| Westminster | |
 The Palace of Westminster |
|
 Western façade of Westminster Abbey |
|
 Westminster
Westminster shown within Greater London |
|
| OS grid reference | TQ295795 |
|---|---|
| – Charing Cross | 0.58 mi (0.9 km) NEbE |
| London borough | Westminster |
| Ceremonial county | Greater London |
| Region | London |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | LONDON |
| Postcode district | SW1 |
| Dialling code | 020 |
| Police | Metropolitan |
| Fire | London |
| Ambulance | London |
| EU Parliament | London |
| UK Parliament | Cities of London and Westminster |
| London Assembly | West Central |
Coordinates: 51°29′58″N 0°08′00″W / 51.4995°N 0.1333°W
Westminster (/ˈwɛs(t)mɪnstər/) is an area of central London within the City of Westminster on the north bank of the River Thames.[1] Westminster's concentration of visitor attractions and historic landmarks, one of the highest in London, includes the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral.
Historically the area lay within St Margaret's parish, City & Liberty of Westminster, Middlesex.
The name Westminster originated from an ancient description of Westminster Abbey's surrounds, literally West Minster or, before the abbey, monastery church. It has been the home of England's government continuously since about 1200 (High Middle Ages' Plantagenet times) and is now the seat of British government.
In a government context, Westminster often refers to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which is located in the UNESCO World Heritage Palace of Westminster - also known as the Houses of Parliament. The closest tube stations are Westminster, St James Park and Waterloo.
Contents
Geography[edit]
The area is the centre of UK government, with Parliament in the Palace of Westminster and most of the major Government ministries on Victoria Street, Great Smith Street or the northern sub-neighbourhood Whitehall (a major street).
Within the area is Westminster School, a major public school. Bounding Westminster to the north is Green Park, a Royal Park of London.
Three of the four campuses of the University of Westminster are within the borough of the City of Westminster, although none is in the ancient area of Westminster.
The centre of the area is served by Westminster tube station of the London Underground, on the Jubilee, Circle and District lines.
Demography[edit]
The area has a substantial resident population, indeed most of its listed buildings are residential. A proportion of residents are people of limited means, living in council and Peabody Trust estates in certain streets between Westminster Abbey and Millbank. Hotels, large Victorian homes and barracks exist nearer to Buckingham Palace.
History[edit]
Toponymy[edit]
The name "Westminster" is typical of Central London toponymy which is derived from a loose mixture of small ecclesiastical parishes, local government wards, then later postcode districts, neologisms and informal neighbourhood names.
It describes an area no more than 1 mile (1.6 km) from Westminster Abbey and Palace of Westminster north of the River Thames.[2] Its name derives from the west Minster, or monastery church, west of St Paul's in the City of London. The area has been the seat of the government of England for almost a thousand years. The name is also used for the larger City of Westminster, one of the fairly homogeneously sized administrative divisions of London (London boroughs); and, since 1965, this has included the former boroughs of Marylebone and Paddington, as well as the previous "City of Westminster" which had been formed in 1900 (see below).
Royal seat[edit]
The historic core of Westminster is the former Thorney Island on which Westminster Abbey was built. The abbey became the traditional venue of the coronation of the kings and queens of England.
From about 1200, near the abbey, the Palace of Westminster became the principal royal residence, marked by the transfer of royal treasury and financial records to Westminster from Winchester. Later the palace housed the developing Parliament and England's law courts. Thus London developed two focal points: the City of London (financial/economic) and Westminster (political and cultural).
The monarchy later moved to the Palace of Whitehall a little towards the north-east (before moving to Buckingham Palace and other palaces). The main law courts have since moved to the Royal Courts of Justice and other courts such as the Central Criminal Court. Most of these, as well as the Inns of Court, are close to the boundary of the City of London.
Victorian divide[edit]
Charles Booth's poverty map showing Westminster in 1889 showed the full range of income and capital brackets living in adjacent streets within it; its central western area had become (by 1850) (the) Devil's Acre in the southern flood channel ravine of the Tyburn (stream), yet along Victoria Street and other small streets and squares were the highest colouring of social class in London, yellow/gold. The abject poverty with the clearance of this slum and drainage improvement has been shed from Westminster but there is a typical Central London property distinction within the area which is very acute, epitomised by grandiose 21st century developments, architectural high point listed buildings[4] and nearby social housing (mostly non-council housing) buildings of the Peabody Trust founded by philanthropist George Peabody.
Local government[edit]
The Westminster area formed part of the City and Liberty of Westminster and the county of Middlesex. The ancient parish was St Margaret; after 1727 split into the parishes of St Margaret and St John. The area around Westminster Abbey formed the extra-parochial Close of the Collegiate Church of St Peter surrounded by—but not part of—either parish. Until 1900 the local council was the combined vestry of St Margaret and St John (also known as the Westminster District Board of Works from 1855 to 1887), which was based at Westminster City Hall on Caxton Street from 1883. The Liberty of Westminster, governed by the Westminster Court of Burgesses, also included St Martin in the Fields and several other parishes and places. Westminster had its own quarter sessions, but the Middlesex sessions also had jurisdiction. The area was transferred from Middlesex to the County of London in 1889 and the local government of Westminster was reformed in 1900 when the court of burgesses and parish vestries were abolished, to be replaced with a metropolitan borough council. The council was given city status, allowing it to be known as Westminster City Council.
Wider uses of the term[edit]
Thus "Westminster" with its focus in public life from earliest days is casually used as a metonym for Parliament and the political community of the United Kingdom generally (the civil service is similarly referred to by the northern sub-neighbourhood it inhabits, "Whitehall") and "Westminster" is consequently also used in reference to the Westminster system, the parliamentary model of democratic government that has evolved in the United Kingdom. This thrust of a state constitution and polity is used, with some adaptation, in many other nations, particularly in the Commonwealth of Nations and other parts of the former British Empire.
The term Westminster Village, sometimes used in the context of British politics, does not refer to a geographical area at all; employed especially in the phrase Westminster Village gossip, it denotes a supposedly close social circle of members of parliament, political journalists, so-called spin doctors and others connected to events in the Palace of Westminster and Government Ministries.
References[edit]
- Notes
- ^ "London's Places" (PDF). London Plan. Greater London Authority. 2011. p. 46. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
- ^ Jacqueline Riding, All Change at the Palace of Westminster, BBC.
- ^ Richard, Dennis (2008). Cities in Modernity: Representations and Productions of Metropolitan Space. Cambridge University Press. p. 140. ISBN 978-0-521-46841-1.
- ^ OS Map with Listed Buildings
- Bibliography
- Manchee, W. H. (1924), The Westminster City Fathers (the Burgess Court of Westminster) 1585–1901: Being some account of their powers and domestic rule of the City prior to its incorporation in 1901; with a foreword by Walter G. Bell and 36 illustrations which relate to documents (some pull-outs) and artefacts. London: John Lane (The Bodley Head).
- Davies, E. A. (1952), An Account of the Formation and Early Years of The Westminster Fire Office; (Includes black-and-white photographic plates with a colour frontispiece of 'A Waterman' and a foreword by Major K. M. Beaumont. London: Country Life Limited for the Westminster Fire Office.
- Hunting, P. (1981), Royal Westminster. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. Printed by Penshurst Press. ISBN 0-85406-127-4 (paper); ISBN 0-85406-128-2 (cased).
Further reading[edit]
- Timbs, John (1867), "Westminster", Curiosities of London (2nd ed.), London: J.C. Hotten, OCLC 12878129
External links[edit]
London/Westminster travel guide from Wikivoyage- Westminster Borough Council
- Westminster Walks – from Findlay Muirhead's 1927 guidebook to London and its Environs
- Westminster, by Sir Walter Besant and Geraldine Edith Mitton and A. Murray Smith, 1902, from Project Gutenberg
- Palmer's Village, a deserted village in Westminster
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