1.
A2 road (Great Britain)
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The A2 is a major road in southern England, connecting London with the English Channel port of Dover in Kent. This route has always been of importance as a connection between the British capital of London and sea routes to Continental Europe. It was formerly known as the Dover Road, unlike the other single digit A-roads in Great Britain, the A2 does not form a zone boundary. The Zone 1/2 boundary is the River Thames, the route of the current A2 follows a similar route to that of a Romano-British ancient trackway. It was an important route for the Romans linking London with Canterbury and it had river crossings at Rochester over the River Medway, Dartford and Crayford. The Romans paved the road and constructed the first Rochester Bridge across the Medway, access to London was via London Bridge which was first constructed by the Romans in AD50. The road was known as Item a Londinio ad portum Dubris and appeared in the Antonine Itinerary, in Anglo-Saxon times it became part of a longer road known as Wæcelinga Stræt. By the 17th century the road had fallen into disrepair and sections were converted into roads by various Turnpike Acts passed by Parliament. Rochester Bridge was rebuilt in cast iron in 1856, the London, Chatham and Dover Railway completed a railway route from London to Dover in the 1860s. Access to London from the A2 across Thames was improved with the completion of Tower Bridge, Blackwall Tunnel, the road was given the reference A2 within the Great Britain road numbering scheme in the 1920s. The Dartford Southern By-pass, which relieved chronic congestion on the old route through Dartford provided considerable local employment during the Post–World War I recession and it was opened by the Prince of Wales in 1924. It is estimated that the project provided 63,500 days work to unemployed people. The 3-lane stretch of the A2 between Falconwood and Cobham was built in stages from around 1963 until 1973, a section of Ringway 3 (part of the proposed M16 motorway linking to the A2, which later formed part of the M25 motorway opened between 1974 and 1977. The Rochester Way Relief Road, was opened in 1988, the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge opened in 1991. A new flyover for A2 Westbound to M25 Northbound traffic was completed late 2007, in 2008, a section of the A2 beside Gravesend was widened to 3/4 lanes between Pepperhill to Cobham. It was also re-routed away from the houses of Gravesend/Singlewell to make room for the new lanes, the old route of the A2 has been made into a footpath/cyclepath. The new road was opened in 2009, a section of the old road has been turned into Cyclopark, with footpaths, cyclepaths and an equestrian route along the old road. A new Lower Thames Crossing down river from the Dartford Crossing linking to the A2 has been proposed by the Department for Transport in 2009 and its original alignment roughly followed a mix of the ancient Celtic route and the turnpike road to Dover
2.
Palladian architecture
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Palladian architecture is a European style of architecture derived from and inspired by the designs of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio. That which is recognised as Palladian architecture today is an evolution of Palladios original concepts, Palladios work was strongly based on the symmetry, perspective and values of the formal classical temple architecture of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. From the 17th century Palladios interpretation of classical architecture was adapted as the style known as Palladianism. It continued to develop until the end of the 18th century, Palladianism became popular briefly in Britain during the mid-17th century, but its flowering was cut short by the onset of the Civil War and the imposition of austerity which followed. In the early 18th century it returned to fashion, not only in England but also, the style continued to be popular in Europe throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, where it was frequently employed in the design of public and municipal buildings. However, as a style it has continued to be popular and to evolve, its pediments, symmetry. Buildings entirely designed by Palladio are all in Venice and the Veneto, with an especially rich grouping of palazzi in Vicenza and they include villas, and churches such as Redentore in Venice. Palladio always designed his villas with reference to their setting, if on a hill, such as Villa Capra, facades were frequently designed to be of equal value so that occupants could have fine views in all directions. Also, in cases, porticos were built on all sides so that occupants could fully appreciate the countryside while being protected from the sun. Palladio sometimes used a loggia as an alternative to the portico and this can most simply be described as a recessed portico, or an internal single storey room, with pierced walls that are open to the elements. Occasionally a loggia would be placed at floor level over the top of a loggia below. Loggias were sometimes given significance in a facade by being surmounted by a pediment, Villa Godi has as its focal point a loggia rather than a portico, plus loggias terminating each end of the main building. Palladio would often model his villa elevations on Roman temple facades, the temple influence, often in a cruciform design, later became a trademark of his work. Palladian villas are built with three floors, a rusticated basement or ground floor, containing the service and minor rooms. The proportions of each room within the villa were calculated on simple mathematical ratios like 3,4 and 4,5, earlier architects had used these formulas for balancing a single symmetrical facade, however, Palladios designs related to the whole, usually square, villa. Palladio deeply considered the purpose of his villas as both farmhouses and palatial weekend retreats for wealthy merchant owners. These symmetrical temple-like houses often have symmetrical, but low, wings sweeping away from them to accommodate horses, farm animals. The wings, sometimes detached and connected to the villa by colonnades, were designed not only to be functional but also to complement, the Palladian, Serlian, or Venetian window features largely in Palladios work and is almost a trademark of his early career
3.
Greenwich Park
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Greenwich Park is a former hunting park in Greenwich and one of the largest single green spaces in south-east London. One of the Royal Parks of London, and the first to be enclosed, it covers 74 hectares and it commands fine views over the River Thames, the Isle of Dogs and the City of London. The park is open year round, the estate of some 200 acres was originally owned by the Abbey of St. Peter at Ghent, but reverted to the Crown in 1427 and was given by Henry VI to his uncle Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. He built a house by the river, Bella Court, the former evolved first into the Tudor Palace of Placentia and then into the Queens House and Greenwich Hospital. Greenwich Castle, by now in disrepair, was chosen for the site of the Royal Observatory by Charles II in 1675, in the 15th century the park was mostly heathland and probably used for hawking. In the next century, deer were introduced by Henry VIII for hunting, james I enclosed the park with a brick wall, twelve feet high and two miles long at a cost of £2000, much of which remains and defines the modern boundary. In the 17th century, the park was landscaped, possibly by André Le Nôtre who is known at least to have designed plans for it, the public were first allowed into the park during the 18th century. Samuel Johnson visited the park in 1763 and commented “Is it not fine. ”, the famous hill upon which the observatory stands was used on public holidays for mass ‘tumbling’. In the 1830s a railway was driven through the middle of the lower park on a viaduct. However, the London and Greenwich Railway was later extended beneath the ground via a tunnel link between Greenwich and Maze Hill which opened in 1878. In 1888 the park got a station of its own when Greenwich Park railway station was opened, the station was not successful, with most passengers preferring the older Greenwich station, and in 1917 Greenwich Park station and the associated line closed. Greenwich Park was used for outdoor London scenes including representing the street, Constitution Hill in the 2009 film The Young Victoria starring Emily Blunt, the park is roughly rectangular in plan with sides 1000 metres by 750 metres and oriented with the long sides lying NNW to SSE. In what follows this direction is taken to be N to S for ease of exposition and it is located at grid reference TQ390772. The park is on two levels with a number of dips and gullies marking the transition between them. The lower level lies to the north, from there a walk uphill reveals the southern part - a flat expanse that is, essentially. Roughly in the centre, on the top of the hill, is the Royal Observatory, at the northern edge is the National Maritime Museum and Queens House, and beyond those Greenwich Hospital. To the east is Vanbrugh Castle, to the south is Blackheath and in the south western corner is the Rangers House, looking out over heath. To the west lie the architecturally fine streets of Chesterfield Walk, the Observatory is on the top of the hill
4.
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
5.
Blackheath, London
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Blackheath is an area of south-east London, divided between the Royal Borough of Greenwich and the London Borough of Lewisham, located east of the town of Lewisham, and south of the town of Greenwich. It is notable for its pubs, village-y feel. The name is recorded in 1166 as Blachehedfeld and means the dark coloured heathland and it is formed from the Old English blæc and hǣth and refers to the open space that was the meeting place of the ancient hundred of Blackheath. The name was applied to the Victorian suburb that developed in the 19th century and was extended to the areas known as Blackheath Park. An urban myth is that Blackheath was associated with the 1665 Plague or the Black Death of the mid-14th century, virtually every part of London has a local tradition about plague pits under, say, a local school or shop. The sheer number of bodies meant that the traditional churchyards became, as one put it. During the seventeenth century Blackheath was, along with Hounslow Heath, in 1673 the Blackheath Army was assembled under Marshal Schomberg to serve in the Third Anglo-Dutch War. The Roman road that became known as Watling Street crosses the northern edge of Blackheath, probably heading for the mouth of Deptford Creek. Blackheath was a point for Wat Tylers Peasants Revolt of 1381. Wat Tyler is remembered by Wat Tyler Road on the heath, after pitching camp on Blackheath, Cornish rebels were defeated in the Battle of Deptford Bridge, just to the west, on 17 June 1497. With Watling Street carrying stagecoaches across the heath, en route to north Kent, in 1909 Blackheath had a local branch of the London Society for Womens Suffrage. The Vanbrugh Pits are on the north-east part of the heath, the site of old gravel workings, Vanbrugh Pits have long been reclaimed by nature and form one of the more attractive parts of the generally rather flat Blackheath. It is particularly attractive in spring when the extensive gorse blossoms, the pits are named after Sir John Vanbrugh, architect of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard, who had a house nearby, adjacent to Greenwich Park, now called Vanbrugh Castle. Mince Pie House built for his family, survived until 1911, the sizeable estate of Blackheath Park, created on lands of Wricklemarsh Manor by John Cator is situated east of Blackheath. The Cator Estate was built on part of the formerly owned by Sir John Morden. The Cator Estate also contains innovative 1960s Span houses and flats by the renowned Span Developments, St Michael and All Angels Church, designed by local architect George Smith and completed in 1830, was dubbed the Needle of Kent in honour of its tall, thin spire. All Saints Church, situated on the heath, designed by the architect Benjamin Ferrey, another Anglican church, St John the Evangelists, was designed in 1853 by Arthur Ashpitel. The Pagoda is an example of a beautiful property situated in Blackheath
6.
John James (architect)
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Howard Colvins assessment of him was that of a competent architect, but he lacked inventive fancy, and his buildings are for the most part plain and unadventurous in design. The son of a Hampshire parson also named John James, he attended the Holy Ghost School, Basingstoke, of which his father was headmaster. He was then apprenticed in 1690 to Matthew Banckes, Master Carpenter to the Crown 1683–1706, whose niece he married, and he lived for a while at Hampton Court Palace. In the interim he was appointed master carpenter at St. Pauls Cathedral and he was Master of the Carpenters Company in 1734. In 1714 he started work on St Georges Church, Tiverton, in 1716 he replaced James Gibbs as one of the two surveyors to the Commissioners for the Building of Fifty New Churches – the other being Nicholas Hawksmoor. He designed one church for the commissioners – St Georges, Hanover Square –, at St Alfeges Church in Greenwich, he recased the medieval tower and added a steeple in 1730, the rest of the church having been entirely rebuilt by Hawksmoor for the commissioners in 1712–14. James also designed St. Marys Church, Rotherhithe in 1714–1715 and St Lawrence and he also re-clad the medieval tower of St Margarets, Westminster 1735-7 in a papery gothick manner. He was the professional on site for the construction of East India House, Leadenhall Street, London, to designs by the merchant and amateur architect Theodore Jacobsen, among several buildings in and around Twickenham, John James designed St. Marys Church after it collapsed in 1713. Also in south-east London, James designed Wricklemarsh, a pioneer Palladian mansion and in fact his only Palladian-style structure, for Sir Gregory Page in 1723. The house he designed for himself around 1725 – Warbrook in Eversley and he may also have designed Hursley House, Hursley, Hampshire, for William Heathcote and Barnsley House in Gloucestershire is now usually attributed to him, c. A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1660–1840
7.
Hudson's Bay Company
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The Hudsons Bay Company, commonly referred to as The Bay, is a Canadian retail business group. HBCs head office is in the Simpson Tower in Toronto, Ontario, the company is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol HBC. It was once the worlds largest landowner, with the area of the Hudson Bay watershed, known as Ruperts Land, having 15% of North American acreage. From its long-time headquarters at York Factory on Hudson Bay, the company controlled the fur trade throughout much of the English, undertaking early exploration, its traders and trappers forged relationships with many groups of aboriginal peoples. Its network of trading posts formed the nucleus for later official authority in areas of Western Canada. By the mid-19th century, the company evolved into a business selling everything from furs to fine homeware. They quickly introduced a new type of client to the HBC – one that shopped for pleasure and not with skins, in July 2008, HBC was acquired by NRDC Equity Partners, which also owns the upmarket American department store Lord & Taylor. From 2008 to 2012, the HBC was run through a company of NRDC, Hudsons Bay Trading Company. Since 2012, the HBC directly oversees its Canadian subsidiaries Hudsons Bay and Home Outfitters, on 29 July 2013, the HBC announced its takeover of Saks, Inc. operator of the Saks Fifth Avenue brand. The merger was completed on 3 November 2013, in September 2015, HBC acquired the German department store chain Galeria Kaufhof and its Belgian subsidiary from Metro Group for $3.2 billion U. S. In May 2016, HBC announced it would expand to the Netherlands by taking over up to 20 former Vroom & Dreesmann sites by 2017, v&D was an historic Dutch department store chain that went bankrupt and shut down in early 2016. HBC said the expansion would cost CAD $340 million and create 2,500 jobs in the stores, the Dutch stores would operate under the Hudsons Bay and Saks Off Fifth brands. In January 2016, HBC announced it would also expand deeper in the space with its acquisition of online flash sales site. In the 17th century the French had a de facto monopoly on the Canadian fur trade with their colony of New France. Assuming this was Hudson Bay, they sought French backing for a plan to set up a trading post on the Bay, despite this refusal, in 1659 Radisson and Groseilliers set out for the upper Great Lakes basin. A year later returned with premium furs, evidence of the potential of the Hudson Bay region. Subsequently, they were arrested for trading without a licence and fined, determined to establish trade in the Hudson Bay, Radisson and Groseilliers approached a group of businessmen in Boston, Massachusetts to help finance their explorations. The Bostonians agreed on the plans merits but their speculative voyage in 1663 failed when their ship ran into pack ice in Hudson Strait, boston-based English commissioner Colonel George Cartwright learned of the expedition and brought the two to England to raise financing
8.
Princess Augusta of Great Britain
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Princess Augusta Frederica of Great Britain was a granddaughter of George II and the only elder sibling of George III. She married into the house of Brunswick, of which she was already a member. Her daughter Caroline was the wife of George IV, Princess Augusta Frederica was born at St. Jamess Palace, London. Her father was Frederick, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of King George II and Queen Caroline of Ansbach and her mother was the Princess of Wales and she was born second in the line of succession. Fifty days later, she was christened at St. Jamess Palace by the Archbishop of Canterbury and her godparents were her paternal grandfather, the King, and her grandmothers, Queen Caroline and the Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Gotha. Her third birthday was celebrated by the first public performance of Rule, Augusta was given a careful education. She was not described as a beauty, having protuberant eyes, loose mouth, in 1761-62, a marriage was discussed between Augusta and the Hereditary Prince of Brunswick, but the negotiations were delayed because her mother disliked the House of Brunswick. This obstacle was overcome due to a described by Walpole, Lady Augusta was lively. As non of her children but the King, had, or had reason to have, much affection for their mother and she could not forbid her daughters frequent visits at Buckingham House, but to prevent ill consequence of them, she often accompanied her thither. This, however, was an attendance and a constraint the Princess of Wales could not support, to obtain this end, the profusion of favors to the hated House of Brunswick was not though too much. The Hereditary Prince was prevailed to accept Lady Augustas hand, with four-scour thousand pounds, an annuity of £5.000 a year on Ireland, on 16 January 1764, Augusta married Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, at the Chapel Royal of St Jamess Palace. Augusta never fully adapted to life in Brunswick due to her British patriotism, Augusta was not well liked at Brunswick, where her popularity was damaged by the fact that her eldest sons were born with handicaps. During her first pregnancy in 1764, she returned to Great Britain in the company of Charles to give birth to her first child, during their visit in England, it was noted that the Brunswicks were cheered by the crowds when they showed themselves in public. This, reportedly, exposed them to suspicion at court, during their visit, her sister-in-law Queen Charlotte apparently refused them some honors at court, such as military salutes. This attracted negative publicity toward the royal couple. Augusta regarded the residence in Brunswick as too simple, and was bored with the tone of her mother-in-laws court, particularly during the summers. In her retreat, Augusta amused herself spending her days eating heavy luncheons, gossiping and playing cards with her favorites, the marriage was an purely arranged dynastic marriage. In 1771-72, Augusta visited England on the invitation of her mother, on this occasion, she was involved in another conflict with her sister-in-law Queen Charlotte
9.
Caroline of Brunswick
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Caroline Amelia Elizabeth of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, best known as Caroline of Brunswick, was Queen of the United Kingdom as the wife of King George IV from 29 January 1820 until her death in 1821. She was the Princess of Wales from 1795 to 1820 and her father was the ruler of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in Germany, and her mother, Princess Augusta, was the sister of George III. George and Caroline married the year, and nine months later Caroline had a child. Shortly after Charlottes birth, George and Caroline separated, by 1806, rumours that Caroline had taken lovers and had an illegitimate child led to an investigation into her private life. The dignitaries who led the investigation concluded there was no foundation to the rumours. In 1814, Caroline moved to Italy, where she employed Bartolomeo Pergami as a servant, Pergami soon became Carolines closest companion, and it was widely assumed that they were lovers. In 1817, Caroline was devastated when her daughter Charlotte died in childbirth, she heard the news from a passing courier as George had refused to write and he was determined to divorce Caroline, and set up a second investigation to collect evidence of her adultery. In 1820, George became king of the United Kingdom and Hanover, George hated her, vowed she would never be the queen, and insisted on a divorce, which she refused. A legal divorce was possible but difficult to obtain, Caroline returned to Britain to assert her position as queen. She was wildly popular with the British populace, who sympathized with her, in July 1821, Caroline was barred from the coronation on the orders of her husband. She fell ill in London and died three weeks later, her funeral procession passed through London on its way to her native Brunswick, Caroline was born as Princess of Brunswick, with the courtesy title of Duchess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel on 17 May 1768 at Braunschweig in Germany. She was the daughter of Charles William, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Caroline was brought up in a difficult family situation. She was educated by governesses, but the subject in which she was given a high education was music. From 1783 until 1791 Countess Eleonore von Münster was her governess, and won her affection, Caroline could understand English and French, but her father admitted that she was lacking in education. John Stanley, later Lord Stanley of Alderley, saw her in 1781, in 1784, she was described as a beauty, and two years later, Mirabeau described her as most amiable, lively, playful, witty and handsome. Caroline was brought up with a degree of seclusion from contact with the opposite sex even for her own time. She was reportedly constantly supervised by her governess and elder ladies, restricted to her room when the family was entertaining guests and she was normally refused permission to attend balls and court functions, and when allowed, she was forbidden to dance. Abbé Baron commented during the winter of 1789–90, She is supervised with the greatest severity, I doubt if the torches of hymen will illuminate for her
10.
Queen Victoria
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Victoria was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she adopted the title of Empress of India. Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, both the Duke of Kent and King George III died in 1820, and Victoria was raised under close supervision by her German-born mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She inherited the throne aged 18, after her fathers three brothers had all died, leaving no surviving legitimate children. The United Kingdom was already a constitutional monarchy, in which the sovereign held relatively little direct political power. Privately, Victoria attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments, publicly, Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840. Their nine children married into royal and noble families across the continent, tying them together, after Alberts death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, republicanism temporarily gained strength and her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration. Her reign of 63 years and seven months is known as the Victorian era and it was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. She was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover and her son and successor, Edward VII, belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the line of his father. Victorias father was Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, until 1817, Edwards niece, Princess Charlotte of Wales, was the only legitimate grandchild of George III. Her death in 1817 precipitated a crisis that brought pressure on the Duke of Kent. In 1818 he married Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, a widowed German princess with two children—Carl and Feodora —by her first marriage to the Prince of Leiningen and her brother Leopold was Princess Charlottes widower. The Duke and Duchess of Kents only child, Victoria, was born at 4.15 a. m. on 24 May 1819 at Kensington Palace in London. Victoria was christened privately by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Manners-Sutton, on 24 June 1819 in the Cupola Room at Kensington Palace and she was baptised Alexandrina, after one of her godparents, Emperor Alexander I of Russia, and Victoria, after her mother. Additional names proposed by her parents—Georgina, Charlotte, and Augusta—were dropped on the instructions of the Dukes eldest brother, George, the Duke of Clarence and the Duke of Kent married on the same day in 1818, but both of Clarences daughters died as infants. Victorias father died in January 1820, when Victoria was less than a year old, a week later her grandfather died and was succeeded by his eldest son, George IV. The Duke of York died in 1827, when George IV died in 1830, he was succeeded by his next surviving brother, William IV, and Victoria became heir presumptive
11.
Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley
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Field Marshal Garnet Joseph Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley KP, GCB, OM, GCMG, VD, PC was an Anglo-Irish officer in the British Army. He served in Burma, the Crimean War, the Indian Mutiny, China, Canada and widely throughout Africa—including his Ashanti campaign, Wolseley served as Commander-in-Chief of the Forces from 1895 to 1900. His reputation for efficiency led to the late 19th century English phrase everythings all Sir Garnet, meaning, born the eldest son of Major Garnet Joseph Wolseley of the Kings Own Scottish Borderers and Frances Anne Wolseley, Wolseley was educated in Dublin and first worked in a surveyor’s office. Wolesley obtained a commission as an ensign in the 12th Foot on 12 March 1852 without purchase and he then transferred to the 80th Foot on 13 April 1852, with whom he served in the Second Anglo-Burmese War. He was severely wounded in the thigh on 19 March 1853 in the attack on Donabyu and he was promoted to captain on 29 December 1854. Wolseley accompanied the regiment to the Crimea, and landed at Balaklava in December 1854 and he was selected to be an assistant engineer, and attached to the Royal Engineers during the Siege of Sevastopol. Wolseley served throughout the siege, where he was wounded at the Quarries on 7 June 1855, and again in the trenches on 30 August 1855, losing an eye. For his services he was mentioned in despatches, received the war medal with clasp, the 5th class of the French Légion dhonneur. Six months after joining the 90th Foot at Aldershot, he went with it in March 1857 to join the troops being despatched for the Second Opium War, Wolseley was embarked in the transport Transit, which wrecked in the Strait of Banka. The troops were all saved, but with only their personal arms and they were taken to Singapore, and from there dispatched to Calcutta on account of the Indian Mutiny. That March, he served at the siege and capture of Lucknow. In the autumn and winter of 1858–59 he took part in the Baiswara, trans-Gogra and he was present at the action at Sin-ho, the capture of Tang-ku, the storming of the Taku Forts, the Occupation of Tientsin, the Battle of Pa-to-cheau and the entry into Peking. He assisted in the re-embarkation of the troops before the set in. He was Mentioned, yet again, in Dispatches, and for his services received the medal, on his return home he published the Narrative of the War with China in 1860. He was given the rank of major on 15 February 1861. In November 1861, Wolseley was one of the service officers sent to Canada in connection with the Trent incident. In 1862, shortly after the Battle of Antietam, Wolseley took leave from his military duties and he befriended Southern sympathizers in Maryland, who found him passage into Virginia with a blockade runner across the Potomac River. There he met with the Generals Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet and he also provided an analysis on Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest
12.
London County Council
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It covered the area today known as Inner London and was replaced by the Greater London Council. The LCC was the largest, most significant and most ambitious English municipal authority of its day, by the 19th century the City of London Corporation covered only a small fraction of metropolitan London. From 1855 the Metropolitan Board of Works had certain powers across the metropolis, many powers remained in the hands of traditional bodies such as parishes and the counties of Middlesex, Surrey and Kent. While the Conservative government of the day would have preferred not to create a body covering the whole of London. It was established as a council on 31 January 1889. Shortly after its creation a Royal Commission on the Amalgamation of the City and County of London considered the means for amalgamation with the City of London. The LCC inherited the powers of its predecessor the MBW, but had authority over matters such as education, city planning. It took over the functions of the London School Board in 1903, from 1899 the Council progressively acquired and operated the tramways in the county, which it electrified from 1903. One of the LCCs most important roles during the late 19th and early 20th century, was in the management of the expanding city, in the Victorian era, new housing had been intentionally urban and large-scale tenement buildings dominated. Beginning in the 1930s, the LCC incentivized an increase in suburban housing styles. The LCC set the standard for new construction at 12 houses per acre of land at a time when some London areas had as many as 80 housing units per acre. By 1938,76,877 units of housing had been built under the auspices of the LCC in the city and its periphery, many of these new housing developments were genuinely working-class, though the poorest could rarely afford even subsidized rents. They relied on an expanding London Underground network that ferried workers en masse to places of employment in the city center and these housing developments were broadly successful, and they resisted the slummification that blighted so many Victorian tenement developments. The LCC undertook between 1857 and 1929 to standardize and clarify street names across London, many streets in different areas of the city had similar or identical names, and the rise of the automobile as a primary mode of transportation in the city made these names unworkable. In an extreme case, there were more than 60 streets called Cross Street spread across the city when the LCC began its process of systematic renaming and these were given names from an approved list that was maintained by the LCC, containing only suitably English names. If street names were deemed un-English, they were slated for change, Zulu Crescent in Battersea, for instance. By 1939, the council had the powers and duties. The LCC initially used the Spring Gardens headquarters inherited from the Metropolitan Board of Works, the building had been designed by Frederick Marrable, the MBWs supeintending architect, and dated from 1860
Media related to Ranger's House at Wikimedia Commons
