1.
Greater London
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London, or Greater London, is a region of England which forms the administrative boundaries of London. It is organised into 33 local government districts, the 32 London boroughs, the Greater London Authority, based in Southwark, is responsible for strategic local government across the region and consists of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. The county of Greater London was created on 1 April 1965 through the London Government Act 1963, administratively, Greater London was first established as a sui generis council area under the Greater London Council between 1963 and 1986. The area was re-established as a region in 1994, and the Greater London Authority formed in 2000, the region covers 1,572 km2 and had a population of 8,174,000 at the 2011 census. In 2012, it had the highest GVA per capita in the United Kingdom at £37,232, the Greater London Built-up Area—used in some national statistics—is a measure of the continuous urban area of London, and therefore includes areas outside of the administrative region. The term Greater London has been and still is used to different areas in governance, statistics, history. In terms of ceremonial counties, London is divided into the small City of London, outside the limited boundaries of the City, a variety of arrangements has governed the wider area since 1855, culminating in the creation of the Greater London administrative area in 1965. The Greater London Arterial Road Programme was devised between 1913 and 1916, one of the larger early forms was the Greater London Planning Region, devised in 1927, which occupied 1,856 square miles and included 9 million people. The LCC pressed for an alteration in its boundaries soon after the end of the First World War, noting that within the Metropolitan, a Royal Commission on London Government was set up to consider the issue. The LCC proposed a vast new area for Greater London, with a boundary somewhere between the Metropolitan Police District and the home counties, protests were made at the possibility of including Windsor, Slough and Eton in the authority. The Commission made its report in 1923, rejecting the LCCs scheme, two minority reports favoured change beyond the amalgamation of smaller urban districts, including both smaller borough councils and a central authority for strategic functions. The London Traffic Act 1924 was a result of the Commission, Greater London originally had a two-tier system of local government, with the Greater London Council sharing power with the City of London Corporation and the 32 London Borough councils. The GLC was abolished in 1986 by the Local Government Act 1985 and its functions were devolved to the City Corporation and the London Boroughs, with some functions transferred to central government and joint boards. Greater London was used to form the London region of England in 1994, a referendum held in 1998 established a public will to recreate an upper tier of government to cover the region. The Greater London Authority, London Assembly and the directly elected Mayor of London were created in 2000 by the Greater London Authority Act 1999, in 2000, the outer boundary of the Metropolitan Police District was re-aligned to the Greater London boundary. The 2000 and 2004 mayoral elections were won by Ken Livingstone, the 2008 and 2012 elections were won by Boris Johnson. The 2016 election was won by Sadiq Khan, Greater London continues to include the most closely associated parts of the Greater London Urban Area and their historic buffers. Thus it includes, in five boroughs, significant parts of the Metropolitan Green Belt which protects designated greenfield land in a way to the citys parks
2.
Ordnance Survey National Grid
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The Ordnance Survey National Grid reference system is a system of geographic grid references used in Great Britain, different from using Latitude and Longitude. It is often called British National Grid, the Ordnance Survey devised the national grid reference system, and it is heavily used in their survey data, and in maps based on those surveys. Grid references are commonly quoted in other publications and data sources. The Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system is used to provide references for worldwide locations. European-wide agencies also use UTM when mapping locations, or may use the Military Grid Reference System system, the grid is based on the OSGB36 datum, and was introduced after the retriangulation of 1936–1962. It replaced the previously used Cassini Grid which, up to the end of World War Two, had issued only to the military. The Airy ellipsoid is a regional best fit for Britain, more modern mapping tends to use the GRS80 ellipsoid used by the GPS, the British maps adopt a Transverse Mercator projection with an origin at 49° N, 2° W. Over the Airy ellipsoid a straight grid, the National Grid, is placed with a new false origin. This false origin is located south-west of the Isles of Scilly, the distortion created between the OS grid and the projection is countered by a scale factor in the longitude to create two lines of longitude with zero distortion rather than one. Grid north and true north are aligned on the 400 km easting of the grid which is 2° W. 2° 0′ 5″ W. OSGB36 was also used by Admiralty nautical charts until 2000 after which WGS84 has been used, a geodetic transformation between OSGB36 and other terrestrial reference systems can become quite tedious if attempted manually. The most common transformation is called the Helmert datum transformation, which results in a typical 7 m error from true, the definitive transformation from ETRS89 that is published by the OSGB is called the National Grid Transformation OSTN02. This models the detailed distortions in the 1936–1962 retriangulation, and achieves backwards compatibility in grid coordinates to sub-metre accuracy, the difference between the coordinates on different datums varies from place to place. The longitude and latitude positions on OSGB36 are the same as for WGS84 at a point in the Atlantic Ocean well to the west of Great Britain. In Cornwall, the WGS84 longitude lines are about 70 metres east of their OSGB36 equivalents, the smallest datum shift is on the west coast of Scotland and the greatest in Kent. But Great Britain has not shrunk by 100+ metres, a point near Lands End now computes to be 27.6 metres closer to a point near Duncansby Head than it did under OSGB36. For the first letter, the grid is divided into squares of size 500 km by 500 km, there are four of these which contain significant land area within Great Britain, S, T, N and H. The O square contains an area of North Yorkshire, almost all of which lies below mean high tide
3.
Charing Cross
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Charing Cross denotes the junction of Strand, Whitehall and Cockspur Street, just south of Trafalgar Square in central London. It gives its name to several landmarks, including Charing Cross railway station, Charing Cross is named after the Eleanor cross that stood on the site, in what was once the hamlet of Charing. The site of the cross has been occupied since 1675 by a statue of King Charles I. A loose Victorian replica of the cross, the Queen Eleanor Memorial Cross, was erected a short distance to the east outside the railway station. Until 1931, Charing Cross referred to the part of Whitehall between Great Scotland Yard and Trafalgar Square, at least one property retains a Charing Cross postal address, Drummonds Bank, on the corner of Whitehall and The Mall, which is designated 49 Charing Cross. Since the early 19th century, Charing Cross has often been regarded as the centre of London. Erect a rich and stately carved cross, Whereon her statue shall with glory shine, George Peele The Famous Chronicle of King Edward the First The name of the area, Charing, is derived from the Old English word cierring, referring to a bend in the River Thames. Folk etymology suggests the name derives from chère reine — dear queen in French — and this wooden sculpted cross was the work of the medieval sculptor, Alexander of Abingdon. It was destroyed in 1647 on the orders of Parliament during the Civil War, a 70 ft -high stone sculpture in front of Charing Cross railway station is a copy of the original cross. Erected in 1865, it is situated a few hundred yards to the east of the original cross and it was designed by the architect E. M. Barry and carved by Thomas Earp of Lambeth out of Portland stone, Mansfield stone and Aberdeen granite. It is not a replica, being more ornate than the original. A variation on the name appears to be Charygcrouche, near St Martin in the Fields, since 1675 the site of the cross has been occupied by a statue of King Charles I mounted on a horse. The site is recognised by convention as the centre of London for the purpose of indicating distances by road in favour of other measurement points. Charing Cross is marked on maps as a road junction. Since 1 January 1931 this section of road has been designated part of the Whitehall thoroughfare, the cross has given its name to a railway station, a tube station, police station, hospital, a hotel, a theatre, and a music hall. Charing Cross Road the main route from the north was named after the railway station, at some time between 1232 and 1236, the Chapel and Hospital of St Mary Rounceval was founded at Charing. It occupied land at the corner of the modern Whitehall and into the centre of Northumberland Avenue and it was an Augustinian house, tied to a mother house at Roncesvalles in the Pyrenees. The house and lands were seized for the king in 1379, protracted legal action returned some rights to the prior, but in 1414, Henry V suppressed the alien houses
4.
Points of the compass
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The points of the compass, specifically on the compass rose, mark divisions of a compass, such divisions may be referred to as winds or directions. A compass point allows reference to a heading in a general or colloquial fashion. A compass is primarily divided into the four cardinal points—north, south, east and these are often further subdivided by the addition of the four intercardinal directions—northeast between north and east, southeast, southwest, and northwest —to indicate the eight principal winds. In meteorological usage, further intermediate points between cardinal and ordinal points, such as north-northeast between north and northeast, are added to give the sixteen points of a wind compass, for most applications, the fractional points have been superseded by degrees measured clockwise from North. In ancient China 24 points of the compass were used, measuring fifteen degrees between points. The names of the compass directions follow the 32-point wind compass rose follow these rules, The cardinal directions are north, east, south, west, the ordinal directions are northeast, southeast, southwest and northwest, formed by bisecting the angle of the cardinal winds. The name is merely a combination of the cardinals it bisects, the eight principal winds are the cardinals and ordinals considered together, that is N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW. Each principal wind is 45° from its neighbour, the principal winds form the basic eight-wind compass rose. The eight half-winds are the points obtained by bisecting the angles between the principal winds, the half-winds are north-northeast, east-northeast, east-southeast, south-southeast, south-southwest, west-southwest, west-northwest and north-northwest. Notice that the name is constructed simply by combining the names of the winds to either side, with the cardinal wind coming first. The eight principal winds and the eight half-winds together yield a 16-wind compass rose, all of the above named points plus the sixteen quarter winds listed in the next paragraph define the 32 points of the wind compass rose. The sixteen quarter winds are the points obtained by bisecting the angles between the points on a 16-wind compass rose. The name of a quarter-wind is X by Y, where X is a principal wind, so northeast by east means one quarter from NE towards E, southwest by south means one quarter from SW towards S. The eight principal winds, eight half-winds and sixteen quarter winds together yield a 32-wind compass rose, in the mariners exercise of boxing the compass, all thirty-two points of the compass are named in clockwise order. The title of the Alfred Hitchcock 1959 movie, North by Northwest, is not a direction point on the 32-wind compass. The traditional compass rose of eight winds was invented by seafarers in the Mediterranean Sea during the Middle Ages. This Italianate patois was used to designate the names of the winds on the compass rose found in mariner compasses. Tramutana, Gregale, Grecho, Sirocco, Xaloc, Lebeg, Libezo, Leveche, Mezzodi, Migjorn, Magistro, Mestre, etc
5.
Districts of England
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The districts of England are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government. As the structure of government in England is not uniform. Some districts are styled as boroughs, cities, or royal boroughs, these are purely honorific titles, prior to the establishment of districts in the 1890s, the basic unit of local government in England was the parish overseen by the parish church vestry committee. Vestries dealt with the administraction of both parochial and secular governmental matters, parishes were the successors of the manorial system and historically had been grouped into hundreds. Hundreds once exercised some supervising administrative function, however, these powers ebbed away as more and more civic and judicial powers were centred on county towns. From 1834 these parishes were grouped into Poor Law Unions, creating areas for administration of the Poor Law and these areas were later used for census registration and as the basis for sanitary provision. In 1894, based on these earlier subdivisions, the Local Government Act 1894 created urban districts and rural districts as sub-divisions of administrative counties, another reform in 1900 created 28 metropolitan boroughs as sub-divisions of the County of London. Meanwhile, from this date parish-level local government administration was transferred to civil parishes, the setting-down of the current structure of districts in England began in 1965, when Greater London and its 32 London boroughs were created. They are the oldest type of still in use. In 1974, metropolitan counties and non-metropolitan counties were created across the rest of England and were split into metropolitan districts, in London power is now shared again, albeit on a different basis, with the Greater London Authority. During the 1990s a further kind of district was created, the unitary authority, metropolitan boroughs are a subdivision of a metropolitan county. These are similar to unitary authorities, as the county councils were abolished in 1986. Most of the powers of the county councils were devolved to the districts but some services are run by joint boards, the districts typically have populations of 174,000 to 1.1 million. Non-metropolitan districts are second-tier authorities, which share power with county councils and they are subdivisions of shire counties and the most common type of district. These districts typically have populations of 25,000 to 200,000, the number of non-metropolitan districts has varied over time. Initially there were 296, after the creation of unitary authorities in the 1990s and late 2000s and these are single-tier districts which are responsible for running all local services in their areas, combining both county and district functions. They were created in the out of non-metropolitan districts, and often cover large towns. In addition, some of the smaller such as Rutland, Herefordshire
6.
London Borough of Havering
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The London Borough of Havering /ˈheɪvərɪŋ/ is a London borough in East London, England and forms part of Outer London. The principal town in Havering is Romford and the main communities are Hornchurch, Upminster. The borough is mainly characterised by suburban development with large areas of protected open space, romfords urban centre is a major metropolitan retail and night time entertainment centre and to the south the borough extends into the London Riverside redevelopment area of the Thames Gateway. The name Havering is a reference to the Royal Liberty of Havering which occupied the area for several centuries, the local authority is Havering London Borough Council. In 2011 the borough had a population of 237,232 over 43 square miles, there is a high ratio of area per capita as large sections of Havering are parkland and 23 square miles is Metropolitan Green Belt protected land. Those areas of development are extensive but rarely intensive and it has, at 4. 5%, a below average unemployment rate for Greater London, and one of the lowest crime rates. Havering has a higher proportion of residents in white ethnic groups than other outer London boroughs. The Black African population is the most significant minority group in Havering. The Upminster ward of the borough is the third least ethnically diverse in Greater London, there are over 7,000 businesses based in Havering. Romford is the commercial hub of the borough with a small district of mainly office development close to the railway station. There is also some industry to the south between Rainham and the River Thames such as Rainham steel headquarters, on the boundary or Elm Park, light industry elsewhere in the borough has been in decline, with major employers such as the former Star Brewery now closed down. New industrial development is encouraged in the south of the borough has been encouraged by the London Development Agency, the main retail district is also located in Romford with several interconnected or nearby shopping arcades to the main Liberty Shopping Centre. Romford Market is located to the north of Romford and is the largest market within the borough, Hornchurch and Upminster are the other main retail centres with extensive high street shopping areas. Havering London Borough Council applied to the Government to allow a super-casino to be built in the south of the borough, the name originates from the Royal Liberty of Havering which covered broadly, but not exactly the same area, and had been abolished in 1892. Modern settlement originated in Anglo-Saxon times when it consisted of Havering Palace, the palace itself is known to have existed since at least the reign of Edward the Confessor when it was one of his primary residences. The area formed a liberty from 1465 which included the parishes of Havering atte Bower, Hornchurch, the name Havering appears in documents from around the 12th century. The origins of this name have been debated by historians since the Middle Ages when it was linked to the legend of Edward the Confessor, the event being commemorated in stained glass in a chapel at Romford, that was dedicated to the king. Coupled with this have been commercial expansion particularly in Romford and out-of-town, including beyond the M25, the development of the borough came in two distinct phases
7.
Ceremonial counties of England
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The ceremonial counties, also referred to as the lieutenancy areas of England, are areas of England to which a Lord Lieutenant is appointed. The Local Government Act 1888 established county councils to assume the functions of Quarter Sessions in the counties. It created new entities called administrative counties, the Act further stipulated that areas that were part of an administrative county would be part of the county for all purposes. The greatest change was the creation of the County of London, which was both an administrative county and a county, it included parts of the historic counties of Middlesex, Kent. Other differences were small and resulted from the constraint that urban sanitary districts were not permitted to straddle county boundaries, apart from Yorkshire, counties that were subdivided nevertheless continued to exist as ceremonial counties. In 1974, administrative counties and county boroughs were abolished, at this time, Lieutenancy was redefined to use the new metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties directly. Following a further rearrangement in 1996, Avon, Cleveland, Hereford and Worcester, Cleveland was partitioned between North Yorkshire and Durham. Hereford and Worcester was divided into the counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Humberside was split between Lincolnshire and a new county of East Riding of Yorkshire. Rutland was restored as a ceremonial county, many county boroughs were re-established as unitary authorities, this involved establishing the area as an administrative county, but usually not as a ceremonial county. Most ceremonial counties are therefore entities comprising local authority areas, as they were from 1889 to 1974, the Association of British Counties, a traditional counties lobbying organisation, has suggested that ceremonial counties be restored to their ancient boundaries, as nearly as practicable. In present-day England, the ceremonial counties correspond to the shrieval counties, the Lieutenancies Act 1997 defines counties for the purposes of lieutenancies in terms of metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties as well as Greater London and the Isles of Scilly. Although the term is not used in the Act, these counties are known as ceremonial counties. gov. uk
8.
Regions of England
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The regions are the highest tier of sub-national division in England. Between 1994 and 2011, nine regions had officially devolved functions within Government, while they no longer fulfil this role, they continue to be used for statistical and some administrative purposes. They define areas for the purposes of elections to the European Parliament, Eurostat also uses them to demarcate first level Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics regions within the European Union. The regions generally follow the boundaries of the former standard regions, the London region has a directly elected Mayor and Assembly. Six regions have local authority leaders boards to assist with correlating the headline policies of local authorities, the remaining two regions no longer have any administrative functions, having abolished their regional local authority leaders boards. In 1998, regional chambers were established in the eight regions outside of London, the regions also had an associated Government Office with some responsibility for coordinating policy, and, from 2007, a part-time regional minister within the Government. House of Commons regional Select Committees were established in 2009, Regional ministers were not reappointed by the incoming Coalition Government, and the Government Offices were abolished in 2011. Regional development agencies were public bodies established in all nine regions in 1998 to promote economic development and they had certain delegated functions, including administering European Union regional development funds, and received funding the central government as well. After about 500 AD, England comprised seven Anglo-Saxon territories – Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, the boundaries of some of these, which later unified as the Kingdom of England, roughly coincide with those of modern regions. During Oliver Cromwells Protectorate in the 1650s, the rule of the Major-Generals created 10 regions in England, proposals for administrative regions within England were mooted by the British government prior to the First World War. In 1912 the Third Home Rule Bill was passing through parliament, the Bill was expected to introduce a devolved parliament for Ireland, and as a consequence calls were made for similar structures to be introduced in Great Britain or Home Rule All Round. On 12 September the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, within England, he suggested that London, Lancashire, Yorkshire, and the Midlands would make natural regions. While the creation of regional parliaments never became official policy, it was for a widely anticipated. In 1946 nine standard regions were set up, in central government bodies, statutory undertakings. However, these had declined in importance by the late 1950s, creation of some form of provinces or regions for England was an intermittent theme of post-Second World War British governments. The Redcliffe-Maud Report proposed the creation of eight provinces in England, one-fifth of the advisory councils would be nominees from central government. The boundaries suggested were the eight now existing for economic planning purposes, a minority report by Lord Crowther-Hunt and Alan T. Peacock suggested instead seven regional assemblies and governments within Great Britain, some elements of regional development and economic planning began to be established in England from the mid-1960s onwards
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Countries of the United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom comprises four countries, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Within the United Kingdom, a sovereign state, Northern Ireland, Scotland. England, comprising the majority of the population and area of the United Kingdom, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are not themselves listed in the International Organization for Standardization list of countries. However the ISO list of the subdivisions of the UK, compiled by British Standards, Northern Ireland, in contrast, is described as a province in the same lists. Each has separate governing bodies for sports and compete separately in many international sporting competitions. Northern Ireland also forms joint All-Island sporting bodies with the Republic of Ireland for most sports, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are dependencies of the Crown and are not part of the UK. Similarly, the British overseas territories, remnants of the British Empire, are not part of the UK, southern Ireland left the United Kingdom under the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922. * Figures for GVA do not include oil and gas revenues generated beyond the UKs territorial waters, various terms have been used to describe England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Wales was described as the country, principality, and dominion of Wales, outside Wales, England was not given a specific name or term. The Laws in Wales Acts have subsequently been repealed, the Acts of Union 1707 refer to both England and Scotland as a part of a united kingdom of Great Britain The Acts of Union 1800 use part in the same way to refer to England and Scotland. The Northern Ireland Act 1998, which repealed the Government of Ireland Act 1920, the Interpretation Act 1978 provides statutory definitions of the terms England, Wales and the United Kingdom, but neither that Act nor any other current statute defines Scotland or Northern Ireland. Use of the first three terms in other legislation is interpreted following the definitions in the 1978 Act and this definition applies from 1 April 1974. United Kingdom means Great Britain and Northern Ireland and this definition applies from 12 April 1927. In 1996 these 8 new counties were redistributed into the current 22 unitary authorities, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are regions in their own right while England has been divided into nine regions. The official term rest of the UK is used in Scotland, for example in export statistics and this term is also used in the context of potential Scottish independence to mean the UK without Scotland. The alternative term Home Nations is sometimes used in sporting contexts, the second, or civic group, contained the items about feeling British, respecting laws and institutions, speaking English, and having British citizenship. Contrariwise, in Scotland and Wales there was a much stronger identification with each country than with Britain, studies and surveys have reported that the majority of the Scots and Welsh see themselves as both Scottish/Welsh and British though with some differences in emphasis. The propensity for nationalistic feeling varies greatly across the UK, and can rise and it reported that 37% of people identified as British, whilst 29% identified as Irish and 24% identified as Northern Irish
10.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
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United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
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Postcodes in the United Kingdom
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Postal codes used in the United Kingdom are known as postcodes. They are alphanumeric and were adopted nationally between 11 October 1959 and 1974, having been devised by the GPO, a full postcode is known as a postcode unit and designates an area with a number of addresses or a single major delivery point. For example, the postcode of the University of Roehampton in London is SW15 5PU, the postcode of GCHQ is GL51 0EX, where GL signifies the postal town of Gloucester. The postal town refers to an area and does not relate to a specific town. GL51 is one of the postcodes for the town of Cheltenham which is where GCHQ is located, the London post town covers 40% of Greater London. On inception it was divided into ten districts, EC, WC, N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W. The S and NE sectors were later abolished and these divisions changed little, usually only changed for operational efficiency. Some older road signs in Hackney still indicate the North East sector/district, following the successful introduction of postal districts in London, the system was extended to other large towns and cities. Liverpool was divided into Eastern, Northern, Southern and Western districts in 1864/65, in 1917 Dublin – then still part of the United Kingdom – was divided into numbered postal districts. These continue in use in a form by An Post. In 1923 Glasgow was divided in a way to London. In January 1932 the Postmaster General approved the designation of some urban areas into numbered districts. In November 1934 the Post Office announced the introduction of numbered districts in every town in the United Kingdom large enough to justify it. Pamphlets were issued to each householder and business in ten areas notifying them of the number of the district in which their premises lay, the pamphlets included a map of the districts, and copies were made available at local head post offices. The public were invited to include the district number in the address at the head of letters. A publicity campaign in the following year encouraged the use of the district numbers, the slogan for the campaign was For speed and certainty always use a postal district number on your letters and notepaper. A poster was fixed to every box in the affected areas bearing the number of the district. Every post office in the district was also to display this information
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Telephone numbers in the United Kingdom
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Telephone numbers in the United Kingdom are administered by the UK governments Office of Communications. For this purpose Ofcom established a telephone numbering plan, known as the National Telephone Numbering Plan, since 28 April 2001, almost all geographic numbers and most non-geographic numbers have 9 or 10 national numbers after the 0 trunk code. All mobile telephone numbers have 10 national numbers after the 0 trunk code, regions with shorter area codes, typically large cities, permit the allocation of more telephone numbers as the local number portion has more digits. Local customer numbers are four to eight figures long, the total number of digits is ten, but in a very few areas the total may be nine digits. The area code is referred to as an STD or a dialling code in the UK. The code allocated to the largest population is for London, the code allocated to the largest area is for all of Northern Ireland. The UK Numbering Plan also applies to three British Crown dependencies—Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man—even though they are not part of the UK itself. Possible number formats for UK telephone numbers are as follows, Number ranges starting 01 can have NSN length as 10 or 9 digits, the 0800 range can have NSN length as 10,9 or 7 digits. The 0845 range can have NSN length as 10 or 7 digits, the 0500 range has NSN length as 9 digits only. There are no numbers in the UK with an NSN length of 8 digits. Geographic telephone numbers in the UK always have nine or ten digits, four-digit area codes have either six-digit subscriber numbers or a mix of five- and six-digit subscriber numbers. Xxxxxx This is the used by most areas. It has an area code and a six digit subscriber number. These area codes were changed by adding a 1 directly after the zero as a part of PhONEday in 1995. Just short of 581 areas use this format, and the area range from 01200 to 01998. A small number of areas also have a few subscriber numbers that have only five digits. That is, almost all area codes now have only six digit local numbers, six of the four-digit area codes are known as mixed areas as they share those four digits with the twelve five-digit area codes. The numbers therefore have only nine digits after the initial zero trunk code and these area codes were changed by adding a 1 directly after the initial zero as a part of PhONEday in 1995
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Metropolitan Police Service
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As of March 2016, the Met employed 48,661 full-time personnel. This included 32,125 sworn police officers,9,521 police staff and this number excludes the 3,271 Special Constables, who work part-time and who have the same powers and uniform as their regular colleagues. This makes the Metropolitan Police the largest police force in the United Kingdom by a significant margin, the post of Commissioner was first held jointly by Sir Charles Rowan and Sir Richard Mayne. The post is occupied by the now-outgoing Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe. The Commissioners deputy, the Deputy Commissioner, is currently Craig Mackey, a number of informal names and abbreviations exists for the Metropolitan Police Service, the most common being the Met. In colloquial London, it is referred to as the Old Bill. The Met is also referred to by the metonym Scotland Yard after the location of its headquarters in a road called Great Scotland Yard in Whitehall. The Mets current headquarters is New Scotland Yard, in Victoria, the Metropolitan Police Service, whose officers became affectionately known as bobbies, was founded in 1829 by Robert Peel under the Metropolitan Police Act 1829. In 1839, the Marine Police Force, which had formed in 1798, was amalgamated into the Metropolitan Police. In 1837, it also incorporated with the Bow Street Horse Patrol that had organised in 1805. Since January 2012, the Mayor of London is responsible for the governance of the Metropolitan Police through the Mayors Office for Policing, the mayor is able to appoint someone to act on his behalf, the current office-holder is Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Sophie Linden. The work of MOPAC is scrutinised by the Police and Crime Committee of the London Assembly, the area policed by the Metropolitan Police Service is known as the Metropolitan Police District. In terms of policing, the Met is divided into a number of Borough Operational Command Units. The City of London is a police area and is the responsibility of the separate City of London Police. The British Transport Police are responsible for policing of the network in the United Kingdom. Within London, they are responsible for the policing of the London Underground, Tramlink, The Emirates Air Line. There is also a park police force, the Kew Constabulary, responsible for the Royal Botanic Gardens. Officers also have limited powers in Scotland and Northern Ireland, within the MPD, the Met will take over the investigation of any serious crime from the British Transport Police and Ministry of Defence Police, if it is deemed appropriate
15.
Fire services in the United Kingdom
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The fire services in the United Kingdom operate under separate legislative and administrative arrangements in England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland. Emergency cover is provided by over fifty fire and rescue services, many FRS were previously known as brigades or county fire services, but almost all now use the standard terminology. They are distinct from and governed by an authority, which is the legislative, public and administrative body. Fire authorities in England and Wales, and therefore fire and rescue services, Scotland and Northern Ireland have centralised fire and rescue services, and so their authorities are effectively committees of the devolved parliaments. The total budget for services in 2014-15 was £2.9 billion. The devolved government in Scotland has an agency, HMFSI Scotland. This Act provided for centralised co-ordination of fire brigades in Great Britain,1947, Fire Services Act 1947 This Act transferred the functions of the National Fire Service to local authorities. Now repealed entirely in England and Wales by Schedule 2 of the Fire,1959, Fire Services Act 1959 This Act amended the 1947 Act, it dealt with pensions, staffing arrangements and provision of services by other authorities. It was repealed in England and Wales along with the 1947 Act,1999, Greater London Authority Act 1999 This act was necessary to allow for the formation of the Greater London Authority and in turn the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. In 2002, there was a series of fire strikes. In December 2002, the Independent Review of the Fire Service was published with the action still ongoing. Bains report ultimately led to a change in the relating to firefighting. 2002, Independent Review of the Fire Service published 2004, Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004, generally only applying to England and it came into force on 1 October 2006. The DfCLG has published a set of guides for non-domestic premises,2006, The Government of Wales Act 2006 gave the National Assembly for Wales powers to pass laws on Fire, promotion of fire safety otherwise than by prohibition or regulation. But does not prevent future legislation being passed by the UK government which applies to two or more constituent countries, There are further plans to modernise the fire service according to the Local Government Association. The fire service in England and Wales is scrutinised by a House of Commons select committee, in June 2006, the fire and rescue service select committee, under the auspices of the Communities and Local Government Committee, published its latest report. For example, where FRSs were historically inspected by HMFSI, much of this work is now carried out by the National Audit Office, Fire Control On 8 February 2010 the House of Commons Communities and Local Government Select Committee heard evidence on the Fire Control project. Called to give evidence were Cllr Brian Coleman and Cllr James Pearson from the Local Government Association, also giving evidence Matt Wrack from the Fire Brigades Union and John Bonney Chief Fire Officers Association
16.
London Fire Brigade
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The London Fire Brigade is the statutory fire and rescue service for London. It was formed by the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Act of 1865 under the leadership of superintendent Eyre Massey Shaw. Dany Cotton is the Commissioner for Fire and Emergency Planning, which includes the position of Chief Fire Officer, statutory responsibility for the running of the brigade lies with the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. In 2013/14 the LFB handled 171,067999 emergency calls, of the calls it actually mobilised to,20,934 were fires, including 10,992 that were of a serious nature, making it one of the busiest fire brigades in the world. In the same 12-month period, it received 3,172 hoax calls, the highest number of any UK fire service, in 2015/16 the LFB received 171,488 emergency calls. These consisted of,20,773 fires,30,066 special service callouts and it also conducts emergency planning and performs fire safety inspections and education. He introduced a uniform that, for the first time, included personal protection from the hazards of firefighting. With 80 firefighters and 13 fire stations, the unit was still a private enterprise, funded by the insurance companies, in 1904 it was renamed as the London Fire Brigade. The LFB moved into a new headquarters built by Higgs and Hill on the Albert Embankment in Lambeth in 1937, during the Second World War the countrys brigades were amalgamated into a single National Fire Service. The separate London Fire Brigade for the County of London was re-established in 1948, in 1986 the Greater London Council was disbanded and a new statutory authority, the London Fire and Civil Defence Authority, was formed to take responsibility for the LFB. The LFCDA was replaced in 2000 by the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, at the same time, the Greater London Authority was established to administer the LFEPA and coordinate emergency planning for London. Consisting of the Mayor of London and other elected members, the GLA also takes responsibility for the Metropolitan Police Authority, Transport for London, in 2007 the LFB vacated its Lambeth headquarters and moved to a site in Union Street, Southwark. In the same year, the Department for Communities and Local Government announced that LFB Commissioner Ken Knight had been appointed as the first Chief Fire, Knight was succeeded as Commissioner at that time by Ron Dobson, who served for almost ten years. Dany Cotton took over in 2017, becoming the brigades first female commissioner, dany Cotton is the current commissioner, having taken up the role on 1 January 2017. She holds the Queens Fire Service Medal, frank Jackson, CBE1938 to 1941, Cdr. Sir Aylmer Firebrace, CBE1933 to 1938, Maj. Cyril Morris 1918 to 1933, Arthur Reginald Dyer 1909 to 1918, sir Sampson Sladen 1903 to 1909, RAdm. James de Courcy Hamilton 1896 to 1903, Capt, lionel de Latour Wells 1891 to 1896, James Sexton Simmonds 1861 to 1891, Capt. Both divisions were divided into three districts, each under a Superintendent with his headquarters at a superintendent station, the superintendent stations themselves were commanded by District Officers, with the other stations under Station Officers
17.
Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom
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Emergency care including ambulance and emergency department treatment is free to everyone, regardless of immigration or visitor status. The NHS commissions most emergency services through the 14 NHS organisations with ambulance responsibility across the UK. As with other services, the public normally access emergency medical services through one of the valid emergency telephone numbers. This led to the formation of predominantly county based ambulance services, which gradually merged up and changed responsibilities until 2006, when there were 31 NHS ambulance trusts in England. Following further changes as part of the NHS foundation trust pathway, the commissioners in each region are responsible for contracting with a suitable organisation to provide ambulance services within their geographical territory. The primary contract for each area is held by a public NHS body, of which there are 11 in England. The service was operated before reorganisation in 1974 by the St Andrews’ Ambulance Association under contract to the Secretary of State for Scotland, the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service was established in 1995 by parliamentary order, and serves the whole of Northern Ireland. The Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust was established on 1 April 1998, there is a large market for private and voluntary ambulance services, with the sector being worth £800m to the UK economy in 2012. This places the voluntary providers in direct competition with private services, expenditure on private ambulances in England increased from £37m in 2011−12 to £67. 5m in 2013/4, rising in London from £796,000 to more than £8. 8m. In 2014−15, these 10 ambulance services spent £57.6 million on 333,329 callouts of private or voluntary services - an increase of 156% since 2010−11, in 2013, the CQC found 97% of private ambulance services to be providing good care. These private, registered services are represented by the Independent Ambulance Association, there are also a number of unregistered services operating, who do not provide ambulance transport, but only provide response on an event site. These firms are not regulated, and are not subject to the checks as the registered providers, although they may operate similar vehicles. There are a number of ambulance providers, sometimes known as Voluntary Aid Services or Voluntary Aid Societies, with the main ones being the British Red Cross. The history of the ambulance services pre-dates any government organised service. As they are in competition for work with the private ambulance providers. Voluntary organisations have also provided cover for the public when unionised NHS ambulance trust staff have taken industrial action, there are a number of smaller voluntary ambulance organisations, fulfilling specific purposes, such as Hatzola who provide emergency medical services to the orthodox Jewish community in some cities. These have however run into difficulties due to use of vehicles not legally recognised as ambulances, all emergency medical services in the UK are subject to a range of legal and regulatory requirements, and in many cases are also monitored for performance. This framework is largely statutory in nature, being mandated by government through a range of primary and secondary legislation and this requires all providers to register, to meet certain standards of quality, and to submit to inspection of those standards
18.
London Ambulance Service
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It is one of the busiest ambulance services in the world, and the busiest in the United Kingdom, providing care to more than 8.6 million people, who live and work in London. The service is currently under the leadership of chief executive Dr Fionna Moore MBE, the service employ around 4,500 staff. In exceptional cases, or where the service deems in necessary, specialist teams can be deployed from within the service, such as the Hazardous Area Response Team and these teams are specially trained and equipped to deal with incidents such as working at height or in confined spaces. It is one of 10 ambulance trusts in England providing emergency medical services, there is no charge to patients for use of the service, as every person in England has the right to the attendance of an ambulance in an emergency. The LAS responded to over 1.8 million calls for assistance, incidents rose by 20,000 in 2015/16, putting more pressure on the service. All 999 calls from the public are answered at the Emergency Operations Centre in Waterloo, to assist, the services command and control system is linked electronically with the equivalent system for Londons Metropolitan Police. This means that police updates regarding specific jobs will be updated directly on the computer-aided dispatch log, to be viewed by the EOC, the first became operational at The South Eastern Fever Hospital, Deptford, in October 1883. In all, six hospitals operated horse-drawn land ambulances, putting almost the whole of London within three miles of one of them, each ambulance station included accommodation for a married superintendent and around 20 drivers, horse keepers and attendants, nurses, laundry staff and domestic cleaners. At Deptford, in order to transfer patients between the hospitals at Joyce Green and Long Reach near Gravesend, a horse-drawn ambulance tramway was constructed in 1897, in 1902, the MAB introduced a steam driven ambulance and in 1904, their first motor ambulance. The last horse-drawn ambulances were used on 14 September 1912, although the MAB was legally supposed to be transporting only infectious patients, it increasingly also carried accident victims and emergency medical cases. Also in 1915, the MAB Ambulance Section were the first public body to women drivers. By July 1916 the London County Council Ambulance Corps was staffed entirely by women, the LCC also took control of the River Ambulance Service, but it was disbanded in 1932. During World War II, the London Auxiliary Ambulance Service was operated by over 10,000 auxiliaries, mainly women and they ran services from 139 Auxiliary Stations across London. A plaque at one of the last to close, Station 39 in Weymouth Mews, near Portland Place, in 1948 the National Health Service Act made it a requirement for ambulances to be available for anyone who needed them. On 1 April 1996, the LAS left the control of the South West Thames Regional Health Authority, as an NHS Trust, the LAS has a Trust Board consisting of 12 members. The board includes, a chairman, five of the Service’s executive directors. Special events in London are co-ordinated from the Services event control room, also located in east London, during mass casualty incidents, the command structure works on three levels, gold, silver and bronze. Silver control, tactical command, from a point in the vicinity of the incident, Bronze control
19.
London (European Parliament constituency)
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London is a constituency of the European Parliament. It currently elects 8 MEPs using the method of party-list proportional representation. The constituency corresponds to the Greater London region of England, in the south east of the United Kingdom, prior to 1999, London was represented by a number of single-member constituencies. The European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999 reduced this to a constituency returning a number of MEPs. Below are all the members since the creation of the London constituency, the number of seats allocated to London has been reduced from 10 to 8 between 1999 and 2009 due to EU enlargement. Members elected in 1999 who previously represented a London constituency were Pauline Green, elected candidates are shown in bold. Brackets indicate the number of votes per seat won, the 2014 results were delayed by Tower Hamlets, where there were recounts needed for six local election wards
20.
Romford (UK Parliament constituency)
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Romford is a constituency created in 1885 represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2001 by Andrew Rosindell, a Conservative. 1885-1918, The Liberty of Havering-atte-Bower, and part of the Sessional Division of Becontree, 1918-1945, The Urban Districts of Barking and Romford, and the Rural District of Romford. 1945-1950, The Municipal Borough of Romford, 1950-1955, The Municipal Borough of Romford, and the Urban District of Brentwood. 1955-1974, The Municipal Borough of Romford, 1974-1983, The London Borough of Havering wards of Bedfords, Central, Collier Row, Gidea Park, Heath Park, Mawney, and Oldchurch. 1983-1997, The London Borough of Havering wards of Brooklands, Chase Cross, Collier Row, Gidea Park, Heath Park, Mawney, Oldchurch, Rise Park, and St Edwards. 1997-2010, The London Borough of Havering wards of Ardleigh Green, Brooklands, Chase Cross, Collier Row, Gidea Park, Heath Park, Mawney, Oldchurch, Rise Park, and St Edwards. 2010–present, The London Borough of Havering wards of Brooklands, Havering Park, Hylands, Mawneys, Pettits, Romford Town, the constituency covers Romford, Gidea Park and Collier Row in the London Borough of Havering, east London. This seat was created in the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, the 2015 result made the seat the 157th safest of the Conservative Partys 331 seats by percentage of majority. List of Parliamentary constituencies in Greater London Notes References Leigh Rayments Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with R
21.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
22.
London Plan
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The London Plan is the statutory spatial development strategy for the Greater London area in the United Kingdom that is written by the Mayor of London and published by the Greater London Authority. The regional planning document was first published in form on 10 February 2004. In addition to minor alterations, it was revised and republished in February 2008. The London Plan published in July 2011 is currently in effect and has 2031 as an end date. As of June 2012 minor alterations are being made to the plan to comply with the National Planning Policy Framework, the plan replaced the previous strategic planning guidance for London issued by the Secretary of State and known as RPG3. It is a requirement of the Greater London Authority Act 1999 that the document is produced, the Act also requires that the London Plan includes in its scope, the health of Londoners, equality of opportunity, contribution to sustainable development in the United Kingdom. The plan is a development strategy for the Greater London area and has six objectives. The opportunity areas will be able to accommodate around 5,000 jobs each or about 2,500 homes, or a mixture of the two. The opportunity areas will mostly be town centres as opposed to suburban developments in the boroughs, although those are mentioned as important in terms of job growth, by definition, an Opportunity Area is brownfield land with significant capacity for development. This contrasts with an Intensification Area that can be developed to higher than existing densities with more modest economic change, for the purposes of the plan, London is divided into five sub regions. From 2004 to 2008 the sub regions were initially the same as the Learning, within this scheme there was a separate Central sub region and four others around it. The London part of the Thames Gateway zone was entirely contained within the East London sub region, the 2004—2008 sub regions each had a Sub-Regional Development Framework. The sub regions were revised in February 2008 as part of the Further Alterations to the London Plan and these sub regions each radiated from the centre to combine inner and outer London boroughs. The 2008—2011 sub regions, each had its own Sub Regional Implementation Framework, in 2011 the sub regions were revised again, reintroducing a smaller Central sub region and returning all of the London part of the Thames Gateway to be within the East sub region. The 2011 sub regions are to be used for monitoring, engagement. Throughout these revisions has been a separately defined Central Activities Zone which includes areas with a high concentration of metropolitan activities. All activity centres are categorised into,2 international centres, the West End, over 1,200 smaller neighbourhood and local centres are also identified in the plan. There have been a number of amendments to the London Plan which have incorporated into the current version that was published in February 2008
23.
Historic counties of England
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The historic counties of England were established for administration by the Normans, in most cases based on earlier kingdoms and shires established by the Anglo-Saxons and others. They ceased to be used for administration with the creation of the counties in 1889. They are alternatively known as ancient counties or traditional counties, where they are not included among the modern counties of England they are also known as former counties. Counties were used initially for the administration of justice, collection of taxes and organisation of the military and they continue to form the basis of modern local government in many parts of the country away from the main urban areas, although sometimes with considerably altered boundaries. The name of a county often gives a clue to how it was formed, either as a division took its name from a centre of administration. The majority of English counties are in the first category, with the name formed by combining the central town with the suffix -shire, for example Yorkshire. Former kingdoms, which became earldoms in the united England did not feature this formulation, so for Kent, Counties ending in the suffix -sex are also in this category and are former Saxon kingdoms. Many of these names are formed from compass directions, the third category includes counties such as Cornwall and Devon where the name corresponds to the tribes who inhabited the area. County Durham is anomalous in terms of naming and origin, not falling into any of the three categories, instead it was a diocese that was turned into the County Palatine of Durham, ruled by the Bishop of Durham. The expected form would otherwise be Durhamshire, but it was rarely used, there are customary abbreviations for many of the counties. In most cases these consist of simple truncation, usually with an s at the end signifying shire, some abbreviations are not obvious, such as Salop for Shropshire, Oxon for Oxfordshire, Hants for Hampshire and Northants for Northamptonshire. Counties were often prefixed with County of in official contexts, such as County of Kent and those counties named after central towns lost the -shire suffix, for example Yorkshire would be known as County of York. This usage was sometimes followed even where there was no town by that name, the -shire suffix was also appended for some counties, such as Devonshire, Dorsetshire and Somersetshire, despite their origin. There is still a Duke of Devonshire, Great Britain was first divided into administrative areas by the Romans, most likely following major geographical features such as rivers. Before their arrival there were distinct tribal areas, but they were in a constant state of flux as territory was gained, the areas that would later form the English counties started to take shape soon afterwards, with the Kingdom of Kent founded by settlers around 445. Once the Kingdom of England was united as a whole in 927 it became necessary to subdivide it for convenience and to this end. The whole kingdom was divided into shires by the time of the Norman conquest, robert of Gloucester accounts for thirty-five shires and William of Malmesbury thirty-two, Henry of Huntingdon, thirty-seven. In most cases the counties or shires in medieval times were administered by a sheriff on behalf of the monarch, after the Norman conquest the sheriff was replaced and the shires became counties, or areas under the control of a count, in the French manner
24.
Essex
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Essex /ˈɛsᵻks/ is a county in England immediately north-east of London. It borders the counties of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, the county town is Chelmsford, which is the only city in the county. Essex occupies the part of the old Kingdom of Essex, before this. As well as areas, the county also includes London Stansted Airport, the new towns of Basildon and Harlow, Lakeside Shopping Centre, the port of Tilbury. Originally recorded in AD527, Essex occupied territory to the north of the River Thames, incorporating all of what later became Middlesex and its territory was later restricted to lands east of the River Lea. In changes before the Norman conquest the East Saxons were subsumed into the Kingdom of England and, following the Norman conquest, Essex became a county. During the medieval period, much of the area was designated a Royal forest, including the county in a period to 1204. Gradually, the subject to forest law diminished, but at various times included the forests of Becontree, Chelmsford, Epping, Hatfield, Ongar. County-wide administration Essex County Council was formed in 1889, however County Boroughs of West Ham, Southend-on-Sea and East Ham formed part of the county but were unitary authorities. 12 boroughs and districts provide more localised services such as rubbish and recycling collections, leisure and planning, parish-level administration – changes A few Essex parishes have been transferred to other counties. Before 1889, small areas were transferred to Hertfordshire near Bishops Stortford, Essex became part of the East of England Government Office Region in 1994 and was statistically counted as part of that region from 1999, having previously been part of the South East England region. Two unitary authorities In 1998 the boroughs of Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock were granted autonomy from the county of Essex after successful requests to become unitary authorities. Essex Police covers the county and the two unitary authorities. The county council chamber and main headquarters is at the County Hall in Chelmsford, before 1938 the council regularly met in London near Moorgate, which with significant parts closer to that point and the dominance of railways had been more convenient than any place in the county. It currently has 75 elected councillors, before 1965, the number of councillors reached over 100. The highest point of the county of Essex is Chrishall Common near the village of Langley, close to the Hertfordshire border, the pattern of settlement in the county is diverse. Epping Forest also acts as a barrier to the further spread of London. Part of the southeast of the county, already containing the population centres of Basildon, Southend and Thurrock, is within the Thames Gateway
25.
Royal Liberty of Havering
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Havering, also known as Havering-atte-Bower, was a royal manor and ancient liberty whose former area now forms part of, and gives its name to, the London Borough of Havering in Greater London. The manor was in the possession of the Crown from the 11th to the 19th centuries and was the location of Havering Palace from the 13th to the late 17th century. It occupied the area as the ancient parish of Hornchurch which was divided into the three chapelries of Havering, Hornchurch and Romford. The name Havering is recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book as Haueringas and means the settlement of the family or followers of a man called Hæfer, from the 13th century the suffix -atte-Bower was added and means at the royal residence. Havering and Havering-atte-Bower continue to be used as the names of a London borough, a liberty was formed by charter for the royal manor of Havering in 1465. The manor was an ancient demesne that had formed part of the Becontree hundred of Essex, the event was celebrated by the issue of a copper token for currency in the late 18th century, which uniquely among the many coins of that era bears the date 1465. The charter gave residents of the freedom from taxation, its own local magistrates and gaol. The famous Romford Market was another privilege that was guaranteed under this arrangement, the government of the liberty was in the hands of a high steward, deputy steward, clerk of the peace and coroner. The high steward was chosen by the lord of the manor, the office of deputy steward was instituted by the 1465 charter, being appointed by the high steward. The clerk of the peace and coroner were elected by the tenants and inhabitants of the liberty, in 1848 other officers of the corporation were a high bailiff, under bailiff, two head constables and nine petty constables. Gallows Corner was used as the place of execution in the liberty, the manor and liberty originally comprised the large ancient parish of Hornchurch which was divided into eight wards. By the 16th century Romford side comprising the five wards of Romford Town, Harold Wood, Collier Row, Noak Hill. The remaining Hornchurch side consisted of Hornchurch Town, North End, Hornchurch Town ward was absorbed into North End and South End around 1722. Havering ward grew independent of Romford in the 17th century and became a parish in the 1780s. In 1849 Romford became a parish in its own right, the manor was sold by the Crown in 1828 and the right to appoint the high steward and justices of the liberty was transferred to the private owners. During the 19th century ad hoc boards, such as unions for poor law or public health, under the Local Government Act 1888 the property of the liberty was merged with that of the county, and the offices of high and deputy steward were no longer filled. The separate court of sessions, limited to three justices, continued to exist, and a high bailiff and coroner continued to be appointed. The Order in Council, under the Liberties Act 1850, was made on 9 May 1892, the last high bailiff was paid a pension of £3 for life, while the coroner became a county employee
26.
Light industry
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Light industry is industry that is usually less capital-intensive than heavy industry, and is more consumer-oriented than business-oriented. Light industry facilities typically have less impact than those associated with heavy industry. It is the production of consumer goods. One economic definition states that light industry is an activity that uses moderate amounts of partially processed materials to produce items of relatively high value per unit weight. Conversely, industries such as industry and shipbuilding would fall under heavy industry. Light industries require only an amount of raw materials, area. The value of the goods are low and they are easy to transport, the number of products is high. While light industry typically causes little pollution, particularly compared to heavy industries. Electronics manufacturing, itself often an industry, can create potentially harmful levels of lead or chemical wastes in soil due to improper handling of solder
27.
Municipal Borough of Romford
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Romford was a local government district in southwest Essex from 1851 to 1965. It was significantly expanded in 1934 and gained the status of borough in 1937. The population density of the district consistently increased during its existence, Romford had formed a chapelry in the historic Liberty of Havering, becoming a civil parish in its own right in 1849. In 1851 a local board of health was set up for the parish, the local board convened at St Edwards Hall in Laurie Square from 1851 to 1853 and used the old liberty court house from 1853 to 1869. From 1869 it was based in offices in the marketplace and finally purchased the old house in 1892. In 1894 the local area became Romford urban district as part of the Local Government Act 1894. This caused the parish to be divided into Romford Urban and Romford Rural, from 1894 to 1900 the urban district consisted of the civil parish of Romford Urban. In 1900 the two Romford parishes were recombined and the district was expanded to cover the reconstituted parish of Romford from 1900 to 1934. The urban district was surrounded by Romford Rural District until 1934 when the district was abolished. The urban district continued to meet at the old court house until it was demolished in 1933. The Romford urban district was incorporated as a borough in 1937. The Royal Commission on Local Government in Greater London considered the borough for inclusion in Greater London and its former area was transferred to Greater London from Essex and combined with that of Hornchurch Urban District to form the present-day London Borough of Havering. ^note a, The whole parish from 1851 to 1855, part thereafter
28.
Census
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A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population, the term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses, other common censuses include agriculture, business, and traffic censuses. United Nations recommendations also cover census topics to be collected, official definitions, classifications, the word is of Latin origin, during the Roman Republic, the census was a list that kept track of all adult males fit for military service. Current administrative data systems allow for other approaches to enumeration with the level of detail but raise concerns about privacy. A census can be contrasted with sampling in which information is obtained only from a subset of a population, typically main population estimates are updated by such intercensal estimates. Modern census data are used for research, business marketing, and planning. Census counts are necessary to adjust samples to be representative of a population by weighting them as is common in opinion polling, similarly, stratification requires knowledge of the relative sizes of different population strata which can be derived from census enumerations. In some countries, the census provides the official used to apportion the number of elected representatives to regions. In many cases, a carefully chosen random sample can provide accurate information than attempts to get a population census. A census is often construed as the opposite of a sample as its intent is to count everyone in a rather than a fraction. However, population censuses rely on a frame to count the population. This is the way to be sure that everyone has been included as otherwise those not responding would not be followed up on. The fundamental premise of a census is that the population is not known, the use of a sampling frame is counterintuitive as it suggests that the population size is already known. However, a census is also used to collect data on the individuals in the nation. This process of sampling marks the difference between historical census, which was a house to house process or the product of a decree. The sampling frame used by census is almost always an address register, thus it is not known if there is anyone resident or how many people there are in each household. Depending on the mode of enumeration, a form is sent to the householder, as a preliminary to the dispatch of forms, census workers will check any address problems on the ground. While it may seem straightforward to use the postal service file for this purpose, a particular problem is what are termed communal establishments which category includes student residences, religious orders, homes for the elderly, people in prisons etc
29.
Middle Ages
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In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
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Romford Market
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Romford Market is a large open market with 270 stalls, located in Romford, London Borough of Havering, Greater London, England. The market is open on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 8.30 am to 4.30 pm, the market originated as a sheep market in 1247. Under the Royal Charter of the Liberty of Havering, granted by King Henry III no other market is permitted to set up within a days drive of Romford. The market is the subject of a 1726 legal case called Keech v. Sandford and this is one of the foundational cases of English trust law, on the fiduciary duty of loyalty. The market was used to film parts of The Prodigys music video for the track Voodoo People remixed by Pendulum. The market is a hub on the London Bus network with services to Canning Town, Leytonstone, Stratford, Rainham, Dagenham, Barkingside, Cranham, Barking, Ilford and Central London. As of 2015, Havering London Borough Council have plans to redevelop the market, introduce a new Market House change the layout and offer a more diverse range of goods
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Turnpike trusts
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At the peak, in the 1830s, over 1,000 trusts administered around 30,000 miles of turnpike road in England and Wales, taking tolls at almost 8,000 toll-gates and side-bars. During the early 19th century the concept of the turnpike trust was adopted and adapted to manage roads within the British Empire and in the United States. Turnpikes declined with the coming of the railways and then the Local Government Act of 1888 gave responsibility for maintaining main roads to county councils and county borough councils. The term turnpike originates from the similarity of the used to control access to the road. Pavage grants, originally made for paving the marketplace or streets of towns and these grants were made by letters patent, almost invariably for a limited term, presumably the time likely to be required to pay for the required works. Tudor statutes had placed responsibility on each parish to maintain all its roads and this arrangement was adequate for roads that the parishioners used themselves but proved unsatisfactory for the principal highways that were used by long-distance travellers and waggoners. During the late 17th century, the approach to road maintenance caused acute problems on the main routes into London. As trade increased, the numbers of heavy carts and carriages led to serious deterioration in the state of these roads. A parliamentary bill, presented in 1621/2, proposed to relieve the parishes responsible for part of the Great North Road by imposing a scale of tolls on various sorts of traffic. The revenue from the tolls was to be employed in repairing the road, however, during the following forty years, the idea of making travellers contribute to the repair of roads was raised on several occasions. Then in 1656 the parish of Radwell, Hertfordshire petitioned the quarter sessions for help to maintain their section of the Great North Road, probably as a result of this petition the quarter session justices of Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire represented the matter to Parliament. The toll-gate erected at Wadesmill became the first effective toll-gate in England, Parliament then gave similar powers to the justices in other counties in England and Wales. An example being the first Turnpike Act for Surrey that in 1696, during the reign of William III, the first scheme that had trustees who were not justices was established through a Turnpike Act in 1707, for a section of the London-Chester road between Fornhill and Stony Stratford. This became the pattern for the turnpiking of a number of highways. The proposal to turnpike a particular section of road was normally a local initiative, the Act gave the trustees responsibility for maintaining a specified part of the existing highway. It provided them with powers to achieve this, the right to collect tolls from those using the road was particularly important, Local gentlemen, clergy and merchants were nominated as trustees and they appointed a clerk, a treasurer and a surveyor to actually administer and maintain the highway. These officers were paid by the trust, trustees were not paid, though they derived indirect benefits from the better transport, which improved access to markets and led to increases in rental income and trade. The first action of a new trust was to erect turnpike gates at which a toll was charged
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Mile End
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Mile End is a district mostly centred around the north-south Mile End Park in East London, England,3.6 miles east-northeast of Charing Cross. On the London to Colchester road, it was one of the earliest suburbs of the City of London, in 2011, Mile End had a population of 28,544. Mile End is recorded in 1288 as La Mile ende and it is formed from the Middle English mile and ende and means the hamlet a mile away. The mile distance was in relation to Aldgate in the City of London, in around 1691 Mile End became known as Mile End Old Town because a new unconnected settlement to the west and adjacent to Spitalfields had taken the name Mile End New Town. This data combines the ethnicity data for Mile Ends two wards, whilst there are many references to settlements in the area, excavations have suggested there were very few buildings before 1300. Mile End Road is an ancient route from London to the East, in the medieval period it was known as ‘Aldgatestrete’, as it led to the eastern entrance to the City of London at Aldgate. The area running alongside Mile End Road was known as Mile End Green, for most of the medieval period, this road was surrounded by open fields on either side, but speculative developments existed by the end of the 16th century and continued throughout the 18th century. The Stepney Green Conservation Area was designated in January 1973, covering the previously known as Mile End Old Town. It is a large Conservation Area with a shape that encloses buildings around Mile End Road, Assembly Passage, Louisa Street. It is an area of architectural and historic interest, with a character and appearance worthy of protection. It is situated just north of the village of Stepney. On 12 June, the Essex rebels, comprising 100,000 men, camped at Mile End, on 14 June, the young king Richard II rode to Mile End where he met the rebels and signed their charter. The king subsequently had the leaders and many rebels executed, in 1883, Jacob P. Adler arrived in London with a troupe of refugee professional actors. He enlisted the help of local amateurs, and the Russian Jewish Operatic Company made their debut at the Beaumont Hall, within two years they were able to establish their own theatre in Brick Lane. Five acres of land were secured on the Mile End Road, the complex was completed with a library, swimming pool, gymnasium and winter garden by 1892, providing an eclectic mix of populist entertainment and education. A peak of 8,000 tickets were sold for classes in 1892, and by 1900, a new Peoples Palace was constructed, in 1937, by the Metropolitan Borough of Stepney, in St Helens Terrace. Besides suffering heavily in earlier blitzes, Mile End was hit by the first V-1 flying bomb to strike London, on 13 June 1944, this doodlebug impacted next to the railway bridge on Grove Road, an event now commemorated by a plaque. Eight civilians were killed,30 injured and 200 made homeless by the blast, the area remained derelict for many years, until cleared to extend Mile End park
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London, Tilbury and Southend Railway
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The line is also heavily used by leisure travellers, as it and its branches serve a number of seaside resorts, shopping areas and countryside destinations. Additionally the route provides an artery for traffic to and from the port of Tilbury. The route was extended in phases and partnerships were formed with the Midland Railway, the main line runs from Fenchurch Street to Shoeburyness via Basildon over a distance of 39 miles 40 chains. A loop line between Barking and Pitsea provides a route via Grays and Tilbury, and there is a short branch line connecting the two via Ockendon. The line has a speed limit of 75 mph, although the Class 357 electric trains which run on it are capable of a speed of 100 mph. The line forms part of Network Rails strategic route 6 and it is classified as a London and South East commuter line. Passenger services form the Essex Thameside franchise that is operated by train operating company c2c. The construction of the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway line was authorised by Parliament on 17 June 1852. The first section, built by Peto and Grissell, was opened between Forest Gate junction on the Eastern Counties Railway line and Tilbury, via Barking and Grays on 13 April 1854. Services initially ran from Fenchurch Street and Bishopsgate stations over existing lines to Stratford, further extensions opened in late 1854 to Horndon, to Leigh-on-Sea on 1 July 1855 and finally to Southend on 1 March 1856. Under the management of civil engineer Arthur Lewis Stride, the line was extended from Southend to Shoeburyness in 1884, a more direct route from Barking to Pitsea via Upminster was built between 1885 and 1888, completing the current main route. A single-track branch was constructed between Romford and Grays via Upminster in 1892-93, the connection allowed through-running of District Railway trains from the tunnels under central London to provide local services to Upminster from 2 June 1902. The electrified tracks were extended to Barking and that opened on 1 April 1908. Delayed by World War I, the tracks were eventually extended to Upminster and District line services started to. Of course, the Waterloo & City tunnels would have had to be bored out to size for this proposal to succeed. In 1974 a station was opened to serve the new town of Basildon, platforms were re-established and opened at West Ham in 1999 to provide interchange with the extended Jubilee line. The railway was jointly promoted by the Eastern Counties Railway and London and Blackwall Railway and was leased for 21 years to Peto, Brassey. The lease expired in 1875, leaving the LTSR to take over operation itself, the Midland Railway and LTSR jointly constructed the Tottenham and Forest Gate Railway, which enabled through-running of trains between St. Pancras and the Tilbury docks
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Port of Tilbury
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The Port of Tilbury is located on the River Thames at Tilbury in Essex, England. It is the port for London, as well as being the main United Kingdom port for handling the importation of paper. There are extensive facilities for containers, grain, and other bulk cargoes, there are also facilities for the importation of cars. It forms part of the wider Port of London, the Port of Tilbury lies on the north shore of the River Thames,25 miles downstream of London Bridge, at a point where the river makes a loop southwards, and where its width narrows to 800 yards. The loop is part of the Thames lower reaches, within the meander was a area of marshland. Gravesend on the shore had long been a port of entry for shipping, all of which had used the river itself for loading and unloading of cargo. There was also a naval dockyard at Northfleet, the new deepwater docks were an extension of all that maritime activity. The original docks of London, all close to the City, were opened in stages by what was to become the East and West India Docks Company at the beginning of the 19th century. The Company had long been in competition with their rival, the London and St Katherine Dock Company, the E&WIDC were forced to retaliate. In 1882, an Act of Parliament allowed the latter to construct the docks at Tilbury, work began a fortnight later, and the first vessel to enter the docks was on 17 April 1886. The original docks consisted of a basin on Gravesend Reach opposite Northfleet. Between the tidal basin and Main Dock were two dry docks, in 1909 Tilbury, along with the upstream docks, became part of the newly established Port of London Authority. In 1921, and again in 1929, the PLA carried out major improvements. These included a new lock 1,000 feet long and 110 ft wide, linking the docks directly to the Thames to the west at Northfleet Hope, and these works were carried out by Sir Robert McAlpine. During the 1960s, at the time when the docks were closing. Between 1963–1966 a huge fourth branch dock, running north from Main Dock for nearly 1 mile, was constructed, the tidal basin was closed and eventually filled in. In 1969 a £6M riverside grain terminal on Northfleet Hope was brought into use, by the early 1980s Tilbury was the last set of enclosed docks in operation by the PLA. The PLA funded a new container port which opened in 1967
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Liberty Shopping Centre
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The Liberty is a covered shopping centre located in the London Borough of Havering. It is the largest shopping centre in Romford and it was originally built in 1968 as the Liberty Shopping Centre and underwent a four-year redevelopment completed in 2004. The centre takes its name from the former Liberty of Havering and is owned by the Cosgrave Property Group and it is the largest indoor shopping centre in the borough and covers 730,000 square metres with 36,400 square metres of retail space, around 100 shops. The Liberty has an annual footfall of 23 million, equating to 425,000 people per week and it is linked to Mercury Shopping Centre by an underpass. The Liberty was first built in 1968, in 1999 Hammerson acquired Standards Lifes 50% interest and in 2000 acquired the freehold on the land. In September 2006, Irish property developers, The Cosgrave Property Group acquired the centre from Hammerson, the centre underwent an extensive redevelopment at the turn of the millennium. Previously, the part of the centre was open-air, with several covered arcades running off from it linking it to other parts of the town centre. The changes undertaken in the 2000s included the covering of the part of the centre with a glazed roof. Several existing stores were remodelled or relocated, or received other modernisations, as part of the redesign, including Boots, BHS, once the planning application had been granted for the transformation of the centre, work started in August 2001. In April 2003, the centre achieved practical completion, the Liberty is anchored by Boots, Debenhams, H&M, Marks & Spencer, Next, W H Smith and Primark. The Liberty is near to Romford railway station and is on the route of a number of London Buses services, there are 806 secure parking spaces
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The Mall (Romford)
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The Mercury Mall is an enclosed shopping centre in Romford, in the London Borough of Havering, Greater London. It opened in June 1990 as Liberty 2, from 2006 to August 2010 it was owned by The Mall Fund and was known as The Mall Romford. It is—along with The Liberty and The Brewery—one of the three shopping centres in Romford. The name referred to existing Liberty Shopping Centre and it was initially anchored by a Sainsburys supermarket, but when this relocated to The Brewery elsewhere in the town centre, the former supermarket space in the mall was taken by Wilkinson. In 2001 shortly after the opening of The Brewery the Odeon Cinema closed, in 2006 the Liberty 2 was expanded with the redevelopment of the adjacent former Dolphin Centre to form part of the retail site. The redevelopment included the development of a new store, an Asda supermarket. The redevelopment also saw a block above the supermarket site. As part of the revamp, the centre - which had still been heavily carrying the Liberty 2 branding - was rebranded under The Mall Funds corporate identity. The Mercury has been used as a location, for instance. In the advert you can clearly see The Mercurys lifts, the centre is also frequently used in hidden camera TV shows Bad Robots and Off Their Rockers. In 2011 the centre was sold to Rockspring UK and The Other Retail Group as part of a package of centres from The Mall Fund, in 2013 The Mercury Mall became the backdrop for the horror movie Death Walks. In 2014 Rockspring announced it was to sell its raft of shopping centres, although the two centres are connected physically in this way, they are independently owned and are run separately from one another. It comprises two levels of retail stores, and a level which includes a Mecca bingo hall and, since late 2012. There is a level which used to be the home of Pulse Nightclub. The centre is iconic in Romford due to its glass dome enclosure, Other stores and services in The Mercury include McDonalds, GAME, Blue Inc, Superdrug and Peacocks
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The Brewery (Romford)
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The Brewery is a shopping and leisure centre in Romford, in the London Borough of Havering, England. It is located on the site of the former Star Brewery and it is—along with The Liberty and The Mercury—one of the three main shopping centres in Romford. In 2010, a 25% stake in the complex was sold by the Henderson Group to Prudential Property Investment Managers for £44. 25m, leisure uses in the centre include a bowling and amusement arcade unit, a cinema, and a number of restaurants. The Brewery is located within Romfords town centre and is near to Romford railway station, a number of London Buses serve the centre and route 165 terminates within The Brewery car park
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Hornchurch
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Hornchurch is a suburban town in the London Borough of Havering, East London, England,15.2 miles east-northeast of Charing Cross. It is the location of Queens Theatre, Havering Sixth Form College, Hornchurch is an Anglicised version of the Latin Monasterium Cornutum, a term that was also applied to the mother Abbey in Savoy. The earliest recorded use here was in 1222, meaning church with horn-like gables, the horned bulls head mounted on the eastern end of St Andrews Church, near the town centre dates from much later, around the 18th century. In the Anglian Ice Age,450,000 years ago, the ice sheet reached The Dell, just south of St Andrews Church in Hornchurch, Hornchurch Cutting is a Site of Special Scientific Interest just north of St Andrews Park which exhibits the geology. Stone Age tools, Bronze age and Iron age artefacts have been discovered in Hornchurch, roman remains, sufficient to indicate a settlement have also been found in South Hornchurch. Hornchurch originates from around the 12th century when Henry II gave 1,500 acres to the hospice of St Nicholas and St Bernard, Mountjoux, in Savoy as a gift. A prosperous Hornchurch Priory was established, near the parish church, the lands were then given to Lord Chancellor William of Wykeham who made major renovations to the church. He subsequently gave Hornchurch to endow New College, Oxford, which owns all the local church lands. Due to this, Saint Andrews Church was not adopted into the Diocese of Chelmsford until agreement was reached in the 1930s, the parish remains staffed by a vicar temporal and his curates. Hornchurch, was an ancient parish in the Becontree hundred of Essex. The Hornchurch chapelry stretched from the River Thames in the south to Harold Wood in the north and was located between the River Ingrebourne in the east and the River Beam in the west. It was also known as Hornchurch side and consisted of the North End, South End, Town ward was absorbed into North End and South End around 1722. Hornchurch chapelry occupied 6,783 acres of the 16, 100-acre ancient parish, the local authority was the Hornchurch vestry. Havering ward grew independent in its own right and became a parish in the late 18th century. Following the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, Hornchurch and Romford became separate parishes in 1836 and were grouped into the Romford Poor Law Union. The area of the union, excluding the town of Romford, the special status of the Liberty of Havering was abolished in 1892 and the area was reincorporated into Essex. In 1894 the Hornchurch vestry was abolished, to be replaced by Hornchurch Parish Council, the rural sanitary district became Romford Rural District and the local authority became Romford Rural District Council. As the population of Hornchurch was rising, the council was abolished in 1926
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