Postcodes in the United Kingdom
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 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 and Western districts in 1864/65, in 1917 Dublin – 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 to display this information
London Fire Brigade
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 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 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, 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
Crystal Palace, London
Crystal Palace is a residential area in South London, within the London Boroughs of Bromley, Lambeth and Southwark. It is named after the local landmark, the Crystal Palace. The area is located eight miles south east of Charing Cross and includes one of the highest points in London, at 367 feet. It is contiguous with Anerley, Dulwich Wood, Gipsy Hill, South Norwood, the district was a natural oak forest until development began in the 19th century, and before the arrival of the Crystal Palace the area was known as Sydenham Hill. The Norwood Ridge and an oak tree were used to mark parish boundaries. Today, the area is represented by three different parliamentary constituencies, four London Assembly constituencies and fourteen local authority councillors, Crystal Palace Park has been the setting for a number of concerts and films, including scenes from The Italian Job and The Pleasure Garden. Two television transmitter masts make the district a landmark location, visible from parts of Greater London. A pneumatic railway was briefly trialled in the area in 1864, after the palace was destroyed by fire, and with railway travel declining in the UK more generally, passenger numbers fell and the high level station was closed in 1954 and demolished 7 years later.
Rail services gradually declined, and for a period in the 1960s and 1970s there were plans to construct a motorway through the area as part of the London Ringways plan. In 2016, Crystal Palace was named as one of the best places to live in London, the ridge and the historic oak tree known as The Vicars Oak were used to mark parish boundaries. This has led to the Crystal Palace area straddling the boundaries of five London Boroughs, Croydon, Southwark, the area straddles three postcode districts, SE19, SE20, and SE26. The ancient boundary between Surrey and Kent passes through the area and from 1889 to 1965 the area lay on the eastern boundary of the County of London. It included parts of Kent and Surrey until 1889 and parts of Kent and Surrey between 1889 and 1965. For centuries the area was occupied by the Great North Wood, the forest was a popular area for Londoners recreation right up to the 19th century, when it began to be built over. It was a home of Gypsies, with local street names. The area still retains vestiges of woodland, the third quarter of the 19th Century brought the Crystal Palace and the railways.
The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and glass building originally erected in Hyde Park to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. Following the success of the exhibition, the palace was moved and reconstructed in 1854 in a modified and enlarged form in the grounds of the Penge Place estate at Sydenham Hill
Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake, vice admiral was an English sea captain, navigator and politician of the Elizabethan era. With his incursion into the Pacific he inaugurated an era of privateering, Elizabeth I of England awarded Drake a knighthood in 1581. He was second-in-command of the English fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588 and he died of dysentery in January 1596 after unsuccessfully attacking San Juan, Puerto Rico. His exploits made him a hero to the English but a pirate to the Spaniards, King Philip II was said to have offered a reward of 20,000 ducats, about £4 million by modern standards, for his life. Francis Drake was born in Tavistock, England, although his birth is not formally recorded, it is known that he was born while the Six Articles were in force. Drake was two and twenty when he obtained the command of the Judith and this would date his birth to 1544. A date of c.1540 is suggested from two portraits, one a miniature painted by Nicholas Hilliard in 1581 when he was allegedly 42 and he was the eldest of the twelve sons of Edmund Drake, a Protestant farmer, and his wife Mary Mylwaye.
The first son was alleged to have named after his godfather Francis Russell. Because of religious persecution during the Prayer Book Rebellion in 1549, there the father obtained an appointment to minister the men in the Kings Navy. He was ordained deacon and was vicar of Upnor Church on the Medway. Drakes father apprenticed Francis to his neighbour, the master of a used for coastal trade transporting merchandise to France. The ship master was so satisfied with the young Drakes conduct that, being unmarried and childless at his death, Francis Drake married Mary Newman in 1569. She died 12 years later, in 1581, in 1585, Drake married Elizabeth Sydenham—born circa 1562, the only child of Sir George Sydenham, of Combe Sydenham, who was the High Sheriff of Somerset. After Drakes death, the widow Elizabeth eventually married Sir William Courtenay of Powderham. At age 23, Drake made his first voyage to the Americas, sailing with his cousin, Sir John Hawkins, on one of a fleet of ships owned by his relatives.
In 1568 Drake was again with the Hawkins fleet when it was trapped by the Spaniards in the Mexican port of San Juan de Ulúa, following the defeat at San Juan de Ulúa, Drake vowed revenge. He made two voyages to the West Indies, in 1570 and 1571, of which little is known, in 1572, he embarked on his first major independent enterprise. He planned an attack on the Isthmus of Panama, known to the Spanish as Tierra Firme and the English as the Spanish Main
Croydon
Croydon is a large town in south London, England,9.5 miles south of Charing Cross. The principal settlement in the London Borough of Croydon, it is one of the largest commercial districts outside Central London, with a shopping district. Its population of 52,104 at the 2011 census includes the wards of Addiscombe, Broad Green, Croydon expanded in the Middle Ages as a market town and a centre for charcoal production, leather tanning and brewing. The Surrey Iron Railway from Croydon to Wandsworth opened in 1803 and was the worlds first public railway, nineteenth century railway building facilitated Croydons growth as a commuter town for London. By the early 20th century, Croydon was an important industrial area, known for car manufacture, metal working, Croydon was amalgamated into Greater London in 1965. Road traffic is diverted away from a largely pedestrianised town centre, East Croydon is a major hub of the national railway transport system, with frequent fast services to central London and the south coast.
The town is unique in Greater London for its Tramlink light rail transport system, although less probable, theories of the names origin have been proposed. According to John Corbett Anderson, The earliest mention of Croydon is in the joint will of Beorhtric and Aelfswth, in this Anglo-Saxon document the name is spelt Crogdaene. Crog was, and still is, the Norse or Danish word for crooked, which is expressed in Anglo-Saxon by crumb, from the Danish came our crook and crooked. This term accurately describes the locality, it is a crooked or winding valley, in reference to the valley runs in an oblique. However, there was no long-term Danish occupation in Surrey, which was part of Wessex, and Danish-derived nomenclature is highly unlikely. The town lies on the line of the Roman road from London to Portslade, later, in the 5th to 7th centuries, a large pagan Saxon cemetery was situated on what is now Park Lane, although the extent of any associated settlement is unknown. By the late Saxon period Croydon was the hub of an estate belonging to the Archbishops of Canterbury, the church and the archbishops manor house occupied the area still known as Old Town.
Croydon appears in Domesday Book as Croindene, held by Archbishop Lanfranc and its Domesday assets were,16 hides and 1 virgate,1 church,1 mill worth 5s,38 ploughs,8 acres of meadow, woodland worth 200 hogs. The church had established in the middle Saxon period, and was probably a minster church. A charter issued by King Coenwulf of Mercia refers to a council that had taken place close to the monasterium of Croydon, an Anglo-Saxon will made in about 960 is witnessed by Elfsies, priest of Croydon, and the church is mentioned in Domesday Book. The will of John de Croydon, dated 6 December 1347, includes a bequest to the church of S John de Croydon, the church still bears the arms of Archbishop Courtenay and Archbishop Chichele, believed to have been its benefactors. In 1276 Archbishop Robert Kilwardby acquired a charter for a market
Paris Observatory
The Paris Observatory is the foremost astronomical observatory of France, and one of the largest astronomical centers in the world. Its historic building is to be found on the Left Bank of the Seine in central Paris, administratively, it is a grand établissement of the French Ministry of National Education, with a status close to that of a public university. Its missions include, research in astronomy and astrophysics, diffusion of knowledge to the public and it maintains a solar observatory at Meudon and a radio astronomy observatory at Nançay. It was the home to the International Time Bureau until its dissolution in 1987 and its foundation lies in the ambitions of Jean-Baptiste Colbert to extend Frances maritime power and international trade in the 17th century. Louis XIV promoted its construction, which was started in 1667 and it thus predates by a few years the Royal Greenwich Observatory in England, which was founded in 1675. The architect of the Paris Observatory was Claude Perrault whose brother, was secretary to Colbert, optical instruments were supplied by Giuseppe Campani.
The buildings were extended in 1730,1810,1834,1850, the last extension incorporates the spectacular Meridian Room designed by Jean Prouvé. The worlds first national almanac, the Connaissance des temps, was published by the observatory in 1679, in 1863, the observatory published the first modern weather maps. In 1882, a 33 cm astrographic lens was constructed, an instrument that catalysed what proved to be the over-ambitious international Carte du Ciel project. The Meudon great refractor was a 83 cm aperture refractor, which with September 20,1909 observations by E. M. Antoniadi helped disprove the Mars canals theory and it was a double telescope completed in 1891, with secondary having 62 cm aperture lens for photography. It was one of the largest active telescopes in Europe, the title of Director of the Observatory was officially given for the first time to César-François Cassini de Thury by a Royal brevet dated November 12,1771. However, the important role played by his grandfather and father in this institution during its first century actually gives them somewhat the role of director, a coronograph was in operation there for ten years, the dome was moved there from the Perrault building of the Observatoire de Paris.
Nowadays, the AstroQueyras amateur astronomy association operates the facility, using a 60 cm telescope on loan from the Observatoire de Haute Provence, numerous asteroids have been discovered there. Paris Observatory, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Deluxe CDROM edition Aubin, D, the fading star of the Paris Observatory in the nineteenth century, astronomers urban culture of circulation and observation. History of the Bureau International de lHeure, polar Motion and Scientific problems. Paris Observatory Paris Observatory History Location in Paris Publications of the Observatoire de Paris in Gallica, the digital library of the BnF
London Borough of Croydon
The London Borough of Croydon is a London borough in south London, England and is part of Outer London. It covers an area of 87 km2 and is the largest London borough by population and it is the southernmost borough of London. At its centre is the town of Croydon from which the borough takes its name. Croydon is mentioned in Domesday Book, and from a market town has expanded into one of the most populous areas on the fringe of London. Croydon is the centre of the borough. The borough is now one of Londons leading business and cultural centres, and its influence in entertainment, the economic strength of Croydon dates back mainly to Croydon Airport which was a major factor in the development of Croydon as a business centre. Once Londons main airport for all flights to and from the capital. It is now a Grade II listed building and tourist attraction, Croydon Council and its predecessor Croydon Corporation unsuccessfully applied for city status in 1954,2000,2002 and 2012. Croydon is mostly urban, though there are suburban and rural uplands in the south.
Since 2003 Croydon has been certified as a Fairtrade borough by the Fairtrade Foundation and it was the first London Borough to have Fairtrade status which is awarded on certain criteria. The area is one of the hearts of culture in London, institutions such as the major arts and entertainment centre Fairfield Halls add to the vibrancy of the borough. However, its famous fringe theatre the Warehouse Theatre was put under administration in 2012 when the council withdrew its funding, the Croydon Clocktower was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1994 as an arts venue featuring a library, the independent David Lean Cinema and museum. From 2000 to 2010, Croydon staged a summer festival celebrating the areas black and Indian cultural diversity. An internet radio station, Croydon Radio, is run by people for the area. The borough is home to its own local TV station, Croydon TV. Premier League football club Crystal Palace F. C. play at Selhurst Park in South Norwood, for the history of the original town see History of Croydon The London Borough of Croydon was formed in 1965 from the Coulsdon and Purley Urban District and the County Borough of Croydon.
The name Croydon comes from Crogdene or Croindone, named by the Saxons in the 8th century when they settled here, although the area had been inhabited since prehistoric times. It is thought to derive from the Anglo-Saxon croeas deanas, meaning the valley of the crocuses, indicating that, like Saffron Walden in Essex, by the time of the Norman invasion Croydon had a church, a mill and around 365 inhabitants as recorded in the Domesday Book
London Borough of Southwark
The London Borough of Southwark /ˈsʌðərk/ in south London, England forms part of Inner London and is connected by bridges across the River Thames to the City of London. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council areas amalgamated under the London Government Act 1963, all districts of the area are within the London postal district. It is governed by Southwark London Borough Council, Dulwich is home to the Dulwich Picture Gallery and the Imperial War Museum is in Elephant and Castle. The area was first settled in the Roman period but the name Southwark dates from the 9th century, the London Borough of Southwark was formed in 1965 from the former area of the Metropolitan Borough of Southwark, the Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell, and the Metropolitan Borough of Bermondsey. The borough borders the City of London and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets to the north, the London Borough of Lambeth to the west, to the south are the London Borough of Bromley and the London Borough of Croydon.
At the 2001 census Southwark had a population of 244,866, Southwark is ethnically 63% white, 16% black African and 8% black Caribbean. The area is the home of many Nigerian, South African, Tower Bridge, the Millennium Bridge, Blackfriars Bridge, Southwark Bridge and London Bridge all connect the City of London to the borough. The skyscraper Shard London Bridge is currently the tallest building in the EU, the Tate Modern art gallery, Shakespeares Globe Theatre, the Imperial War Museum and Borough Market are within the borough. At one mile wide, Burgess Park is Southwarks largest green space, Southwark has many notable places of Christian worship, Roman Catholic and independent non-conformist. These include Charles Spurgeons Metropolitan Tabernacle, Southwark Cathedral, St Georges Cathedral, Londons Norwegian Church and Finnish Church and the Swedish Seamens Church are all in Rotherhithe. St George the Martyr is the oldest church in Greater London dedicated to Englands Patron Saint, the other redundant church is Francis Bedfords in Trinity Church Square, now a recording studio, Henry Wood Hall.
Whilst Christianity is the dominant religion of the borough, several religious minorities are active, according to the 2001 Census, approximately 28% of Southwark identified as non-religious, or chose not to state their faith. Charles Dickens set several of his novels in the old borough where he lived as a young man, the site of The Tabard inn, the White Hart inn and the George Inn which survives. The rebuilt Globe Theatre and its exhibition on the Bankside remind us of the areas being the birthplace of classical theatre, there is the remains of the Rose Theatre. In 2007 the Unicorn Theatre for Children was opened on Tooley Street with both the Southwark Playhouse and the Union Theatre having premises in Bermondsey Street, the Menier Chocolate Factory combines a theatre and exhibition space. The Bankside Gallery is the headquarters of the Royal Watercolour Society, the Golden Hinde replica is at St Mary Overie Dock and nearby are the remains of the medieval Winchester Palace which is a scheduled ancient monument.
Peckham Library, designed by Will Alsop won the Stirling Prize for modern architecture, the museum was closed by Southwark council in 2008. MOCA, London, as curated by the artist Michael Petry, is a museum located in Peckham Rye dedicated to exposing and showcasing new cutting-edge artists
North Downs
The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. Westerham Heights, at the edge of the North Downs, near Bromley. The North Downs lie within two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the Surrey Hills and the Kent Downs, the North Downs Way National Trail runs along the North Downs from Farnham to Dover. Downs is from Old English dun meaning, amongst other things, the word acquired the sense of elevated rolling grassland around the fourteenth century. These hills are prefixed north to distinguish them from the morphologically similar range of hills - the South Downs - which run parallel to them. The narrow spine of the Hogs Back between Farnham and Guildford forms the western extremity of the North Downs, whilst the cliffs between Folkestone and Deal terminate the ridge in the east, there are two distinct aspects, the steep south-facing escarpment and the gentle north-facing dip slope. The southern boundary is defined by the foot of the escarpment which gives way to the flat, the northern boundary is less apparent but occurs where the chalk submerges below the more recent Paleocene deposits.
The Downs are highest near the Kent-Surrey border, often reaching heights in excess of 200 m above sea level at the crest of the escarpment, the highest point is Botley Hill in Surrey at 269 metres. The County top of Kent at Betsoms Hill, with a height of 251 metres is located nearby, east of the Medway Valley the Downs become broader and flatter, extending as far as the Isle of Thanet. The ridge is intersected by the valleys of a series of rivers and these drain much of the Weald to the south, the western ones are tributaries of the Thames, they carve steep valleys through the chalk and provide natural corridor routes. Except for the valleys and wind gaps, the crest of the escarpment is almost continuous along its length. The dip slope is dissected by small dry valleys, and in the broad eastern part in Kent. Leith Hill is sometimes referred to as part of the North Downs but is located on the parallel Greensand Ridge. The Chalk Group, composed almost entirely of chalk, a kind of soft fine-grained limestone.
It is formed of three parts, the Upper Chalk, which has many flints, the Middle Chalk, with flints. The chalk is most commonly exposed on slopes or as cliffs, the buried upper surface of the chalk beneath the acidic strata is often eroded into pipes and pinnacles, sometimes visible in road cuttings and quarries. The Upper Greensand Formation, a whitish, limy sandstone, often used for building, the Upper Greensand of the North Downs is a thin bed of one or two metres thickness, and it is rarely visible at the surface. The Upper Greensand marks the edge of the Downs, being underlain by
London Clay
The London Clay Formation is a marine geological formation of Ypresian age which crops out in the southeast of England. The London Clay is well known for its fossil content, the fossils from the Lower Eocene indicate a moderately warm climate, the tropical or subtropical flora. Though sea levels changed during the deposition of the Clay, the habitat was generally a lush forest – perhaps like in Indonesia or East Africa today – bordering a warm, the London Clay is a stiff bluish clay which becomes brown when weathered. Nodular lumps of pyrite and crystals of selenite frequently exist in the clay and these have been used in the past for making cement. They were once dug for this purpose at Sheppey, near Sittingbourne, and at Harwich, the clay is still used commercially for making bricks and coarse pottery in places such as Michelmersh in Hampshire. It is infertile for gardens and crops, the London Clay is well developed in the London Basin, where it thins westwards from around 150 metres in Essex and north Kent to around 4.6 metres in Wiltshire.
Though it is not frequently exposed as it is to a great extent covered by more recent Neogene sediments, one location of particular interest is Oxshott Heath, where the overlying sand and the London Clay layers are exposed as a sand escarpment, rising approximately 25 metres. This supported a brick industry in the area until the 1960s. The clay was deposited in a sea up to 200 metres deep at the eastern end, up to five cycles of deposition have been found, most markedly at the shallower, western end. Each cycle begins with coarser material, followed by clay which becomes increasingly sandy, the final cycle ends with the Claygate Beds. The youngest part of the London Clay, known as the Claygate Beds or Claygate Member forms a transition between the clay and the sandier Bagshot Beds above and this is shown separately on many geological maps, and often caps hills. It is up to 15 metres thick at Claygate, Surrey and it is now believed to be diachronous, with the formation at Claygate for example being the same age as the end of the fourth cycle of deposition further east.
Erecting tall buildings in London requires very deep and costly piled foundations, London Clay is highly susceptible to volumetric changes depending upon its moisture content. As a result, many companies have now increased the cost of premiums for buildings located in the most susceptible areas where damage occurred. London Clay has a time long enough to enable support to be installed without urgency. It is almost waterproof, resulting in virtually no seepage of groundwater into the tunnel. It is over-consolidated, which means that it is under pressure, due to its impermeability especially when exposed by ploughing, London clay does not make good agricultural soil. In Middlesex, it has historically been called ploughing up poison, notable coastal exposures from which fossils can be collected are on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent and Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex in the London Basin, and Bognor Regis in the Hampshire Basin
Golden Hind
Golden Hind was an English galleon best known for her privateering circumnavigation of the globe between 1577 and 1580, captained by Sir Francis Drake. She was originally known as Pelican, but was renamed by Drake mid-voyage in 1578, in honour of his patron, Sir Christopher Hatton, Hatton was one of the principal sponsors of Drakes world voyage. The queens support was advantageous, Drake had official approval to benefit himself and this would eventually culminate in the Anglo–Spanish War. Before setting sail, Drake met the queen face-to-face for the first time and she said to him, the explicit object was to find out places meet to have traffic. Drake, acted as a privateer, with support from Queen Elizabeth. Drake commissioned his flagship in Plymouth, the keel was registered in 1575. The majority of the work was done in 1576, and it was completed early the next year and it is described as a mid 16th century warship during the transition from the carrack to the galleon, and displaced about 100 tons.
He first named his flagship the Pelican, but renamed it the Golden Hind on 20 August 1578 to honor his patron, Sir Christopher Hatton and he set sail in December 1577 with five small ships, manned by 164 men, and reached the Brazilian coast in early 1578. On 1 March 1579, now in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Ecuador and this galleon had the largest treasure captured to that date, over 360,000 pesos. The six tons of treasure took six days to transship and included 26 tons of silver, half a ton of gold, jewellery, there she shrewdly asked the French ambassador to bestow a knighthood on Drake. Her share of the came to at least £160,000, enough to pay off her entire government debt. Her return and that of other investors came to more than £47 for every £1 invested, after Drakes circumnavigation, the Golden Hind was maintained for public exhibition at the dockyard at Deptford, London. The ship remained there from 1580 to approximately 1650 before she eventually rotted away and was broken up.
A table, known as the cupboard, in the Middle Temple Hall is reputed to have made from the wood of Golden Hind. Upon the cupboard is placed the roll of members of Middle Temple, the ships lantern was hung in the vestibule of Middle Temple Hall but was destroyed during the Second World War. A replica of Golden Hind was constructed at Peter Pans Playground, Southend-on-Sea and it was constructed from 1947 and opened in 1949 together with a waxworks. It was popular at first, but by 1992 attendances had dropped, the ship was replaced by a replica of Blackbeards Queen Annes Revenge. This ship was demolished in 2013, the replica ship used in the TV series cost £25,000 to construct and had no rear gallery
London
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, education, fashion, healthcare, professional services 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 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
