – Hanover Square, Berkeley Square and Grosvenor Square, all of which were surrounded by luxury homes, and the church of St George Hanover Square. By the end of the 18th century, most of Mayfair was built on with prestigious housing to suit the upper class, unlike some nearby areas of London, it has never lost its affluent status. There remains a substantial quantity of luxury property, upmarket shops and restaurants. Mayfairs prestigious status has been commemorated by being the most expensive property square on the London Monopoly board. The Mayfair area is in the London Borough of Westminster and mainly consists of the estate of Grosvenor, along with the estates of Albemarle, Berkeley, Burlington. It is bordered on the west by Park Lane, north by Oxford Street, east by Regent Street, beyond the bounding roads, to the north is Marylebone, to the east, Soho and to the southwest, Knightsbridge and Belgravia. Mayfair is surrounded by parkland, both Hyde Park and Green Park run along its boundary, the 8-acre Grosvenor Square is roughly in the centre of Mayfair, and is the centrepiece of the area, containing numerous expensive and desirable properties. There has been speculation that the Romans settled in the area before establishing Londinium, the proposal has been disputed owing to lack of archaeological evidence. This area was known as the manor of Eia in the Domesday Book and it was subsequently given to the Abbey of Westminster, who owned it until 1536 when it was taken over by Henry VIII. Mayfair was mainly open fields until development started in the Shepherd Market area around 1686-8 to accommodate the May Fair that had moved from Haymarket in St Jamess because of overcrowding. There were some buildings before 1686 – a cottage in Stanhope Row, dating from 1618, a 17th century English Civil War fortification was established in what is now Mount Street in Mayfair, and known as Olivers Mount by the 18th century. The May Fair was held every year at Great Brookfield from 1 –14 May and it was established during the reign of Edward I, where the area beyond St. James was open fields. The fair was recorded as Saint Jamess fayer by Westminster in 1560 and it was postponed briefly in 1603 because of plague, but otherwise continued throughout the 17th century. In 1686, the moved to what is now Mayfair. By the 18th, it had attracted various showmen, jugglers and fencers, popular attractions included bare-knuckle fighting, semolina eating contests and womens foot racing
33.
Marylebone
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Marylebone is an affluent inner-city area of central London, England, located within the City of Westminster and part of the West End. It is sometimes written as St. Marylebone, Marylebone is roughly bounded by Oxford Street to the south, Marylebone Road to the north, Edgware Road to the west and Great Portland Street to the east. The area east of Great Portland Street up to Cleveland Street and this stream rose further north in what is now Swiss Cottage, eventually running along what is now Marylebone Lane, which preserves its curve within the grid pattern. The church and the area later became known as St Mary at the Bourne which, over time, became shortened to its present form. It is a common misunderstanding that the name is a corruption of Marie la Bonne, the manor of Tyburn is mentioned in the Domesday Book as a possession of Barking Abbey valued at 52 shillings, with a population no greater than 50. Early in the 13th century it was held by Robert de Vere, 3rd Earl of Oxford. Tyburn manor remained with the Crown until the part was sold in 1611 by James I, who retained the deer park, to Edward Forest. Forests manor of Marylebone then passed by marriage to the Austen family, the deer park, Marylebone Park Fields, was let out in small holdings for hay and dairy produce. The Harley heiress Lady Margaret Cavendish Harley married William, 2nd Duke of Portland, such place names in the neighbourhood as Cavendish Square and Portland Place reflect the Dukes of Portland landholdings and Georgian-era developments there. In 1879 the fifth Duke died without issue and the estate passed through the line to his sister, Lucy Joan Bentinck. A large part of the area directly to the west was constructed by the Portman family and is known as the Portman Estate, both estates have aristocratic antecedents and are still run by members of the aforementioned families. The Crown repurchased the northern part of the estate in 1813, mansfield Street is a short continuation of Chandos Street built by the Adam brothers in 1770, on a plot of ground which had been underwater. Most of its houses are fine buildings with exquisite interiors, which if put on the market now would have a price in excess of £10 million. Immediately across the road at 61 New Cavendish Street lived Natural History Museum creator Alfred Waterhouse, Queen Anne Street is an elegant cross-street which unites the northern end of Chandos Street with Welbeck Street. The painter JMW Turner moved to 47 Queen Anne Street in 1812 from 64 Harley Street, now divided into numbers 22 and 23, the building is one of the finest surviving Adam houses in London, and now lets rooms. Wimpole Street runs from Henrietta Place north to Devonshire Street, becoming Upper Wimpole en route – the latter where Arthur Conan Doyle opened his practice at number 2 in 1891. Today, at the end of Wimpole at Wigmore can be found a sandwich shop named Barretts. Bentinck Street leaves Welbeck Street and touches the middle of winding Marylebone Lane, more recently, Cambridge spies Anthony Blunt and Guy Burgess lived at 5 Bentinck Street during the Second World War
34.
List of London Underground stations
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The London Underground is a metro system in the United Kingdom that serves Greater London and the home counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire. The system comprises eleven lines – Bakerloo, Central, Circle, District, Hammersmith & City, Jubilee, Metropolitan, Northern, Piccadilly, Victoria and it is operated by Transport for London. Most of the system is north of the River Thames, with six London boroughs in the south of the city not served by the Underground, the London Borough of Hackney, to the north, has two stations on its border. It has been shown as two stations at different times in the past. TfL plans to six new stations between 2017 and 2020 as a result of extensions to the Metropolitan and Northern lines. One Metropolitan line station, Watford, will close due to its branch being diverted onto a new route, two of the planned Metropolitan line stations, Watford High Street and Watford Junction, are currently served by London Overground. Transport for London is currently planning extensions to the Metropolitan and Northern lines that will add six new stations to the network, four in Watford and two in Wandsworth. One current station, Watford on the Metropolitan line, will close as the branch that it is on will be diverted on to a new route. In some cases stations were first served by one line but later transferred to another. B12345678 First served by Metropolitan line – Circle line services separately identified in 1949, C12345 First served by Metropolitan line – District line service added in stages, Circle line services separately identified in 1949. D123 First served by Metropolitan line – Hammersmith & City line services separately identified in 1990, E123456789 First served by Metropolitan line – service transferred to Bakerloo line in 1939 and then to the Jubilee line in 1979. F12 First served by Metropolitan line – Bakerloo line service added in 1939 which was transferred to the Jubilee line in 1979, G12 First served by Bakerloo line – service transferred to Jubilee line in 1979. H12345 First served by District line – service transferred to Piccadilly line in 1933, I123456789101112 First served by District line – Circle line services separately identified in 1949. J12345678910 First served by District line – Metropolitan line service added in stages which was transferred to Hammersmith & City line in 1990. K1234567 First served by Metropolitan line – District line service added in 1910 which was transferred to Piccadilly line in 1933, L1234567 First served by District line – service transferred to Piccadilly line in 1964. M1234567 First served by Metropolitan line – Hammersmith & City line services separately identified in 1990, N12 First served by Bakerloo line – service withdrawn in 1982. † ^ Some stations are assigned to multiple zones, people travelling through these stations may treat the station as in whatever zone makes their fare the least expensive. Connor, J. E. Londons Disused Underground Stations, the Bakerloo line, a Brief History
35.
A4202 road
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Park Lane is a major road in the City of Westminster, in Central London. It is part of the London Inner Ring Road and runs from Hyde Park Corner in the south to Marble Arch in the north and it separates Hyde Park to the west from Mayfair to the east. The road has a number of important properties and hotels and has been one of the most sought after streets in London. The road was originally a country lane on the boundary of Hyde Park. Aristocratic properties appeared during the late 18th century, including Breadalbene House, Somerset House, notable residents included the 1st Duke of Westminsters residence at Grosvenor House, the Dukes of Somerset at Somerset House and the British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli at No.93. Other historic properties include Dorchester House, Brook House and Dudley House, flats and shops began appearing on the road, including penthouse flats. A number of properties on the road today are owned by some of the wealthiest businessmen from the Middle East, current residents include business mogul Mohamed Al-Fayed and former council leader Dame Shirley Porter. The road has suffered traffic congestion since the mid 19th century. Improved crossings for cyclists appeared in the early 21st century, despite the changes, property prices along the road are still among the highest in London. Its prestigious status has been commemorated by being the second-most expensive property square on the London Monopoly board, Park Lane is about 0.7 miles long, and runs north from Hyde Park Corner to Marble Arch, along the eastern flank of Hyde Park. The road is a route, classified A4202. The street is one of the key bus corridors in Central London. It is used by London bus routes 2,10,13,16,36,73,74,137,148,414,436 and night bus routes N16, N73, N74 and N137. The nearest tube stations are Hyde Park Corner on the Piccadilly line near the southern end. What is now Park Lane was originally a track running along farm boundaries, when Hyde Park was opened in the 16th century, the lane ran north-south along eastern boundary from Piccadilly to Marble Arch. Tyburn Lane took its name from the former Tyburn village which had declined in the 14th century, the Tyburn gallows, or Tyburn Tree, at the end of what is now Park Lane, was Londons primary public place of execution until 1783. In 1741, the Kensington Turnpike Trust took over its maintenance, Breadalbene House was built on the street in 1776. The politician and entrepreneur Richard Sharp, also known as Conversation Sharp, in the 1760s, Londonderry House, on the corner of Park Lane and Hertford Street, was bought by the Sixth Earl of Holdernesse
36.
Bayswater Road
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Bayswater Road is the main road running along the northern edge of Hyde Park in London. Originally part of the A40 road, it is now designated part of the A402 road, in the east, Bayswater Road originates from the Marble Arch junction, and at its western end it continues into Notting Hill Gate. It is mostly within the City of Westminster but a portion of the roads western end lies in Kensington. It is where the fictional upper-middle class Forsyte family live in John Galsworthys The Forsyte Saga, like Oxford Street to the east, Bayswater Road follows the course of the old Roman road linking London with Silchester. Tyburn Convent Website View from a Bayswater Road CCTV camera
37.
A5 road (Great Britain)
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The A5 London Holyhead Trunk Road is a major road in England and Wales. It runs for about 181 miles from London, England to Holyhead, Wales, the Act of Union 1800, which unified Great Britain and Ireland, gave rise to a need to improve communication links between London and Dublin. This made it the first major civilian state-funded road building project in Britain since Roman times, responsibility for establishing the new route was awarded to the famous engineer, Thomas Telford. Through England, the road took over existing turnpike roads and mainly following the route of the Anglo-Saxon Wæcelinga Stræt. From Shrewsbury and through Wales, Telfords work was more extensive, in places he followed existing roads, but he also built new links, including the Menai Suspension Bridge to connect the mainland with Anglesey and the Stanley Embankment to Holy Island. Telfords road was complete with the opening of the Menai Suspension Bridge in 1826, the road was designed to allow stagecoaches and the Mail coach to carry post between London and Holyhead, and thence by mailboat to Ireland. Therefore, throughout its length the gradient never exceeds 1,17, the route through Wales retains many of the original features of Telfords road and has, since 1995, been recognised as a historic route worthy of preservation. An 18-month survey by CADW in 1998-2000 revealed that about 40% of the road and its ancillary features survives under the modern A5. The A5 number disappears near Edgware, but the Roman Road continues as the A5183 through Elstree, Radlett, St Albans and Redbourn, to junction 9 of the M1, from there, it passes through Dunstable, where it crosses and briefly multiplexes with the A505. North of Dunstable, the A5 passes through the village of Hockliffe before becoming a dual carriageway, on entering the Milton Keynes urban area, the road becomes a fully grade-separated dual carriageway and passes through Milton Keynes. This stretch was opened in 1980, replacing the route along Watling Street. From just north of Milton Keynes, the road resumes as a carriageway that continues through Towcester where it crosses the A43 dual carriageway just north of the town. The road accompanies the Grand Union Canal and the M1 motorway through the Watford Gap and it then bridges the M45 motorway and continues to Kilsby. As it passes close to Rugby, the road is diverted slightly around the Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal, the next phase north-west-bound takes it under the M6 motorway and passing close to Lutterworth. Along this stretch, the road alternates between being a single and a dual carriageway. After meeting the M69 motorway at a roundabout, with the motorway passing above, after Hinckley, the road runs through the northern fringes of Nuneaton and then Tamworth. At Tamworth, the road follows a more recent dual carriageway bypass, from this point the road is a grade separated dual carriageway up until its junction with the A38 and M6 toll. After this junction it passes just to the south of Cannock and then enters Telford, at junction 7 the motorway ends and the A5 continues to Shrewsbury as dual carriageway, on its new alignment
38.
Odeon Marble Arch
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The Odeon Marble Arch was a cinema located opposite Marble Arch monument at the top of Park Lane, with its main entrance on Edgware Road, London. It operated in various forms from 1928 to 2016, and is most famous for housing a vast screen capable of screening films in 70mm. The cinema was first known as the Regal, opening on 29 November 1928 with Al Jolson in The Singing Fool, a 100-foot high facade was constructed in Portland stone. The auditorium was a riot of romanesque motifs and faux-decor, owing much to the style of the USA. Structured in traditional circle and stalls, the cinema was an addition to the West End. Within six months of opening, the cinema was taken over by ABC Cinemas and it was then taken over by Odeon Cinemas. It was refurbished by the new owners, but shortly before re-opening it was damaged by one of the last V-1 flying bombs to hit London, so it remained closed until September 1945, when it was re-opened as the Odeon Marble Arch and continued as a first-run house. However, by the early 1960s its interior was decidedly faded and neglected, film-runs had by this point declined to minor circuit pictures or even dubbed foreign films, insufficient to fill its large house. The new cinema, built above the Marble Arch tube station, opening in 1967, the Odeon was the largest cinema constructed in the post-war years. The screen, measuring 75 feet by 30 feet, with a depth of curvature of 17 feet, was the largest in the country, projection was level, beaming from the rear of the stalls, allowing for an even image. The cinema was constructed to showcase films in the various 70mm processes, as well as conventional 35mm films, presentations included, Far from the Madding Crowd, A Bridge Too Far, Aliens, Die Hard, Return of the Jedi, Lawrence of Arabia. Seating was 1360 in total, split between a spaciously raked circle and stalls, the auditorium was a cavernous space, with textured panelling on both side walls, partially concealing curtained backing. Variable lighting was installed in the rim of the ceiling to play different coloured schemes over the walls during intermissions. A single set of tabs revealed the immense screen, foyer areas were reached via escalator from a ground floor box office with a fish pond in the upper foyer. A somewhat flatter screen was installed following the revival of Lawrence of Arabia to allow for a distorted view of the desert skylines. Digital sound was installed in the 1990s, including ceiling speakers, a special screening in September 1996 of Richard Attenboroughs Gandhi in 70mm and six-track magnetic sound marked the end of the Odeon as a single-screen cinema. In January 1997, the cinema reopened as a 5 screen multiplex, the projection team at the closing as a single screen, and the opening as a 5 screen were John Paish, Warren Dargavel, Steffan Laugharne, the late John Peck. On May 8th 2016, Odeon Marble Arch closed its doors for the final time, a complete list of films shown in 70 mm in London
39.
70 mm
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70 mm film is a wide high-resolution film gauge for still and motion picture photography, with higher resolution than the standard 35 mm motion picture film format. As used in cameras, the film is 65 mm wide, for projection, the original 65 mm film is printed on 70 mm film. The additional 5 mm are for 4 magnetic strips holding six tracks of sound, although later 70 mm prints use digital sound encoding, the vast majority of existing and surviving 70 mm prints predate this technology. Each frame is five perforations tall, with a ratio of 2.20,1. Films formatted with a width of 70 mm have existed since the days of the motion picture industry. The first 70 mm format film was most likely footage of the Henley Regatta, which was projected in 1896 and 1897, but may have been filmed as early as 1894. It required a specially built projector built by Herman Casler in Canastota, New York and had a similar to full frame. There were also several film formats of various sizes from 50 to 68 mm which were developed from 1884 onwards, including Cinéorama, in 1914 the Italian Filoteo Alberini invented a panoramic film system utilising a 70 mm wide film called Panoramica. In 1928, Fox Film Corporation started working on a film format using 70 mm film which they named Grandeur. This was one of a number of wide-film processes developed by some of the film studios at about that time. However, due to resistance from movie theater owners, who were in the process of equipping their theaters for sound. Producer Mike Todd had been one of the founders of Cinerama, Cinerama employed three 35 mm film projectors running in synchronism to project a wide image onto a deeply curved screen. Although the results were impressive, the system was expensive, cumbersome and had serious shortcomings due to the need to match up three separate projected images. In collaboration with the American Optical company, Todd developed a system which was to be called Todd-AO and this uses a single 70 mm wide film and was introduced with the film Oklahoma. The 70 mm film is perforated at the pitch as standard 35 mm film. With a five-perforation pull-down, the Todd-AO system provides a frame dimension of 1.912 inch by 0.816 inch giving a ratio of 2.2,1. The Todd-AO format was intended to use a deeply curved Cinerama-type screen. However, in the 1960s and 70s, such films as The Sound of Music and Patton were shown in some Cinerama cinemas, which allowed for deeply curved screens
40.
Tyburn, London
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Tyburn was a village in the county of Middlesex close to the current location of Marble Arch and the southern end of Edgware Road in present-day London. It took its name from the Tyburn Brook, a tributary of the River Westbourne and it was also known as Gods Tribunal, in the 18th century. The village was one of two manors of the parish of Marylebone, which was named after the stream, St Marylebone being a contraction of St Marys church by the bourne. Tyburn was recorded in the Domesday Book and stood approximately at the west end of what is now Oxford Street at the junction of two Roman roads, the predecessors of Oxford Street and Edgware Road were roads leading to the village, later joined by Park Lane. In the 1230s and 1240s the village of Tyburn was held by Gilbert de Sandford, Eleanor had been the wife of King Henry II who encouraged her sons Henry and Richard to rebel against her husband, King Henry. In 1236 the city of London contracted with Sir Gilbert to draw water from Tyburn Springs, water was supplied free to all comers. Tyburn had significance from ancient times and was marked by a monument known as Oswulfs Stone, the stone was covered over in 1851 when Marble Arch was moved to the area, but it was shortly afterwards unearthed and propped up against the Arch. It has not been seen since 1869, public executions took place at Tyburn, with the prisoners processed from Newgate Prison in the City, via St Giles in the Fields and Oxford Street. After the late 18th century, when executions were no longer carried out in public, they were carried out at Newgate Prison itself, the first recorded execution took place at a site next to the stream in 1196. William Fitz Osbert, the populist leader of the poor of London, was cornered in the church of St Mary le Bow and he was dragged naked behind a horse to Tyburn, where he was hanged. In 1571, the Tyburn Tree was erected near the modern Marble Arch, the Tree or Triple Tree was a novel form of gallows, consisting of a horizontal wooden triangle supported by three legs. The Tree stood in the middle of the roadway, providing a landmark in west London. After executions, the bodies would be buried nearby or in later times removed for dissection by anatomists, the crowd would sometimes fight over a body with surgeons, by fear that dismemberment could prevent the resurrection of the body on Judgement Day. The first victim of the Tyburn Tree was Dr John Story, a plaque to the Catholic martyrs executed at Tyburn in the period 1535 -1681 is located at 8 Hyde Park Place, the site of Tyburn convent. The gallows seem to have replaced several times, probably because of reasons of wear. After some acts of vandalism, in October 1759 it was decided to replace the permanent structure with new moving gallows until the last execution in Tyburn, the executions were public spectacles and proved extremely popular, attracting crowds of thousands. The enterprising villagers of Tyburn erected large spectator stands so that as many as possible could see the hangings, on one occasion, the stands collapsed, reportedly killing and injuring hundreds of people. This did not prove a deterrent, however, and the continued to be treated as public holidays
41.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
42.
Albert Bridge, London
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The Albert Bridge is a road bridge over the River Thames in West London, connecting Chelsea on the north bank to Battersea on the south bank. In 1973 the Greater London Council added two concrete piers, which transformed the central span into a beam bridge. As a result, today the bridge is a hybrid of three different design styles. It is an English Heritage Grade II* listed building, built as a toll bridge, it was commercially unsuccessful. Six years after its opening it was taken into public ownership, the tollbooths remained in place and are the only surviving examples of bridge tollbooths in London. Incorporating a roadway only 27 feet wide, and with serious structural weaknesses, the strengthening work carried out by Bazalgette and the Greater London Council did not prevent further deterioration of the bridges structure. In 1992, the Albert Bridge was rewired and painted in a colour scheme designed to make it more conspicuous in poor visibility. At night it is illuminated by 4,000 bulbs, making it one of west Londons most striking landmarks, in 2010–2011, these were replaced with LEDs. Work on the Victoria Bridge, a distance downstream of Battersea Bridge, began in 1851 and was completed in 1858. Meanwhile, the proposal to demolish Battersea Bridge was abandoned, the wooden Battersea Bridge had become dilapidated by the mid-19th century. It had grown unpopular and was considered unsafe, the newer Victoria Bridge, meanwhile, suffered severe congestion. A compromise was reached, and in 1864 a new Act of Parliament was passed, the Act compelled the Albert Bridge Company to purchase Battersea Bridge once the new bridge opened, and to compensate its owners by paying them £3,000 per annum in the interim. Rowland Mason Ordish was appointed to design the new bridge, Ordish was a leading architectural engineer who had worked on the Royal Albert Hall, St Pancras railway station, the Crystal Palace and Holborn Viaduct. The bridge was built using the Ordish–Lefeuvre system, a form of cable-stayed bridge design which Ordish had patented in 1858. While plans for the Chelsea Embankment were debated, Ordish built the Franz Joseph Bridge over the Vltava in Prague to the design as that intended for the Albert Bridge. In 1869, the time allowed by the 1864 Act to build the bridge expired, delays caused by the Chelsea Embankment project meant that work on the bridge had not even begun, and a new Act of Parliament was required to extend the time limit. Construction finally got underway in 1870, and it was anticipated that the bridge would be completed in about a year, in the event, the project ran for over three years, and the final bill came to £200,000. As the law demanded, the Albert Bridge Company then bought Battersea Bridge, ordishs bridge was 41 feet wide and 710 feet long, with a 384-foot-9-inch central span
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Blackfriars Bridge
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Blackfriars Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge over the River Thames in London, between Waterloo Bridge and Blackfriars Railway Bridge, carrying the A201 road. The north end is near the Inns of Court and Temple Church, the south end is near the Tate Modern art gallery and the Oxo Tower. The first fixed crossing at Blackfriars was a 995 feet long toll bridge designed in an Italianate style by Robert Mylne, beating designs by John Gwynn and George Dance, it took nine years to build, opening to the public in 1769. It was the bridge across the Thames in the then built-up area of London, supplementing the ancient London Bridge, which dated from several centuries earlier. It was later made toll free, the Fleet can be seen discharging into the Thames at its north side. This created the junction at St Georges Circus between Westminster Bridge Road, Borough Road and the later named Blackfriars Road which crossed the largely open parish of Christchurch Surrey, the continuation to the south at the major junction at Elephant and Castle is therefore named London Road. Although it was built of Portland stone the workmanship was very faulty and this is the present bridge which in 1869 was opened by Queen Victoria. The present bridge is 923 feet long, consisting of five wrought iron arches built to a design by Joseph Cubitt, Cubitt also designed the adjacent rail bridge and it was a condition that the spans and piers of the two bridges be aligned. It was built by P. A. Thom & Co, like its predecessor it is owned and maintained by the Bridge House Estates, a charitable trust overseen by the City of London Corporation. Like London Bridge the full length and its end is within the Citys borders. Due to the volume of traffic over the bridge, it was widened between 1907–10, from 70 feet to its present 105 feet. In 2005, five suspected members of the Mafia were tried in a Rome court for Calvis murder, on the piers of the bridge are stone carvings of water birds by sculptor John Birnie Philip. On the East side, the carvings show marine life and seabirds, on the north side of the bridge is a statue of Queen Victoria, to whom the bridge was dedicated. The ends of the bridge are shaped like a pulpit in a reference to Black Friars, Blackfriars Bridge station continued as a goods stop until 1964 when it was completely demolished, and much of it redeveloped into offices. The River Fleet empties into the Thames under the end of Blackfriars Bridge. The structure was given Grade II listed status in 1972, in 1774 the new bridge was mentioned in a popular song in Charles Dibdins opera The Waterman, referring to the boatmen who used to carry fashionable folks to Vauxhall Gardens and Ranelagh Gardens. And did you not hear of the jolly young waterman, Who at Blackfriars Bridge used for to ply, and he feathered his oars with such skill and dexterity, Winning each heart and delighting each eye. The name was given to one of the Bailey Bridges over the Rhine River in 1945, in Neil Gaimans Neverwhere, Blackfriars Bridge was named as the home of an unknown order of monks who held the key to an angelic prison
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Hungerford Bridge and Golden Jubilee Bridges
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The Hungerford Bridge crosses the River Thames in London, and lies between Waterloo Bridge and Westminster Bridge. The north end of the bridge is Charing Cross railway station, and is near Embankment Pier, the south end is near Waterloo station, County Hall, the Royal Festival Hall, and the London Eye. Each pedestrian bridge has steps and lift access, the first Hungerford Bridge, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, opened in 1845 as a suspension footbridge. It was named after the then Hungerford Market, because it went from the South Bank to Hungerford Market on the side of the Thames. In 1859 the original bridge was bought by the railway company extending the South Eastern Railway into the newly opened Charing Cross railway station. The railway company replaced the bridge with a structure designed by Sir John Hawkshaw, comprising nine spans made of wrought iron lattice girders. The chains from the old bridge were re-used in Bristols Clifton Suspension Bridge, the buttress on the South Bank side still has the entrances and steps from the original steamer pier Brunel built on to the footbridge. Walkways were added on each side, with the one later being removed when the railway was widened. Another walkway was added in 1951 when an Army Bailey bridge was constructed for the Festival of Britain. In 1980 a temporary walkway was erected on the side while the downstream railway bridge. It is one of three bridges in London to combine pedestrian and rail use, the others being Fulham Railway Bridge. The footbridge gained a reputation for being narrow, dilapidated and dangerous, in the mid-1990s a decision was made to replace the footbridge with new structures on either side of the existing railway bridge, and a competition was held in 1996 for a new design. It was felt, especially following the Marchioness disaster, that these should be clad in concrete at water level, the Golden Jubilee Bridges achieved this protection at no cost to Railtrack. The concept design for the new footbridges was won by architects Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands, detailed design of the two bridges was carried out by consulting engineers Gifford, now Ramboll UK. Despite extensive surveys of the riverbed, London Underground was unwilling to accept these risks and preliminary works were stopped in 2000. The design was modified so that the structure on the north side. Excavation near the lines was carried out when the tube was closed. The two new 4-metre wide footbridges were completed in 2002 and they were named the Golden Jubilee Bridges, in honour of the fiftieth anniversary of Queen Elizabeth IIs accession, although in practice they are still referred to as the Hungerford Footbridges
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Lambeth Bridge
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Lambeth Bridge is a road traffic and footbridge crossing the River Thames in an east-west direction in central London. The river flows north at the crossing point, downstream, the next bridge is Westminster Bridge, upstream, the next bridge is Vauxhall Bridge. This is in contrast to Westminster Bridge, which is predominantly green, on the east side, in Lambeth, are Lambeth Palace, the Albert Embankment, St. Thomas Hospital, and the International Maritime Organization. On the west side, in Westminster, are Thames House, behind which is Horseferry House, and Clelland House and Abell House, the Palace of Westminster is a short walk downstream to the north through the Victoria Tower Garden. Lambeth Bridge is on the site of a ferry between the Palace of Westminster and Lambeth Palace on the south bank. Its name lives on in Horseferry Road, which forms the approach to the bridge on the north bank, the first modern bridge was a suspension bridge,828 feet long, designed by Peter W. Barlow. It ceased to be a bridge in 1879 when the Metropolitan Board of Works assumed responsibility for its upkeep — it was by then severely corroded. The London County Council prepared a masterplan for the area, including a replacement road bridge linking to a widened Horseferry Road, before work had started on the project, the 1928 Thames flood caused extensive destruction of property in the Millbank area. During the period of delay, the bridge was redesigned to be able to cope with a higher weight of motorised traffic. It formerly carried four lanes of traffic from a roundabout junction by the Lambeth Palace northwards to another roundabout. The bridge is notable at road level for the pairs of obelisks at either end of the bridge, which are surmounted by stone pinecones. However, there is an urban legend that they are pineapples, as a tribute to Lambeth resident John Tradescant the younger. The bridge was declared a Grade II listed structure in 2008, the listing designation includes the parapets, lamps, obelisks and the approach walls
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