Archive for the ‘Greater London’ Category

Shipping Containers for sale in Westminster London

Estimated Population: 181,766

Westminster is the area located immediately to the west of the ancient City of London, in the centre of the wider conurbation of London. The name was historically used to describe the area around Westminster Abbey – the West Minster, or church, that gave the area its name – which has been the seat of the government of England for more than nine hundred years. The name is also used for the modern administrative entity of the City of Westminster, which covers a wider geographical area encompassing the former villages of Marylebone, Paddington and Tyburn – now collectively described as London’s West End.

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 of England. The nearby Palace of Westminster came to be the principal royal residence after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, and later housed the developing Parliament and law courts of England. Although the monarch had a strong presence in the City of London in the shape of the Tower of London, he did not actually live there (sensibly enough, given London’s volatility and insanitary nature). London thus developed two distinct focal points – an economic one in the City of London and a political/cultural one in Westminster, where the Royal Court had its home. This division is still very apparent today.

The monarchy later moved to other palaces elsewhere in the city, and the law courts have since moved to the Royal Courts of Justice, close to the border of the City of London. The area is still the centre of government, with Parliament now located in the Palace of Westminster and most of the major Government ministries situated in Westminster, centred on Whitehall. “Westminster” is thus often used as shorthand for Parliament and the political community of the United Kingdom generally. The civil service is similarly referred to by the area it inhabits, Whitehall, where there was also once a royal palace. “Westminster” is consequently also used in reference to the Westminster System, the parliamentary model of democratic government that has evolved in the United Kingdom. The Westminster System is used with some adaptation in many other nations, particularly in the Commonwealth of Nations and other parts of the former British Empire.

Shipping Containers for sale in Westminster London

Shipping Containers for Sale in London

Estimated Population: 7,172,091

The name London comes from the Latin name Londinium, as London was founded by the Romans during their reign over the island— although there is some slight evidence of pre-Roman settlement. (The BBC History website, however, claims that the name Londinium is actually “Celtic, not Latin, and may originally have referred to a previous farmstead on the site;” this also implies that there indeed were pre-Roman settlements in the area.) This fortified Roman settlement was the capital of the province of Britannia.

Around 61 A.D. the Iceni tribe of Celts lead by Queen Boudicca stormed London and took the city from the Romans. The Celts burnt the relatively new Roman town to the ground, and archaelogical digs have revealed a layer of red ash beneath the City of London which is believed to be the burnt remains of the old Roman town.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, Londinium was abandoned and a Saxon town named Lundenwic was established approximately one mile to the west in what is now Aldwych, in the 7th century. The old Roman city was then re-occupied during the late 9th or early 10th century.

Shipping Containers for Sale in London