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55-604: Birdcage Walk is a street in the City of Westminster in London . It runs east–west as a continuation of Great George Street , from the crossroads with Horse Guards Road and Storey's Gate, with the Treasury building and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers on the northeast corner, to a junction with Buckingham Gate , at the southeast corner of Buckingham Palace . St. James's Park lies to

110-707: A portcullis as the main charge, which now forms the crest . The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the City of Westminster. Minster church Minster is an honorific title given to particular churches in England, most notably York Minster in Yorkshire, Westminster Abbey in London and Southwell Minster in Nottinghamshire. The term minster

165-459: A "church" and a "mynster" began to emerge. For instance, in the Leechdoms , the sixteenth day was propitious for establishing a mynster , and the sixth day of the moon for founding a church. This suggests that by the tenth and eleventh centuries, mynster was being used to refer to a "superior church" which was regarded as long-established and to which people paid their dues. An early appearance

220-628: A car or van, 6.0%; work mainly at or from home, 5.5%; bicycle, 3.1%; train, 3.0%. Westminster Children's Services administers many primary and secondary schools. In addition, there are several state-funded faith schools, primarily Church of England (CE), and Roman Catholic (RC), but Christian non-denominational (ND) schools are also in the borough, and there are several non-profit-making junior and senior independent schools . The city operates two reference libraries; Westminster Reference Library and Marylebone Information Service. Westminster Reference Library holds several special collections: of which

275-648: A city. In 1585 the Westminster Court of Burgesses was established to administer certain judicial powers in an area known as the City and Liberty of Westminster . From 1856 the area was also governed by the Metropolitan Board of Works , which was established to provide services across the metropolis of London. In 1889 the Metropolitan Board of Works' area was made the County of London . From 1856 until 1900

330-481: A culture that had not developed towns or cities. Kings, nobles and bishops were continually on the move, with their respective retinues, from estate to estate. Minsters were commonly founded by the king or by a royal thegn , receiving a royal charter and a corporate endowment of bookland and other customary agricultural rights and entitlements within a broad territory; as well as exemption from certain forms of customary service (especially military). The superior of

385-516: A few days ahead of that a royal charter was issued conferring city status on the new borough of Westminster from its creation. The Court of Burgesses, which had ceded most practical powers to the newer authorities, was finally abolished in 1901. The modern borough was created in 1965 under the London Government Act 1963 . It was a merger of the old Paddington, St Marylebone and Westminster metropolitan boroughs, and Westminster's city status

440-473: A formal rule: as for example a monastery or a chapter ; or to a church served by a less formal group of clergy living communally. In the earliest days of the English Church, from the 6th to the 8th centuries, minsters, in their various forms, constituted the only form of Christian institution with a permanent site. At the beginning of the period, they were the only form of permanent collective settlement in

495-404: A gift from Alhfrith to Wilfrid in around 660 to accompany the foundation of the minster at Ripon . An expansion of monasteries began around 670, with many substantial royal gifts of land. Kings made grants of land to named individuals to found a minster. In 734 Bede wrote a letter to Ecgbert (Archbishop of York) , warning that noble families were abusing the privileged legal status accorded to

550-444: A population of 204,300 at the 2021 census. The original settlement of Westminster was historically a separate urban area to the west of London, growing up around the minster church of Westminster Abbey. Westminster was an important centre of royal authority from Saxon times, and was declared a city in 1540. It was gradually absorbed into the urban area of London, but London's official city boundaries remained unchanged, covering just

605-454: A title of dignity in later medieval England , for instances where a cathedral , monastery , collegiate church or parish church had originated with an Anglo-Saxon foundation. Eventually a minster came to refer more generally to "any large or important church, especially a collegiate or cathedral church". In the 21st century, the Church of England has designated additional minsters by bestowing

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660-645: Is a London borough with city status in Greater London , England. It is the site of the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament and much of the British government . It contains a large part of central London , including most of the West End , such as the major shopping areas around Oxford Street , Regent Street , Piccadilly and Bond Street , and the entertainment district of Soho . Many London landmarks are within

715-508: Is at 14 St James's Square . Many countries' embassies or High Commissions are in Westminster. The current Westminster coat of arms was given by an official grant on 2 September 1964. Westminster had other arms before, which had a chief identical to the chief in the present arms. The symbols in the lower two thirds of the shield stand for former municipalities now merged with the city, Paddington and St Marylebone. The original arms had

770-414: Is first found in royal foundation charters of the 7th century, when it designated any settlement of clergy living a communal life and endowed by charter with the obligation of maintaining the daily office of prayer . Widespread in 10th-century England , minsters declined in importance with the systematic introduction of parishes and parish churches from the 11th century onwards. The term continued as

825-569: Is used mainly for Protestant churches. The German term can be used for some Roman Catholic churches, such as the Strasbourg Cathedral . The word minster ( Old English mynster ) was a rendering of the Latin monasterium , from Greek "μοναστήριον" ("monasterion"). In early English sources, monasterium and mynster were used interchangeably. They were applied to all communities who had devoted their lives to Christian observance, regardless of

880-450: The Diocese of London in 1540, by letters patent which also granted city status to Westminster, a status retained after the diocese was abolished in 1550. The area was historically part of the county of Middlesex . Whilst an important centre of royal authority from Saxon times, Westminster was not formally incorporated as a borough for local government purposes until 1900. However, it

935-555: The Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament) and Big Ben . Charing Cross is the notional centre of London and the location where distances from London are measured. This custom appears to have begun with the set distances of the 12 Eleanor crosses to Lincoln, England in the north, and expanded even after destruction of most of the crosses. These include Green Park , Hyde Park , Kensington Gardens , Regent's Park and St James's Park . In addition to parks and open spaces within

990-653: The 20th and 21st centuries, by adding an honorific title to existing parish churches. These have included Dewsbury (1994), Sunderland Minster (1998), Preston (2003), Rotherham (2004), Stoke (2005), and Newport (2008). St Andrew's Church, Plymouth became a minster church in late 2009. The Parish Church of St. John the Baptist in Halifax, West Yorkshire was elevated to minster status in November 2009. St James's Church in Grimsby

1045-712: The Aviary in their diaries. Storey's Gate, named after Edward Storey, Keeper of the King's Birds at the time of Pepys, was originally the gate at the eastern end of Birdcage Walk: the name is now applied to the street leading from the eastern end to Westminster Abbey , which was formerly called Prince's Street. Only the British Royal Family and the Hereditary Grand Falconer , the Duke of St Albans , were permitted to drive along

1100-528: The City of Westminster also have a large concentration of hedge fund and private equity funds. The West End is known as the Theatre District and is home to many of the leading performing arts businesses. Soho and its adjoining areas house a concentration of media and creative companies. Oxford Street is a busy shopping destination. The City of Westminster contains some of the most famous sites in London, including Buckingham Palace , Westminster Abbey ,

1155-570: The County of London was reorganised into metropolitan boroughs . The parish of Paddington became the Metropolitan Borough of Paddington , and the parish of the St Marylebone became the Metropolitan Borough of St Marylebone . The various territories within the old City and Liberty of Westminster became the Metropolitan Borough of Westminster . The new boroughs came into being on 1 November 1900;

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1210-859: The Sherlock Holmes, Arts and Business collections are the most comprehensive. In addition to the collections in Westminster Reference Library the city has two specialist libraries: the Westminster Music Library , the largest music library in the UK and the Westminster Chinese Library in the Charing Cross Library. Free City of Westminster operated public lending libraries in Westminster include: The London Library , an independent lending library funded by subscription,

1265-525: The South Coast including Clapham Junction , Sutton , Brighton , Eastbourne , Gatwick Airport ( [REDACTED] ), Guildford , Portsmouth , and Southampton . Services operated by Southern . Gatwick Airport [REDACTED] Services operated by Gatwick Express . The City of Westminster is served by 27 London Underground stations and 10 of the 11 lines. By 2009 Westminster City Council had electric vehicle charging points in 15 locations through

1320-413: The adjoining fields, eventually absorbing nearby villages such as Marylebone and Kensington , and gradually creating the vast Greater London that exists today. Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries abolished the abbey at Westminster, although the former abbey church is still called Westminster Abbey . The church was briefly the cathedral of the Diocese of Westminster created from part of

1375-497: The area called the City of London , broadly corresponding to the medieval walled city. From the 19th century some metropolis -wide administrative bodies were introduced. The County of London was created in 1889, replaced in 1965 by the larger administrative area of Greater London , which since 2000 has been led by the Mayor of London . The cities of London and Westminster retain their separate city statuses despite having long been part of

1430-516: The border with the City of London formed the Strand District . Beyond the liberty to the north, the two parishes of Paddington and St Marylebone were also governed by their vestries. The Westminster District was renamed the St Margaret and St John Combined Vestry in 1887, and unsuccessfully petitioned to be incorporated as a borough in 1897. In 1900 the lower tier of local government within

1485-437: The borough, including Buckingham Palace , Westminster Abbey , Whitehall , Westminster Cathedral , 10 Downing Street , and Trafalgar Square . The borough also has a number of major parks and open spaces , including Hyde Park , and most of Regent's Park . Away from central London the borough also includes various inner suburbs, including St John's Wood , Maida Vale , Bayswater , Belgravia and Pimlico . The borough had

1540-653: The borough, the City owns and maintains East Finchley Cemetery and crematorium in the London Borough of Barnet . Four National Rail stations serve the City of Westminster: [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Heathrow Airport [REDACTED] Services operated by Heathrow Express and Elizabeth line ( [REDACTED] ) . [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] South London, Sussex and

1595-410: The city (13 car parks and two on-street points). Users pay an annual fee to cover administration costs to register and use the points. By 2018 there were 60 electric vehicle charging locations. In March 2011, the main forms of transport that residents used to travel to work were: underground, metro, light rail, tram, 21.0% of all residents aged 16–74; on foot, 9.3%; bus, minibus or coach, 9.3%; driving

1650-541: The clergy, by making excessive landed endowments to minsters under their control. This reduced the overall stock of lands carrying the obligations of military service to the Northumbrian state. Alan Thacker states: The term 'minster' was applied by the Anglo-Saxons to all religious communities, whether of monks proper or of secular clergy, a usage which reflects the fact that many early Anglo-Saxon monasteries had assumed

1705-432: The ethnic group of respondents in the 1991 to 2021 censuses in Westminster. The borough ranks highest on one standard criteria in analysing housing supply and demand, the proportion of private rented accommodation relative to other types of housing in England. A study in 2017 by Trust for London and The New Policy Institute found that Westminster has the third-highest pay inequality of the 32 London boroughs. It also has

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1760-530: The former Roman city with its still-existing Roman walls, was repopulated and Lundenwic declined, becoming pastoral and partly known as Aldwych (Aldwic—'old village'), the name of which lives on for a section of Westminster. The origins of the City of Westminster pre-date the Norman Conquest of England. In the mid-11th century, King Edward the Confessor began the construction of an abbey at Westminster, only

1815-408: The foundations of which survive today. Between the abbey and the river he built a palace, thereby guaranteeing that the seat of Government would be fixed at Westminster, and inevitably drawing power and wealth west out of the old City of London. For centuries Westminster and the City of London were geographically quite distinct. It was not until the sixteenth century that houses began to be built over

1870-422: The gender of the occupants or the activities in which said occupants typically engaged. Monasterium was for instance applied equally to a small community of men living away from other secular settlements, to a large community of men and women living in a planned enclosure designed around a church, and to a widow and her unmarried daughters living in seclusion. The modern English term "monastery" does not express

1925-596: The latter two being separated from Westminster by the River Thames . Charing Cross in Westminster is the notional centre of London, being the point from which distances from London are measured. After the depopulation of Roman London in the 5th century, an Anglo Saxon agricultural and trade settlement likely developed to its west, associated with the Middle Saxons , sometimes called Lundenwic ('London village' or London port'). Over time, Lundenburh ('London fort'),

1980-494: The lower tier of local government within the metropolis comprised various parish vestries and district boards . Within the City and Liberty of Westminster, the three parishes of St George Hanover Square , St James Piccadilly and St Martin-in-the-Fields were governed by their vestries , whilst the parishes covering the central part of Westminster formed the Westminster District and the parishes and territories adjoining

2035-455: The minster was generally from the family of the founder. The minster's primary purpose was to support the king and the thegn in the regular worship of the divine office ; especially through intercession in times of war. Minsters are also said to have been founded, or extensively endowed, in expiation for royal crimes; as for example Minster-in-Thanet near Ramsgate . Minsters might acquire pastoral and missionary responsibilities, for instance

2090-559: The network of parishes familiar to this day. The old minsters mostly then were designated as parish churches. For these parish churches, their former pre-eminence was acknowledged by the occasional retention of the honorific title; and sometimes by the continued recognition of former estate churches within their ancient territories as being, in some degree, of subsidiary status and dignity. Otherwise however, old minsters might continue collective worship as collegiate churches; their clergy initially being designated as 'portioners', as each canon

2145-663: The north, whilst to the south are the backs of buildings on Old Queen Street, Queen Anne's Gate and Petty France , and, at the western end, the Wellington Barracks of the Brigade of Guards . The street is named after the Royal Menagerie and Aviary which were located there in the reign of King James I . King Charles II expanded the Aviary when the Park was laid out from 1660. Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn both mention visiting

2200-605: The organisation of the early Christian church in Anglo-Saxon England has been called the " Minster hypothesis ". Following the English recovery in the 10th century, surviving minsters were often refounded in accordance with the new types of collective religious bodies then becoming widespread in Western Europe , as monasteries following the reformed Benedictine rule, or as collegiate churches or cathedral chapters following

2255-544: The pastoral role which was ultimately the principal distinction of the secular college. Early Anglo-Saxon monks might baptize, preach, and administer the sacraments to the laity in their locality, and distinctions were further blurred by the existence of 'double monasteries' of nuns and secular clerks. In the last resort, however, monks could be free of pastoral obligations, while the secular minster always had its parish ('parochia') over which it exercised extensive and well-defined rights, including control over baptism and burial and

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2310-586: The receipt of various financial dues such as church-scot and tithe. The word derives from the Old English "mynster", meaning " monastery ", " nunnery ", " mother church " or " cathedral ", itself derived from the Latin "monasterium" and the Ancient Greek "μοναστήριον", meaning a group of clergy where the Brothers would cloister themselves to meditate . Thus, "minster" could apply to any church whose clergy followed

2365-506: The road until 1828, when it was opened to the public. By the mid-19th century, the walk had gained notoriety as a cruising ground for homosexual trysts. A new roundabout was built at the western end in 1903. Birdcage Walk formed part of the marathon course of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and is part of the current route of the annual London Marathon . [REDACTED] Media related to Birdcage Walk at Wikimedia Commons City of Westminster The City of Westminster

2420-535: The rule of Chrodegang of Metz . Consequently, by the 11th century, a hierarchy of minsters became apparent; cathedral churches, or head minsters having pre-eminence within a diocese ; surviving old minsters being pre-eminent within an area broadly equivalent to an administrative hundred ; while newer lesser minsters and field churches were increasingly proliferating on local estates; the difference being that lesser minsters had graveyards, where field churches did not. Of particular importance for these developments,

2475-562: The same connotations as the Latin monasterium , from which it derives, or the Old English mynster . This is because the term has come to be associated with contemplative regularity , such as that observed by the Benedictine or Cistercian orders, although this does not apply to the situation in Anglo-Saxon England prior to the tenth century. By the tenth century, a gradual distinction between

2530-519: The same urban area. The modern borough was created in 1965 as part of the same reforms which created Greater London, covering the area of the three former metropolitan boroughs of Westminster , Paddington and St Marylebone . The local authority is Westminster City Council . To the east, Westminster borders the City of London , with the boundary marked by Temple Bar . Other neighbouring boroughs (anti-clockwise from north-east) are Camden , Brent , Kensington and Chelsea , Wandsworth and Lambeth ,

2585-406: The second-least affordable private rent for low earners in London, behind only Kensington and Chelsea . In education, 82% of adults and 69% of 19-year-olds having Level 3 qualifications. The City of Westminster covers all or part of the following areas of London : Many global corporations have their global or European headquarters in the City of Westminster. Mayfair and St James's within

2640-634: The status on certain parish churches, the most recent elevation to minster status being St Mary Magdalene church in Taunton , Somerset on 13 March 2022, bringing the total number of current Church of England minsters to 31 (listed below), with almost half found in the Yorskhire and the Humber region and with Dorset and Devon as other areas with many historic minsters. The term also exists in German as " Münster " and

2695-467: The three minsters of north-east Herefordshire, Leominster , Bromyard and Ledbury , all active in their areas before the towns were founded on episcopal manors; but initially this appear to have been of secondary importance. In the 9th century, almost all English minsters suffered severely from the depredations of Viking invaders; and even when a body of clergy continued, any form of regular monastic life typically ceased. The important role of minsters in

2750-418: Was declared a city in 1540 on the elevation of Westminster Abbey to being a cathedral . From at least 1545 there was also a Westminster parliamentary borough (constituency). The Anglican Diocese of Westminster was short-lived, being absorbed back into the Diocese of London in 1550. Despite having no borough corporation and having ceased to be the seat of a diocese, Westminster continued to be described as

2805-575: Was dedicated as a minster on 16 May 2010. Croydon Parish Church was rededicated as Croydon Minster on 29 May 2011 by the Bishop of Southwark . The elevation of two churches in the Diocese of Norwich was announced in October 2011: St Margaret's Church, King's Lynn and St Nicholas, Great Yarmouth . Leeds Parish Church became Leeds Minster on 2 September 2012. St Mary's Church, Cheltenham became Cheltenham Minster on 3 February 2013. Holy Trinity, Hull became

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2860-717: Was in the Ecclesiastical History of the Venerable Bede (731). The modern German term " Münster " is the translation for minster. Monastery or cloister is called " Kloster ". The first minsters in the English-speaking parts of Britain were founded in the century after the mission to the Saxons led by Augustine of Canterbury in 597. The first cases for which documentary evidence has been preserved are Oswy's programme of 654/5, in which he endowed 12 small minsters, and

2915-448: Was supported by a set portion of the college's endowment income. During the 11th and 12th centuries many such former minsters were provided with new statutes by which their endowments were split between their complement of canons, such that each canonry then became a ' prebend '; but otherwise numbers of former minsters continued as 'portioner' colleges through the medieval period. The Church of England has designated additional minsters in

2970-451: Was the royal enforcement in this period of tithe as a compulsory religious levy on arable production. This vastly increased the resources available to support clergy; but at the same time strongly motivated local landowners to found their own local churches, so as to retain tithe income within their own estates. In the 11th and 12th centuries former lesser minsters and field churches, typically served by individual priests , developed into

3025-564: Was transferred to the enlarged borough. In 1966 the city was granted the right to appoint a lord mayor . The local authority is Westminster City Council, which meets at Westminster Council House (also known as Marylebone Town Hall ) and has its main offices at Westminster City Hall on Victoria Street. Since 2000, for elections to the London Assembly , the borough forms part of the West Central constituency. The following table shows

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