Westminster
Westminster is an area of Central London, United Kingdom, within the City of Westminster. It is the location of the Palace of Westminster, which houses the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
Westminster is situated south west of the City of London and half a mile (0.8 km) south west of Charing Cross.
History
The name was historically used to describe the area around Westminster Abbey – the West Minster, or monastery church, that gave the area its name – which 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 which covers a wider geographical area and since 1965 has included the former boroughs of St. Marylebone and Paddington.
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. 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.
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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.
Close to the Palace of Westminster and Westminster Abbey is Westminster School, one of the major English public schools. Three of the four campuses of the University of Westminster are within the borough, although none in Westminster proper.
The area has a substantial residential population, a surprisingly large proportion of which is a traditional London working-class community living in council and Peabody Trust estates at the back of Westminster Abbey and off Millbank. There is also a substantial working class community in the north of the borough.
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.
Bibliographic References
- 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 by W H Manchee. With a Foreword by Walter G. Bell and 36 illustrations which relate to documents (some pull-outs) and artefacts [1].
- An Account of the Formation and Early Years of the The Westminster Fire Office by E A Davies (Includes black and white photographic plates with a colour frontispiece of 'A Waterman') With a foreword by Major K M Beaumont [2].
Education
- For education in Westminster see the main City of Westminster article.
Footnotes
External links
- http://www.westminster.gov.uk
- 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
