1.
Town square
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A town square is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town used for community gatherings. Other names for town square are civic center, city square, urban square, market square, public square, piazza, plaza, most town squares are hardscapes suitable for open markets, music concerts, political rallies, and other events that require firm ground. Being centrally located, town squares are surrounded by small shops such as bakeries, meat markets, cheese stores. At their center is often a fountain, well, monument, many of those with fountains are actually called fountain square. In urban planning, a city square or urban square is an open area in a city. Red Square in Moscow was originally used as a marketplace and later became the stage for Soviet military parades. Similarly, Beijings Tiananmen Square was the scene of both communist parades and anti-government protests, john-F. -Kennedy-Platz was the site of the West Berlin town hall and John F. Kennedys famous Ich bin ein Berliner speech. New York Citys Times Square as well as Bryant Park, Washington, D. C. s National Mall, trafalgar Square in London does the same for the United Kingdom. Saint Peters Square in Vatican City, the enclave within Rome. Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto is a renowned and famous square in Canada, nathan Phillips Square is a popular square in front of Torontos landmark City Hall. Hviezdoslavovo námestie is one of the squares in Bratislava and a centre of a social life. Dam Square in Amsterdam for the Netherlands, Main Market Square in Kraków, Market Place in Warsaw and Wrocław Main Square for Poland. The City Hall Square, Copenhagen for Denmark, praça do Comércio, in Lisbon, Portugal, was formerly known as the Terreiro do Paço. It was destroyed after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake but was rebuilt, the symmetrical buildings around the square hold government bureaus and ministries. Wenceslas Square is one of the city squares in the New Town of Prague. In Mainland China, Peoples Square is a designation for the central town square of modern Chinese cities. These squares are the site of government buildings, museums and other public buildings, the probably best-known and largest such square in China is Tienanmen Square. The German word for square is Platz, which also means Place and these have been focal points of public life in towns and cities from the Middle Ages to today
2.
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
3.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
4.
Demonstration (protest)
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Actions such as blockades and sit-ins may also be referred to as demonstrations. Demonstrations can be nonviolent or violent, or can begin as nonviolent, sometimes riot police or other forms of law enforcement become involved. In some cases this may be in order to try to prevent the protest from taking place at all, in other cases it may be to prevent clashes between rival groups, or to prevent a demonstration from spreading and turning into a riot. Demonstrations are a form of activism, usually taking the form of a gathering of people in a rally or walking in a march. Thus, the opinion is demonstrated to be significant by gathering in a associated with that opinion. Demonstrations can be used to show a viewpoint regarding a public issue, a demonstration is usually considered more successful if more people participate. There are many types of demonstrations, including a variety of elements and these may include, Marches, in which a parade demonstrate while moving along a set route. Rallies, in which people gather to listen to speakers or musicians, picketing, in which people surround an area. Nudity, in which they protest naked - here the antagonist may give in before the demonstration happens to avoid embarrassment, Demonstrations are sometimes spontaneous gatherings, but are also utilized as a tactical choice by movements. They often form part of a campaign of nonviolent resistance. Demonstrations are usually physical gatherings, but virtual or online demonstrations are certainly possible, topics of demonstrations often deal with political, economic, and social issues. Clashes between demonstrators and counter-demonstrators may turn violent, government-organized demonstrations are demonstrations which are organized by a government. The Islamic Republic of Iran, the Peoples Republic of China, Republic of Cuba, sometimes the date or location chosen for the demonstration is of historical or cultural significance, such as the anniversary of some event that is relevant to the topic of the demonstration. Locations are also chosen because of some relevance to the issue at hand. Protest marches and demonstrations are a nonviolent tactic. They are thus one tactic available to proponents of strategic nonviolence, some demonstrations and protests can turn, at least partially, into riots or mob violence against objects such as automobiles and businesses, bystanders and the police. Police and military authorities often use force or less-lethal weapons, such as tasers, rubber bullets, pepper spray. Sometimes violent situations are caused by the preemptive or offensive use of weapons which can provoke, destabilize
5.
Whitehall
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Whitehall is a road in the City of Westminster, Central London, which forms the first part of the A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea. It is the main thoroughfare running south from Trafalgar Square towards Parliament Square, consequently, the name Whitehall is used as a metonym for British civil service, and as the geographic name for the surrounding area. The name was taken from the Palace of Whitehall that was the residence of Kings Henry VIII through to William III, before its destruction by fire in 1698, only the Banqueting House survived. Whitehall was originally a road that led to the front of the palace. As well as government buildings, the street is known for its statues and monuments, including Britains primary war memorial. The Whitehall Theatre, now the Trafalgar Studios, has been a place for farce comedies since the mid-20th century. The name Whitehall was used for buildings in the Tudor period. It either referred to a made of light stone, or as a general term for any festival building. This included the Royal Palace of Whitehall, which in turn gave its name to the street, the street is about 0.4 miles long and runs through the City of Westminster. It is part of the A3212, a road in Central London that leads towards Chelsea via the Houses of Parliament. It runs south from Trafalgar Square, past numerous government buildings, including the old War Office building, Horse Guards, the Ministry of Defence, the Cabinet Office and it ends at the Cenotaph, the road ahead being Parliament Street. Great Scotland Yard and Horse Guards Avenue branch off to the east, the nearest tube stations are Charing Cross at the north end, and Westminster at the south. Numerous London bus routes run along Whitehall, including 12,24,53,88,159 and 453. It had become a street by the 16th century, and had become a popular place to live by the 17th, with residents including Lord Howard of Effingham. The Palace of Whitehall, to the east of the road, was originally named York Palace, the palace was redesigned in 1531–32 and became the Kings main residence later in the decade. He married Ann Boleyn here in 1533, followed by Jane Seymour in 1536, Charles I owned an extensive art collection at the palace and several of William Shakespeares plays had their first performances here. It ceased to be a residence after 1689, when William III moved to Kensington Palace. The palace was damaged by fire in 1691, following which the front entrance was redesigned by Sir Christopher Wren, in 1698, most of the palace burned to the ground owing to an accident started by a careless washerwoman
6.
Supreme Court of the United Kingdom
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The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom is the supreme court in all matters under English and Welsh law, Northern Ireland law and Scottish civil law. It is the court of last resort and the highest appellate court in the United Kingdom, the Supreme Court was established by Part 3 of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 and started work on 1 October 2009. Its jurisdiction over devolution matters had previously exercised by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Because of the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty, the Supreme Court is much more limited in its powers of review than the constitutional or supreme courts of some other countries. It cannot overturn any primary legislation made by Parliament, however, it can overturn secondary legislation if, for example, that legislation is found to be ultra vires to the powers in primary legislation allowing it to be made. Such a declaration can apply to primary or secondary legislation, the legislation is not overturned by the declaration, and neither Parliament nor the government is required to agree with any such declaration. The current President of the Supreme Court is Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury, the Supreme Courts focus is on cases that raise points of law of general public importance. The Supreme Court also determines devolution issues, ordinarily, all twelve justices do not all hear every case. Typically a case is heard by a panel of five justices, the justices are also members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and spend some of their time in that capacity. The creation of a Supreme Court for the United Kingdom was first mooted in a paper published by the Department of Constitutional Affairs in July 2003. Space within the House of Lords was at a constant premium, the main argument against a new Supreme Court was that the previous system had worked well and kept costs down. Reformers expressed concern that this second main example of a mixture of the legislative, judicial, officials who make or execute laws have an interest in court cases that put those laws to the test. When the state invests judicial authority in those officials or even their colleagues, it puts the independence. Lord Phillips said such an outcome was a possibility, but was unlikely, the reforms were controversial and were brought forward with little consultation but were subsequently extensively debated in Parliament. During 2004, a committee of the House of Lords scrutinised the arguments for. The Government estimated the set-up cost of the Supreme Court at £56.9 million, the Supreme Court was established by Part 3 of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 and started work on 1 October 2009. Its jurisdiction over devolution matters had previously held by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. The first case heard by the Supreme Court was HM Treasury v Ahmed, at issue was the extent to which Parliament has, by the United Nations Act 1946, delegated to the executive the power to legislate
7.
Westminster Abbey
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It is one of the United Kingdoms most notable religious buildings and the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English and, later, British monarchs. Between 1540 and 1556, the abbey had the status of a cathedral, since 1560, however, the building is no longer an abbey nor a cathedral, having instead the status of a Church of England Royal Peculiar—a church responsible directly to the sovereign. The building itself is the abbey church. According to a tradition first reported by Sulcard in about 1080, a church was founded at the site in the 7th century, at the time of Mellitus, construction of the present church began in 1245, on the orders of King Henry III. Since the coronation of William the Conqueror in 1066, all coronations of English and British monarchs have held in Westminster Abbey. There have been at least 16 royal weddings at the abbey since 1100, two were of reigning monarchs, although, before 1919, there had been none for some 500 years. The first reports of the abbey are based on a tradition claiming that a young fisherman called Aldrich on the River Thames saw a vision of Saint Peter near the site. This seems to be quoted to justify the gifts of salmon from Thames fishermen that the abbey received in later years, in the present was, the Fishmongers Company still gives a salmon every year. The proven origins are that in the 960s or early 970s, Saint Dunstan, assisted by King Edgar, between 1042 and 1052, King Edward the Confessor began rebuilding St Peters Abbey to provide himself with a royal burial church. It was the first church in England built in the Romanesque style, the building was completed around 1090 and was consecrated on 28 December 1065, only a week before Edwards death on 5 January 1066. A week later, he was buried in the church, and, nine years later and his successor, Harold II, was probably crowned in the abbey, although the first documented coronation is that of William the Conqueror later the same year. The only extant depiction of Edwards abbey, together with the adjacent Palace of Westminster, is in the Bayeux Tapestry, construction of the present church was begun in 1245 by Henry III who selected the site for his burial. The abbot and monks, in proximity to the royal Palace of Westminster, the abbot often was employed on royal service and in due course took his place in the House of Lords as of right. The abbey built shops and dwellings on the west side, encroaching upon the sanctuary, the abbey became the coronation site of Norman kings. The Confessors shrine subsequently played a part in his canonisation. The work continued between 1245 and 1517 and was finished by the architect Henry Yevele in the reign of Richard II. Henry III also commissioned the unique Cosmati pavement in front of the High Altar, Henry VII added a Perpendicular style chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1503. Much of the came from Caen, in France, the Isle of Portland
8.
St Margaret's, Westminster
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It is dedicated to Margaret of Antioch. The Rector of St Margarets is a canon of Westminster Abbey, the north-west tower was rebuilt by John James from 1734 to 1738, at the same time, the whole structure was encased in Portland stone. Both the eastern and the porch were added later by J. L. Pearson. The churchs interior was restored and altered to its current appearance by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1877. Notable features include the east window of 1509 of Flemish stained glass, the collector Henry Constantine Jennings is also buried there. A memorial to them can now be set into the external wall to the left of the main west entrance. The church has been a venue for society weddings which include,1 December 1655, Samuel Pepys. The ensemble of St Margarets, the Palace of Westminster and Westminster Abbey is a World Heritage Site, members of Parliament and staff members of the House of Lords and House of Commons are permitted to marry in the church. During the First World War, Edward Lyttelton, headmaster of Eton and he spoke of his opinion that any post-war treaty with Germany should be a just one and not a vindictive one. He had to leave the church after the service by a back door, the treble choristers for St Margarets are supplied by Westminster Under School. The church also hosted the first performance by the UK Parliament Choir under Simon Over in 2000, an organ was installed in 1806 by John Avery. The current organ is built by J. W. Walker & Sons Ltd. A specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register, from 1972 to 2010, the Rector was also the Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons. L. Pearson Guide to St. Margarets Memorials of St. Margarets church, Westminster, comprising the parish registers, 1539–1660, and other churchwardens accounts, 1460–1603 Deanery of Westminster
9.
Middlesex Guildhall
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The Middlesex Guildhall is the home of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. It stands on the south-west corner of Parliament Square in London, the location in Parliament Square was the site of the belfry of Westminster Abbey and it was used as a market from 1750 to 1800. The justices of the City and Liberty of Westminster took it over, in 1889 Westminster became part of the County of London, outside the county of Middlesex. In the division of property between the Middlesex and London county councils, the guildhall at Westminster went to Middlesex in exchange for the Middlesex Sessions House in Clerkenwell, a neo-Tudor guildhall was constructed on the site in 1893 by F. H. Pownall. The county council and the Middlesex sessions were abolished in 1965, after the abolition of the Quarter Sessions it was used as a Crown Court centre. The Guildhall incorporates in the rear a doorway dating from the century which was a part of the Tothill Fields Bridewell prison. The Middlesex Guildhall was closed for refurbishment in 2007 in order to convert it for use as the site of the new Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, the Supreme Court, established in law by the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, came into being on 1 October 2009. After the government chose the Middlesex Guildhall as home for the new Supreme Court, it was realised that a deal of work was required to renovate the building. Renovation plans were developed by architects Feilden+Mawson LLP, supported by Foster & Partners and these plans attracted much controversy from conservation groups, which claimed that the conversion would be unsympathetic to such an important building. The conversion works involved the removal of many of the original fixtures, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, History, Art, Architecture Chris Miele ed
10.
Government Offices Great George Street
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Major refurbishment of 1HGR added floor space which allowed, in 2002, the entire Treasury staff to be housed within it. This was first time the Treasury was in the building since 50 years before. The headquarters of HM Revenue and Customs and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport occupy the Parliament Street end, the basement houses the Churchill War Rooms, a branch of the Imperial War Museum. GOGGS is listed Grade II* on the National Heritage List for England, meaning it is of exceptional interest and it was described by the Victorian Society as an early monument of the Edwardian Baroque Revival. GOGGS was designed by John Brydon following a competition, construction took place in two phases, the West end was completed in 1908 and the East end was completed in 1917. It was originally built as offices for Board of Education, the Local Government Board, a major refurbishment of the building was completed under a PFI contract by Bovis Lend Lease in 2004. Foster + Partners together with Feilden and Mawson were the architects for the refurbishment, by the end of 2004 HM Revenue and Customs was relocated into 100 Parliament Street from Somerset House. In 2013 Northern Ireland Office, UK Export Finance and Department for Culture, Media, in 20151 Horse Guards Road became the headquarters for Government Internal Audit Agency. The character James Bond is seen in a courtyard of GOGGS in the movie Spectre, the building serves as MI6 headquarters after terrorist attack on SIS Building in Skyfall
11.
HM Treasury
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The leading pronoun in the departments name varies depending upon the gender of the reigning monarch. The beginnings of the Treasury of England have been traced by some to a known as Henry the Treasurer. This claim is based on an entry in the Domesday Book showing the individual Henry the treasurer as a landowner in Winchester, where the royal treasure was stored. The Treasury of the United Kingdom thus traces its origins to the Treasury of the Kingdom of England, the Treasury emerged from the Royal Household. It was where the king kept his treasures, the head of the Treasury was called the Lord Treasurer. Starting in Tudor times, the Lord Treasurer became one of the officers of state. In 1667, Charles II of England was responsible for appointing George Downing, the builder of Downing Street, to reform the Treasury. The Treasury was first put in commission in May or June 1660, the first commissioners were the Duke of Albermarle, Lord Ashley, W. Coventry, J. Duncomb, and T. Clifford. After 1714, the Treasury was always in commission, the commissioners were referred to as the Lords of the Treasury and were given a number based on their seniority. Until 1827, the First Lord of the Treasury, when a commoner, also held the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer, while if the First Lord was a peer, since 1827, however, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has always been Second Lord of the Treasury. During the time when the Treasury was under commission, the junior Lords were each paid £1600 a year, some of the other whips are nominally Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury, though they are all members of the House of Commons. Whip is a party, rather than a government, position and this has led to the Government front bench in the Commons being known as the Treasury Bench. However, since the no longer have any effective ministerial roles in the Treasury. Lord Young of Cookham, who serves currently as a government whip in the House of Lords, has named as Treasury spokesman. Ramsden is now sole Head of the GES, the previous Head of the GES was Sir Nick Stern. Management support for GES members is provided by the Economists in Government team, banknotes in the UK are normally issued by the Bank of England and a number of commercial banks. Treasury notes had full legal status and were not convertible for gold through the Bank of England. They replaced the coin in circulation to prevent a run on sterling
12.
HM Revenue and Customs
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HMRC was formed by the merger of the Inland Revenue and Her Majestys Customs and Excise which took effect on 18 April 2005. The departments logo is the St Edwards Crown enclosed within a circle, responsibility for the protection of the UKs borders passed to UK Visas and Immigration of the UK Border Agency within the Home Office on 1 April 2008 and then to UK Visas and Immigration in 2013. This includes all of the previous HMCE criminal work such as Tobacco Alcohol and they have aligned their previous Customs and Excise powers to tackle previous Inland Revenue criminal offences. They are responsible for seizing billions of pounds of HMGs revenue. Their skills and resources include the range of intrusive and covert surveillance. HMRC inland detection officers have wide-ranging powers of arrest, entry, search, the main power is to detain anyone who has committed, or whom the officer has reasonable grounds to suspect has committed, any offence under the Customs and Excise Acts. HMRC is also listed under parts of the British Government which contribute to intelligence collection, analysis and their prosecution cases may be coordinated with the Police or the Crown Prosecution Service. The department is organised around four groups, each led by a director general. The next 8,400 business are dealt with via Customer Co-ordinators who provide a point of contact with HMRC. The merger of the Inland Revenue and HM Customs & Excise was announced by then Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown in the Budget on 17 March 2004, the name for the new department and its first executive chairman, David Varney, were announced on 9 May 2004. The Act also creates a Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office responsible for the prosecution of all Revenue, the old Inland Revenue and Customs & Excise departments had very different historical bases, internal cultures and legal powers. The merger was described by the Financial Times on 9 July 2004, legislation to introduce new information and inspection powers was included in Finance Act 2008. The new consolidated penalty regime was introduced via Finance Act 2007, in addition,2,500 staff would be redeployed to front-line activities. Estimates suggested this may save around £300 million in staff costs, in addition, certain investigatory functions moved to the new Serious Organised Crime Agency, as well as prosecutions moving to the new Revenue and Customs Prosecution Office. A further programme of job cuts and office closures was announced on 16 November 2006, whilst some of the offices closed will be in bigger cities where other offices already exist, many will be in local, rural areas, where there is no other HMRC presence. In May 2009, staff morale in HMRC was the lowest of 11 government departments surveyed. In 2013, HMRC began to introduce an update to the PAYE system, a trial of the new system began in April 2012, and all employers switched by October 2013. In 2012 Revenue Scotland was formed and on 1 April 2015 it took HMRC responsibility to collect Stamp Duty Land Tax, on 12 November 2015 HMRC proposed to close 137 local offices and replace them with 13 regional centres by 2027
13.
Portcullis House
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Portcullis House is an office building in Westminster, London, UK, that was commissioned in 1992 and opened in 2001 to provide offices for 213 members of parliament and their staff. Part of the Parliamentary Estate, the building augments limited space in the Palace of Westminster, the architects, Michael Hopkins and Partners, published their design in 1993 and the existing buildings on the site were demolished in 1994. Construction began with works to the existing District line station at sub-basement level, the track had to be lowered slightly and underpinned to allow the extensive excavation to the Jubilee line many feet below. The building above ground began to rise in 1998 and opened in 2001 and it is located at the corner of Bridge Street and Victoria Embankment – overlooking the River Thames – and adjacent to the Norman Shaw South Building, which also overlooks the river. The building is named after the chained portcullis used to symbolise the Houses of Parliament on letterheads, the first floor of Portcullis House is open to members of the public to allow attendance at Committee sessions. Throughout the rest of the building, as with the rest of the Parliamentary Estate, the entrance is guarded by police, and all visitors must submit their bags and coats for X-raying, as well as passing through a metal detector and undergoing a body check. There is a Post Office branch within Portcullis House that is not open to the public, the building was designed by Michael Hopkins and Partners and incorporates Westminster tube station below it. A thick slab of concrete separates Portcullis House from the station, the load is borne by the walls, without interior posts. The corners of the building are hung from the roof using massive steel beams, the design life of 120 years meant that aluminium bronze was chosen for exposed metal on the roof and walls. The structure also includes Cornish granite and was the last contract to be manufactured at Merrivale Quarry on Dartmoor, the columns between the windows are constructed of Birchover Gritstone, supplied by Birchover Stone Ltd. of Derbyshire. Portcullis Houses chimneys are not used to expel fumes but are part of an air conditioning system. It is based on the used in 1996 in the Eastgate Centre, Harare. The building itself was designed to look and feel like a ship inside, all the offices and passages are made up with bowed windows and light oak finishing. Each floor looks identical to the others except the floor which houses the main courtyard with ship-like metallic sails suspended overhead. The courtyard is decorated with trees and two baths of water. The offices at Portcullis House are generally in sets of two sharing a common bay in the centre, each floor is unofficially allocated to a different political party so that generally MPs with similar politics are kept together. These Committee rooms are accessible to the public and are fitted with cameras and microphones, to broadcast the proceedings via BBC Parliament. All rooms in the building are fitted with annunciators, Division bells are also installed throughout the building, which alert MPs to the calling of a division in the Chamber of the House of Commons
14.
Millbank
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Millbank is an area of central London in the City of Westminster. Millbank is located by the River Thames, east of Pimlico, Millbank is known as the location of major government offices, the Millbank Tower and prominent art institutions such as Tate Britain and the Chelsea College of Art and Design. The area derives its name from a watermill owned by Westminster Abbey that once stood at a close to present day College Green. Described as a place of plague pits and a low, marshy locality suitable for shooting snipe in the nearby bogs, facilities at the prison camp on the marshy ground were so poor that 1,200 prisoners were recorded as having died in the primitive conditions. Baltic Wharf, a site just to the north of Vauxhall Bridge, was for much of the 19th century the location of a Henry Castle & Son, a ship breaking and timber merchant. Numerous wooden ships of the line of the Royal Navy were dismantled at this location, their ornate figureheads often displayed on the gates and perimeter of the yard walls. Millbank shares the name of the road along the north bank of the River Thames, extending northwards from Vauxhall Bridge to Abingdon Street. There are parliamentary offices situated across this road, notably No.7, the road was created as part of the Thames Embankment in the mid 19th century and lies above a large interceptor sewer. The listed site has since been renovated as a purpose built arts college for the Chelsea College of Art, the Tate Britain art gallery is directly opposite near the end of Vauxhall Bridge, providing a distinct arts presence in the area. The headquarters of the British chemicals giant ICI was originally located at Imperial Chemical House on Millbank before it relocated to Manchester Square, the headquarters for the Northern Ireland Office, MI5 and Thames House are also nearby. On 18 December 1973, the Provisional Irish Republican Army exploded a bomb on Thorney Street at 8, the bomb resulted in over 50 people injured, including two seriously. Millbank Studios reside in the area as an independent broadcast company, the studio is situated opposite the Houses of Parliament. The BBC Parliament broadcasting channel is situated nearby. No.4 is the commonly used by broadcasters for producing coverage of the Westminster area, including the BBC, Sky News. RTÉ News and Current Affairs also have their London bureau at the same location, neighbouring College Green is used as a setting for interviewing politicians outdoors. Millbank Estate is a large but highly regarded Grade II-listed red-brick housing estate that gives the area behind Tate Britain a distinct character, the estate was built between 1897 and 1902, the bricks being recycled from Millbank Prison, which had closed in 1890. The 17 buildings, comprising one of Londons earliest social housing schemes, are named after distinguished painters such as Turner, Gainsborough, Millais, the estate has 562 flats, all managed on behalf of Westminster City Council by MEMO, the largest tenant management organisation in Westminster. The estates management board is elected annually from the resident population, half of the estates flats are private leaseholds, the other half are rented from Westminster City Council
15.
Birdcage Walk
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Birdcage Walk is a street in the City of Westminster in London. The street is named after the Royal Menagerie and Aviary which were located there in the reign of King James I, King Charles II expanded the Aviary when the Park was laid out from 1660. Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn both mention visiting the Aviary in their diaries, only the British Royal Family and the Hereditary Grand Falconer, the Duke of St Albans, were permitted to drive along the road until 1828, when it was opened to the public. By the mid-19th century, the walk had gained notoriety as a ground for homosexual trysts. A new roundabout was built at the end in 1903. Birdcage Walk formed part of the course of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The womens Olympic marathon took place on 5 August and the mens Olympic marathon on 12 August, the Paralympic marathons were held on 9 September. Birdcage Walk is the name of a composed in 1951 by Arnold Steck. It was the name of a street in Bethnal Green, now called Columbia Road, Birdcage Walk is also the name of a novel by Helen Dunmore, first published in 2017, although here the Birdcage Walk in question is located not in London but in Clifton, Bristol. Media related to Birdcage Walk at Wikimedia Commons
16.
Westminster Bridge
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Westminster Bridge is a road-and-foot-traffic bridge over the River Thames in London, linking Westminster on the west side and Lambeth on the east side. The bridge is painted green, the same colour as the leather seats in the House of Commons which is on the side of the Palace of Westminster nearest to the bridge. This is in contrast to Lambeth Bridge, which is red, in 2005–2007, it underwent a complete refurbishment, including replacing the iron fascias and repainting the whole bridge. It links the Palace of Westminster on the west side of the river with County Hall, the next bridge downstream is the Hungerford footbridge and upstream is Lambeth Bridge. Westminster Bridge was designated a Grade II* listed structure in 1981, for over 600 years, the nearest bridge to London Bridge was at Kingston. A bridge at Westminster was proposed in 1664, but opposed by the Corporation of London, despite further opposition in 1722, and after a new timber bridge was built at Putney in 1729, the scheme received parliamentary approval in 1736. Financed by private capital, lotteries and grants, Westminster Bridge was built between 1739–1750, under the supervision of the Swiss engineer Charles Labelye, the City of London responded to Westminster Bridge by removing the buildings on London Bridge and widening it in 1760–63. The City also commenced work on the Blackfriars Bridge, which opened in 1769, other bridges from that time include Kew Bridge, Battersea Bridge, and Richmond Bridge. The bridge was required for traffic from the expanding West End to the developing South London as well as to south coast ports, without the bridge, traffic from the West End would have to negotiate the congested routes to London Bridge such as the Strand and New Oxford Street. Roads south of the river were also improved, including the junction at the Elephant & Castle in Southwark, by the mid–19th century the bridge was subsiding badly and expensive to maintain. The current bridge was designed by Thomas Page and opened on 24 May 1862, with a length of 820 feet and a width of 85 feet, it is a seven-arch, cast-iron bridge with Gothic detailing by Charles Barry. It is the oldest road bridge across the Thames in central London, on 22 March 2017, a terrorist attack started on the bridge and continued into Bridge Street and Old Palace Yard. Five people - three pedestrians, one officer, and the attacker - died as a result of the incident. A colleague of the officer was armed and shot the attacker, more than 50 people were injured. An investigation is ongoing by the Metropolitan Police, in the 2002 British horror film 28 Days Later, the protagonist awakes from a coma to find London deserted and walks over an eerily empty Westminster Bridge whilst looking for signs of life. Westminster Bridge is the start and finish point for the Bridges Handicap Race, william Wordsworth wrote the sonnet Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3,1802. In the finale of the 24th James Bond film Spectre, Blofelds helicopter crashes into Westminster Bridge, Westminster Bridge at Structurae Westminster Bridge at Structurae Interactive Panorama, Westminster Bridge
17.
Charles Barry
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He also developed the Italian Renaissance garden style for the many gardens he designed around country houses. Born on 23 May 1795 in Bridge Street, Westminster, he was the son of Walter Edward Barry, a stationer. He was baptised at St Margarets, Westminster, into the Church of England and his father remarried shortly after Frances died and Barrys stepmother Sarah would bring him up. He was educated at schools in Homerton and then Aspley Guise, before being apprenticed to Middleton & Bailey, Lambeth architects and surveyors. Barry exhibited drawings at the Royal Academy annually from 1812 to 1815 and he visited France and, while in Paris, spent several days at the Musée du Louvre. In Rome he sketched antiquities, sculptures and paintings at the Vatican Museums and other galleries, before carrying on to Naples, Pompeii, Bari, while in Italy, Barry met Charles Lock Eastlake, an architect, William Kinnaird and Francis Johnson and Thomas Leverton Donaldson. From Constantinople he visited the Troad, Assos, Pergamon and back to Smyrna, on 18 June 1819, Barry parted from Baillie at Tripoli, Lebanon. Over this time, Barry created more than 500 sketches, Barry then travelled on to Cyprus, Rhodes, Halicarnassus, Ephesus and Smyrna from where he sailed on 16 August 1819 for Malta. Barry then sailed from Malta to Syracuse, Sicily, then Italy and his travels in Italy exposed him to Renaissance architecture and after arriving in Rome in January 1820, he met architect John Lewis Wolfe, who inspired Barry himself to become an architect. Their friendship continued until Barry died, the building that inspired Barrys admiration for Italian architecture was the Palazzo Farnese. Over the following months, he and Wolfe together studied the architecture of Vicenza, Venice, Verona and Florence, where the Palazzo Strozzi greatly impressed him. While in Rome he had met Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne, through whom he met Henry Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland and their London home, Holland House, was the centre of the Whig Party. Barry remained a supporter of the Liberal party, the successor to the Whig Party. Barry was invited to the gatherings at the house, and there met many of the prominent members of the group, Barry set up his home and office in Ely Place in 1821. In 1827 he moved to 27 Foley Place, then in 1842 he moved to 32 Great George Street and finally to The Elms, now 29 Clapham Common Northside, the Georgian house of five bays and three stories was designed by Samuel Pepys Cockerell as his own home. Probably thanks to his fiancées friendship with John Soane, Barry was recommended to the Church Building Commissioners and these were in the Gothic Revival architecture style, including two in Lancashire, St. Matthew, Campfield, Manchester, and All Saints Church, Whitefield. Barry designed three churches for the Commissioners in Islington, Holy Trinity, St. Johns and St. Pauls, all in the Gothic in style and built between 1826 and 1828. His final church for the Commissioners was the Gothic St Peters Church, Brighton, the Gothic Hurstpierpoint church, with its tower and spire, unlike his earlier churches was much closer to the Cambridge Camden Societys approach to church design
18.
Buxton Memorial Fountain
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The Buxton Memorial Fountain is a memorial and drinking fountain in London, the United Kingdom, that commemorates the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire in 1834. The memorial was completed in February 1866 and it was originally constructed in Parliament Square, erected at a cost of £1,200. As part of the redesign of the square it was removed in 1949. There were eight decorative figures of British rulers on it, but four were stolen in 1960 and they were replaced by fibreglass figures in 1980. By 2005 these were missing, and the fountain was no longer working, between autumn 2006 and February 2007 restoration works were carried out. The restored fountain was unveiled on 27 March 2007 as part of the commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the act to abolish the slave trade, a memorial plaque commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Anti-Slavery Society was added in 1989. It was designed and built by Mr. Charles Buxton, M. P. in 1865, margaret Baker, London Statues and Monuments. Media related to Buxton Memorial Fountain at Wikimedia Commons
19.
Victoria Tower Gardens
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Victoria Tower Gardens is a public park along the north bank of the River Thames in London. As its name suggests, it is adjacent to the Victoria Tower, the park, which extends southwards from the Palace to Lambeth Bridge, sandwiched between Millbank and the river, also forms part of the Thames Embankment. The park features, A cast of the sculpture The Burghers of Calais by Auguste Rodin, purchased by the British government in 1911 and positioned in the gardens in 1915. It was commissioned by Charles Buxton MP to commemorate the abolition of slavery in 1834, dedicated to his father Thomas Fowell Buxton, a stone wall with two modern-style goats with kids – situated at the southern end of the Gardens. From 4 to 11 August 2014 the light installation spectra by Japanese artist Ryoji Ikeda was situated in the gardens to commemorate the centenary of the start of the First World War, the nearest London Underground stations are Westminster and Pimlico. The Gardens were created during the 1870s by Joseph Bazalgette, and was part of a project for the Metropolitan Board of Works to provide London with a sewerage system. This expansion was discussed in parliament in 1898 in the Victoria Embankment extension, the effects from this business and others were sold in 1905. School board map of the area 1872 Boundary Commission map from 1885 Waterloo, Westminster, Lambeth map 1896 Details of compulsory purchase of Dorset Wharf
20.
George Grey Wornum
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George Grey Wornum was a British architect. Grey Wornum was born in London and educated at Bradfield College and he studied architecture under the guidance of his uncle, Ralph Selden Wornum. Badly wounded in the First World War he suffered leg injuries and the loss of his right eye and he married the American designer Miriam Alice Gerstle in 1923. In his later years he spent some time in Bermuda for health reasons and he died in New York City and was named CBE in the Birthday Honours list published two days after his death. Wornum was winner of the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture in 1952 and his notability rests upon his design of the RIBA Building, the Royal Institute of British Architects Headquarters at 66 Portland Place, London. Wornums entry was judged the best of 3600 in the competition for a new RIBA headquarters, completed in 1934, the building was opened by King George V and Queen Mary. His work for Westminster Council included municipal buildings and a simple, stylish design of lamp post and his most notable work outside the UK is the English Girls College, founded in 1935 and now known as the El Nasr Girls College in Alexandria, Egypt. In 1936 he was asked by the Cities of Westminster and London to co-ordinate the street decorations for the Coronation of Edward VIII, the planning was disrupted when the new King abdicated. Modifications to the plans were made for the coronation of King George VI
21.
Greater London Authority
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The Greater London Authority is a top-tier administrative body for Greater London, England. It consists of an elected executive Mayor of London, currently Sadiq Khan. The authority was established in 2000, following a referendum, and derives most of its powers from the Greater London Authority Act 1999. It is a regional authority, with powers over transport, policing, economic development. Three functional bodies — Transport for London, the Mayors Office for Policing and Crime, the planning policies of the Mayor of London are detailed in a statutory London Plan that is regularly updated and published. The Greater London Authority is mostly funded by government grant and it is also a precepting authority. The GLA is unique in the British local government system, in terms of structure, elections, the GLA is responsible for the strategic administration of the 1579 km² of Greater London. It shares local government powers with the councils of 32 London boroughs and it was created to improve the co-ordination between the local authorities in Greater London, and the Mayor of Londons role is to give London a single person to represent it. The Mayor proposes policy and the GLAs budget, and makes appointments to the capitals strategic executive such as Transport for London, the primary purpose of the London Assembly is to hold the Mayor of London to account by scrutiny of his or her actions and decisions. The assembly must also accept or amend the Mayors budget on an annual basis, the GLA is based at City Hall, a new building on the south bank of the River Thames, next to Tower Bridge. The GLA is different from the Corporation of the City of London with its largely ceremonial Lord Mayors, in 1986, the Greater London Council was abolished by the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher. On abolition, the functions of the GLC were transferred to bodies controlled by central government or joint boards nominated by the London Borough councils. Some of the service functions were transferred down to the councils themselves. For the next 14 years there was no single elected body for the whole of London, the Labour Party never supported the abolition of the GLC and made it a policy to re-establish some form of citywide elected authority. After the Labour party won the 1997 general election, the policy was outlined in a White paper entitled A Mayor and Assembly for London. Simultaneously with the elections to the London Borough councils, a referendum was held on the establishment of the GLA in May 1998, the Greater London Authority Act 1999 passed through Parliament, receiving the Royal Assent in October 1999. In a controversial campaign, the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, attempted to block Livingstones nomination. In reaction, Livingstone stood as an independent candidate, resulting in his expulsion from the Labour Party, following an interim period in which the Mayor and Assembly had been elected but had no powers, the GLA was formally established on 3 July 2000
22.
By-law
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A by-law is a rule or law established by an organization or community to regulate itself, as allowed or provided for by some higher authority. The higher authority, generally a legislature or some other government body, by-laws may be established by entities such as a business corporation, a neighborhood association, or depending on the jurisdiction, a municipality. In the United States, bylaw is the preferred spelling, accordingly, a bylaw enforcement officer is the Canadian equivalent of the American Code Enforcement Officer or Municipal Regulations Enforcement Officer. In the United States, the government and most state governments have no direct ability to regulate the single provisions of municipal law. As a result, terms such as code, ordinance, or regulation, the Oxford English Dictionary indicates that the origin of the current modern use of the word is not clear. One possibility is the earliest use of the term, which originates from the Viking town law in the Danelaw, wherein by is the Old Norse word for a larger settlement as in Whitby and Derby. However, it is possible that this usage was forgotten. In either case, it is incorrect to claim that the origin of the word is simply the prepositional phrase by law, Municipal by-laws are public regulatory laws which apply in a certain area. A local council or municipal government gets its power to pass laws through a law of the national or regional government which specifies what things the town or city may regulate through bylaws and it is therefore a form of delegated legislation. Municipal bylaws are often enforcable through the justice system. Common bylaws include vehicle parking and stopping regulations, animal control, building and construction, licensing, noise, zoning and business regulation, by section 94 of the Constitution of Japan, regional governments have limited autonomy and legislative powers to create by-laws. In practice, such powers are exercised in accordance with the Local Autonomy Law, by-laws therefore constitute part of the legal system subordinate to the Japanese constitution. In terms of its powers and effective, it is considered the lowest of all legislation possible. Local government bylaws are the most prevalent type of bylaw in Australia, in New South Wales these bylaws are called ordinances and Zoning Controls are called Environmental Planning Instruments created under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act. Numerous specific institutions, including universities, are empowered to make by-laws by their establishing legislation. Bylaws of a company or society are created as a contract among members, Strata Title was developed in Australia and by-laws of body corporate are also empowered by state legislation. These are main type of bylaw most people come into contact with on a basis as they control what people in Strata title housing can do in their own homes. The most well known of these is the no pets in flats rule, corporate bylaws are drafted by a corporations founders or directors under the authority of its Charter or Articles of Incorporation
23.
May Day
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May Day is a public holiday usually celebrated on May 1. It is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures. Dances, singing, and cake are usually part of the celebrations that the day includes, in the late 19th century, May Day was chosen as the date for International Workers Day by the Socialists and Communists of the Second International to commemorate the Haymarket affair in Chicago. International Workers Day may also be referred to as May Day and it is also associated with the Gaelic Beltane, most commonly held on April 30. The day was a summer holiday in many pre-Christian European pagan cultures. While February 1 was the first day of spring, May 1 was the first day of summer, hence, as Europe became Christianised, the pagan holidays lost their religious character and May Day changed into a popular secular celebration. A significant celebration of May Day occurs in Germany where it is one of days on which St. Walburga. The secular versions of May Day, observed in Europe and America, may be best known for their traditions of dancing around the maypole and crowning the Queen of May. Fading in popularity since the late 20th century is the giving of May baskets, small baskets of sweets or flowers, usually left anonymously on neighbours doorsteps. May 1 is also one of two feast days of the Catholic patron saint of workers St Joseph the Worker, a carpenter, husband to Mother Mary, and surrogate father of Jesus. Replacing another feast to St. Joseph, this date was chosen by Pope Pius XII in 1955 as a counterpoint to the communist International Workers Day celebrations on May Day. In the late 20th century, many neopagans began reconstructing traditions, traditional English May Day rites and celebrations include crowning a May Queen and celebrations involving a maypole. Historically, Morris dancing has been linked to May Day celebrations, much of this tradition derives from the pagan Anglo-Saxon customs held during Þrimilci-mōnaþ along with many Celtic traditions. May Day has been a day of festivities throughout the centuries. May Day is most associated with towns and villages celebrating springtime fertility and revelry with village fetes, seeding has been completed by this date and it was convenient to give farm labourers a day off. Perhaps the most significant of the traditions is the maypole, around which traditional dancers circle with ribbons, the spring bank holiday on the first Monday in May was created in 1978, May Day itself – May 1 – is not a public holiday in England. Unlike the other Bank Holidays and common law holidays, the first Monday in May is taken off from schools by itself and this is because it has no Christian significance and does not otherwise fit into the usual school holiday pattern. May Day was abolished and its celebration banned by Puritan parliaments during the Interregnum, may 1,1707, was the day the Act of Union came into effect, joining England and Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain
24.
Allotment (gardening)
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An allotment garden, often called simply an allotment, or a community garden is a plot of land made available for individual, non-commercial gardening or growing food plants. Such plots are formed by subdividing a piece of land into a few or up to several hundred land parcels that are assigned to individuals or families. Such parcels are cultivated individually, contrary to other community garden types where the area is tended collectively by a group of people. In countries that do not use the allotment, a community garden can refer to individual small garden plots as well as to a single. The term victory garden is still sometimes used, especially when a community garden dates back to World War II or I. The individual size of a parcel typically suits the needs of a family, and often the plots include a shed for tools and shelter, the gardeners have to pay a small membership fee to the association, and have to abide by the corresponding constitution and by-laws. However, the membership entitles them to certain democratic rights, for children, gardens offer places to play and to learn about nature, while for the unemployed, they offer a feeling of doing something useful as well as low-cost food. For the elderly and disabled, gardens offer an opportunity to people, to share in activity with like-minded people. In Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary, Montreal, Ottawa, these are called Community Gardens, Allotment gardening used to be widely popular in the former Czechoslovakia under the communist regime. It gave people from suburban prefab apartment blocks - called paneláky in Czech - a chance to escape from city chaos, pollution, holiday houses and gardens served also as the only permitted form of investment of savings for common middle-class citizens. Since then allotment gardens have spread to most Danish towns, in 1904 there were about 20,000 allotment gardens in Denmark. 6,000 of them were in Copenhagen, during the interwar years the number of allotment gardens grew rapidly. In 2001 the number of allotment gardens was estimated to be about 62,120, in 1908 twenty allotment associations in Copenhagen formed the Allotment Garden Union which in 1914 was expanded to cover all of Denmark. The Allotment Garden Federation was founded to negotiate more favourable deals with the state, today the federation represents roughly 400 allotment associations in 75 municipalities. The Danish tradition for allotment gardens later spread to the other Scandinavian countries, first Sweden, then Norway, today most allotment gardens are on land owned by the municipality which rents the land to an allotment association. The association in turn gives each member a plot of land, to preserve allotment gardens as something that is available for all kinds of people the membership charge is set significantly below what a market price would be. Since allotments are often placed on attractive plots of land, this has led to waiting lists for membership in many allotment associations. Although the main purpose of the allotment is gardening, most allotment gardens have a built in them
25.
Reclaim the Streets
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Reclaim the Streets is a collective with a shared ideal of community ownership of public spaces. Participants characterize the collective as a movement opposed to the dominance of corporate forces in globalization. Reclaim the Streets often stage non-violent direct action street reclaiming events such as the invasion of a major road, highway or freeway to stage a party. The events are usually spectacular and colourful, with pits for children to play in, free food and music, however they have been known to degenerate into riots. A Temporary Autonomous Zone sometimes results, the style of the parties in many places has been influenced by the rave scene in the UK, with sound systems playing dance music. Reclaim the Streets is also used for type of political action. The earliest written source for the phenomenon reclaim the streets can be found in Marshall Bermans All That is Solid Melts Into Air. Thesis, a thesis asserted by urban people starting in 1789, all through the century, and in the great revolutionary uprisings at the end of World War One. Antithesis, and here is Le Corbusiers great contribution, no streets, Streets have many times been occupied with the intent of using them for other things than traffic. For example, a group of environmentalists occupied the streets of central Stockholm in autumn 1969, and in 1990–91 the same group arranged a tradition of 20 minutes culture crashes in busy street crossings. Like other occupations against car traffic before 1991, these events were not called Reclaim The Streets, Reclaim The Streets was originally formed by Earth First. In Brixton, London, in Autumn 1991 and was out of anti-road protest camps at places such as Claremont Road. The idea of street reclaiming soon spread throughout the United Kingdom and our streets are as full of capitalism as of cars and the pollution of capitalism is much more insidious. Nevertheless, the actions always followed the principle of non-violent direct action, camden High Street, May 14,1995. A busy London street closed to motor-traffic for an afternoon, Upper Street, Islington, July 23,1995. One thousand people party at another busy traffic junction, there is a sound system and kids play in a hastily constructed sandpit. Birmingham,6 August 1995 Organised with a handful of people around 200 people turn up for very enjoyable family afternoon with live band playing from the back of a truck. To prevent police using riot tactics to clear the street at the end, protest publicised in part by Justice
26.
Guerrilla gardening
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Guerrilla gardening is the act of gardening on land that the gardeners do not have the legal rights to utilize, such as an abandoned site, an area that is not being cared for, or private property. The land that is guerrilla gardened is usually abandoned or perceived to be neglected by its legal owner and that land is used by guerrilla gardeners to raise plants, frequently focusing on food crops or plants intended for aesthetic purposes. Some guerrilla gardeners carry out their actions at night, in secrecy, to sow. Some garden at more visible hours for the purpose of publicity, the earliest recorded use of the term guerrilla gardening was by Liz Christy and her Green Guerrilla group in 1973 in the Bowery Houston area of New York. They transformed a private lot into a garden. The space is still cared for by volunteers but now enjoys the protection of the parks department. Two celebrated guerrilla gardeners, active prior to the coining of the term, were Gerrard Winstanley, of the Diggers in Surrey, England, the term bewildering has been used as a synonym for guerrilla gardening by Australian gardener Bob Crombie. It has taken place since 2007, and was conceived by guerrilla gardeners in Brussels and they declared it Journée Internationale de la Guérilla Tournesol. It has been championed by guerrilla gardeners around the world, notably by GuerrillaGardening. org, in 2010, more than 5000 people signed up for the event from North America, Europe and Asia. From the mid-1970s, Adam Purple created and tended a garden in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. In 1986, when it was bulldozed by the City of New York, the short film Adam Purple and the Garden of Eden tells its history. Eventually, people began to convert the land into a park. Parts of the park were destroyed and rebuilt over time, Greenaid is a Los Angeles based organization founded in 2010 by Daniel Phillips and Kim Karlsrud of Common Studio. The organization converts vintage gumball machines to dispense seed balls, a combination of clay, compost, once dispensed, seed balls are tossed or planted in any area that may benefit from wildflowers. Greenaid partners with business owners, educators and citizens to distribute seedbomb vending machines in various communities worldwide, with region-specific seedbomb mixes, Greenaid aims to integrate and beautify rather than disrupt traditionally bland urban areas such as sidewalks and highway medians. In July 2010, Greenaid received $10,398 in funding from the Kickstarter community and this funding will be used to spread the initiative to new locations and support current operations. Designer Ron Finley pioneered the growing produce on a strip of parkway lawn, developing the Clean, Green, and Glean method of Guerrilla Gardening Scott Bunnell has been refining guerrilla gardening methods for over 30 years. In 2008 he started the SoCal Guerrilla Gardening Club adding more drought tolerant gardens, having dozens of guerrilla gardens in Los Angeles County
27.
Brian Haw
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Brian William Haw was an English protester and peace campaigner who lived for almost ten years in a peace camp in Londons Parliament Square from 2001, in a protest against UK and US foreign policy. At the 2007 Channel 4 Political Awards he was voted Most Inspiring Political Figure, Haw died of cancer in Berlin, where he had been receiving medical treatment. Haw was born in Wanstead Hospital, in Woodford Green, Essex, a twin and he grew up in neighbouring Barking and in Whitstable, Kent. His father Robert William Haw served as a sniper in the Reconnaissance Corps in the Second World War and he later worked as a railway clerk, and also worked in a betting office. He committed suicide by gassing himself when Haw was 13, Haws mother was Iris Marie Haw. Haws family were involved in an evangelical Christian church in Whitstable, Haw was apprenticed to a boat-builder from the age of 16 and then entered the Merchant Navy as a deckhand. He travelled widely before spending six months at evangelical college in Nottingham, Haw visited Northern Ireland in 1970 during The Troubles, as well as the Killing Fields of Cambodia in 1989. Back in London, he worked as a man and as a carpenter. He married his wife Kay in Redbridge in June 1977, Haw worked with troubled youngsters in Redditch, Worcestershire. On 2 June 2001, he began camping in Parliament Square in central London in a political protest against war. By his own account, he was first inspired to take up his vigil after seeing the images and information produced by the Mariam Appeal, Haw justified his campaign on a need to improve his childrens future. He only left his makeshift campsite in order to court hearings. Support for Haws protest came from former Labour cabinet minister Tony Benn, in October 2002 Westminster City Council attempted to prosecute Haw for causing an obstruction to the pavement, but the case failed as Haws banners did not impede movement. The continuous use of a megaphone by Haw led to objections by Members of Parliament who had close to Haws protest camp. In the 2005 general election Haw stood as a candidate in the Cities of London and Westminster in order to further his campaign and he won 298 votes, making a speech against the ongoing presence of UK troops in Iraq at the declaration of the result. Haw was joined in December 2005 by Australian born Barbara Grace Tucker who since his death in June 2011 has continued her presence opposite the Houses of Parliament. In the seven years or so since her arrival she has been arrested 47 times – usually on a charge of unauthorised demonstration. The government appealed against the judgement, and on 8 May 2006 the Court of Appeal allowed the appeal, any other conclusion would be wholly irrational and could fairly be described as manifestly absurd
28.
2003 invasion of Iraq
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The 2003 invasion of Iraq lasted from 20 March to 1 May 2003 and signalled the start of the Iraq War, which was dubbed Operation Iraqi Freedom by the United States. 160,000 troops were sent by the Coalition into Iraq, during the invasion phase. About 130,000 were sent from the USA alone, with about 28,000 British soldiers, Australia,36 other countries were involved in its aftermath. In preparation for the invasion,100,000 U. S. troops were assembled in Kuwait by 18 February, the coalition forces also received support from Kurdish irregulars in Iraqi Kurdistan. Others place a greater emphasis on the impact of the September 11 attacks, and the role this played in changing U. S. strategic calculations. The invasion of Iraq was strongly opposed by some long-standing U. S. allies, including the governments of France, Germany, and New Zealand. Their leaders argued that there was no evidence of weapons of destruction in Iraq. According to the French academic Dominique Reynié, between 3 January and 12 April 2003,36 million people across the globe took part in almost 3,000 protests against the Iraq war. The invasion was preceded by an airstrike on the Presidential Palace in Baghdad on 20 March 2003, the following day, coalition forces launched an incursion into Basra Province from their massing point close to the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border. Massive air strikes across the country and against Iraqi command and control threw the army into chaos. The main body of forces continued their drive into the heart of Iraq. Most of the Iraqi military was defeated and Baghdad was occupied on 9 April. Other operations occurred against pockets of the Iraqi army, including the capture and occupation of Kirkuk on 10 April, Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and the central leadership went into hiding as the coalition forces completed the occupation of the country. On 1 May, an end of combat operations was declared, ending the invasion period. Hostilities of the 1991 Gulf War were suspended on 28 February 1991 and it was revealed that a biological weapons program in Iraq had begun in the early 1980s with help from the U. S. and Europe in violation of the Biological Weapons Convention of 1972. The investigation concluded there was no evidence the program had continued after the war. The U. S. and its allies then maintained a policy of containment towards Iraq, Iraqi military helicopters and planes regularly contested the no-fly zones. In October 1998, removing the Saddam regime became official U. S. foreign policy with enactment of the Iraq Liberation Act
29.
Iraq
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The capital, and largest city, is Baghdad. The main ethnic groups are Arabs and Kurds, others include Assyrians, Turkmen, Shabakis, Yazidis, Armenians, Mandeans, Circassians, around 95% of the countrys 36 million citizens are Muslims, with Christianity, Yarsan, Yezidism, and Mandeanism also present. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish, two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run south through Iraq and into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf. These rivers provide Iraq with significant amounts of fertile land, the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, historically known as Mesopotamia, is often referred to as the cradle of civilisation. It was here that mankind first began to read, write, create laws, the area has been home to successive civilisations since the 6th millennium BC. Iraq was the centre of the Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian and it was also part of the Median, Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Ayyubid, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires. Iraqs modern borders were mostly demarcated in 1920 by the League of Nations when the Ottoman Empire was divided by the Treaty of Sèvres, Iraq was placed under the authority of the United Kingdom as the British Mandate of Mesopotamia. A monarchy was established in 1921 and the Kingdom of Iraq gained independence from Britain in 1932, in 1958, the monarchy was overthrown and the Iraqi Republic created. Iraq was controlled by the Arab Socialist Baath Party from 1968 until 2003, after an invasion by the United States and its allies in 2003, Saddam Husseins Baath Party was removed from power and multi-party parliamentary elections were held in 2005. The American presence in Iraq ended in 2011, but the Iraqi insurgency continued and intensified as fighters from the Syrian Civil War spilled into the country, the Arabic name العراق al-ʿIrāq has been in use since before the 6th century. There are several suggested origins for the name, one dates to the Sumerian city of Uruk and is thus ultimately of Sumerian origin, as Uruk was the Akkadian name for the Sumerian city of Urug, containing the Sumerian word for city, UR. An Arabic folk etymology for the name is rooted, well-watered. During the medieval period, there was a region called ʿIrāq ʿArabī for Lower Mesopotamia and ʿIrāq ʿajamī, for the region now situated in Central and Western Iran. The term historically included the south of the Hamrin Mountains. The term Sawad was also used in early Islamic times for the region of the plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In English, it is either /ɪˈrɑːk/ or /ɪˈræk/, the American Heritage Dictionary, the pronunciation /aɪˈræk/ is frequently heard in U. S. media. Since approximately 10,000 BC, Iraq was one of centres of a Caucasoid Neolithic culture where agriculture, the following Neolithic period is represented by rectangular houses. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gypsum, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations
30.
Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005
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It was introduced into the House of Commons on 24 November 2004 and was passed by Parliament and given Royal Assent on 7 April 2005. Measures to introduce an offence of incitement to religious hatred were included in early drafts of the Act. The offence has since been created as the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006, the Act introduced changes to the powers of arrest utilised by both constables and other persons in England and Wales. The term arrestable offence ceased to have effect as, bar a few preserved exemptions and they may also arrest anyone they have reasonable grounds to believe is guilty of an offence they suspect has been committed. These changes were enacted on 1 January 2006, the Act is controversial primarily for sections 132 to 138, which restrict the right to demonstrate within a designated area of up to one kilometre from any point in Parliament Square. Demonstrators must give notice to the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police six days in advance. The area itself is defined by a Statutory Instrument, the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 Order 2005 and it specifically excludes Trafalgar Square, a traditional site of protest on the northern boundary of the area. Apart from Parliament it also includes Whitehall, Downing Street, Westminster Abbey, the Middlesex Guildhall, New Scotland Yard, and the Home Office. It also covers a section of land on the other bank of the River Thames, including County Hall, the Jubilee Gardens, St Thomas Hospital. These provisions of the Act were introduced partially as a result of Brian Haw, Haw was a peace campaigner, who from 1 June 2001 until his death on 18 June 2011 protested against Britain and the USAs policy towards Iraq. He used placards and a loudspeaker to get his message across, however, others, such as Jeremy Corbyn MP disagreed, saying The Minister should think carefully about removing rights that are enshrined in our history, and Glenda Jackson MP agreed with him. I regard it as the voice of democracy, she said, lembit Öpik MP drew attention to the comments of the Prime Minister Tony Blair, who, on 7 April 2002, said, When I pass protestors every day at Downing Street. I may not like what they call me, but I thank God they can, the Home Office stated the security concerns, such as the possibility of explosive devices being left in and around Haws paraphernalia, were another reason for the legislation. The legislation initially appeared ineffective against Mr Haw, the High Court of Justice ruled that as Haws protest had begun in June 2001 he was not required to get authorisation. The three-strong judicial panel accepted arguments by Mr Haws lawyers that the law applied to demonstrations that took place after it came into force. However, on 8 May 2006, this decision was overturned by the Court of Appeal, on 1 August 2005, the day that the Act came into force, the Stop the War Coalition and others organised a protest against the prohibition. They did not officially ask for permission, but at the subsequent court cases it was revealed that the Stop the War Coalition had negotiated with police about the protest. The action attracted some 200 people according to reports — among them Lauren Booth, Tony Blairs sister-in-law —, in 2006, the comedian and political activist Mark Thomas attacked this section of the act by organising several protests within the area, within the confines of the law
31.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner
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The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis is the head of Londons Metropolitan Police Service, classing the holder as a chief police officer. The new Commissioner will be in post sometime in spring 2017, the rank is usually referred to as the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, the Met Commissioner or simply just Commissioner. The Commissioners annual salary without pension contributions or allowances from 1 September 2016 is £270,648 + £2,373, the rank of Commissioner was created by the Metropolitan Police Act 1829, until 1855, the post was held jointly by two officers. The Commissioners were Justices of the Peace and not sworn constables until 1 April 1974, the title Commissioner was not used until 1839. The insignia of rank is a crown above a Bath Star, known as pips, above crossed tipstaves within a wreath, very similar to the insignia worn by a full general in the British Army. This badge is all but unique within the British police, shared only with the Commissioner of the City of London Police, the smallest territorial police force, like all chief officer ranks in the British police, commissioners wear gorget patches on the collars of their tunics. The gorget patches are similar to those worn by generals, aside from being of silver-on-black instead of the Armys gold-on-red, at one time, the commissioners were either retired military officers or civil servants. Nott-Bowers successor Sir Joseph Simpson was the first Commissioner to have started his career as the lowest rank of Constable. However, Sir Robert Mark, appointed in 1972, was the first to have risen through all the ranks from the lowest to the highest, as of 2008, the post of Commissioner is appointed for a period of five years. Applicants are appointed to the post by Her Majesty The Queen, as of 2010 the salary of the Commissioner of the Metropolis is £260,088. As of 2008, applicants to the post of Commissioner must be British citizens, the post of Commissioner is accountable to the Home Secretary, to the MPA, chaired by the Mayor of London, and must answer to Londoners and the public nationally. This requirement to be a British national has blocked the appointment of non-British Commissioners in the past, as of January 2013, the requirement is set to be scrapped by a proposal made by the Chief Inspector of Constabulary. The process is conducted in private and the Home Office has specifically called for a news blackout, the discussion and public profile of the candidates has been limited to speculation and rumour, with the Home Office refusing to even confirm the shortlisted candidates covered in the media. The Centre for Public Safety has recommended the selection process be reformed, to opportunities for greater public, community. In particular, suggesting a series of community interview panels and a candidate forum - though they maintain that the final decision should still rest with the Home Secretary. UK police ranks Metropolitan Police Service timeline Commissioner Hogan-Howe in full ceremonial dress leading crowds up the Mall during the Queens Diamond Jubilee 2012
32.
Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011
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The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It transfers the control of forces from police authorities to elected Police. The first police commissioner elections were held in November 2012, the next elections will take place in May 2016 and subsequently every four years. The police have used these powers to confiscate pizza boxes, tarpaulin, the Act removed the statutory requirement for the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs to include scientists. The move follows the sacking of David Nutt from the council in 2009, Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act on Legislation. gov. uk
33.
Civil liberties
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Civil liberties or personal freedoms are personal guarantees and freedoms that the government cannot abridge, either by law or by judicial interpretation, without due process. Other civil liberties include the right to own property, the right to defend oneself, within the distinctions between civil liberties and other types of liberty, distinctions exist between positive liberty/positive rights and negative liberty/negative rights. Many contemporary states have a constitution, a bill of rights, or similar constitutional documents that enumerate, the existence of some claimed civil liberties is a matter of dispute, as are the extent of most civil rights. Controversial examples include property rights, reproductive rights, and civil marriage, whether the existence of victimless crimes infringes upon civil liberties is a matter of dispute. Another matter of debate is the suspension or alteration of certain civil liberties in times of war or state of emergency, including whether and to what extent this should occur. The formal concept of civil liberties is often dated back to Magna Carta, the Constitution of Peoples Republic of China, especially its Fundamental Rights and Duties of Citizens, claims to protect many civil liberties. Taiwan, which is separated from China, has its own Constitution, the Fundamental Rights—embodied in Part III of the constitution—guarantee liberties such that all Indians can lead their lives in peace as citizens of India. The six fundamental rights are right to equality, right to freedom, right against exploitation, right to freedom of religion, cultural and educational rights and right to constitutional remedies. These include individual rights common to most liberal democracies, incorporated in the law of the land and are enforceable in a court of law. Violations of these result in punishments as prescribed in the Indian Penal Code. These rights are neither absolute nor immune from constitutional amendments and they have been aimed at overturning the inequalities of pre-independence social practices. Specifically, they resulted in abolishment of un-touchability and prohibit discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex and they forbid human trafficking and unfree labour. They protect cultural and educational rights of ethnic and religious minorities by allowing them to preserve their languages, all people, irrespective of race, religion, caste or sex, have the right to approach the High Courts or the Supreme Court for the enforcement of their fundamental rights. It is not necessary that the party has to be the one to do so. In public interest, anyone can initiate litigation in the court on their behalf and this is known as Public interest litigation. High Court and Supreme Court judges can also act on their own on the basis of media reports, the Fundamental Rights emphasize equality by guaranteeing to all citizens the access and use of public institutions and protections, irrespective of their background. The rights to life and personal liberty apply for persons of any nationality, while others, such as the freedom of speech, the right to equality in matters of public employment cannot be conferred to overseas citizens of India. Fundamental Rights primarily protect individuals from any arbitrary State actions, for instance, the constitution abolishes untouchability and prohibits begar
34.
European Convention on Human Rights
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The European Convention on Human Rights is an international treaty to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by the newly formed Council of Europe. All Council of Europe member states are party to the Convention, the Convention established the European Court of Human Rights. Any person who feels his or her rights have been violated under the Convention by a party can take a case to the Court. Judgments finding violations are binding on the States concerned and they are obliged to execute them, the compensations imposed under ECHR can be rather large, in 2014 Russia agreed to pay in excess of $2 billion in damages to former shareholders of Yukos. The Convention has several protocols, which amend the convention framework, the European Convention on Human Rights has played an important role in the development and awareness of Human Rights in Europe. The development of a system of human rights protection operating across Europe can be seen as a direct response to twin concerns. Second, the Convention was a response to the growth of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe and designed to protect the member states of the Council of Europe from communist subversion. The Convention was drafted by the Council of Europe after the Second World War in response to an issued by Europeans from all walks of life who had gathered at the Hague Congress. British MP and lawyer Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe, the Chair of the Assemblys Committee on Legal and Administrative Questions, was one of its leading members, as a prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials, he had seen first-hand how international justice could be effectively applied. After extensive debates, the Assembly sent its proposal to the Councils Committee of Ministers. So a non-democratic State could not participate in the ECHR system, the Convention was opened for signature on 4 November 1950 in Rome. It was ratified and entered force on 3 September 1953. It is overseen and enforced by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, until procedural reforms in the late 1990s, the Convention was also overseen by a European Commission on Human Rights. Statements of principle are, from a point of view, not determinative. As amended by Protocol 11, the Convention consists of three parts, the main rights and freedoms are contained in Section I, which consists of Articles 2 to 18. Section II sets up the Court and its rules of operation, Section III contains various concluding provisions. Article 1 simply binds the parties to secure the rights under the other Articles of the Convention within their jurisdiction
35.
Winston Churchill
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Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill KG OM CH TD PC DL FRS RA was a British statesman who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his overall, in 1963, he was the first of only eight people to be made an honorary citizen of the United States. Churchill was born into the family of the Dukes of Marlborough and his father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was a charismatic politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, his mother, Jennie Jerome, was an American socialite. As a young officer, he saw action in British India, the Anglo–Sudan War. He gained fame as a war correspondent and wrote books about his campaigns, at the forefront of politics for fifty years, he held many political and cabinet positions. Before the First World War, he served as President of the Board of Trade, Home Secretary, during the war, he continued as First Lord of the Admiralty until the disastrous Gallipoli Campaign caused his departure from government. He then briefly resumed active service on the Western Front as commander of the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers. He returned to government under Lloyd George as Minister of Munitions, Secretary of State for War, Secretary of State for Air, at the outbreak of the Second World War, he was again appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. Following the resignation of Neville Chamberlain on 10 May 1940, Churchill became Prime Minister and he led Britain as Prime Minister until victory over Nazi Germany had been secured. After the Conservative Party suffered a defeat in the 1945 general election. He publicly warned of an Iron Curtain of Soviet influence in Europe, after winning the 1951 election, Churchill again became Prime Minister. His second term was preoccupied by foreign affairs, including the Malayan Emergency, Mau Mau Uprising, Korean War, domestically his government laid great emphasis on house-building. Churchill suffered a stroke in 1953 and retired as Prime Minister in 1955. Upon his death aged ninety in 1965, Elizabeth II granted him the honour of a state funeral and his highly complex legacy continues to stimulate intense debate amongst writers and historians. Born into the family of the Dukes of Marlborough, a branch of the noble Spencer family, Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, like his father. His ancestor George Spencer had changed his surname to Spencer-Churchill in 1817 when he became Duke of Marlborough, to highlight his descent from John Churchill, Churchill was born on 30 November 1874, two months prematurely, in a bedroom in Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire. From age two to six, he lived in Dublin, where his grandfather had been appointed Viceroy, Churchills brother, John Strange Spencer-Churchill, was born during this time in Ireland
36.
Ivor Roberts-Jones
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Ivor Roberts-Jones RA was a British sculptor. He is best known for his heads of notable people such as Yehudi Menuhin and George Thomas. He was born in Oswestry, where one of his works, The Borderland Farmer and he studied at Oswestry School and Worksop College before attending Goldsmiths College, London and the Royal Academy of Arts. During the Second World War he served in the Burma Campaign, from 1964 he taught sculpture at Goldsmiths. He received his first full-scale commission in 1964 for the sculpture of the Bohemian British painter Augustus John. This sculpture took three years to complete and required major alteration due to limitation of funds, nonetheless, the final 1967 single-figure sculpture was dramatically successful and led to Roberts-Jones election as an Associate of the Royal Academy. This sculpture was erected in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, near Johns last home, in 1971 he was commissioned to produce the full-length statue of Winston Churchill which now stands in Parliament Square, London. The cheeks, the eyes, the forehead and the top of the head require improvement, I told Mr Roberts-Jones that above the eyes I thought I was looking at Mussolini. The sculptor promised to remove the dome of the head to bring about a lowering of the forehead and his 1984 sculpture The Two Kings at Harlech Castle illustrates a scene from Welsh mythology, in which Bendigeidfran carries the body of his nephew Gwern. Abstraction and Reality, the sculpture of Ivor Roberts-Jones, profile on Royal Academy of Arts Collections
37.
Statue of Winston Churchill, Parliament Square
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The statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square, London, is a bronze sculpture of the former British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, created by Ivor Roberts-Jones. It is located on a spot referred to in the 1950s by Churchill as where my statue will go. Unveiled by his widow Lady Clementine Spencer-Churchill in 1973, the unveiling was attended by the serving Prime Minister and four former Prime Ministers, the statue is one of eight on the central green of Parliament Square, all of well-known statesmen. The statue is 12 feet high and is made of bronze and it was sculpted by Ivor Roberts-Jones and is located on the main green of Parliament Square, opposite the Palace of Westminster. It shows Winston Churchill standing with his hand resting on his walking stick, the plinth is 8 feet high with Churchill inscribed on it in large capital letters. A proposal to insert pins standing out of the head was turned down in the 1970s – the pins were intended to stop wild birds from sitting on its head. The Churchill Statue Committee had concerns during the development process that it looked a little too much like the Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini. Whilst the head was only cast in plaster, a report on it stated that, At the moment the head is undoubtedly like Churchill. The cheeks, the eyes, the forehead and the top of the head require improvement, I told Mr. Roberts-Jones that above the eyes I thought I was looking at Mussolini. Roberts-Jones agreed to modify the sculpture to reduce the dome of the head in order to lower the forehead, in the 1950s, David Eccles, then Minister of Works, showed Churchill plans for the redevelopment of Parliament Square. Churchill drew a circle in the north-east corner and declared, That is where my statue will go, the statue that was eventually installed was first suggested by John Tilney, Member of Parliament for Liverpool Wavertree, in a parliamentary question in 1968. Initial estimates by the sponsors of the Winston Churchill Statue Appeal put the cost of the statue at £30,000, the sponsors of the appeal included Edward Heath, Lord Mountbatten, Lord Portal, and Baroness Elliot. The sum of £32,000 was raised by 4,500 individuals who are listed in a book which was deposited in the library at Chartwell on Churchills birthday,30 November 1973. The statue was unveiled on 1 November 1973 by Clementine, Baroness Spencer-Churchill, union Flags covered the statue, which were removed as a cord was pulled. Others present at the unveiling included The Queen Mother, members of the Churchill family across four generations, Edward Heath, the Band of the Royal Marines played several of Churchills favourite pieces of music. The statue has been defaced on a number of occasions during protests held in Parliament Square, during the 2010 student protests the statue was defaced with graffiti and urinated on. An electric current is passed through the statue to deter pigeons, in 2008, the statue was grade II listed. A replica of the Parliament Square Statue was unveiled in 1999 in Winston Churchill Square in Prague, Czech Republic and it was moulded from the original on site, then cast in bronze
38.
Clementine Churchill
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Clementine Ogilvy Spencer-Churchill, Baroness Spencer-Churchill, GBE, CStJ was the wife of Sir Winston Churchill and a life peeress in her own right. Although legally the daughter of Henry Montague Hozier and Lady Blanche Hozier, her paternity is a subject of much debate, as Lady Blanche was well known for infidelity. After Sir Henry found Lady Blanche with a lover in 1891, she managed to avert her husbands suit for divorce due to his own infidelities, and thereafter the couple separated. Lady Blanche maintained that Clementines biological father was Capt. William George Bay Middleton, whatever her true paternity, Clementine is recorded as being the daughter of Lady Blanche and Sir Henry. In the summer of 1899, when Clementine was fourteen, her mother moved the family to Dieppe, there the family spent an idyllic summer, bathing, canoeing, picnicking, and blackberrying filled the happy days. While in Dieppe the family became acquainted with ‘La Colonie’. This group consisted of men, writers and painters, such as Aubrey Beardsley and Walter Sickert. According to Clementines daughter, Mary Soames, Clementine was deeply struck by Mr Sickert and thought he was the most handsome, the Hoziers happy life in France soon came to an end when Kitty, the eldest daughter, became ill with typhoid fever. Blanche Hozier decided that the best thing to do would be to send Clementine and her sister Nellie to Scotland, Kitty died on 5 March 1900. She was twice engaged to Sir Sidney Peel, who had fallen in love with her when she was eighteen. The courtship between Clementine and Winston Churchill was a short one, having met four years earlier, they were re-acquainted during a dinner party in 1908. After months of correspondence, Winston wrote to Clementines mother, Lady Blanche Hozier, on 12 September 1908, at St. Margarets, Westminster, Clementine married Winston Churchill, more than a decade older and already a seasoned Parliamentarian. They had five children, Diana, Randolph, Sarah, Marigold, and Mary. Only Mary, the youngest, shared their parents longevity, the others all dying before reaching the age of 70, the Churchills marriage was close and affectionate despite the stresses of public life. In the 1930s, Clementine travelled without Winston aboard Lord Moynes yacht, the Rosaura, to islands, Borneo, Celebes, the Moluccas, New Caledonia. During this trip, many believe that she had an affair with Terence Philip, however, no one has ever provided conclusive evidence, and Philip was believed by many to have been homosexual. She brought back from this trip a Bali dove, when it died, she buried it in her garden beneath a sundial. On the sundials base, she had inscribed, HERE LIES THE BALI DOVE It does not do to wander Too far from sober men, but there’s an island yonder, I think of it again
39.
David Lloyd George
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David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman. As Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lloyd George was a key figure in the introduction of reforms which laid the foundations of the modern welfare state. His most important role came as the highly energetic Prime Minister of the Wartime Coalition Government, during and he was a major player at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 that reordered Europe after the defeat of the Central Powers. He made an impact on British public life than any other 20th-century leader. Furthermore, in foreign affairs he played a role in winning the First World War, redrawing the map of Europe at the peace conference. His main political problem was that he was not loyal to his Liberal party—he was always a political maverick, while he was Prime Minister he favoured the Conservatives in his coalition in the 1918 elections, leaving the Liberal party as a hopeless minority. He became leader of the Liberal Party in the late 1920s, by the 1930s he was a marginalised and widely mistrusted figure. He gave weak support to the Second World War amidst fears that he was favourable toward Germany, Lloyd George was born on 17 January 1863 in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester, to Welsh parents, and was brought up as a Welsh-speaker. He is so far the only British Prime Minister to have been Welsh and his father, William George, had been a teacher in both London and Liverpool. He also taught in the Hope Street Sunday Schools, which were administered by the Unitarians, in March of the same year, on account of his failing health, William George returned with his family to his native Pembrokeshire. He took up farming but died in June 1864 of pneumonia, Lloyd George was educated at the local Anglican school Llanystumdwy National School and later under tutors. He added his uncles surname to become Lloyd George and his surname is usually given as Lloyd George and sometimes as George. The influence of his childhood showed through in his entire career, brought up a devout evangelical, as a young man he suddenly lost his religious faith. Biographer Don Cregier says he became a Deist and perhaps an agnostic, though he remained a chapel-goer and he kept quiet about that, however, and was hailed as one of the foremost fighting leaders of a fanatical Welsh Nonconformity. It was also during this period of his life that Lloyd George first became interested in the issue of land ownership, by the age of twenty-one, he had already read and taken notes on Henry Georges Progress and Poverty. This strongly influenced Lloyd Georges politics later in life through the Peoples Budget which heavily drew on the georgist tax reform ideas, the practice flourished, and he established branch offices in surrounding towns, taking his brother William into partnership in 1887. Although many Prime Ministers have been barristers, Lloyd George is to date the only solicitor to have held that office, by then he was politically active, having campaigned for the Liberal Party in the 1885 election, attracted by Joseph Chamberlains unauthorised programme of reforms. The election resulted firstly in a stalemate with neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives having a majority, William Gladstones proposal to bring about Irish Home Rule split the party, with Chamberlain eventually leading the breakaway Liberal Unionists
40.
Glynn Williams
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Glynn Williams is a British sculptor. Once an abstract artist, he has worked in the tradition since the late 1970s. After attending Wolverhampton College of Art in 1955, he worked at the British School in Rome until 1963 after winning the British Prix de Rome scholarship and he is a Fellow of Royal College of Art, the Royal Society of British Sculptors, and the RSA. During the 1970s he made sculptures, including crate-like objects in wood. A terracotta head by Jon Edgar was exhibited at Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 2013 as part of the Sculpture Series Heads exhibition, guardian article 9/12/13 referencing Williams as expert adviser to Westminster Council, commenting on Nelson Mandela statue
41.
Penrhyn Quarry
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The Penrhyn Slate Quarry is a slate quarry located near Bethesda in north Wales. At the end of the century it was the worlds largest slate quarry, the main pit is nearly 1 mile long and 1,200 feet deep. It has since been superseded in size by slate quarries in China, Spain, Penrhyn is still Britains largest slate quarry but its workforce is now nearer 200. The quarry was first developed in the 1770s by Richard Pennant, later Baron Penrhyn, much of this early working was for domestic use only as no large scale transport infrastructure was developed until Pennants involvement. From then on, slates from the quarry were transported to the sea at Port Penrhyn on the narrow gauge Penrhyn Quarry Railway built in 1798, in the 19th century the Penrhyn Quarry, along with the Dinorwic Quarry, dominated the Welsh slate industry. The quarry holds a significant place in the history of the British Labour Movement as the site of two prolonged strikes by workers demanding pay and safer conditions. The first strike lasted eleven months in 1896, the second began on 22 November 1900 and lasted for three years. Known as The Great Strike of Penrhyn this was the longest dispute in British industrial history, in the longer term the dispute cast the shadow of unreliability on the North Welsh slate industry, causing orders to drop sharply and thousands of workers to be laid off. From 1964 until 2007 it was owned and operated by Alfred McAlpine PLC, in 2007 it was purchased by Kevin Lagan and renamed Welsh Slate Ltd. Kevin Lagan and his son Peter are now directors of Welsh Slate Ltd which also includes the Oakeley quarry in Blaenau Ffestiniog, the Cwt Y Bugail quarry, blondin - originated at Penrhyn Hughes, J. Elwyn, Hughes, Bryn and Wood, Dennis S. CS1 maint, Multiple names, authors list History and photos The Penrhyn Slate Quarry, in Saturday Magazine,12,8 September 1832, pp.93. The Penrhyn Slate Quarries in North Wales circa 1858, in The Illustrated London News, Vol. XXXII,913, Saturday,17 April 1858, pp. 392-393. History of Bangor Blue Slates In Ireland
42.
Jan Smuts
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Field Marshal Jan Christiaan Smuts OM, CH, ED, PC, KC, FRS was a prominent South African and British Commonwealth statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various posts, he served as prime minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 until 1924. Smuts subsequently lost the 1948 election to hard-line Afrikaners who created apartheid and he continued to work for reconciliation and emphasised the British Commonwealth’s positive role until his death in 1950. He led a Boer Commando in the Second Boer War for the Transvaal, during the First World War, he led the armies of South Africa against Germany, capturing German South-West Africa and commanding the British Army in East Africa. From 1917 to 1919, he was one of the members of the British Imperial War Cabinet. He became a marshal in the British Army in 1941. He was the man to sign both of the peace treaties ending the First and Second World Wars. A statue of him stands in Parliament Square and he was born on 24 May 1870, at the family farm, Bovenplaats, near Malmesbury, in the Cape Colony. His parents, Jacobus Smuts and his wife Catharina, were prosperous, traditional Afrikaner farmers, long established, Jan was quiet and delicate as a child, strongly inclined towards solitary pursuits. During his childhood, he went out alone, exploring the surrounding countryside, this awakened a passion for nature. As the second son of the family, rural custom dictated that he would remain working on the farm, however, in 1882, when Jan was twelve, his elder brother died, and Jan was sent to school in his brothers place. Jan attended the school in nearby Riebeek West and he made excellent progress here, despite his late start, and caught up with his contemporaries within four years. He moved on to Victoria College, Stellenbosch, in 1886, at Stellenbosch, he learned High Dutch, German, and Ancient Greek, and immersed himself further in literature, the classics, and Bible studies. His deeply traditional upbringing and serious outlook led to isolation from his peers. However, he made outstanding academic progress, graduating in 1891 with double First-class honours in Literature and Science. During his last years at Stellenbosch, Smuts began to cast off some of his shyness and reserve, and it was at time that he met Isie Krige. On graduation from Victoria College, Smuts won the Ebden scholarship for overseas study and he decided to travel to the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom to read law at Christs College, Cambridge. Smuts found it difficult to settle at Cambridge, he felt homesick and isolated by his age, worries over money also contributed to his unhappiness, as his scholarship was insufficient to cover his university expenses
43.
Jacob Epstein
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Sir Jacob Epstein KBE was a British sculptor who helped pioneer modern sculpture. He was born in the United States, and moved to Europe in 1902 and he often produced controversial works which challenged taboos on what was appropriate subject matter for public artworks. He also made paintings and drawings, and often exhibited his work, Epsteins parents were Polish Jewish refugees, living on New Yorks Lower East Side. His family was middle-class, and he was the third of five children and his interest in drawing came from long periods of illness, as a child he suffered from pleurisy. He studied art in his native New York as a teenager, sketching the city, for his livelihood, he worked in a bronze foundry by day, studying drawing and sculptural modelling at night. Epsteins first major commission was to illustrate Hutchins Hapgoods Spirit of the Ghetto, the money from the commission was used by Epstein to move to Paris. Moving to Europe in 1902, he studied in Paris at the Académie Julian and he settled in London in 1905 and married Margaret Dunlop in 1906. In 1911 he became a British subject, many of Epsteins works were sculpted at his two cottages in Loughton, Essex, where he lived first at number 49 then 50, Baldwins Hill. He served briefly in the 38th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers, in London, Epstein involved himself with a bohemian and artistic crowd. Revolting against ornate, pretty art, he made bold, often harsh and his sculpture is distinguished by its vigorous rough-hewn realism. Avant-garde in concept and style, his works often shocked his audience, people in Liverpool, however, nicknamed his nude male sculpture over the door of Lewiss department store Dickie Lewis. The female figures in particular may be seen deliberately to incorporate the posture and hand gestures of Buddhist, Jain, between 1913 and 1915, Epstein was associated with the short-lived Vorticism movement and produced one of his best known sculptures The Rock Drill. In 1915, John Quinn, wealthy American collector and patron to the modernists, in 1916, Epstein was commissioned by Viscount Tredegar to produce a bronze head of Newport poet W. H. Davies. A commission from Holden for the new building of the London Electric Railway generated another controversy in 1929. Eventually a compromise was reached to modify the smaller of the two represented on Day. But the controversy affected his commissions for work which dried up until World War II. Between the late 1930s and the mid-1950s, numerous works by Epstein were exhibited in Blackpool, adam, Consummatum Est, Jacob and the Angel and Genesis, and other works, were initially displayed in an old drapery shop surrounded by red velvet curtains. The crowds were ushered in at the cost of a shilling by a barker on the street, after a small tour of American fun fairs, the works were returned to Blackpool and were exhibited in the anatomical curiosities section of Louis Tussauds waxworks
44.
Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston
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Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, KG, GCB, PC, FRS was a British statesman who served twice as Prime Minister in the mid-19th century. For most of 1830 to 1865 he dominated British foreign policy when Britain was at the height of her power and he succeeded to his fathers Irish peerage in 1802. He became a Tory MP in 1807, and was made Secretary at War in 1809 and he held the job until 1828, entering the cabinet in 1827 when George Canning became Prime Minister. Less than a later he resigned with other Canningites. In opposition he switched his focus to foreign policy, and he was Foreign Secretary when the Whigs were in power, dealing with a succession of crises in Europe and beyond. Some of his actions, now sometimes termed liberal interventionist, were highly controversial at the time. In 1852 he became Home Secretary in Aberdeens coalition government, the Peelites having insisted on Russell getting the Foreign Office and he passed various social reforms but opposed electoral ones. He had two periods in office, 1855–1858 and 1859–1865, before dying at almost 81, a few months after winning an election with an increased majority. He remains, to date, the last Prime Minister to die in office and his policies regarding India, Italy, Belgium and Spain had long-term impact, while his policies toward France, the Ottoman Empire, and the United States proved more ephemeral. He was a master of public opinion, achieved by stroking British nationalism and his weaknesses include mishandling of personal relations, and long-standing disagreements with the Queen over the royal role in determining foreign policy. Palmerston built a popular following among the British electorate, by promoting himself, British nationalism. He assiduously fostered the press, which gave him very favourable coverage, Queen Victoria and most of the political leadership distrusted him, but his popular strength prevailed. Henry John Temple was born in his familys Westminster house to the Irish branch of the Temple family on 20 October 1784, Henry was to become the 3rd Viscount Palmerston. His family derived their title from the Peerage of Ireland and his father was Henry Temple, 2nd Viscount Palmerston, and his mother Mary, daughter of Benjamin Mee, a London merchant. From 1792 to 1794, the young future Lord Palmerston accompanied his family on a long Continental tour, whilst in Italy Palmerston acquired an Italian tutor, who taught him to speak and write fluent Italian. He was educated at Harrow School, admiral Sir Augustus Clifford, 1st Bt. was a fag to Palmerston, Viscount Althorp and Viscount Duncannon and later remembered Palmerston as by far the most merciful of the three. Palmerston was often engaged in fights and fellow Old Harrovians remembered Palmerston as someone who stood up to bullies twice his size. Palmerstons father took him to the House of Commons in 1799, Palmerston was then at the University of Edinburgh, where he learnt political economy from Dugald Stewart, a friend of the Scottish philosophers Adam Ferguson and Adam Smith
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Thomas Woolner
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Thomas Woolner RA was an English sculptor and poet who was one of the founder-members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was the only sculptor among the original members, after participating in the foundation of the PRB, Woolner emigrated for a period to Australia. He returned to Britain to have a career as a sculptor, creating many important public works as well as memorials, tomb sculptures. He corresponded with notable men of the day and also had some success as a poet. Born in Hadleigh, Suffolk, Woolner trained with the sculptor William Behnes and he became friendly with Dante Gabriel Rossetti and was invited by him to join the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Woolner was active in the history of the group, emphasising the need for a more vivid form of realism in sculpture. Woolners classical inclinations became increasingly difficult to reconcile with Pre-Raphaelite Medievalism, Woolners sculptures immediately after the foundation of the Brotherhood in 1848 display close attention to detail. He made his name with forceful portrait busts and medallions, but was at first unable to make a living and he was forced to emigrate to Australia in 1852, but after a year he returned to Britain, soon establishing himself as both a sculptor and art-dealer. His visit to Australia nevertheless helped him to obtain commissions there and elsewhere for statues of British imperial heroes, such as Captain Cook and his bronze statue of John Robert Godley in Christchurch, New Zealand, was toppled and shattered into several pieces by the February 2011 earthquake. It has since been repaired and was re-erected in March 2015, Woolner became a close friend of Francis Turner Palgrave. The two shared a house and both were known for their combative personalities, Henry Adams refers to them in The Education of Henry Adams, noting that Woolner had a rough personality and had to make a supernatural effort to be polite. Woolner designed the frontispiece of a youth for Palgraves famous verse anthology the Golden Treasury. The well known controversialist Jacob Omnium pointed out in a series of letters to the press that the two lived together, William Holman Hunt wrote a reply supporting Woolner, but Palgrave was forced to withdraw the catalogue. His largest single commission was a programme of architectural sculptures for the Manchester Assize Courts, Woolner created a large number of statues depicting lawgivers and rulers which formed part of the buildings structure. Most dramatic was a giant sculpture depicting Moses which was placed on the top, there were also allegorical figures of Justice and Mercy. Inside was a sculpture depicting the Judgment of Solomon, flanked by statues of a drunk woman. Alfred Waterhouse, the architect, wrote, we are all delighted with your virtuous woman, the building was bombed during World War II. Some of the sculptures were saved and incorporated into the replacement building and these demonstrate his attempt to express the tension between the static stone and the dynamic desires of the figures represented emerging into solidity from it
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