One of the largest and oldest cities in the world awaits attendees of ICA’s 63rd Annual Conference. London is the capital of England, of the United Kingdom, and, for centuries, was the de facto capital of the world. The enormous metropolis—comprising 8 million residents, 32 boroughs, and over 600 square miles in area—remains one of the world’s most important and busiest cities on many fronts. Indeed, the problem with exploring London is that there is too much to see and do.
The International Communication Association nonetheless offers the opportunity to explore London from 17-21 June, when the 2013 conference will take place. And, as such, we also begin in this issue of the Newsletter to explore some of its highlights. Among them is the site of the Conference, one of the central boroughs and home to a number of the city’s most famous attractions: Westminster.
Though Westminster now adjoins the original and ancient City of London, and has since the 1500s, it was a distinct city in both character and geography (separated by several miles of pasture) when it was founded in approximately 1040 AD. King Edward the Confessor at that time ordered the construction of Westminster Abbey, which would serve as his own royal burial church as well as the coronation site for his successor.
At the same time, Edward began constructing the Palace of Westminster—combined with the Abbey, it would establish the City of Westminster as the seat of government for the next thousand years. Indeed, when the first official Parliament of England met in 1295, it did so in the Palace of Westminster, where it has remained long after the monarch moved out.
While they’re no longer the original structures, Edward the Confessor’s two buildings (along with a third not built until the 18th century—more on that below) are still the definitive landmarks of Westminster. Westminster Abbey, the current incarnation of which was built in 1245 (with its towers built 500 years later) retains the purposes for which it was built: It has hosted the coronation of every English, and ultimately British, monarch since William the Conqueror’s in 1066. (That’s 41 coronations, for history buffs.) It has been even more active as a funeral site. Not only has every monarch had his or her funeral there, but 17 of them are actually buried in the abbey, including (Saint) Edward the Confessor. It is not limited to royal burials, however: Many of the most important figures in English history are also interred at the Abbey, including Ben Jonson, Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and several Prime Ministers.
Most present-day observers, however, know Westminster Abbey as the site of royal weddings. Here Prince Charles and Princess Diana were married in 1981, followed 30 years later by their son Prince William’s wedding to Kate Middleton. Both were watched on television by millions of people around the world. Truly, Westminster Abbey holds a unique place in the history and the hearts of Britain.
The Palace of Westminster endured in its original medieval structure until a fire in 1834. Rebuilt in the Gothic style, the sandstone building survived The Blitz by the Germans in World War II. No monarch has resided in the Palace since Henry VIII, and since then it has been better known by the name of its primary occupant: The Houses of Parliament. The House of Lords and House of Commons both meet in the gigantic building on the edge of the Thames River, and the Queen also attends the annual State Opening of Parliament, making it one of the great national symbols of the United Kingdom.
Of course it helps that the building features the world’s most famous clock tower: Big Ben. Actually, the 300-foot (96m), 16-storey tower is officially named Elizabeth Tower, and the timepiece is the Great Clock of Westminster; Big Ben refers to the massive 13-ton bell in its belfry, as iconic in sound (tuned to a low A and sounding with a unique twang thanks to a crack in its side) as the full Gothic Revival tower is in image. It is the focal point, for example, of New Year’s celebrations in the United Kingdom: Every television and radio station in the nation broadcasts its midnight chimes on 1 January. The clock is also known for its reliable timekeeping. Since its inauguration in 1859, it has struck every hour on the hour— precise to within one second—of Greenwich Mean Time.
The 18th century landmarks of Westminster are also great buildings of state and government, this time active residences. On the government side, just two blocks north of the houses of Parliament, there’s Downing Street. The one-block street just off Saint James Park contains a row of townhouses that are used as residences and offices for the highest-ranking members of Her Majesty’s Government. The centerpiece of that famous block, of course, is 10 Downing Street, the official home of Britain’s Prime Minister. Built in 1684 and designed by London’s great architect Christopher Wren, it was offered to Robert Walpole (considered the first Prime Minister) in 1732 and has been the official residence ever since.
One of the most famous addresses in the world, the house also has what’s often called the world’s most famous front door—paneled steel, painted a high-gloss black with the number 10 painted in white, featuring a lion’s-head knocker and a brass mailbox, with a semicircular fan window above. The Prime Minister often gives important speeches and press briefings standing in front of the door, and formally receives guests there. It’s also a favorite photo op for tourists and visiting celebrities, which have boosted the door’s fame and symbolic status.
The famous state residence is the enormous one on the far side of Saint James Park from Downing Street: Buckingham Palace, the London home and office of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and all of her predecessors since Queen Victoria. It was built in 1705 as a private townhouse for the Duke of Buckingham; purchased by the Crown in 1761; enlarged into an 830,000-square-foot over several decades; and became the official seat of the monarchy in 1837.
If Downing Street and the Houses of Parliament are the symbols of the people and their self-determination, Buckingham Palace is the symbol of the glory and grandeur of the state. The Queen’s subjects rally there in times of great significance for the UK. The state rooms of the palace are open to the public for tours during the late summer; however, the Palace grounds are the real attraction. This includes the enormous Victoria Monument at the main gates, as well as the forecourt where the famous ceremony of the Changing of the Guard is held every day.
These are the most iconic of the landmarks in Westminster. However, there is another major landmark there that compares to these in historical and political importance. That’s the Churchill War Rooms, which from 1939 to 1945 served as the fortified headquarters of the British War Command in World War II. The War Rooms are a bunker complex that was constructed underneath the Treasury Building (around the corner from Downing Street); it was begun in 1938, when war in Europe became a looming possibility, and became operational just 5 days before the German invasion of Poland. Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his war cabinet directed the war from within this bunker, which included offices, the Cabinet Meeting Room, and the Map Room.
Abandoned with the end of the war in 1945, the rooms were largely left intact. They were taken over by the Imperial War Museum in the 1970s and are now open to the public as a museum of the war as well as of the life of Churchill—named in a national poll as the greatest Briton who ever lived.
Westminster, then, is the true capital of the United Kingdom—it just happens to have grown into a borough of London, the largest metropolis in Europe. Both the borough and the metropolis are the site of ICA’s 2013 Conference, but the former, serving as the immediate environs of the Conference, presents a unique opportunity to examine the history and engine that drive our host nation.
