London (Cromwell the Great)

London
Timeline: Cromwell the Great

Seal and Coat of Arms of the Amalgamated Government of London (aka County of London). Informally used to depict whole of London.
Country	Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland
Home country	England
County	Middlesex
Demonym	Londoner
Founded	Romans circa 43 AD (as Londinium)
Amalgamated Government of London	(Metropolitan Commissioner for London, City of London and London Metropolitan Board)
Population	5 million aprox.
Time zone	UTC 0

You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.
(Samuel Johnson, quoted in The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1791) by James Boswell)

London is the capital city of the Commonwealth and England (Home Country). It is the most populous city in the Commonwealth with a metropolitan area of over 5 million inhabitants. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain, London has been a major settlement for two millennia. The Port of London, detached from the City of London during the European Revolutionary Wars, is also the major port of the British Islands.

London is the seat of the Government of the Commonwealth. Many government bodies, as well as the Lord Protector's residence and office and Council's premises are based close to the New Palace of Whitehall, particularly along Whitehall, and the Commonwealth Parliament.

London does not have a single unitary local authority as Manchester, Birmingham and Sheffield. There are at least three local authorities: the City of London Corporation, the Metropolitan Commissioner for London (the former County Commission for London) and the London Metropolitan Board. The creation of the Amalgamated Government of London, also know as the County of London, brought together these three authorities chaired by the Metropolitan Commissioner that is charge of public order.

History

The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through the central parts of the City of London from Sunday, 2 September to Wednesday, 5 September 1667. The fire gutted the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall. It threatened but did not reach the aristocratic district of Westminster, New Palace of Whitehall, and most of the suburban slums. It consumed 13,200 houses, 87 parish churches, St Paul's Cathedral, and most of the buildings of the City authorities. It is estimated to have destroyed the homes of 70,000 of the city's 80,000 inhabitants. In 1669 it was reopen City of London Exchange in new building after the old one destroyed by the Great Fire.

Parliament approved the Rebuilding of London Act 1667. This Act regulated the rebuilding as well as authorizing the City of London Corporation to reopen and widen roads, making the anniversary of the fire a feast day and erecting the Monument. There plans to rebuilt the City in a grandiose new manner with wide avenues, however all came to nil and the reconstruction followed the old city grid. However the great building on the time was Christopher Wren's rebuilt of St. Paul's Cathedral in 1670 and the Monument to the Great Fire of London.

During the 19th century there were several schemes and attempts to establish a London-wide elected authority that covered the City of London and its growing metropolitan area that was outside its authority. The Local Government Electoral Reform Act of 1824 that reformed all local authorities in the British Islands and established the election of its authorities did not effect the City of London. The establishment of the Metropolitan Police District in 1830 for the Metropolitan London prompted also the creation of police force for the City of London in the same legislation. However plans for a comprehensive and wide-city reform proposed by Radical Progressive met opposition and was fought by the City of London and the conservative National Constitutional PU. It had lukewarm support from the Civic PU and Municipal Reform PU. A proposal of reform in 1839 meant the fall of the Radical Progressive Council of Lovell Prichard. The minority Civic-National Constitutional Government agreed on principle for a reform in the governance of Metropolitan London but less ambitious than the failed London Government Bill.

The Metropolitan London Act of 1841 approved by the minority Civic-National Constitutional Government of Lord Philip Cox established a form of government for London excluding the City of London.

Governance of London

City of London

City of London

Flag Coat of Arms Wards of the City of London Motto Domine Dirige No (Latin) ("O Lord Direct us")
Founded	Romans circa 43 AD (as Londinium)
Lord Mayor	(elected by aldermen for a one year term)
Area	1.12 sq mi ( 2.90 km2) km²
Population	150.000 aprox.

The City of London contains the historic centre and the primary central business district of London in 1,12 square miles (Aprox. 2.90 km2). It constituted most of London from its settlement by the Romans in the 1st century AD to the Middle Ages, but the agglomeration has since grown far beyond the City's borders.

The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the municipal governing body of the City of London, the historic centre of London. There is no surviving record of a charter first establishing the Corporation as a legal body. The corporation's structure includes the Lord Mayor, the Court of Aldermen, the Court of Common Council, and the Freemen and Livery of the City. the City of London is divided in 26 wards. The Court of Aldermen represents the wards, with each ward (irrespective of size) returning one Alderman. The Court of Common Council with representation of the wards according to their population and up to 240 the total membership of the Common Council. The chief executive of the Corporation holds the ancient office of Town Clerk of London.

The City as historically resisted the attempts to lose its charter and autonomy and its integration in a "Greater London City Council". The calls for a local government reform of London rose in 1830s, mainly in the platform of the Municipal Reform Political Union, the reports of the commission of inquiry of 1835 and 1839 had all in common that suggested an integrated authority for London and the relinquish the autonomy of the City. These efforts were defeated in Parliament. Only with the enactment of the Act that established the Amalgamated Government of London joining the City a joint administration and relinquishing its police powers.

The City of London is a major business and financial centre of the Commonwealth. The Bank of England is headquartered in the city and so are the main banks and financial institution of England and the Commonwealth.

London Metropolitan Board

London Metropolitan Board

Flag Coat of Arms London Metropolitan Board 1842 Motto Loci dulcedo nos attinet (Latin) ("The pleasantness of the place holds us")
Incorporated	1842
Chairman of the LMB	(elected by deputies of LMB for a one year term)
Area	484 sq mi (1,253 km2) km²
Population	4,900,000 aprox.

The London Metropolitan Board (LMB), constituted by the Metropolitan London Act of 1841, administers all the metropolitan areas outside the jurisdiction of the City of London besides the Port of London and the Thames Navigation Commission. The LMB is in charge of all public works (public buildings, sewers and pumps), slum clearance, vestry boards, school boards, poor law guardians within its territory. It does not control the Metropolitan Police District, City of London Police nor the Port of London Police.

A Metropolitan Commissioner for London, assisted by six deputies, named by the Protector-in-council is in charge to oversee public order, the Metropolitan Police, the courts of justice, and also its functions in the public relief system.

Metropolitan London Act of 1841 also created the metropolitan boroughs of Chelsea, Finsbury, Greenwich, Hackney, Lambeth, Marylebone, Southwark, Tower Hamlets and Westminster.

Each metropolitan boroughs is governed by a borough council consisting of a mayor, aldermen and councillors, the later two elected directly elected by the electoral divisions of the boroughs. The elected authorities of the metropolitan boroughs named their deputies to the LMB.

Metropolitan Commissioner Miranda Walmsley. Under her administration directed the urban renewal of London and major improvements of public hygiene.

Notable Landmarks of London

• Houses of Commonwealth Parliament
• Crystal Palace
• Somerset House
• Central Strand Magistrates Courts
• New Palace of Whitehall
• Watkin's Tower

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New Palace of Whitehall

New Palace of Whitehall
General information
Status	Complete
Type	Government (Commonwealth Council of State)
Architectural style	Main building Classical, Baroque and Two Lords style, annexes and renovations in Neoclassical, Belle Epoque and Early Modern.
Town or city	Westminster, London
Country	Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland
Completed	Old Palace (15–17th cent), Banqueting House (1622), New Palace (1670- aprox. 1710) and New Palace Pier (1675).
Design and construction
Architect	Inigo Jones, Christopher Wren and others

The Great Fire of London of also prompted the refurbishment of the Palace of Whitehall as the main government building and seat of the Commonwealth Council of State. Wren's proposal was partially considered along Inigo Jones's previous project. The result was a patchwork of styles (or a heap of houses as it was aptly described) due to different architects intervening, budgetary constraints, two fires that destroyed part of the new works, partial delay and work of several sections this in more than a 20 year period. In between a new pier and its passage to the New Place was projected and built. Under Protector Scott were the main works of the building considered completed.

However, due to delay of the scheme of having all government and state dependencies within the New Palace of Whitehall meant that alternate premises and buildings were occupied, built or purchase near the New Palace. For example the governmental and public archives, Admiralty, War Office, Treasury, Foreign Office had their own premises. Later new state functions compelled the use of the Somerset House as premise for accommodating the various administrative offices of Public Works and Relief and Welfare.

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