Monday, 17 May 2010
Elmbridge
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire, and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford.[1] Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of Greater London since 1965.
Surrey is divided into 11 boroughs and districts: Elmbridge, Epsom and Ewell, Guildford, Mole Valley, Reigate and Banstead, Runnymede, Spelthorne, Surrey Heath, Tandridge, Waverley,Woking.
Farnham
North Downs
Barking Abbey
The ruined remains of Barking Abbey are situated in Barking in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham in East London, England, and now form a public open space.
Dedicated at first to Saint Mary, and later to Saints Mary and Ethelburga, Barking Abbey was founded by Saint Erkenwald, Bishop of London, for his sister Saint Ethelburga in 666, as a missionary centre. All Hallows Barking, at Tower Hill, was founded by the abbey in 675.
Regent's Park
Regent's Park (officially The Regent's Park) is one of the Royal Parks of London. It is in the northern part of central London partly in the City of Westminster and partly in the London Borough of Camden.
It contains Regent's College and the London Zoo.
Metropolitan Borough of St Pancra
The Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras was a Metropolitan borough of the County of London between 1900 and 1965, when it was amalgamated with the Metropolitan Borough of Hampstead and the Metropolitan Borough of Holborn to form the London Borough of Camden. It was based on the ancient parish of St Pancras.
It included Tottenham Court Road, Camden Town, St Pancras, Kings Cross, Somers Town, Kentish Town, Euston, and part of Regent's Park. There are still a few street names signs with "Borough of St Pancras" on them.
Metropolitan Borough of Holborn
The Metropolitan Borough of Holborn was a Metropolitan borough in the County of London between 1900 and 1965, when it was amalgamated with the Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras and the Metropolitan Borough of Hampstead to form the London Borough of Camden.
The borough was formed from the civil parishes of St Andrew Holborn above the Bars, St George the Martyr, St Giles in the Fields, and St George Bloomsbury with the Liberty of Saffron Hill plus two of the Inns of Court.
Camden
Hampstead
Thorney Island
Thorney Island was the eyot on the Thames, upstream of mediƦval London, where Westminster Abbey and the Palace of Westminster (commonly known today as the Houses of Parliament) were built. It was formed by rivulets of the River Tyburn, which entered the Thames near the lowest point where it could be forded from the north bank at low tide.
Thorney, or the Eyot of Thorns, is described in a purported charter of King Offa, which is kept in the Abbey muniments, as a "terrible place" — to the delight of generations of the Westminster Schoolboys who comprise nowadays most of the permanent inhabitants of Thorney Island.
Despite hardships and Viking raids over the next 300 years, the monks tamed the brambles, until by the time of Edward the Confessor it was "A delightful place, surrounded by fertile land and green fields". The Abbey's College Garden remains delightful, a thousand years later, the oldest garden in England.
The level of the land has risen, the rivulets have been built over, and the Thames has been embanked. There is now no sign of Thorney Island. The name is retained only by Thorney Street, at the back of the MI5 Security Service building; but a local heritage organisation established by June Stubbs in 1976 took the name The Thorney Island Society.
city
Modern city planning has seen many different schemes for how a city should look. The most commonly seen pattern is the grid, favoured by the Romans, almost a rule in parts of the Americas, and used for thousands of years in China. Derry was the first planned city in Ireland, begun in 1613, with the walls being completed five years later. The central diamond within a walled city with four gates was thought to be a good design for defence. The grid pattern was widely copied in the colonies of British North America.
The Ancient Greeks often gave their colonies around the Mediterranean a grid plan. One of the best examples is the city of Priene. This city had different specialized districts, much as is seen in modern city planning today. Fifteen centuries earlier, the Indus Valley Civilization was using grids in such cities as Mohenjo-Daro. In medieval times there was evidence of a preference for linear planning. Good examples are the cities established by various rulers in the south of France and city expansions in old Dutch and Flemish cities.
Grid plans were popular among planners in the 19th century, particularly after the redesign of Paris. They cut through the meandering, organic streets that followed old paths. The United States imposed grid plans in new territories and towns, as the American West was rapidly established, in places such as Salt Lake City and San Francisco.
Other forms may include a radial structure, in which main roads converge on a central point. This was often a historic form, the effect of successive growth over long time with concentric traces of town walls and citadels. In more recent history, such forms were supplemented by ring-roads that take traffic around the outskirts of a town. Many Dutch cities are structured this way: a central square surrounded by concentric canals. Every city expansion would imply a new circle (canals + town walls). In cities such as Amsterdam and Haarlem, and Moscow, this pattern is still clearly visible.
Greenwich
Inner London
City of Westminster
Nelson's Column
Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square is a square in central London, England. With its position in the heart of London, it is a tourist attraction, and one of the most famous squares in the United Kingdom and the world. At its centre is Nelson's Column, which is guarded by four lion statues at its base. Statues and sculptures are on display in the square, including a fourth plinth displaying changing pieces of contemporary art. The square is also used as a location for political demonstrations and community gatherings, such as the celebration of New Year's Eve in London.
The name commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar (1805), a British naval victory of the Napoleonic Wars. The original name was to have been "King William the Fourth's Square", but George Ledwell Taylor suggested the name "Trafalgar Square".
The northern area of the square had been the site of the King's Mews since the time of Edward I, while the southern end was the original Charing Cross, where the Strand from the City met Whitehall, coming north from Westminster. As the midpoint between these twin cities, Charing Cross is to this day considered the heart of London, from which all distances are measured.
Cockspur Street
Central London
Central London is the innermost part of London, England. There is no official or commonly accepted definition of its area, but its characteristics are understood to include a high density built environment, high land values, an elevated daytime population and a concentration of regionally, nationally and internationally significant organisations and facilities. From time to time, and for a variety of purposes, a number of definitions have been used to define its scope.
Road distances to London are traditionally measured from a central point at Charing Cross, which is marked by the statue of King Charles I at the junction of the Strand, Whitehall and Cockspur Street, just south of Trafalgar Square.
Saarland national football team
The Saarland national football team was the association football team representing Saarland from 1950 to 1956 during the French occupation following World War II. As France opposed the inclusion of the Saarland in the Federal Republic of Germany until 1956, they administered it separately from Germany as the Saar protectorate.
As the local population did not want to join France, separate organisations were founded, like in 1950 a NOC that led to an appearance of Saar at the 1952 Summer Olympics. Also, considering themselves not an independent nation different from Germany, the football team was not designated as a "national team", and was more generally referred to as a "selection" (German: Auswahl) or some similar term.
Sunday, 9 May 2010
London City Airport
London City Airport is a single-runway airport, an airport for use by STOL (Short Take Off and Landing) airliners. It principally serves the financial district of London and is located on a former Docklands site, 6 NM (11 km; 6.9 mi) east of the City of London, opposite the London Regatta Centre, in the London Borough of Newham in East London, England. It was developed by the engineering company Mowlem in 1986/87.