List of cities in the United Kingdom |
Councillor Patrick (Pat) John Stannard, Lord Mayor of Oxford (2004) with chain of office.
In the UK, city status is not automatically granted to a community meeting any
particular criteria. It can only be obtained by receiving a Royal
Charter. However some British cities which predate the historical monarchy have been regarded as cities since "time immemorial".
City status
Until the 1880s, a town was usually granted city status if it had a diocesan cathedral within its limits. As new dioceses were founded, city status was
granted routinely. This process was changed to allow Birmingham and other large
settlements that didn't have cathedrals to become cities (Birmingham's parish church was later "promoted" to a cathedral).
Well into the 20th century it was assumed that the mere prescence of a
cathedral was sufficient to elevate a town to city status, and on that basis the 1911 Encyclopedia makes the claim that Southwell (diocese
established 1884) and St Asaph (diocese is
historic) are cities. However, these were never granted charters recognising this by the crown, and so when the charter became
the important thing; they lost their city status.
These days, a town can apply for city status by submitting an application to the Lord Chancellor, who makes recomendations to the sovereign. These application competitions are usually held
to mark special events, such as coronations, royal jubilees or the Millennium.
Some cities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have the further distinction of having a Lord Mayor (as opposed to a Mayor). In Scotland the equivalent are
Lord Provosts. Five of these Lord Mayors are styled 'The Right Honourable'
instead of 'The Right Worshipful'.
There are currently 66 cities (including thirty Lord Mayoralties or Lord Provostships) in the UK: 50 cities (23 Lord
Mayoralties) in England, 5 cities (2 Lord Mayoralties) in Wales, 6 cities (4 Lord Provostships) in Scotland and 5 cities (1
Lord Mayoralty) in Northern Ireland. Those which have been cities
since time immemorial have '-' in the since column.
Rochester had city status from 1211 to 1998, but lost this status as a result of an administrative error when
Medway became a unitary
authority. The City of Rochester Society has pleaded for this status to be reinstated.
City councils have four main types - unitary authorities like
Leicester, London
boroughs like Westminster, district councils, like
Lancaster, and parish councils, like Hereford. All these are styled 'City Council'.
Many of the cities cover large rural areas and other towns with distinct identities. In some cases, notably Canterbury and Wakefield, the definition of 'city' is taken to breaking point.
City applications
For the 2000 city applications, held to celebrate the millennium, the following towns requested city status to be granted. The three winners were Brighton and Hove, Wolverhampton, and Inverness.
- England: Blackburn, Blackpool, Bolton, Brighton and Hove, Chelmsford, Colchester, Croydon, Doncaster, Dover,
Guildford, Ipswich, Luton, Maidstone, Medway, Middlesbrough, Milton Keynes, Northampton, Preston, Reading, Shrewsbury and Atcham, Southend on Sea,
Southwark, Stockport, Swindon, Telford, Warrington, Wolverhampton.
- Wales: Aberystwyth, Machynlleth, Newport, Newtown, St Asaph, Wrexham.
- Scotland: Ayr, Inverness, Paisley, Stirling.
- Northern Ireland: Ballymena, Lisburn.
For the 2002 applications, held to celebrate the Queen's Golden Jubilee, the entrants included all of the above towns (except Southwark) together with Greenwich and Wirral in England, Dumfries in Scotland, Carrickfergus, Coleraine, Craigavon and Newry in Northern Ireland. There was mild controversy
in the rest of the UK over the fact that two of the three winners of the 2000 competition
were English towns, and so 2002 was run as four
separate competitions.
The winners were: Preston, Newport,
Stirling, Lisburn and Newry.
Exeter was awarded Lord Mayoralty status in a separate application.
Cathedral towns
Now that being the seat of a Church of England diocese is no longer sufficient (or necessary) to become a city, there
are a number of cathedral towns. These are sometimes referred to as cities by their residents.
In England:
In Wales:
The 1911 Encyclopedia refers to Llandaff, Southwell and St
Asaph as cities, along with Armagh and Lisburn in Northern Ireland, which only gained the
status formally in 1994 and 2002 respectively.
See Also
External links
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