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London

Test your knowledge ofA and its Visuals05 Orchard.qxd:Layout 1 30/9/10 14:10 Page 2

So you think you know about London?

A magnet for millions of visitors from across the globe, one of the world’s leading financial centres, a cultural beacon, a place of fascinating and enduring history, a city of extremes of wealth and poverty and home to more than seven million residents.

By any reckoning London is one of the world’s most remarkable cities. But, as those responsible for planning, developing, and delivering the myriad services that keep London thriving are well aware, London is also a city of remarkable challenges. Since 2000 London has seen the return of two tier regional and . The Mayor and the Authority are responsible for strategic decisions in the capital. But from parking to adult care, from waste services to library services and from planning to education, it is the capital’s 33 local councils that are responsible for the majority of services Londoners use and need daily. Try taking this quick quiz to test your knowledge of London and we hope the answers will tell you a bit more about the work of London local government and its role in shaping this great city. There are 10 questions in each category: science and nature; people and population; places; sports and culture and number crunching – the answers can be found at the back of the book and detailed references are available on the website. Visuals05 Orchard.qxd:Layout 1 30/9/10 14:10 Page 3

London Councils

London Councils is the representative body for London local government committed to fighting for the best possible deal for our members – the 32 , the , the Metropolitan and the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. Much of our work involves lobbying the government and others on behalf of our member councils, not only for a fair share of resources, but also to protect and enhance councils’ powers to do the best possible job for their residents and local businesses. We develop policy and do all we can to help London councils improve the services they deliver. We also run a range of services ourselves, all designed to make life better for Londoners. For instance we run the concessionary fares scheme, which gives a million older and disabled Londoners free travel on buses, tubes and trains. The scheme costs more than £260 million a year and is paid for by our member councils. London Councils is a cross-party organisation, funded and run by our member authorities to work on behalf of them all regardless of political persuasion. London Councils’ main policy decisions are taken by our Leaders’ Committee, which brings together the leaders of all member authorities once a month 1 at our office at 59 /2 Street, close to . You can find out more about London Councils and our wide range of work at www.londoncouncils.gov.uk Visuals05 Orchard.qxd:Layout 1 30/9/10 14:10 Page 4

Residents of Q1which UK region generate the highest

domestic output of CO2 per person: Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland or London? Science and nature

How much of Q2 London’s land is occupied by housing?

a) half b) a third c) a quarter

What strange How much of Q3 memento of a Q4 London is still vital medical discovery farmland today? from 1796 can be found at St George’s Hospital, Tooting?

When and where Q5 was the first ever television broadcast? (And for a bonus point – what was it of?) Visuals05 Orchard.qxd:Layout 1 30/9/10 14:10 Page 5

What animal has If London’s Q6 an estimated Q7municipal waste London population of was put straight into 10,000? Canary Wharf Tower, how long would it take to fill it to overflowing?

a) eight days b) eight months c) eight years

Most Londoners Q8 know that the ‘Prime Meridian Line’ passes through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, but when was it first internationally recognised as the line that marks 0 degrees longitude?

a)1684 b)1784 c)1884

Which of the Q10 following cities has the lowest average annual rainfall and which has the highest?

a) London b) Paris c) Rome When and where d) New York Q9 did Londoners first ‘spend a penny’? Visuals05 Orchard.qxd:Layout 1 30/9/10 14:10 Page 6

Which London Q1borough has the largest population?

After the UK, Q2what is the most common country of birth for London residents?

People and population

How old is the Q3average London councillor?

Which is the Q4most densely populated ? Visuals05 Orchard.qxd:Layout 1 30/9/10 14:10 Page 7

Which Which is the Q5tube line Q6least deprived carries the most London borough? passengers?

Which is the Q7most religiously diverse borough in London?

Which two Which borough Q8London boroughs Q9 has the highest have a BAME (black, proportion of people Asian and minority over 60? ethnic) population of more than 50 per cent?

What Q10 proportion of London children are currently living in poverty (below 60 per cent of national median income)? Visuals05 Orchard.qxd:Layout 1 30/9/10 14:10 Page 8

London has four Q1UNESCO World Heritage sites – can you name them?

Places

Collectively, how Q2many around the world are ‘twinned’ with London boroughs?

Where was Which London Q3London’s first Q4borough has airport built? the highest number of properties with a significant risk of flooding?

Where in London Q5is the largest mosque in western Europe? Visuals05 Orchard.qxd:Layout 1 30/9/10 14:10 Page 9

Which is the Which London Q6oldest surviving Q7public park is the bridge crossing the oldest in Britain? still in use today?

What is the most Q8 visited tourist attraction in London?

What is the Q9 longest journey possible (in miles) on the without changing trains?

Where is Q10 ‘Number 1, London’? Visuals05 Orchard.qxd:Layout 1 30/9/10 14:10 Page 10

Which London Q1palace links Pink Floyd, Blur and Robbie Williams?

Which borough is Q2home to three of ’s top football teams?

Who was the What annual Q3first player to Q4London sporting be disqualified from event have 746,635 a doubles match people taken part in, during the Wimbledon so far? Championships?

What event Q5does the annual Baishaki Mela celebrate? Visuals05 Orchard.qxd:Layout 1 30/9/10 14:10 Page 11

Name the five Q6host boroughs of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Which Q7show recently celebrated its 20,000th show and is currently the longest running production in London’s theatres?

Sports and culture

Which London Which famous Q8music venue Q9 London market could you stand Nelson’s took its name from a column in? Spanish silver port?

Why did Q10 London host the 1908 Olympic Games at short notice? Visuals05 Orchard.qxd:Layout 1 30/9/10 14:10 Page 12

What bright Q1idea could reduce London’s CO2 emissions by 575,000 tonnes a year?

London is home What, typically, Q2to 13 clubs in Q3do Londoners the professional football spend 1 hour and 16 leagues (The Premiership minutes a day doing? and the three divisions below it) – can you name them all?

Approximately Q4how many languages are spoken in London schools?

What proportion Q5of London’s Underground is actually underground? Visuals05 Orchard.qxd:Layout 1 30/9/10 14:10 Page 13

How many people Q6died in the 1666 ?

Number crunching

When did Q7London’s population first top 1 million?

How many How many roads Q8councillors are Q9 are there in the there in London? City of London?

How many Q10 volunteers will be needed to help with the 2012 London Games? Visuals05 Orchard.qxd:Layout 1 30/9/10 14:10 Page 14

Science and nature

At 3.55 tonnes per person, the UK region with the A1 highest per capita domestic output of CO2 is Northern Ireland. At 2.26 tonnes per person, London has the lowest. The RE:NEW programme being rolled out across London in 2010 will reduce the capital’s carbon emissions by thousands of tonnes by ‘retro-fitting’ existing housing to higher environmental standards.

One third of London’s land is taken up by domestic A2 buildings and gardens, which is by far the highest proportion of any region in England (the average is just 5 per cent). Despite this, London is still one of the greenest capital cities in Europe with an estimated 3,000 parks and open spaces.

A cowhide, belonging to a cow named Blossom, A3 from whom Edward Jenner extracted the world’s first successful smallpox vaccination in 1796, still hangs in the library of St George’s Hospital in . Today London boroughs are leading calls for health funding in the capital to be directed to early care and prevention. The proposals are set out in London Councils’ cross-party Manifesto for Londoners.

Although the total amount of farmland in London has A4 declined by about a third over the past 40 years, some 8 per cent (12,000 hectares) of London is still farmland today. The vast majority (85 per cent) of London’s farmland is located in just five boroughs; (30 per cent), Havering (24 per cent), Hillingdon (13 per cent), Enfield (12 per cent) and Barnet (6 per cent).

The world’s first ever television broadcast took place A5 on Tuesday 26 January 1926 at John Logie Baird’s laboratory in Frith Street, Soho. An invited audience of Royal Institution members watched grainy images of a ventriloquist dummy on what Mr Baird called his ‘Televisor’. Today, film, television and commercial industries are estimated to contribute more than £13 billion to London’s economy. Visuals05 Orchard.qxd:Layout 1 30/9/10 14:10 Page 15

Experts A6 estimate there are now 16 foxes per square mile in London and a total population of at least 10,000. In the late 1940s, the government began a programme of killing foxes in the London area. Despite this, foxes continued to thrive, and the practice was abandoned in the 1970s.

London produces 20 million tonnes A7 of waste a year and just eight days of London’s waste would be enough to fill Canary Wharf Tower to overflowing. The London Waste and Recycling Board (LWaRB) was set up in 2008 with the aim of reducing London’s waste and increasing the proportion that is recycled.

In October 1884 delegates from 25 countries A8 met at the International Meridian Conference and overwhelmingly voted to adopt Greenwich as the Prime Meridian marking 0 degrees longitude on nearly all the world’s maps. Today, Greenwich is one of the most popular tourist destinations outside , with nearly 10 million visitors a year.

The world’s first public conveniences appeared at the A9 in Palace in 1851. More than 800,000 visitors paid one penny to use the facilities. In recent years London’s boroughs have launched a number of initiatives to improve access to public toilets including community toilet schemes where businesses are supported to make their facilities freely available to residents, visitors and tourists.

At 588mm per year London A10has less rain on average than Paris (607mm) Rome (802mm) and little more than half of New York’s downpour, which averages a whopping 1,023mm a year. Despite this, the presence of the Thames means that flooding remains a risk to the capital. Flood planning is one of the key tasks of the London Resilience Team, which brings together strategic organisations in the capital, including the Mayor, London Councils, TfL and the emergency services to plan and prepare for potential emergencies in the capital. Visuals05 Orchard.qxd:Layout 1 30/9/10 14:10 Page 16

People and population

Croydon A1 currently has the largest population of any London borough, at just under 342,000 people. Accurately counting London’s very mobile and diverse population is harder than elsewhere. The main source of population data is the census. London Councils is working closely with the Office for National Statistics to make sure the 2011 census captures London’s population statistics as accurately as possible.

After the UK, the most common country of birth for A2 London residents is India, where 210,000 London residents were born. This is followed by Ireland, Poland and Bangladesh, and compares to five million who were born in the UK. An estimated 1.3 million people move into and out of London each year making it harder for London boroughs to plan and deliver services to residents than in areas that do not experience the same population ‘churn’.

The average London A3councillor is 54 years-old. This is lower than any other region and significantly lower than in the Shire counties where the average age of councillors is 62 years-old. London Councils’ be a councillor campaign was launched in 2008 to encourage more younger people, women and BAME groups to stand for election as councillors and further diversify London’s local democracy.

Kensington and Chelsea is London’s most densely A4populated borough with 14,727 people per km2. At around 2,750 people per km2, the City of London has one of the lowest population densities, but during the working day this shoots up to 100,000 people per km2, as 300,000 people work in the Square Mile.

With 207 million passenger journeys a year, the A5Northern line is London’s busiest tube line. This is closely followed by the Central line and the District line. These numbers include journeys made by more than one million Freedom Pass holders. Provided by London boroughs, the Freedom Pass allows older and disabled Londoners free travel on almost all public . Visuals05 Orchard.qxd:Layout 1 30/9/10 14:10 Page 17

Richmond is the least deprived London borough. A6 However, there are extremes of wealth and poverty in London, and even the more well off boroughs have pockets of deprivation. This means no London borough is among the 10 per cent least deprived boroughs in the country. Richmond is the only London borough in the 20 per cent least deprived.

Harrow has the greatest A7 religious diversity in England and Wales, with a 62 per cent chance that two random residents would be from different religious groups. Harrow’s main religious groups are Christian (47 per cent), Hindu (20 per cent), Muslim (7 per cent) and Jewish (6 per cent). It has the highest density of Gujarati Hindus in the UK, while Stanmore and Synagogue has the highest membership of any single synagogue in Europe.

Newham and Brent are the two boroughs that A8 currently have a BAME population of more than 50 per cent. It is predicted that eight boroughs will have a BAME majority by 2031. However, levels of ethnic diversity vary across the capital. In Havering, Bexley and Bromley, the BAME population is around or under 10 per cent.

At 23 per cent, A9 Havering has the highest proportion of residents over 60 years-old. As the population is getting older, social care budgets will be stretched to meet increasing demand. London Councils has made the case for devolving funding and accountability to the local level, to improve services and save taxpayers money.

At 39 per cent (about 600,000 children) London A10 has by far the highest rate of child poverty of any UK region. The independent all-party London Child Poverty Commission, supported by London Councils and the between 2006-10, called on the government to continue to focus on tackling the capital’s high rate of child poverty. Visuals05 Orchard.qxd:Layout 1 15/10/10 14:37 Page 18

Places

London has four UNESCO World Heritage sites – A1 Palace and Abbey (listed in 1987), the (1988), Maritime Greenwich (1997), and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew (2003). English Heritage recruits councillors to act as Historic Environment Champions and persuade their local authority and community to support and enhance the historic environment. London has the highest number of champions of any region.

London boroughs are twinned with around 108 other A2 towns and cities across the globe. Several of these twinnings date back decades and were established to promote cultural, social and educational links between areas, as well as encouraging trade links and economic benefits.

The Aerodrome was built in 1915 as London’s A3 first airport, but was replaced by Heathrow in 1959. Croydon was the first airport in the world to introduce air traffic control in 1921 and was where Amy Johnson set out on her record-breaking flight as the first woman to fly solo to Australia in 1930. An all-party alliance of 19 London boroughs, known as the 2M group, joined forces to oppose plans to build a third runway at Heathrow and continues to lobby for more stringent noise controls.

Despite not bordering the Thames, Enfield has the A4 highest number of properties with a significant chance of flooding in London – 9,655 in total. Enfield includes the longest length of river corridor in London, known as the Loop, which covers more than 27 miles. London Councils has secured £3.2 million from Defra as part of the Drain London Forum to develop proposals for a strategic approach to surface water flood risk management across the capital.

The Baitul Futuh mosque A5 in Merton is the largest mosque in western Europe, covering 5.2 acres and accommodating up to 10,000 worshippers. It was opened in 2003 and cost £5.5 million, paid for by donations from the Ahmadiyya Muslim community. London Councils’ be a councillor campaign was launched in 2008 to encourage more younger people, women and BAME groups to stand for election as councillors and diversify London’s local democracy. Visuals05 Orchard.qxd:Layout 1 15/10/10 14:38 Page 19

The oldest surviving bridge crossing the Thames in A6 London is Richmond Bridge, built in 1774-77. The bridge replaced a ferry owned by the Crown that previously operated at this point on the river. Richmond is the most exported place name in the UK, giving its name to 55 towns on three continents.

The oldest public A7park in Britain is Park, stretching through London's East End and managed by Tower Hamlets. The park first opened to the public in 1845 and quickly became known as the People’s Park because of the number of important political rallies and meetings held there. There are 270 parks, gardens, heaths, commons and greens in London, largely funded by local government.

The British Museum is London’s most popular visitor A8 attraction with an average 5.9 million visits per year. It’s also the second most visited museum in the world after the Louvre in Paris. Sixty-four per cent of London's total Green Flags awarded by the CAA were for sport and culture services.

The longest A9 continuous journey on the London Underground is on the Central line, where a journey from West Ruislip to Epping covers just over 34 miles. The average tube train clocks up 76,800 miles each year, equivalent to travelling more than three times around the equator. Epping Forest runs from east London to but is managed by the City of London.

Number 1, London, is better known as Apsley A10 House, the Duke of Wellington's former residence on the south-east corner of Hyde Park. The grade I listed building acquired this nickname as the first house encountered after passing the tollgates at the top of . There are more than 18,500 listed buildings in London, of which 3 per cent are considered ‘at risk’. Ninety-three per cent are grade II listed and the boroughs are largely responsible for their stewardship. Visuals05 Orchard.qxd:Layout 1 30/9/10 14:10 Page 20

Sport and culture

Alexandra Palace in Haringey has played host to several A1 of the world’s biggest artists, including Pink Floyd, Blur and Robbie Williams. Haringey has long been a key hub for the UK entertainment industry and is today home to the highly regarded Entertainment Short Film Festival.

Hammersmith and is home to Chelsea, Fulham A2 and Queens Park Rangers FCs. Despite this, Hackney has a claim to be the true home of London football. Hackney Marshes are home to 75 football pitches (and three rugby pitches).

The first player to be A3disqualified from a doubles match during the Wimbledon Tennis Championships was Tim Henman in 1995 after he hit a ball in anger which struck a ball girl. Sport England has recorded that in the past 12 months more than 800,000 adults in London have taken part in some form of competitive sport.

Since it began in 1981 a total of 746,635 runners A4 have completed the London Marathon. In 2010 50 Southwark council staff worked on the marathon clean up from midday to 5pm and collected almost five tonnes of recyclable material from the route. LONDON MARATHON

Brick Lane’s Baishaki Mela has been held annually for A5 13 years to mark the Bengali New Year. The festival is the biggest Bengali celebration outside Bangladesh and West Bengal. London is the most ethnically diverse region in the UK. Of the 20 most ethnically diverse councils in the UK, 19 are in London. Visuals05 Orchard.qxd:Layout 1 30/9/10 14:10 Page 21

The five host boroughs of the 2012 Olympic and A6 Paralympic Games are Newham, Hackney, Waltham Forest, Tower Hamlets and Greenwich. London Councils has committed £1.8 million to enhance Londoners' involvement in cultural activity and volunteering to ensure that communities across London benefit from the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The Mousetrap by A7 Agatha Christie recently celebrated its 20,000th performance. The Mousetrap is the longest running West End production and has been running for 57 years. Around nine million people attend London’s theatres every year. London Councils has been working with local authorities to make sure that funding for the arts and cultural services continues and is available to residents, including through its cultural policy document Playing their part.

The O2 music venue (formerly known as the A8 Millennium Dome) has played host to Prince, the Spice Girls and Led Zeppelin and is big enough to accommodate Nelson’s Column (standing) and the Eiffel Tower (on its side). The O2 will also play host to the gymnastic events for London 2012.

Portobello A9Road takes its name from Puerto Bello, a Spanish silver port in the Gulf of Mexico that was captured by Admiral Sir Edward Vernon in 1739. is home to the world famous Portobello Market and the annual Notting Hill Carnival. The carnival is Europe’s biggest street festival, attracting more than one million visitors. The route of the carnival spans both Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster councils.

Rome pulled out of the 1908 Olympic Games after A10 the eruption of Mount Vesuvius devastated Naples in 1906 and the Olympic fund had to be diverted to rebuild the city. The 1908 Olympics were therefore held at White City, in Hammersmith and Fulham. In 2012 London will become the only city in the world to have hosted the Games three times. Visuals05 Orchard.qxd:Layout 1 30/9/10 14:10 Page 22

Number crunching

If every existing lightbulb in A1 London homes was replaced with an energy efficient bulb, the capital could save 575,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. Retro-fitting London’s older housing stock with measures such as loft and wall insulation could reduce London’s CO2 by a whopping 1,200,000 tonnes per year.

London has 13 football clubs in A2England’s top four leagues: Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, Fulham, West Ham, Barnet, Brentford, Charlton Athletic, Crystal Palace, and Redbridge, Leyton Orient, Millwall and Queen’s Park Rangers. In 2012 the new Stadium will host the final of both the men’s and women’s Olympic football tournaments.

With an average commute of A338 minutes each way, Londoners spend more time than people in any other region travelling to and from work. London Councils has been working with the GLA, TfL and others to boost the number of journeys Londoners make by bike where there is scope to significantly reduce congestion.

More than 300 languages are spoken in London schools A4 and in fewer than half the pupils have English as a first language. Despite the challenges this poses London’s schools, exam results have improved rapidly in recent years with the proportion of pupils gaining five or more good GCSEs rising from 45 per cent in 2000 to 64 per cent in 2008.

Surprisingly, less than half (45 per cent) of London A5 Underground is actually underground. The majority of the 249 miles of tube network is above ground. The Freedom Pass travel concession to older and disabled Londoners, giving them access to free travel on London’s tubes, trains and buses, is negotiated between London Councils and and paid for by London boroughs. Visuals05 Orchard.qxd:Layout 1 30/9/10 14:10 Page 23

Just six deaths were officially recorded as a result A6 of the Great Fire of London, although historians point out that official figures say nothing of the fate of the undocumented poor and that many more also died of hunger and cold in the winter following the fire. With nearly 7,000 staff, today’s , run by the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, is the third largest in the world (after New York and Paris).

London’s population officially exceeded one million A7 in 1811, at which point it was the largest city in the world. It remained the largest city in the world until 1957 when it was overtaken by Tokyo. London’s population is projected to rise to 8.5 million by 2026.

There are 1,861 council seats in London (excluding A8 the City of London which traditionally operates on a non-party political basis through its Lord Mayor and members of the Court of Common Council and ). The leaders of all 32 London boroughs and the City of London meet monthly to agree London Councils’ policies and priorities.

There are actually no ‘roads’ in the City of London. A9 As one of the oldest parts of the capital, the term road was not in use when the City’s streets, alleyways and passages were named. Today the City of London is the capital’s smallest local authority in terms of area, although the City owns and manages land outside the ‘Square Mile’, such as Hampstead Heath.

London 2012 hopes to secure up to 70,000 A10 volunteers to help make sure the London Games run smoothly and successfully. London Councils is working with LOCOG (the London Organising Commitee of the Olympic Games) to ensure as large a proportion of these volunteers as possible are recruited from London boroughs. Visuals05 Orchard.qxd:Layout 1 30/9/10 14:10 Page 24

London Councils 1 59 /2 Southwark Street London SE1 0AL www.londoncouncils.gov.uk

design: robsoncrome.com images: Philip Wolmuth/Third Avenue/Visit London/London 2012/ iStock publication date: November 2010

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