1.
HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs
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HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs is a Category B mens prison, located in the Wormwood Scrubs area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, in inner west London, England. The prison is operated by Her Majestys Prison Service, the initial steps in the winter of 1874 involved the construction of a small prison made of corrugated iron and a temporary shed to serve as a barracks for the warders. Nine specially picked prisoners, all within a year of release, building then began on the permanent prison, with bricks being manufactured on site. By the summer of 1875 enough bricks had been prepared to build the prisons first block, during World War II the prison was taken over by the War Department and the prisoners evacuated. It was used as office space for the duration of hostilities and housed MI5. In 1979, IRA prisoners staged a rooftop protest over visiting rights,60 inmates and several prison officers were injured. In 1982, an inquiry blamed much of the difficulties on failings in prison management, the governor, John McCarthy, had quit before the rioting. He had described Wormwood Scrubs as a penal dustbin in a letter to The Times, in the 1990s, a police investigation into allegations of staff brutality resulted in the suspension of 27 prison officers and the conviction of six for assault. The Prison Service paid over £3 million in settlements with ex-prisoners who had alleged brutality. Her Majestys Chief Inspector of Prisons delivered a report on the conditions. In March 2004, a report from the Chief inspector stated that Wormwood Scrubs had greatly improved after making fundamental changes. Three quarters of inmates at the prison had said that staff treated them with respect, however the report also stated that inmates spent too much time in their cells, and only 36% of eligible inmates were involved in education or prison work. In November 2008, another report from Her Majestys Chief Inspector stated that conditions at Wormwood Scrubs Prison had deteriorated since the last inspection, heightened prison gang activity had been detected, and 20% of prisoners had failed drugs tests. On 10 March 2009 the prison was listed as a Grade II building, major structural changes to the prisons management took place in 2013. A2014 report by Her Majestys Inspectorate of Prisons was critical of the prison, the inspectors stated that there had been a failure to put into place recommendations by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman to deal with suicide and self-harm. The chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, a body, said I have never seen a public service deteriorate so rapidly. Wormwood Scrubs is a Category B prison for males, sentenced or on remand from the local courts. The prison has five main wings plus a number of smaller dedicated units, the two oval plaster reliefs on the front of the prison depict Elizabeth Fry and John Howard both well known figures of Prison reform
2.
London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham
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The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham is a London borough in West London, and forms part of Inner London. Traversed by the east-west main roads of the A4 Great West Road, the local council is Hammersmith and Fulham London Borough Council. The borough is unique in London in having three professional clubs, Chelsea, Fulham and Queens Park Rangers. The borough was formed in 1965 by merging the Metropolitan Borough of Hammersmith and it was known as the London Borough of Hammersmith until its name was changed on 1 January 1979 by the borough council. The two had joined together previously in the parish of Fulham until 1834 as the hamlet of Hammersmith had no church until much later. They were joined together again under the Fulham District from 1855 to 1886, there followed numerous international fairs and exhibitions for a century until the construction of Earls Court II in the borough in the 1980s. This was dismantled by developers in 2015, after the 2012 Olympics, 60% of the boroughs population is White British, 20% white non-British, 5% black Caribbean, 8% black African with various other ethnicities making up the remaining 11 percent. The borough has the second-highest proportion of adults of any borough in England and Wales. Around 50% of households are owner–occupiers, and 22% of households were listed as other – that is and these are generally two or more unrelated adults living together, such as students or cohabiting couples. The unemployment rate is well below average at under 5%, although of these, the borough also has the 4th highest house prices in the country. See external links below for more information from the borough. Virgin Group operates its headquarters at The School House,50 Brook Green, sony Mobile Communications has its headquarters in the borough. Iberia operates the Iberia House in the borough, all Nippon Airways operates the London Office on the fourth floor of Hythe House. South African Airways has its United Kingdom office in the South African Airways House, CE Europe, a subsidiary of Capcom, has its head office in the George House in Hammersmith in the borough. As of May 2011 it will be relocating to the Metro Building in Hammersmith, iran Airs London offices are also located in the borough. The airline moved there by Wednesday 4 January 2012, coca-Cola, Disney and LOréal also all have UK headquarters in Hammersmith, as well as a number of other major businesses. For a 15-year period Air France had its UK and Ireland office in Hammersmith, in 2006 the UK and Ireland office was moved to Hatton Cross, London Borough of Hounslow. Also, TAP Portugal runs an office in the Borough
3.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
4.
Common land
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A person who has a right in, or over, common land jointly with another or others is called a commoner. This article deals mainly with land in England, Wales. Common land or former common land is referred to as a common, for instance. This manorial system, founded on feudalism, granted rights of use to different classes. These would be appurtenant rights, that is the ownership of rights belonged to tenancies of particular plots of land held within a manor, a commoner would be the person who, for the time being, was the occupier of a particular plot of land. Some rights of common were said to be in gross, that is and this was more usual in regions where commons are more extensive, such as in the high ground of Northern England or on the Fens, but also included many village greens across England and Wales. Most land with appurtenant commons rights is adjacent to the common or even surrounded by it, example rights of common are, Pasture. Right to pasture cattle, horses, sheep or other animals on the common land, right to take sods of turf for fuel. Common in the Soil This is a term used for rights to extract minerals such as sands, gravels, marl, walling stone. Right to turn out pigs for a period in autumn to eat mast, right to take sufficient wood for the commoners house or holding, usually limited to smaller trees, bushes and fallen branches. On most commons, rights of pasture and pannage for each commoner are tightly defined by number and type of animal, on some commons, the rights are not limited by numbers, and instead a marking fee is paid each year for each animal turned out. However, if excessive use was made of the common, for example, in overgrazing, a common would be stinted, that is and these regulations were responsive to demographic and economic pressure. Thus rather than let a common become degraded, access was restricted even further, Pasture commons are those where the primary right is to pasture livestock. These habitats are often of high nature conservation value, because of their very long continuity of management extending in some cases over many hundreds of years. In the past, most pasture commons would have been grazed by mixtures of cattle, sheep, the modern survival of grazing on pasture commons over the past century is uneven. When not in use for those purposes, such commons were grazed, examples include the common arable fields around the village of Laxton in Nottinghamshire, and a common meadow at North Meadow, Cricklade. Lammas rights entitled commoners to pasture following the harvest, between Lammas day,12 August, to 6 April, even if they did not have rights to the land. Such rights sometimes had the effect of preventing enclosure and building development on agricultural land, most of the medieval common land of England was lost due to enclosure
5.
West London Line
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The West London Line is a short railway in inner West London that links Clapham Junction in the south to Willesden Junction in the north. The line has always been an important cross-London link especially for freight services, Southern and London Overground provide regular passenger services, detailed below. Construction was delayed by engineering and financial problems, the low number of passengers became such a regular target of Punch magazine that the line was called Punchs Railway. After only six months it closed on 30 November 1844, an Act of 1845 authorised the GWR and the L&BR to take a joint lease of the WLR. The line was used only to coal, and passenger service was not re-introduced. The existing line was doubled, and the crossing of the GWR main line. For a time, the West London Line formed part of the GWRs Middle Circle route which ran from Mansion House to Aldgate via Earls Court, Earls Court, Kensington Olympia, Latimer Road and Baker Street. The West London Line was also part of London Underground for a time, the branch was eventually closed and the link between the West London Line and todays Hammersmith & City line was dismantled in 1930. Through trains in the era changed locomotives here. From the 1920s there was a United Dairies depot on the site of a dairy farm here. The northern section of the line, from Willesden Junction to Kensington Olympia, after a period of popularity, passenger usage dwindled on the West London Railway. Competition from the new deep-level Underground railways and electric tramways took away custom by offering more direct routes into Central London. With the onset of World War II, the West London Line was badly hit in parts by enemy action during the Blitz. In 1940, LMS steam trains from Clapham Junction to Kensington ceased on 20 October, in 1948, the line became part of British Rail, following the nationalisation of the railways, but remained mostly in use as a freight route. For a decade, the West London Line was operated with the green-and-purple liveried Silverlink Metro trains, channel Tunnel infrastructure work in 1993 electrified the line at 750 V DC third rail from the South to the North Pole depot. The line is electrified at 25 kV AC overhead wires from Westway to Willesden, until the High Speed 1 railway line from St Pancras opened in November 2007, Eurostar trains from Waterloo International used the West London Line to access their North Pole depot. Platforms were reinstated at West Brompton in 1999, the line appears today on the Tube Map as an orange stripe. New stations opened at Shepherds Bush in 2008 and Imperial Wharf in 2009, in 1966 British Rail launched Motorail, a long-distance accompanied car train which transported passengers and their cars to the West of England and Scotland
6.
Hammersmith Hospital
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Hammersmith Hospital, formerly the Military Orthopaedic Hospital, and later the Special Surgical Hospital, is a major teaching hospital in west London. It is part of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, confusingly the hospital is not in Hammersmith but is located north of White City adjacent to Wormwood Scrubs and East Acton. The land, adjacent to Wormwood Scrubs Prison, was purchased for £14,500 from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, a temporary corrugated iron building was erected on the site in 1902 to provide care for victims of a smallpox epidemic that had taken place in the winter of 1901-2. The buildings were designed by the firm of Giles, Gough, the infirmary occupied the front part of the site with a central administrative building flanked by pavilion ward blocks linked by a single storey corridor running east-west. A laundry, boiler-house and workshops lay at the centre of the site, in 1916 the Joint War Committee awarded the hospital the sum of £1,000 to begin its work, soon followed in 1918 by a further grant of £10,000. The hospital was supported by donations from the public. Part of the process involved putting the recovering patients to work in local shops. Later it was renamed the Special Surgical Hospital, and in 1919 became the Ministry of Pensions Hospital, in 1926, after the end of the Great War, demands by the Hammersmith Guardians for return of their property finally succeeded and the site became Hammersmith Hospital. By 1930, the infirmary could accommodate 300 patients, roger Daltrey was born there in 1944. Until 1997 it was the home of the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, the hospital continues to be a major centre of postgraduate medical study as part of the UKs first academic health science centre. Hammersmith Hospital is internationally renowned for clinical research, specialist surgery is available for liver cancer, kidney transplantation, gynaecological cancer and cardiothoracic procedures. The hospital was home to the first medical linear accelerator in the world at the MRCs Radiotherapeutic Research Unit, in 2000 the Queen Charlottes and Chelsea Hospital relocated to a new purpose-built building between the Hammersmith Hospital and Wormwood Scrubs prison. The two hospitals are entirely independent, but are operated by the same NHS Trust, and share infrastructure, including car parking. Although the hospitals are operated independently, there is a physical connection between them, although this is often locked, and usable only by staff. A number of medical services and research institutes also share the same site with the two hospitals. By far the largest of these is the Institute of Reproductive and Developmental Biology, list of hospitals in England Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trusts official site Aerial photo at Google Maps
7.
Stadium
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Pausanias noted that for about half a century the only event at the ancient Greek Olympic festival was the race that comprised one length of the stade at Olympia, where the word stadium originated. In modern times, a stadium is officially a stadium when at least 50% of the capacity is an actual building. If the majority of the capacity is formed by grasshills, the venue is not officially considered a stadium. Most of the stadiums with a capacity of at least 10,000 are used for football, or soccer. A large amount of sports venues are also used for concerts. Stadium is the Latin form of the Greek word stadion, a measure of length equalling the length of 600 human feet, as feet are of variable length the exact length of a stadion depends on the exact length adopted for 1 foot at a given place and time. Although in modern terms 1 stadion =600 ft, in a historical context it may actually signify a length up to 15% larger or smaller. The equivalent Roman measure, the stadium, had a similar length — about 185 m -, the English use of stadium comes from the tiered infrastructure surrounding a Roman track of such length. Most dictionaries provide for both stadiums and stadia as valid English plurals, although etymological purists sometimes apply stadia only to measures of length in excess of 1 stadium. The oldest known stadium is the one in Olympia, in the western Peloponnese, Greece, initially the Games consisted of a single event, a sprint along the length of the stadium. The stadion, a measure of length, may be related to the Stadium, Greek and Roman stadiums have been found in numerous ancient cities, perhaps the most famous being the Stadium of Domitian, in Rome. The excavated and refurbished ancient Panathenaic stadium hosted a version of the Olympic Games in 1870,1875,1896 and 1906. The excavation and refurbishment of the stadium was part of the legacy of the Greek national benefactor Evangelos Zappas, the first stadiums to be built in the modern era were basic facilities, designed for the single purpose of fitting as many spectators in as possible. One such early stadium was the Lansdowne Road Stadium, the brainchild of Henry Dunlop, banned from locating sporting events at Trinity College, Dunlop built the stadium in 1872. Some 300 cartloads of soil from a trench beneath the railway were used to raise the ground, other early stadiums from this period in the UK include the Stamford Bridge stadium and Anfield stadium. In the U. S. However, many of these caught fire. All of the 19th-century wooden parks were replaced, some only a few years. Goodison Park was the first purpose-built football stadium in the world, walton-based building firm Kelly brothers were instructed to erect two uncovered stands that could each accommodate 4,000 spectators
8.
Queens Park Rangers F.C.
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Queens Park Rangers Football Club is a professional association football club based in White City, London, that plays in the Championship, the second tier of English football. Their honours include winning the League Cup in 1967, as well as finishing top of the tier in 1983 and 2011. QPR were also runners-up of the Football League First Division in 1975–76, Queens Park Rangers were founded in 1886 after the merger of Christchurch Rangers and St. Judes Institute. Owing to their proximity to other west London clubs, QPR maintain long-standing rivalries with other clubs in the area. The most notable of these are Chelsea, Fulham and Brentford, outside London, QPR also traditionally share rivalries with Watford, Luton and Cardiff, although in recent years these fixtures have become less prominent. For the current season see 2015–16 Queens Park Rangers F. C. season The club was formed in 1886, the resulting team was called Queens Park Rangers, because most of the players came from the Queens Park area of north-west London. QPR were promoted as champions of Division 3 South in the 1947–48 season, Dave Mangnall was the manager as the club participated in four seasons of the Second Division, being relegated in 1951–52. Tony Ingham was signed from Leeds United and went on to make the most ever league appearances for QPR, arguably the clubs greatest ever manager, Alec Stock, arrived prior to the start of the 1959–60 season. The 1960–61 season saw QPR achieve their biggest win to date, in time, Stock, together with Jim Gregory who arrived as chairman in the mid-1960s, helped to achieve a total transformation of the club and its surroundings. It is still the major trophy that QPR have won. It was also the first League Cup final to be held at Wembley Stadium, after winning promotion in 1968 to the top flight for the first time in their history, Rangers were relegated after just one season and spent the next four years in Division Two. Terry Venables joined from Spurs at the beginning of the 1969–70 season, during this time, new QPR heroes emerged including Phil Parkes, Don Givens, Dave Thomas and Stan Bowles. These new signings were in addition to home-grown talent such as Dave Clement, Ian Gillard, Mick Leach, after completing their 42-game season, QPR sat at the top of the league, one point ahead of Liverpool who went on to defeat Wolverhampton Wanderers to clinch the title. Wolves were relegated to the Second Division that same season, following Sextons departure in 1977 the club eventually slipped into the Second Division in 1979. In 1980 Terry Venables took over as manager and the club installed a plastic pitch, in 1982 QPR, still playing in the Second Division, reached the FA Cup Final for the only time in the clubs history, facing holders Tottenham Hotspur. Tottenham won 1–0 in a replay, the following season QPR went on to win the Second Division championship and returned to English footballs top division. After a respectable fifth-place finish, and UEFA Cup qualification, the following year, in 1988 the club had a new chairman, Richard Thompson. Who at 24 was the Premier Leagues youngest ever chairman, over the next seven years, various managers came and went from Loftus Road and the club spent many seasons finishing mid table but avoided relegation
9.
Cavalry
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Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the most mobile of the combat arms, an individual soldier in the cavalry is known by a number of designations such as cavalryman, horseman, dragoon or trooper. The designation of cavalry was not usually given to any military forces that used animals, such as camels. Cavalry had the advantage of improved mobility, and a man fighting from horseback also had the advantages of greater height, speed, another element of horse mounted warfare is the psychological impact a mounted soldier can inflict on an opponent. In Europe cavalry became increasingly armoured, and eventually became known for the mounted knights, in the period between the World Wars, many cavalry units were converted into motorized infantry and mechanized infantry units, or reformed as tank troops. Most cavalry units that are horse-mounted in modern armies serve in purely ceremonial roles, modern usage of the term generally refers to specialist units equipped with tanks or aircraft. The shock role, traditionally filled by heavy cavalry, is filled by units with the armored designation. Before the Iron Age, the role of cavalry on the battlefield was largely performed by light chariots, the chariot originated with the Sintashta-Petrovka culture in Central Asia and spread by nomadic or semi-nomadic Indo-Iranians. The power of mobility given by mounted units was recognized early on, Cavalry techniques were an innovation of equestrian nomads of the Central Asian and Iranian steppe and pastoralist tribes such as the Persian Parthians and Sarmatians. The photograph above left shows Assyrian cavalry from reliefs of 865–860 BC, at this time, the men had no spurs, saddles, saddle cloths, or stirrups. Fighting from the back of a horse was more difficult than mere riding. The cavalry acted in pairs, the reins of the archer were controlled by his neighbours hand. Even at this time, cavalry used swords, shields. The sculpture implies two types of cavalry, but this might be a simplification by the artist, Later images of Assyrian cavalry show saddle cloths as primitive saddles, allowing each archer to control his own horse. As early as 490 BC a breed of horses was bred in the Nisaean plain in Media to carry men with increasing amounts of armour. However, chariots remained in use for purposes such as carrying the victorious general in a Roman triumph. The southern Britons met Julius Caesar with chariots in 55 and 54 BC, the last mention of chariot use in battle was by the Caledonians at the Mons Graupius, in 84 AD. During the classical Greek period cavalry were usually limited to citizens who could afford expensive war-horses
10.
Hyde Park, London
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Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in London and one of its Royal Parks. The park is divided by the Serpentine and the Long Water, the park is contiguous with Kensington Gardens, which are often assumed to be part of Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens has been separate since 1728, when Queen Caroline divided them. To the southeast, outside the park, is Hyde Park Corner, during daylight, the two parks merge seamlessly into each other, but Kensington Gardens closes at dusk, and Hyde Park remains open throughout the year from 5 a. m. until midnight. The Great Exhibition of 1851 was held in the park, for which the Crystal Palace, the park became a traditional location for mass demonstrations. The Chartists, the Reform League, the suffragettes, and the Stop the War Coalition have all held protests there, many protesters on the Liberty and Livelihood March in 2002 started their march from Hyde Park. Hyde Park is also a ward of the City of Westminster, the population of the ward at the 2011 Census was 12,462. Hyde Park was created for hunting by Henry Vlll in 1536, Charles I created the Ring, and in 1637 he opened the park to the general public. In 1652, during the Interregnum, Parliament ordered the then 620-acre park to be sold for ready money and it realised £17,000 with an additional £765 6s 2d for the resident deer. In 1689, when William III moved his residence to Kensington Palace on the far side of Hyde Park, public transport entering London from the west runs parallel to the Kings private road along Kensington Gore, just outside the park. In the late 1800s, the row was used by the wealthy for horseback rides, the first coherent landscaping was undertaken by Charles Bridgeman for Queen Caroline, under the supervision of Charles Withers, the Surveyor-General of Woods and Forests, who took some credit. It was completed in 1733 at a cost to the public purse of £20,000, the 2nd Viscount Weymouth was made Ranger of Hyde Park in 1739 and shortly after began digging the Serpentine lakes at Longleat. The Serpentine is divided from the Long Water by a bridge designed by George Rennie, one of the most important events to take place in the park was the Great Exhibition of 1851. The Crystal Palace was constructed on the side of the park. The public did not want the building to remain after the closure of the exhibition and he had it moved to Sydenham Hill in South London. At the age of twenty-five, Decimus Burton was commissioned by the Office of Woods and he laid out the paths and driveways and designed a series of lodges, the Screen/Gate at Hyde Park Corner and the Wellington Arch. The Screen and the Arch originally formed a single composition, designed to provide a transition between Hyde Park and Green Park, although the arch was later moved. An early description reports, It consists of a screen of handsome fluted Ionic columns, the extent of the whole frontage is about 107 ft. The two side gateways, in their elevations, present two insulated Ionic columns, flanked by antae, all these entrances are finished by a blocking, the sides of the central one being decorated with a beautiful frieze, representing a naval and military triumphal procession
11.
Belgrave Square
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Belgrave Square is one of the grandest and largest 19th-century squares in London. It is the centrepiece of Belgravia, and was out by the property contractor Thomas Cubitt for the 2nd Earl Grosvenor, later the 1st Marquess of Westminster. Most of the houses were occupied by 1840, the square takes its name from one of the Duke of Westminsters subsidiary titles, Viscount Belgrave. The village of Belgrave, Cheshire is two miles from the Grosvenor familys main seat of Eaton Hall. Today, many embassies are based in the square, the numbering is anticlockwise from the north, NW terrace Nos.1 to 11, west corner mansion No. 12, SW terrace 13–23, south corner mansion No,24, SE terrace Nos. 25–36, east corner mansion No. There is also slightly later detached house at the northern corner,49, which was built in by Cubitt for Sidney Herbert in 1851. The terraces were designed by George Basevi and are possibly the grandest houses ever built in London on a speculative basis. The largest of the mansions, Seaford House in the east corner, was designed by Philip Hardwick. From its construction until World War II, the square was occupied by leading members of the British aristocracy, during World War II, it was used as a tank park. The square has been a location for embassies since the nineteenth century, and houses several to this day, including the German Embassy. After World War II, most of the houses were converted into offices for charities and institutes and this is now being reversed, with leases of three houses being offered for sale and conversion to residential use by the Grosvenor Estate in 2004. The present Duke of Westminster remains the freeholder of the square, in addition to the buildings, the railings and gate piers of 12,24, and 49 are listed II*. 1 Belgrave Square was the residence of the Ambassadors of Romania from 1936 to 2005. Since 2006, the continues to host events for the Embassy and is also headquarters of the Romanian Cultural Institute in London. 2 Belgrave Square was first leased to a brewer, James Goding. Later residents included James Hamilton, 2nd Duke of Abercorn, Edward Balfour, in the 20th century,2 Belgrave Square was purchased by the British soldier and politician, Ernest George Pretyman and his wife, Lady Beatrice, daughter of George Bridgeman, 4th Earl of Bradford. In 1935, after Pretyman’s death, the house was sold to Grace, on 12 May 1953, it was re-opened by the Duke of Gloucester as the base of the Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Council
12.
Regent's Park
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Regents Park is one of the Royal Parks of London. It lies within north-west London, partly in the City of Westminster, the population of the Camden ward at the 2011 Census was 13,528. It contains Regents University London and the London Zoo, the park is Grade I listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. The park has a ring road called the Outer Circle and an inner ring road called the Inner Circle. Apart from two roads between these two, the park is reserved for pedestrians. The south, east and most of the west side of the park are lined with elegant white stucco terraces of houses designed by John Nash, Running through the northern end of the park is Regents Canal, which connects the Grand Union Canal to the former London docks. The northern side of the park is the home of London Zoo, winfield House, the official residence of the U. S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, stands in private grounds in the western section of the park. Nearby is the domed London Central Mosque, better known as Regents Park mosque, located to the south of the Inner Circle is Regents University London, home of the European Business School London, Regents American College London and Webster Graduate School among others. Primrose Hill is also the given to the immediately surrounding district. The public areas of Regents Park are managed by The Royal Parks, the Crown Estate Paving Commission is responsible for managing certain aspects of the built environment of Regents Park. The park lies within the boundaries of the City of Westminster and the London Borough of Camden, the Crown Estate owns the freehold of Regents Park. In the Middle Ages the land was part of the manor of Tyburn, in the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Henry VIII appropriated the land, and it has been Crown property ever since, except for the period between 1649 and 1660. It was set aside as a park, known as Marylebone Park. It was then let out in small holdings for hay and dairy produce, when the leases expired in 1811 the Prince Regent commissioned architect John Nash to create a masterplan for the area. However, most of the terraces of houses around the fringes of the park were built. Nash did not complete all the detailed designs himself, in some instances, the scheme is considered one of the first examples of a garden suburb, and continues to influence the design of suburbs. The park was first opened to the public in 1835. On 15 January 1867, forty people died when the ice cover on the lake collapsed
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Media related to Wormwood Scrubs Park at Wikimedia Commons
