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 Tower Hamlets
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The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London borough to the east of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It is in the part of London and covers much of the traditional East End. It also includes much of the redeveloped Docklands region of London, including West India Docks, many of the tallest buildings in London occupy the centre of the Isle of Dogs in the south of the borough. A part of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is in Tower Hamlets, the borough has a population of 272,890, which includes one of the highest ethnic minority populations in the country and has an established British Bangladeshi business and residential community. Brick Lanes restaurants, neighbouring street market and shops provide the largest range of Bengali cuisine, woodwork, carpets, the local authority is Tower Hamlets London Borough Council. The council, as of 2017 comprises 23 Labour Councillors,5 Conservative councillors,18 independent councillors of various affiliation, Tower Hamlets is located to east of the City of London and north of the River Thames in East London. The London Borough of Hackney lies to the north of the borough while the River Lea forms the boundary with the London Borough of Newham in the east. On the other side of the Thames is The London Borough of Southwark to the southwest, The London Borough of Lewisham to the South, the River Lea also forms the boundary between those parts of London historically in Middlesex, with those formerly in Essex. The Regents Canal enters the borough from Hackney to meet the River Thames at Limehouse Basin, a stretch of the Hertford Union Canal leads from the Regents canal, at a basin in the north of Mile End to join the River Lea at Old Ford. A further canal, Limehouse Cut, Londons oldest, leads from locks at Bromley-by-Bow to Limehouse Basin, most of the canal tow-paths are open to both pedestrians and cyclists. Victoria Park was formed by Act of Parliament, and administered by the LCC, since the latter authoritys abolition, the park has been administered by Tower Hamlets. Part of the borough is within the boundary of the Thames Gateway development area, the Hamlets of the Tower paid taxes for the militia in 1646. The London Borough of Tower Hamlets forms the core of the East End and it lies east of the ancient walled City of London and north of the River Thames. Over the course of a century, the East End became synonymous with poverty, overcrowding, disease, the East End developed rapidly during the 19th century. The area attracted large numbers of people looking for employment. Successive waves of immigration began with Huguenot refugees creating a new extramural suburb in Spitalfields in the 17th century. They were followed by Irish weavers, Ashkenazi Jews and, in the 20th century, many of these immigrants worked in the clothing industry. The abundance of semi- and unskilled labour led to low wages and this brought the attentions of social reformers during the mid-18th century and led to the formation of unions and workers associations at the end of the century
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
11.
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
12.
London postal district
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The London postal district is the area in England of 241 square miles to which mail addressed to the LONDON post town is delivered. It was integrated by the Post Office into the national system of the United Kingdom during the early 1970s and corresponds to the N, NW, SW, SE, W, WC, E. The postal district has also known as the London postal area. The County of London was much smaller at 117 square miles, by the 1850s, the rapid growth of the metropolitan area meant it became too large to operate efficiently as a single post town. A Post Office inquiry into the problem had been set up in 1837, in 1854 Charles Canning, the Postmaster General, set up a committee at the Post Office in St. Martins Le Grand to investigate how London could best be divided for the purposes of directing mail. In 1856, of the 470 million items of mail sent in the United Kingdom during the year, approximately one fifth were for delivery in London, the General Post Office thus at the control of the Postmaster General devised the area in 1856 project-managed by Sir Rowland Hill. Hill produced an almost perfectly circular area of 12 miles radius from the central post office at St. Martins Le Grand, within the district it was divided into two central areas and eight compass points which operated much like separate post towns. Each was constituted London with a suffix indicating the area it covered, the system was introduced during 1857 and completed on 1 January 1858. The remaining eight letter prefixes have not changed, at the same time, the London postal district boundary was retracted in the east, removing places such as Ilford for good. In 1868 the S district was split between SE and SW, the NE and S codes have been re-used in the national postcode system and now refer to the NE postcode area around Newcastle upon Tyne and the S postcode area around Sheffield. In 1917, as a measure to improve efficiency, the districts were further subdivided with a number applied to each sub-district. Exceptionally and esoterically, W2 and SW11 are also head districts, the numbered sub-districts became the outward code of the postcode system as expanded into longer codes during the 1970s. Ad hoc changes have taken place to the organisation of the districts, subdivisions of postcode sub-districts Owing to heavier demand, seven high-density postcode districts in central London have been subdivided to create new, smaller postcode districts. This is achieved by adding a letter after the postcode district. Where such sub-districts are used such as on street signs and maps. The districts subdivided are E1, N1, EC SW1, W1, WC1, similarly, there are solely non-geographic suffixed sub-districts for PO boxes in NW1 and SE1. The London postal district has never been aligned with the London boundary, when the initial system was designed, the London boundary was restricted to the square mile of the small, ancient City of London. The wider metropolitan area covered parts of Middlesex, Surrey, Kent, Essex
13.
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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E postcode area
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The E postcode area, also known as the London E postcode area, is the part of the London post town covering much of the eastern part of Greater London, England and also Sewardstone in Essex. Since the closure of the East London mail centre during the summer of 2012, inward mail for the E postcode area is now sorted at Romford Mail Centre, with the IG and RM postcode area mail. The current E postcode area was formed in 1866 as a merger of the E. In 1917, the districts were numbered alphabetically by their location. As of 2004, the names do not form part of the postal address. Where districts are used for other than the sorting of mail, such as use as a geographic reference and on street signs, E1. The E postcode area contains two non-geographic postcode districts for business users, E77 and E98. The Eastern District Office is located on Whitechapel Road and was the terminus for the former London Post Office Railway. The railway ran 10.5 kilometres to the Paddington Head District Sorting Office, the E20 postcode has been used fictionally as the postcode on the television soap-opera series EastEnders. However, it became a real postcode in 2011, being created for the new Olympic Park in Stratford, site of the 2012 Summer Olympics, Postcode districts E6, E14 and E16 also have river frontages in the south. The River Roding and the North Circular Road form part of the boundary in the east, the postcode area maps roughly to the combined area of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, London Borough of Newham and London Borough of Waltham Forest. The 1990s pop band East 17, formed in Walthamstow, take their name from the postcode district E17, the postcode area does not cover all of East London. The postcode area is a sub-set of East London, with notable exclusions, hoxton in Shoreditch which is part of the N postcode area, despite usually being seen as being part of the East End. The eastern suburbs built after the introduction of the E postcode area, Postcode Address File List of postcode areas in the United Kingdom London postal district North East Royal Mails Postcode Address File A quick introduction to Royal Mails Postcode Address File
15.
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
16.
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
17.
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
18.
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
19.
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
20.
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
21.
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
22.
Bethnal Green and Bow (UK Parliament constituency)
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Between the 1983 and 1997 general elections, the equivalent seat was Bethnal Green and Stepney. In this review a name change to Tower Hamlets North was publicly consulted on and it includes much of the traditional East End and Brick Lane. The seat has a large Muslim community – one of the largest proportion of Muslim voters in the country. Workless claimants who were registered jobseekers were in November 2012 higher than the average of 3. 8%. Bethnal Green and Bow is, based on results in local and national elections, traditionally a very safe Labour seat, in 1974 the Bethnal Green constituency was abolished. A new seat was created with the official name of Tower Hamlets, Bethnal Green. However the London Borough prefix is not commonly used for seats in the 1974–1983 redistribution, the 1974–1983 constituency was a safe Labour seat, with the Liberal Party in a distant second place. Ian Mikardo, a well known back bench Labour MP, represented the area in this period, between 1983 and 1997, most of the present constituency formed the seat of Bethnal Green and Stepney. Tower Hamlets was the only London Borough to have had held by the Communist Party of Great Britain. Between 1945 and 1950, Mile End provided the CPGB with one of its two seats, being represented by Phil Piratin. Two Communists also won seats on the London County council in 1947, between 1986 and 1994, the Liberal Democrats controlled Tower Hamlets London Borough Council, this proved a successful but controversial period. The delivery of infrastructure projects, including many schools and school housing projects, was balanced by alleged corruption. At the 1997 general election, there was a swing of 5% to the Conservative Party at a time when the trend was a landslide swing against them. Bethnal Green and Bow was one of two constituencies to have any sort of pro-Conservative swing- the other constituency was Bradford West. The Labour Party, broadsheets and local newspapers ascribed this unusual result to problems over the selection of a Labour Party candidate, Oona King, who won the selection, was not well known and many in the local area would have preferred a candidate from a Bangladeshi background. However the leading Bangladeshi candidates in the local Labour Party were excluded from the selection and they topped the poll in Tower Hamlets in the 2004 European Parliamentary elections and subsequently won their first local council seat at a by-election. In the May 2005 general election, the seat was a victory for ex-Labour MP George Galloway. Respect also won seats at the 2006 local council elections although its performance was not as strong as many believed it could have been
23.
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
24.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
25.
St Dunstan's, Stepney
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St Dunstans, Stepney is an Anglican Church which stands on a site that has been used for Christian worship for over a thousand years. It is located in Stepney High Street, in Stepney, London Borough of Tower Hamlets, in about AD952 the Bishop of London — who is also Lord of the Manor of Stepney — replaced the existing wooden structure with a stone church dedicated to All the Saints. In 1029, when Dunstan was canonised, the church was rededicated to St Dunstan and All Saints, up until the early fourteenth century the church served the whole of Middlesex east of the City of London. Then new churches were built at Whitechapel and Bow, the existing building is the third on the site and was built of Kentish ragstone mainly in the fifteenth century. A porch and octagonal parish room were added in 1872, the church was restored extensively in 1899, at a cost of £5,600. The vestries and some of the building were destroyed by fire on 12 October 1901. The restoration cost £7,084, and the church was re-opened in June 1902 by the Bishop of Stepney. The ring of ten bells, the heaviest weighing 28¾ hundredweight, the seven oldest bells were cast by Thomas Mears and Son, Whitechapel, in 1806. The bells were re-hung in 1899, three were recast in 1952 when repairs were made to the tower. The bells are mentioned in the nursery rhyme Oranges and Lemons, When will that be, buried here is Lord Darnley, the elder brother of the husband of Mary Queen of Scots. His resting place is marked with a 12 feet slab of Purbeck marble, the church is surrounded by a churchyard of nearly seven acres. In 1658 William Greenhill was appointed vicar whilst retaining his position as a preacher at Stepney Meeting House and he held this post for about seven years, till he was ejected immediately after the Restoration in 1660. Shortly after this, the churchyard was enlarged to cope with the number of deaths during the Great Plague of London. In one eighteen-month period 6,583 died, with 154 being buried in one day in September 1665, the church has a long, traditional link with the sea and many sailors were buried here. It was once known as the Church of the High Seas, the graveyard is also where Roger Crab, the 17th-century hermit who lived on a diet solely of herbs, roots, leaves, grass and water, is buried. The church continues to be open to visitors and worshippers from all over the world, there is an active congregation who help to continue the life of the church community. As well as the Arbour Centre, there is a connection with two schools, Stepney Greencoat Church of England Primary School and Sir John Cass and Redcoat Church of England Secondary School. St Dunstans also employs a Children and Community Worker funded by the Bishop of Londons Mission Fund
26.
Ribbon development
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Ribbon development is building houses along the routes of communications radiating from a human settlement. Such development generated great concern in the United Kingdom during the 1920s, increasing motor car ownership meant that houses could be sold easily even if they were remote from shops and other services. It was attractive to developers because they did not have to money or plot space constructing roads. The practice became seen as inefficient use of resources and a precursor to urban sprawl and it led to the introduction of green belt policies. Following the Industrial Revolution, ribbon development became prevalent along railway lines, predominantly in Russia, the United Kingdom, a good example of this was the deliberate promotion of Metro-land along Londons Metropolitan Railway. Similar evidence can be found from Long Island, Boston and across the American Midwest and it can also occur along ridge lines, canals and coastlines, the last occurring especially as people seeking seachange lifestyles build their houses where they can get the best view. The resulting towns and cities are often difficult to service efficiently, often, the first problems noticed by residents is traffic congestion, as people compete to move along the narrow urban corridor while ever more people join the ribbon further along the corridor. Urban consolidation is often a solution to encourage growth towards a more compact urban form, ribbon development can also be compared with a linear village, a village that grew along a transportation route, not as part of a citys expansion
27.
Mile End Road
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The A11 is a major trunk road in England. It also multiplexes/overlaps with the A14 on the Newmarket bypass, All this part has been declassified and is now a minor road. Thus the A11 now starts at Aldgate, just inside the boundary of the City of London. The first stretch is Aldgate High Street, passing south of Aldgate tube station, traffic is one way round the Aldgate one-way system. East of Aldgate station, the A11 enters the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and it becomes Whitechapel High Street, again part of the Aldgate one-way system. The A11 passes through Whitechapel, past Whitechapel tube station and the Royal London Hospital, next, it becomes Bow Road, passing Bow Road tube station and Bow Church DLR station. There is a dual carriageway flyover over the Bow Interchange roundabout, however, at the end of the flyover, the A11 crosses into the London Borough of Newham and becomes a western extension to the A118. Following the opening of the A12 extension in 1999, the A11 was re-numbered to make it seem an important road. This is the limit of the downgraded section. The A11 number wont reappear until Stump Cross in deepest Essex, the road enters Cambridgeshire, with the road number A11 finally re-appearing at M11 Junction 9A, and the A11 is now a trunk road. It roughly follows the route of a Roman road for the remainder of its length, the A11 formerly went through Newmarket, that stretch is now the A1304. The Newmarket bypass, opened to traffic in July 1975, is a dual carriageway, the western end is the A11, but most of its length is a multiplex/overlap with the A14. The A11 re-appears north-east of Newmarket, and remained a dual carriageway until Barton Mills, the road bypasses Barton Mills before entering Norfolk in the Thetford Forest, passing the 113-foot-tall Elveden War Memorial. This section of the road opened as a carriageway on 12 December 2014. This completes the dualling of the road between Norwich and London. The upgrading of the section of single carriageway between Barton Mills and Thetford means the road is dual carriageway all the way to Norwich. The road continues northeast bypassing Thetford, Attleborough and Wymondham, the A11 originally ran through the centre of all three towns giving rise to congestion which frequently became the focus of delays on the route. It also passes the Snetterton Circuit motor racing venue, on entering Norwich, it becomes single carriageway again and is called Newmarket Road
28.
Stepney
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Stepney is a district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in Londons East End that grew out of a medieval village around St Dunstans church and the 15th century ribbon development of Mile End Road. The area built up rapidly in the 19th century, mainly to immigrant workers and displaced London poor. Some Georgian architecture and Victorian era terraced housing survive in patches, for example Arbour Square, the side of Stepney Green. Stepney is roughly bounded by Commercial Road, part of the A13, in the south, Mile End Road, part of the A11, in the north, the western boundary with Whitechapel is rather ambiguous. It is administered by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, the first community developed around the church of St Dunstans, which was founded in 923. Its name was recorded around 1000 AD as Stybbanhyð, Stybbas landing-place, there were over 100 serfs, split between villeins who ploughed the land, and cottars who assisted the villeins in return for a hut or cottage. Bishop William held this land in demesne, in the manor of Stepney, on the day on which King Edward was alive, in the same vill Ranulph Flambard holds 3½ hides of the bishop. The Manor of Stepney was held by the Bishop of London in compensation for his duties in maintaining and garrisoning the Tower of London, further ecclesiastic holdings came about from the need to enclose the marshes and create flood defences along the Thames. Edward VI passed the land to the Wentworth family, and thence to their descendants, the ecclesiastic system of copyhold, whereby land was leased to tenants for terms as short as seven years, prevailed throughout the manor. This severely limited scope for improvement of the land and new building until the estate was broken up in the 19th century, in the early 20th century, Stepney was one of the most Jewish neighbourhoods in England, it was eventually replaced by Stamford Hill. The Siege of Sidney Street took place in Stepney in 1911, the parish included the hamlets of Mile End Old Town, Mile End New Town, and Ratcliff. At its early extent it additionally included Whitechapel, Wapping, Stratford Bow, Shadwell, Spitalfields, Bethnal Green, Limehouse and Poplar. Over time the parish was broken up with these settlements forming new independent parishes, leaving a residual parish of 830 acres comprising Mile End Old Town, Mile End New Town and Ratcliff. Stepney is an area in the Anglican Diocese of London, which covers the London boroughs of Hackney, Islington and Tower Hamlets. The Metropolitan Borough of Stepney was formed in 1900, then dissolved in 1965 when it was absorbed into the newly created London Borough of Tower Hamlets which currently administers the area, Stepney is located 3.6 miles east north-east of Charing Cross. It is roughly bounded by Commercial Road, part of the A13, in the south, Mile End Road, part of the A11, in the north, the Western Boundary with Whitechapel is rather ambiguous. The area still contains a range of immigrants, particularly young Asian families, as well as elderly East Enders, some students, based on 2001 census, Bangladeshis were the largest ethnic group, then the White British. In 2011, Stepney was 47% Bengali, the highest in Southern England, a brewery was founded in 1738 that developed into Charrington and Co. in 1897
29.
The Blitz
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By September 1940—two months into the battle—faulty German intelligence suggested that the Royal Air Force was close to defeat at the hands of the Luftwaffe. The German air fleets were ordered to attack London, thereby drawing up the last remnants of RAF Fighter Command into a battle of annihilation, Adolf Hitler and commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, sanctioned the change in emphasis on 6 September 1940. From 7 September 1940, one year into the war, London was systematically bombed by the Luftwaffe for 56 out of the following 57 days, on 15 September 1940, a large daylight attack against London was repulsed with significant German losses. Thereafter, the Luftwaffe gradually decreased daylight operations in favour of nocturnal attacks, ports and industrial centres outside London were also attacked. The main Atlantic sea port of Liverpool was bombed, the North Sea port of Hull, a convenient and easily found target or secondary target for bombers unable to locate their primary targets, was subjected to raids in the Hull Blitz during the war. More than one million London houses were destroyed or damaged and more than 40,000 civilians were killed, by May 1941, the threat of an invasion of Britain had ended, and Hitlers attention turned to Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. The bombing failed to demoralise the British into surrender or significantly damage the war economy, the eight months of bombing never seriously hampered British production and the war industries continued to operate and expand. The German offensives greatest effect was forcing the dispersal of aircraft production, British wartime studies concluded that cities generally took 10 to 15 days to recover when hit severely but exceptions like Birmingham took three months. The German air offensive failed for several reasons, discussions in OKL revolved around tactics rather than strategy. Poor intelligence on British industry and economic efficiency was also a factor, in the 1920s and 1930s, air power theorists Giulio Douhet and Billy Mitchell espoused the idea that air forces could win wars, without a need for land and sea fighting. It was thought there was no defence against air attack, particularly at night, enemy industry, seats of government, factories and communications could be destroyed, taking away their means to resist. It was also thought the bombing of residential centres would cause a collapse of civilian will, democracies, where the populace was allowed to show overt disapproval of the state, were thought particularly vulnerable. This thinking was prevalent in both the RAF and the United States Army Air Corps, the policy of RAF Bomber Command became an attempt to achieve victory through the destruction of civilian will, communications and industry. In the Luftwaffe, there was a view of strategic bombing. OKL did not believe that air power alone could be decisive, contrary to popular belief, evidence suggests that the Luftwaffe did not adopt an official bombing policy in which civilians became the primary target until 1942. The vital industries and transport centres that would be targeted for shutdown were valid military targets and it could be claimed civilians were not to be targeted directly, but the breakdown of production would affect their morale and will to fight. German legal scholars of the 1930s carefully worked out guidelines for what type of bombing was permissible under international law. Wever outlined five points of air strategy, To destroy the air force by bombing its bases and aircraft factories
30.
Slum clearance
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Slum clearance, slum eviction or slum removal is an urban renewal strategy used to transform low income settlements with poor reputation into another type of development or housing. The clearance of the slum destroys low income homes as well as illegal squatting sites and this has long been a strategy for redeveloping urban communities, for example slum clearance plans were required in the United Kingdom in the Housing and Slum Clearance Act 1930. Similarly the Housing Act of 1937 encouraged similar strategies in the United States, frequently, but not always these programs were paired with public housing or other assistance programs for the displaced communities. Critics argue that slum removal by force tends to ignore the problems that cause slums. Poor families, often including children and working adults, need a place to live when adequate low income housing is not providing otherwise, moreover, slums are frequently sites of informal economies that provide jobs, services, and livelihoods not otherwise available in the community. Slum clearance removes the slum, but it does not remove the causes that create, some communities have opted for slum upgrading, as an alternative solution, improving the quality of services and infrastructure to match the community developed in the slum. Other attempts at slum clearance have been subject to other motivations, such as repressing political opposition or attempts to keep certain communities in check
31.
Tower block
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A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building or structure used as a residential and/or office building. In some areas it may be referred to as an MDU, in the United States, such a structure is referred to as an apartment building or office building, while a group of such buildings is called an apartment complex or office complex. High-rise buildings became possible with the invention of the elevator and cheaper, the materials used for the structural system of high-rise buildings are reinforced concrete and steel. Most North American style skyscrapers have a frame, while residential blocks are usually constructed of concrete. There is no difference between a tower block and a skyscraper, although a building with fifty or more stories is generally considered a skyscraper. They also pose challenges to firefighters during emergencies in high-rise structures. Studies are often required to ensure that pedestrian wind comfort and wind danger concerns are addressed, in order to allow less wind exposure, to transmit more daylight to the ground and to appear more slender, many high-rises have a design with setbacks. In contrast with low-rise and single-family houses, apartment blocks accommodate more inhabitants per unit of area of land, various bodies have defined high-rise, Emporis Standards defines a high-rise as A multi-story structure between 35–100 meters tall, or a building of unknown height from 12–39 floors. According to the code of Hyderabad, India, a high-rise building is one with four floors or more. The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines a high-rise as a building having many storeys, most building engineers, inspectors, architects and similar professionals define a high-rise as a building that is at least 75 feet tall. The lower floors were occupied by either shops or wealthy families. Surviving Oxyrhynchus Papyri indicate that seven-story buildings even existed in provincial towns, in Arab Egypt, the initial capital city of Fustat housed many high-rise residential buildings, some seven stories tall that could reportedly accommodate hundreds of people. By the 16th century, Cairo also had high-rise apartment buildings where the two floors were for commercial and storage purposes and the multiple stories above them were rented out to tenants. The skyline of many important medieval cities was dominated by large numbers of high-rising urban towers, the residential Towers of Bologna numbered between 80 and 100 at a time, the largest of which still rise to 97.2 m. In Florence, a law of 1251 decreed that all buildings should be reduced to a height of less than 26 m. Even medium-sized towns such as San Gimignano are known to have featured 72 towers up to 51 m in height, the oldest still standing tulou dates back from the 14th century. Tower blocks were built in the Yemeni city of Shibam in the 16th century. The houses of Shibam are all out of mud bricks, but about five hundred of them are tower houses
32.
Georgian architecture
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Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I, George II, George III, and George IV—who reigned in continuous succession from August 1714 to June 1830. The style of Georgian buildings is very variable, but marked by a taste for symmetry and proportion based on the architecture of Greece and Rome. Ornament is also normally in the tradition, but typically rather restrained. In towns, which expanded greatly during the period, landowners turned into property developers, even the wealthy were persuaded to live in these in town, especially if provided with a square of garden in front of the house. There was an amount of building in the period, all over the English-speaking world. The period saw the growth of a distinct and trained architectural profession, before the mid-century the high-sounding title and this contrasted with earlier styles, which were primarily disseminated among craftsmen through the direct experience of the apprenticeship system. Authors such as the prolific William Halfpenny published editions in America as well as Britain, mail-order kit homes were also popular before World War II. The architect James Gibbs was a figure, his earlier buildings are Baroque, reflecting the time he spent in Rome in the early 18th century. Other prominent architects of the early Georgian period include James Paine, Robert Taylor, and John Wood, the styles that resulted fall within several categories. In the mainstream of Georgian style were both Palladian architecture—and its whimsical alternatives, Gothic and Chinoiserie, which were the English-speaking worlds equivalent of European Rococo. John Nash was one of the most prolific architects of the late Georgian era known as The Regency style, greek Revival architecture was added to the repertory, beginning around 1750, but increasing in popularity after 1800. Leading exponents were William Wilkins and Robert Smirke, regularity of housefronts along a street was a desirable feature of Georgian town planning. In Britain brick or stone are almost invariably used, brick is often disguised with stucco, in America and other colonies wood remained very common, as its availability and cost-ratio with the other materials was more favourable. Versions of revived Palladian architecture dominated English country house architecture, Houses were increasingly placed in grand landscaped settings, and large houses were generally made wide and relatively shallow, largely to look more impressive from a distance. The height was usually highest in the centre, and the Baroque emphasis on corner pavilions often found on the continent generally avoided, in grand houses, an entrance hall led to steps up to a piano nobile or mezzanine floor where the main reception rooms were. A single block was typical, with a perhaps a small court for carriages at the front marked off by railings and a gate, but rarely a stone gatehouse, or side wings around the court. Windows in all types of buildings were large and regularly placed on a grid, this was partly to minimize window tax and their height increasingly varied between the floors, and they increasingly began below waist-height in the main rooms, making a small balcony desirable
33.
Victorian era
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The Victorian era was the period of Queen Victorias reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities. Some scholars date the beginning of the period in terms of sensibilities, the era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian period. The later half of the Victorian age roughly coincided with the first part of the Belle Époque era of continental Europe, culturally there was a transition away from the rationalism of the Georgian period and toward romanticism and mysticism with regard to religion, social values, and arts. The end of the saw the Boer War. Domestically, the agenda was increasingly liberal with a number of shifts in the direction of political reform, industrial reform. Two especially important figures in period of British history are the prime ministers Benjamin Disraeli and William Gladstone. Disraeli, favoured by the queen, was a gregarious Conservative and his rival Gladstone, a Liberal distrusted by the Queen, served more terms and oversaw much of the overall legislative development of the era. The population of England and Wales almost doubled from 16.8 million in 1851 to 30.5 million in 1901, Scotlands population also rose rapidly, from 2.8 million in 1851 to 4.4 million in 1901. However, Irelands population decreased sharply, from 8.2 million in 1841 to less than 4.5 million in 1901, mostly due to the Great Famine. Between 1837 and 1901 about 15 million emigrants departed the UK permanently, in search of a life in the United States, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia. During the early part of the era, politics in the House of Commons involved battles between the two parties, the Whigs/Liberals and the Conservatives. These parties were led by such prominent statesmen as Lord Melbourne, Sir Robert Peel, Lord Derby, Lord Palmerston, Gladstone, Disraeli, Victoria became queen in 1837 at age 18. Her long reign until 1901 was mainly a time of peace, Britain reached the zenith of its economic, political, diplomatic and cultural power. The era saw the expansion of the second British Empire, Historians have characterised the mid-Victorian era as Britains Golden Years. There was prosperity, as the income per person grew by half. There was peace abroad, and social peace at home, opposition to the new order melted away, says Porter. The Chartist movement peaked as a movement among the working class in 1848, its leaders moved to other pursuits, such as trade unions
34.
Arbour Square
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Arbour Square is a late Georgian square in Stepney, in the borough of Tower Hamlets, east London, England. It is located just off the Commercial Road approximately one mile east of the City of London, the square is currently laid out as a formal garden with mature trees and planting and is surrounded on two sides by elegant early 19th century townhouses. Arbour Square was laid out as an enclosure in 1819. By 1830, contemporary maps show buildings on all sides of the square, the south and west sides of the square are still made up of the original three and four storey Georgian townhouses which are Grade II listed. The east side was demolished and replaced by the Raines School building in 1913, the Raines School building now houses part of Tower Hamlets College. The school building was refurbished in 1994 by Sprunt Architects. Running north from the square on the west side is West Arbour Street, Arbour Square is mirrored on the opposite side of commercial road by Albert Gardens, and impressive and almost fully intact late-Georgian residential square made up of Grade II listed houses. Originally named Albert Square, it was built in the early 1840s, in 1899 there was a proposal to build houses on the central garden in the square but the London County Council compulsorily purchased the land and opened Albert Square Garden to the public in 1906. Havering Street, Arbour Square, and Albert Gardens are some of the last remaining original houses in the E1 postcode area of Londons East End
35.
Gentrification
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Gentrification is a process of renovation of deteriorated urban neighborhoods by means of the influx of more affluent residents. This is a common and controversial topic in politics and in urban planning, conversations surrounding gentrification have evolved, as many in the social-scientific community have questioned the negative connotations associated with the word gentrification. Gentrification is typically the result of increased interest in a certain environment, early gentrifiers may belong to low-income artist or boheme communities, which increase the attractiveness and flair of a certain quarter. In addition to these benefits, gentrification can lead to population migration. The term gentrification has come to refer to a phenomenon that can be defined in different ways. Historians say that gentrification took place in ancient Rome and in Roman Britain, the word gentrification derives from gentry—which comes from the Old French word genterise, of gentle birth and people of gentle birth. In England, Landed gentry denoted the social class, consisting of gentlemen and this change has the potential to cause displacement of long-time residents and businesses. When long-time or original neighborhood residents move from an area because of higher rents, mortgages. Gentrification is a housing, economic, and health issue that affects a communitys history and culture and it often shifts a neighborhoods characteristics, e. g. racial-ethnic composition and household income, by adding new stores and resources in previously run-down neighborhoods. German geographers have a more distanced view on gentrification, actual gentrification is seen as a mere symbolic issue happening in a low amount of places and blocks, the symbolic value and visibility in public discourse being higher than actual migration trends. Gerhard Hard assumes that urban flight is more important than inner city gentrification. Volkskunde scholar Barbara Lang introduced the term symbolic gentrification with regard to the Mythos Kreuzberg in Berlin, Lang assumes that complaints about gentrification often come from those who have been responsible for the process in their youth. When former students and bohemians started raising families and earning money in better paid jobs, especially Berlin is a showcase of intense debates about symbols of gentrification, while the actual processes are much slower than in other cities. The citys Prenzlauer Berg district is, however, a child of the capitals gentrification. This leads to mixed feelings amidst the local population, the neologism Bionade-Biedermeier was coined about Prenzlauer Berg. It describes the milieu of the former quartier of the alternative scene. There are several approaches that attempt to explain the roots and the reasons behind the spread of gentrification, bruce London and J. John Palen compiled a list of five explanations, demographic-ecological, sociocultural, political-economical, community networks, and social movements. The first theory, demographic-ecological, attempts to explain gentrification through the analysis of demographics, population, social organization, environment and this theory frequently refers to the growing number of people between the ages of 25 and 35 in the 1970s, or the baby boom generation
36.
Bow, London
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Bow is a district in the East End of London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is built-up and mostly residential, and 4.6 miles east of Charing Cross, the area was formerly known as Stratford, and Bow is an abbreviation of the medieval name Stratford-atte-Bow, in which Bow refers to a bridge built in the early 12th century. Bow is adjacent to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and a section of the district is part of the park, Old Ford, and with it Fish Island, are usually taken to be part of Bow, but Bromley-by-Bow immediately to the south, is a separate locality. These distinctions have their roots in historic parish boundaries, stratforde was first recorded as a settlement in 1177, the name derived from its Old English meaning of paved way to a ford. The paved way is likely to refer to the presence of a causeway across the marshes. Land and Abbey Mill were given to Barking Abbey for maintenance of the bridge and this endowment was later administered by Stratford Langthorne Abbey. By 1549, this route had become known as The Kings Way and this has since been expanded to a four-lane road. In 1311 Bow remained a village, often cut off from St Dunstans. Permission was given to build a chapel of ease to allow the residents a place to worship. The land was granted by Edward III, on the Kings highway, in 1719, the parish became independent of Stepney and St Mary Stratford Bow consecrated. The parish included the Old Ford area, which has also known as North Bow. Located at 117 Bow Common Lane, E3 the church building by Frederick Arthur Walters opened in 1894, the parish is home to the Vietnamese chaplaincy in the Archdiocese of Westminster. Located at 179 Bow Road, E3, the building by Gilbert Blount opened in 1870. Formerly the parish was run by a community of Dominican nuns, a convent of Benedictine nuns was established at the nearby Priory of St Leonards, in modern Bromley-by-Bow. Ful weel she soong the service dyvyne, Entuned in hir nose ful semely, And frenssh she spak ful faire and fetisly, After the scole of stratford atte bowe, For frenssh of parys was to hire unknowe. This was a reference to the Prioress having learned the distinctive Anglo-Norman dialect of French. French still had the cachet of being the language of the royal court, Fairfield Road commemorates the Green Goose fair, held there on the Thursday after Pentecost. A Green Goose was a young or mid-summer goose, and a term for a cuckold or a low woman
37.
Wapping
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Wapping is a district in East London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is situated between the bank of the River Thames and the ancient thoroughfare simply called The Highway. Wappings proximity to the river has given it a maritime character. Many of the buildings were demolished during the construction of the London Docks. As the London Docklands declined after the Second World War, the area run down. The areas fortunes were transformed during the 1980s by the London Docklands Development Corporation when the warehouses started to be converted into luxury flats. Rupert Murdoch moved his News International printing and publishing works into Wapping in 1986, the area was first settled by Saxons, from whom it takes its name. It developed along the embankment of the Thames, hemmed in by the river to the south and this gave it a peculiarly narrow and constricted shape, consisting of little more than the axis of Wapping High Street and some north–south side streets. John Stow, the 16th century historian, described it as a street, or a filthy strait passage, with alleys of small tenements or cottages, built. A chapel to St. John the Baptist was built in 1617, Wapping was constituted as a parish in 1694 Wappings proximity to the river gave it a strong maritime character for centuries, well into the 20th century. It was inhabited by sailors, mastmakers, boat-builders, blockmakers, instrument-makers, victuallers, Wapping was also the site of Execution Dock, where pirates and other water-borne criminals faced execution by hanging from a gibbet constructed close to the low water mark. Their bodies would be left dangling until they had been submerged three times by the tide. The Bell Inn, by the dock, was run by Samuel Batts, whose daughter, Elizabeth, married James Cook in 1762 at Barking. The couple initially settled in Shadwell, attending St Pauls church, although they had six children together, much of their married life was spent apart, with Cook absent on his voyages and, after his murder in 1779 at Kealakekua Bay, she survived until 1835. Its base was in Wapping High Street and it is now known as the Marine Support Unit. The Thames Police Museum, dedicated to the history of the Marine Police Force, is housed within the headquarters of the Marine Support Unit. In 1811, the horrific Ratcliff Highway murders took place nearby at The Highway, the areas strong maritime associations changed radically in the 19th century when the London Docks were built to the north and west of the High Street. Wappings population plummeted by nearly 60% during that century, with houses destroyed by the construction of the docks
38.
Limehouse
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Limehouse is a district in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Located 3.9 miles east of Charing Cross, It is on the bank of the River Thames opposite Rotherhithe. The area gives its name to Limehouse Reach, a section of the Thames which runs south to Millwall after making a bend at Cuckolds Point. The west-to-east section upstream of Cuckolds Point is properly called the Lower Pool, the name relates to the local lime kilns or, more precisely, lime oasts, by the river and operated by the large potteries that served shipping in the London Docks. The name is from Old English līm-āst lime-oast, the earliest reference is to Les Lymhostes, in 1356. The name is used in 1417, Inquisicio capta sup litus Thomisie apud Lymhosteys pro morte Thome Frank. John Baille, Matthew Holme, Robert Marle, Henry Mark, Alexander Bryan, John Goby, Richard Hervy, Walter Steel, Peter West, Richard Stowell, John Dyse, Limehouse became a significant port in late medieval times, with extensive docks and wharves. Although most cargoes were discharged in the Pool of London before the establishment of the docks, industries such as shipbuilding, ship chandlering, Limehouse Basin opened in 1820 as the Regents Canal Dock. This was an important connection between the Thames and the system, where cargoes could be transferred from larger ships to the shallow-draught canal boats. This mix of vessels can still be seen in the Basin, from the Tudor era until the 20th century, ships crews were employed on a casual basis. Crews would be paid off at the end of their voyages and, inevitably, permanent communities of foreign sailors became established, including colonies of Lascars and Africans from the Guinea Coast. Large Chinese communities at both Limehouse and Shadwell developed, established by the crews of merchantmen in the opium and tea trades, the area achieved notoriety for opium dens in the late 19th century, often featured in pulp fiction works by Sax Rohmer and others. Like much of the East End it remained a focus for immigration, on 12 February 1832, the first case of cholera was reported in London at Limehouse. First described in India in 1817, it had spread here via Hamburg, although 800 people died during this epidemic, fewer than had died of tuberculosis in the same year, cholera visited again in 1848 and 1858. The use of Limehouse Basin as a distribution hub declined with the growth of the railways, although the revival of canal traffic during World War I. Today, Stepney Historical Trust works to advance the education in the history of the area. Limehouse Basin was amongst the first docks to close in the late 1960s, by 1981, Limehouse shared the docklands-wide physical, social and economic decline which led to the setting up of the London Docklands Development Corporation. In November 1982, the LDDC published its Limehouse Area Development Strategy and this built on existing plans for Limehouse Basin, and offered a discussion framework for future development, housing refurbishment and environmental improvements across the whole of Limehouse
39.
Commercial Road
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Commercial Road,2 miles in length, is in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London. It runs from Gardiners Corner, through Stepney to the junction with Burdett Road, Commercial Road is an important artery connecting the traditional City of London with the more recently developed financial district at Canary Wharf. Commercial Road was constructed in 1802–6 as a route to link dock traffic between the West India Docks and East India Docks to the City of London. An Act of Parliament awarded construction to the Commercial Road Company, whose trustees were allowed to raise money, the road originally began at Back Church Lane and cut a path across fields north of the busy Ratcliffe Highway. By the 1830s it was almost entirely lined with all the way to Limehouse. Commercial Road carried so much traffic that the Commercial Road Company decided in about 1828 to construct a tramway of Aberdeen granite along the whole length, in the 1860s Commercial Road became a public road and road tolls were abolished. It was extended in 1865 to Gardiner’s Corner, londons first mosque, the East London Mosque, opened on Commercial Road in 1941 and remained there until it was relocated to Whitechapel in 1975. Buildings en route include, Limehouse Town Hall St Annes Limehouse Other nearby roads, Alie Street Cable Street Narrow Street The Highway Siege of Sidney Street Stepney Historical Trust
40.
A13 road (England)
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The A13 is a major road in England linking Central London with east London and south Essex. Its route is similar to that of the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway and it is a trunk road between London and the Tilbury junction, a primary route between there and Sadlers Hall Farm near South Benfleet, and a non-primary route between there and Shoeburyness. Then it goes through Barking, Dagenham and Rainham before it reaches the M25, then it goes past Pitsea and a new junction that turns the A13 in to the A130. Then the A13 continues on to Shoeburyness where the road ends, at the London end, Commercial Road and East India Dock Road form one of two main arteries through the historic East End. The A13 route is a recent addition to Londons radial network. Commercial Road dates from 1802, while East India Dock Road was set out from 1806-1812, the first iron bridge across the River Lea was built in 1810. Today the route is largely single carriageway, though notable is the junction with the A12. This section of A13 is used by the important London Bus routes 15 and 115 and this grade-separated route continues all the way to the Greater London Boundary. Notable junctions include Canning Town, and the A406 junction near Beckton, as well as the single carriageway Lodge Avenue flyover near Barking and this section is structurally sound and built to high standards, but was subject to a 40 mph speed limit. Prior to grade-separation, the limit was 50 mph. Works involved inserting new underpasses at Prince Regent and Movers Lane, a new flyover at Beckton Alps, also inserted was the free-flow link to the A1261 tunnel. London Bus route 173 is the route to use the A13 here. However, the limit was increased back to 50 mph in 2011. The contract also included the Wennington to M25 motorway section and it has National Speed Limit from just east of Goresbrook Interchange. London Bus routes 173 and 287 are the routes to use the A13 here. The A13 here is a much older dual carriageway, dating mostly to the 1980s, including the four-lane flyover above the M25, the Wennington to M25 section opened in late 1998. The next junction, the turn-off for Lakeside, has only west-facing slips and it is then dual three lanes past the junction with the A1089, the road into Tilbury, and loses its Trunk Road status to the latter. The A13 finally drops down to two each way at the nearby A128 junction
41.
Regent's Canal
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Regents Canal is a canal across an area just north of central London, England. It provides a link from the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal, just north-west of Paddington Basin in the west, to the Limehouse Basin, the canal is 13.8 kilometres long. As with many Nash projects, the design was passed to one of his assistants, in this case James Morgan. Work began on 14 October 1812, the Camden to Limehouse section, including the 886-metre long Islington tunnel and the Regents Canal Dock, opened four years later on 1 August 1820. Various intermediate basins were also constructed, many other basins such as Wenlock Basin, Kingsland Basin, St. Pancras Stone and Coal Basin, and one in front of the Great Northern Railways Granary were also built, and some of these survive. The City Road Basin, the nearest to the City of London, soon eclipsed the Paddington Basin in the amount of goods carried, principally coal and these were goods that were being shipped locally, in contrast to the canals original purpose of transshipping imports to the Midlands. The opening of the London and Birmingham Railway in 1838 actually increased the tonnage of coal carried by the canal. However, by the twentieth century, with the Midland trade lost to the railways, and more deliveries made by road. There were a number of projects to convert the route of the canal into a railway. The railway company failed, but in 1846 the directors of the canal went about trying to obtain an Act of Parliament to allow them to build a railway along its banks. The scheme was abandoned in the face of opposition, especially from the government who objected to the idea of a railway passing through Regents Park. In 1859, two schemes to convert the canal into a railway were proposed. One, from a company called the Central London Railway and Dock Company, was accepted by the directors, in 1860 the Regents Canal Company proposed a railway track alongside the canal from Kings Cross to Limehouse, but funds could not be raised. Further schemes over the twenty years also came to nothing. In 1883, after years of negotiation, the canal was sold to a company called the Regents Canal. A new purpose was found for the route in 1979. These 400 kV cables now form part of the National Grid, pumped canal water is circulated as a coolant for the high-voltage cables. The canal is used today for pleasure cruising, a regular waterbus service operates between Maida Vale and Camden, running hourly during the summer months
42.
Whitechapel
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Whitechapel is a district in the East End of London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Because the area is close to the London Docklands and east of the city, it has been a place for immigrants. The area was the centre of the London Jewish community in the 19th and early 20th century, in the latter half of the 20th century, Whitechapel became a significant settlement for the British Bangladeshi community, particularly on Whitechapel Road and Brick Lane. Whitechapels heart is Whitechapel High Street, extending further east as Whitechapel Road, the churchs earliest known rector was Hugh de Fulbourne in 1329. Around 1338, it became the church of Whitechapel, called, for unknown reasons. The church was destroyed through enemy action in World War II and its location, Whitechapel High Street and Whitechapel Road are now part of the A11 road, anciently the initial part of the Roman road between the City of London and Colchester, exiting the city at Aldgate. In later times, travellers to and from London on this route were accommodated at the coaching inns which lined Whitechapel High Street. By the late 16th century, the suburb of Whitechapel and the area had started becoming the other half of London. Located east of Aldgate, outside the City Walls and beyond official controls, it attracted the less fragrant activities of the city, particularly tanneries, breweries, foundries and slaughterhouses. In 1680, the Rector of Whitechapel, the Rev. Ralph Davenant, William Booth began his Christian Revival Society, preaching the gospel in a tent, erected in the Friends Burial Ground, Thomas Street, Whitechapel, in 1865. Others joined his Christian Mission, and on 7 August 1878 the Salvation Army was formed at a meeting held at 272 Whitechapel Road, a statue commemorates both his mission and his work in helping the poor. In the Victorian era the population of poor English country stock was swelled by immigrants from all over. Writing of the period 1883–1884, Yiddish theatre actor Jacob Adler wrote, The further we penetrated into this Whitechapel, never in Russia, never later in the worst slums of New York, were we to see such poverty as in the London of the 1880s. This endemic poverty drove women to prostitution. In October 1888 the Metropolitan Police estimated that there were 1,200 prostitutes of very low class resident in Whitechapel, reference is specifically made to them in Charles Booths Life and Labour of the People in London, specially to dwellings called Blackwall Buildings belonging to Blackwall Railway. Such prostitutes were numbered amongst the 11 Whitechapel murders, some of which were committed by the serial killer known as Jack the Ripper. Riis had recently documented the astoundingly bad conditions in large swaths of the city of the United States. London, a socialist, thought it worthwhile to explore conditions in the city of the nation that had invented modern capitalism
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East End of London
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The East End of London, also known simply as the East End, is an area of Central and East London, England, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London, and north of the River Thames. The relevance of Strypes reference to the Tower was more than geographical, the East End was the major part of an area called the Tower Division, which owed military service to the Tower of London. Later, as the East End grew and the Tower Division contracted, the area was notorious for its deep poverty, overcrowding and associated social problems. This has led to the East End’s history of political activism. Another major theme of East End history has been that of migration, Irish weavers, Ashkenazi Jews and, in the 20th century, Bangladeshis. The East End lies east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London, Aldgate Pump on the edge of the City is the symbolic start of the East End and, on the river, Tower Bridge is also sometimes also described in these terms. Beyond these references though, the East End has no official or popularly accepted boundaries, a common preference is to include the modern borough of Tower Hamlets, together with the former parish and borough of Shoreditch. This version makes the East End conterminous with the Tower Division of Middlesex under the borders that area had in the 19th century when the East End completed the process of urbanisation, an alternative definition is based solely on the modern borough of Tower Hamlets. Parts of the old parish and borough of Hackney are sometimes included, while others include areas east of the Lea such as West Ham, East Ham, Leyton, knew not the way to the East End. The East End began with the growth of London beyond the walls, along the Roman Roads leading from Bishopsgate and Aldgate. Building accelerated in the 16th century, and the area that would become known East End began to take shape. The relevance of Strypes reference to the Tower was more than geographical, the East End was the major part of an area called the Tower Division, which had its roots in the Bishop of Londons historic Manor of Stepney and owed military service to the Tower of London. Later, as the East End grew and the Tower Division contracted, for a very long time the East End was physically separated from the Londons western growth by the open spaces known as Moorfields. Shoreditchs boundary with the parish of St Lukes ran through the Moorfields countryside becoming, on urbanisation and that line, with very slight modifications, has also become the boundary of the modern London Boroughs of Hackney and Islington. From the beginning, the East End has always contained some of the poorest areas of London, the main reasons for this include the following, the medieval system of copyhold, which prevailed throughout the East End, into the 19th century. Essentially, there was little point in developing land that was held on short leases, the siting of noxious industries, such as tanning and fulling downwind outside the boundaries of the City, and therefore beyond complaints and official controls. Historically, the East End is arguably conterminous with the Manor of Stepney and this manor was held by the Bishop of London, in compensation for his duties in maintaining and garrisoning the Tower of London. Further ecclesiastic holdings came about from the need to enclose the marshes, Edward VI passed the land to the Wentworth family, and thence to their descendants, the Earls of Cleveland
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Domesday Book
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Domesday Book is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William the Conqueror. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle states, Then, at the midwinter, was the king in Glocester with his council. After this had the king a large meeting, and very deep consultation with his council, about this land, how it was occupied and it was written in Medieval Latin, was highly abbreviated, and included some vernacular native terms without Latin equivalents. The assessors reckoning of a mans holdings and their values, as recorded in Domesday Book, was dispositive, the name Domesday Book came into use in the 12th century. As Richard FitzNeal wrote in the Dialogus de Scaccario, for as the sentence of that strict and terrible last account cannot be evaded by any skilful subterfuge and its sentence cannot be quashed or set aside with impunity. That is why we have called the book the Book of Judgement, because its decisions, like those of the Last Judgement, are unalterable. The manuscript is held at The National Archives at Kew, London, in 2011, the Open Domesday site made the manuscript available online. The book is a primary source for modern historians and historical economists. Domesday Book encompasses two independent works, Little Domesday and Great Domesday, no surveys were made of the City of London, Winchester, or some other towns, probably due to their tax-exempt status. Most of Cumberland and Westmorland are missing, the omission of the other counties and towns is not fully explained, although in particular Cumberland and Westmorland had yet to be fully conquered. Little Domesday – so named because its format is smaller than its companions – is the more detailed survey. It may have represented the first attempt, resulting in a decision to avoid such level of detail in Great Domesday, some of the largest such magnates held several hundred fees, in a few cases in more than one county. For example, the chapter of the Domesday Book Devonshire section concerning Baldwin the Sheriff lists 176 holdings held in-chief by him, as a review of taxes owed, it was highly unpopular. Each countys list opened with the demesne lands. It should be borne in mind that under the system the king was the only true owner of land in England. He was thus the ultimate overlord and even the greatest magnate could do no more than hold land from him as a tenant under one of the contracts of feudal land tenure. In some counties, one or more principal towns formed the subject of a separate section and this principle applies more specially to the larger volume, in the smaller one, the system is more confused, the execution less perfect. Domesday names a total of 13,418 places and these include fragments of custumals, records of the military service due, of markets, mints, and so forth
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Bishop of London
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The Bishop of London is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of London in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers 458 km² of 17 boroughs of Greater London north of the River Thames and a small part of the County of Surrey. The see is in the City of London where the seat is located at the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul which was founded as a cathedral in 604 and was rebuilt from 1675 following the Great Fire of London. The bishops residence is The Old Deanery, Deans Court, London, previously, for over 1000 years, Fulham Palace was the residence although, from the 18th century, London House next to the Bishops Chapel in Aldersgate Street was where he had his chambers. The current and 132nd Bishop of London is Richard Chartres, who was installed on 26 January 1996 and it has been announced that Chartres is to retire effective Shrove Tuesday,28 February 2017. The diocesan bishop of London has had direct episcopal oversight in the Two Cities area since the institution of the London area scheme in 1979, however, according to later sources, there had been 16 Romano-British bishops of London. The location of Londiniums original cathedral is uncertain, in 1995, however, a large and ornate 4th-century church was discovered on Tower Hill, which seems to have mimicked St Ambroses cathedral in the imperial capital at Milan on a still-larger scale. This possible cathedral was built between 350 and 400 out of stone taken from buildings, including its veneer of black marble. It was burnt down in the early 5th century, following the establishment of the archdiocese of Canterbury by the Gregorian mission, its leader St Augustine consecrated Mellitus as the first bishop to the Saxon kingdom of Essex. Bede records that Augustines patron, King Æthelberht of Kent, built a cathedral for his nephew King Sæberht of Essex as part of this mission and this cathedral was constructed in London and dedicated to St Paul. The diocese was reduced in 1846, when the counties of Essex. The dates and names of early bishops are very uncertain. Diocese of London website Bishop of London refuses to ban gay Bishop from church service The papers of the Bishops of London covering 1423–1945 are held at Lambeth Palace Library
