Hello hello! Map Man explaining the recent and turbulent history of the boroughs of London. Are there still complaints from boroughs to this day? Or has everything such as their boarders, names, etc. been fully resolved? I can understand these issues with their old boarders, and I can only imagine that lowering how many boroughs has been a positive thing for London? Upcoming reactions I'm excited about! 1) Why are British place names so hard to pronounce? How do you say Frome? 2) Why Wasn't the British Empire Ruled by A British Emperor? 3) Every Country England Has Invaded: Visualized 4) When the Strongest Rugby Players Collide 5) Isle of Man TT Highlights
No not much fall outs recently between boroughs but here's an interesting fact. All borough charge different council tax (property tax) on owned or rented property on a sliding scale depending on the value of your home. It covers things like trash collection, road maintence and general upkeep within your borough. However there are people living on the same street yards apart but fall into different boroughs and one may pay £100s more per year on council tax! I pay £1600 a year in Harrow but Westminster (very central borough where Parliament is) would charge me £500 for the same size place.
I think the boroughs are pretty settled nowadays. There is a hangover from older times, in that some people and even some boroughs, claim to live in certain counties, rather than in Greater London, for the sake of addresses and postcodes (zip codes) anyway. At one time, much of north and central London, was in the county of 'Middlesex' (derived from middle saxon, the name of the Saxon kingdom that existed here, long ago). Middlesex no longer exists but there's still a Middlesex County Cricket Club and some areas still have Middlesex as part of their address and/or postcode. Large parts of SW London were originally part of Surrey, a county that still exists and large parts of SE London were originally part of Kent, which also still exists. The northern parts of these 2 counties have been eaten up by London but some still use the county name in addresses and/or have Surrey or Kent postcodes.
You paused it at the point where he explained that the City of London was the site of the old Roman city of Londinium. The City is the oldest part of London and has a lot of special rights, powers and privileges, which it accrued over the millenia. It still has it's own police force, for instance, the City of London Police, whilst the rest of London is covered by the 'Met', or 'Metropolitan Police Force'. Nowadays the City of London, usually just referred to as 'The City', is London's financial centre, containing the Bank of England, London Stock Exchange and banks and finance houses from all over the World. The City and Wall Street vie with each other for the title of the World's financial capital, handing the crown back and forth between themselves, every few years. Other famous sites include the beautiful St Paul's Cathedral, which replaced the original St Paul's, as the original burned down in the Great Fire of London, in 1666. There's also the 'Tower of London', a castle commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1078. The famous 'Tower Bridge' gets it's name from the Tower of London, as the north side of the bridge is right next to the Tower. :)
The City of London is known as the financial power of not only London but the UK with bank of England, all major banks, financial institutes and insurance companies (although many of these moved to Canary Wharf in more recent times). There's a few sights tourists will visit inside the City of London but mainly Tower of London and St Pauls Cathedral.
London is a massive financial power, back and fourth in many ways with Wall Street here in the US I believe. I actually saved a video to watch and react to in the near future about the economy of London.
Aw nice one, jay foreman does incredible videos, great choice of video! 👍 His Unfinished London, Politics Unboringed, and Map Men videos are absolutely incredible. a really good one is "Why are British place names so hard to pronounce", and "Where is the North/South divide?". Love the subtle humour in his videos, and he manages to pack a whole lot of info in them Been anticipating this reaction since last night, as i was too tired and it was way too hot and humid to sit and watch anything at all. 😂 (ps - 3:55 The Tower of London is actually not included in the City of London borders. But it is a part of its old defensive perimeter)
I enjoyed your reaction and he said at the end there was a Part 2 when he said "how are the Boroughs run now? " and several other points including their logos. It's very interesting, my friend but could I suggest not talking over the video and pausing it when you made some interesting observations as we could not hear your views clearly and none of us, including you, could hear the bits that you talked over ..lol
Camden here !. I think most Londoners would probably give a district within a borough as the place they live, rather than the borough ...... the boroughs are quite big and not really 'localities'. Outside of London they would be pretty big cities in their own right, Camden's population is 270,000
Hello hello! Good to know that Londoners will say a district over a borough for where one lives. They are very large chunks of land, along with the population. Makes sense!
@@californianreacts The confusing thing is that the boroughs are often named after one of the districts within them. For example the borough of Barnet contains a town or area named Barnet. But an area like Golders Green for example is not really close to Barnet even though it's in the borough of Barnet.
Absolutely love the Map Men haha. Btw I think you'd find it really interesting to learn more about the Governors-General (I know Canada's has a lot of videos explaining their powers)
They are so entertaining! And full of information (and extremely random, off the wall information). For sure watching more! And appreciate the Governors-General suggestion. I'll check it out :)
You were speaking over the information about the City of London, the one square mile in the middle which has a separate Mayor and police force to the rest of London. You should watch RU-vid videos about what the City of London, Washington DC and the Vatican have in common ! Pretty mind blowing !
It's crazy how fast London's been growing, since that stat of 8.3 million population it's now an estimated 9.3 million (100-120,000 per year), and more than double that for the regional 'metro' population topping 23 million.
@@californianreacts It's basically an influx of the young people from across the country that come to London for opportunity and jobs (this of course happens annually for decades), while after a decade or two they'll retire or have kids in the 'burbs or outside London. Their kids in turn will return, setting off the cycle again. Real growth is a constant influx of immigrants (both moneyed and not so moneyed, who will follow the same cycle of retiring outside while sending their grown up kids back), plus periodic baby booms.
Yes as a tourist you probably wouldn't know of or even be bothered by the names of the different boroughs. You already commented that you think all the tourist stuff is in the City of London, and I think it's fair to say that the majority of tourists think that everything in central London is the City of London. Most of the tourist stuff is in Westminster (Buckingham Palace, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Street, Baker Street, Regent's Park, ZSL London) Greenwich (Cutty Sark, Old Royal Naval college, national maritime museum, Royal Observatory, prime meridian, The Dome (02), the stupid cable car thing) Kensington & Chelsea (Portobello Road/Notting Hill, Holland Park, Science, Natural History and V&A museums, Kensington Palace & Gardens, Harrods, Sloane Street, Kings Road, Royal Albert Hall) I could go on (and on) most of the inner London boroughs that are not the City of London, have tourist attractions.
Bromley is a large town in south-east London, England, located in the historic county of Kent and the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is 9.3 miles (15.0 km) south-east of Charing Cross, and had a population of 87,889 as of 2011.[2] A market town, chartered in 1158,[3] its location on a coaching route and the opening of a railway station in 1858 were key to its development and the shift from an agrarian village to commerce and retail. As part of the suburban growth of London in the 20th century, Bromley significantly increased in population and was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1903 and became part of the London Borough of Bromley, a local government district of Greater London, in 1965.[4] Bromley today forms a major retail and commercial centre.[5] It is identified in the London Plan as one of the 13 metropolitan centres of Greater London.[4] Ta Wiki
"city of London" isn't the touristy centre, it was where the Roman settlement was. It's now the main business area. You spoke over this section, perhaps pause it and rewind if you talk over the video.
The County level restructure across the whole of Great Britain in 1974 was far more controversial at the time. However all things pass and people get used to change after a few years of administrative chaos.
Interestingly, if you address something postally as “London” it means the London Postal District, which dates from the 19th century and is less than half the size of the 32 boroughs, and is just the N, NW, W, WC, SW, SE, E, and EC postcode areas. The outer areas are often still addressed as if they were still in their pre-1965 counties - Barking, Essex for instance, or Bromley, Kent, or Hounslow, Middlesex (unlike the other counties, Middlesex completely ceased to exist in 1965 - the old Middlesex County Hall is near Parliament and now houses the Supreme Court of the UK).
I'm not surprised you never heard of the restructuring it was only a concern of locals. My understanding is that the only concern locals have today over the boroughs is that they all have different tax rates.
The different tax rates do seem a little tricky. Always nice to have one base tax for larger areas, but I can see a point for each one to be unique as well.
Sorry about that! I'm slowly learning how to properly say many of these words. I'm too American at times when I read these. It will be fixed for part 2 of this video, which I just found out about :)
Every borough has street names showing what street and borough your in with metal or plastic street name plates on wall or on signposts. Each borough is also the name of the council you have to deal with being a resident of that borough too. The council taxes you per house per month for rubbish collections and recycling, local policing and overall borough management of the streets and houses. This is called the council tax and depending on the borough can be more expensive that the borough next to you. This has cause certain streets to have two councils controlling one side of the street to the other side. Which has caused issues with neighbours in the same street having different rubbish collection days and higher and or lower council tax. Council tax is NOT optional, every house has to pay it even the unoccupied ones still have to pay council tax. Other than that good choice for a learn from.
The people who constantly trash "London" as being X,Y and Z should take note of this video. The "London" they refer to is nothing more than 32 boroughs that have absolutely nothing in common with each other apart from the "London Borough" prefix that is attached to them. Each borough is as individual as the next with their own culture and ways. Neighbouring boroughs can be such polar opposites that it's like comparing a small town in the countryside with somewhere like Paris for example. So a lot of this "Londoners are rude" etc isn't accurate as very few of the people you may encounter do not live in London (it's a very small area).
I second this! And I see comments bashing other parts of the world often, and a few of "Londoners" which is unfortunate. Thankfully, not really on my videos but every once in awhile which I try to deal with peacefully unless they come back with some snarky comment, which does happen.
@@californianreacts To put the comment by Lee, about most people you meet not living in London into context. The resident population of the City of London is around 9,400. But over 500,000 work there.
I enjoyed your reaction and he said at the end there was a Part 2 when he said "how are the Boroughs run now? " and several other points including their logos. It's very interesting, my friend but could I suggest not talking over the video and pausing it when you made some interesting observations as we could not hear your views clearly and none of us, including you, could hear the bits that you talked over ..lol
A very good question. Unnecessary cost to residents. A platform for political aspirants at huge cost. Average council tax now above two grand. And a reduction in local democracy. Current mayor a very dangerous character. Khan.
All LB Bromley peeps still pretend they are part of Kent. It’s only been since 1965 after all. Penge, next door to Beckenham became part of London in 1900 so they were part of London when postcodes were handed out, so with their SE postcodes they are urban and cool compared to rural Beckenham with their agricultural BR3 postcodes.
And....because London is a collection of 32 self governing boroughs it is a metropolitan area, NOT a city. As a result, Birmingham is the UKs largest city.
@@chriso8485 - No it isn't. For starters, anyone who believes London isn't a city, by using twisted , nitpicking, hairsplitting logic, is deluding themselves. It's not how towns and citis are defined. Try giving that answer in a quiz, or geography exam and see how it goes. Even using your 'logic' it doesn't hold up, as there's the GLA, (Greater London Authority) with directly elected representatives and headed by the London Mayor. It sits above the London boroughs and is directly responsible for policing, transport, the environment etc, as well as coordinating the boroughs for London wide policies. Then there's the issue of Birmingham itself having 7 boroughs. Which further undermines your already faulty 'logic'. A common method of judging city size is continuous urban area. By that method Birmingham is Britain's 3rd largest city, after London and Manchester. Basically, there are several methods that can be used to judge the size of a city. None of them would rank Birmingham as Britain's largest. Depending on the method, Birmingham would come in 2nd most of the time, 3rd 1 or 2 times, 1st place never.
@@Codex7777 You're wrong unfortunately. Birmingham is only controlled by Birmingham City Council. It doesn't have a range of metropolitan boroughs and councils like London has. The West Midlands, of which Birmingham is a part, is made up of individual metropolitan boroughs and cities - just like London. The West Midlands has a mayor, and is also a combined economic and political area. So, by definition London is NOT the country's biggest city. It is in fact the smallest! If it is the biggest, why isn't the West Midlands or Greater Manchester a city?
I lived in London but too young to know that reform. It's not something you think about as long as the borough council do their job. For example, I grew up in Barking and Dagenham but would just say I am from Dagenham. It serves no purpose other than administrative duties.
I was very much opposed to the 1965 re-organization, in which Coulsdon & Purley Urban District was combined with the County Borough of Croydon to become the London Borough of Croydon. This “merger” was entirely inappropriate, since the characteristics of the two areas (which were roughly the same geographical size) were entirely different. Croydon was mainly a densely-populated urban area, while Coulsdon and Purley were almost entirely leafy suburbs and semi-rural areas. However, the population, and therefore the bulk of the representation on the new council, was heavily weighted in Croydon's favour. While when it had its own council to preserve the character of Coulsdon and Purley, it did so, Croydon London Borough council had no interest in doing so, and did not. Council service centres were withdrawn from Coulsdon & Purley and relocated to the centre of Croydon. Library stocks, for example, were seriously reduced in Coulsdon & Purley, and those at Croydon Central Library correspondingly increased. Grandiose schemes to redevelop the centre of Croydon were put in hand, to the extreme irritation of the inhabitants of Coulsdon & Purley, who couldn't see the point of having them, and didn't see why they should pay for them. Latterly, especially, Coulsdon & Purley have been seen by the council as areas ideally suited for denser housing development and have adopted a policy of bringing this about, amid the strong protests of the inhabitants, which can, however, be safely ignored, because their votes are not needed. Nor can it be argued that the present arrangement is more efficient, because Croydon council has gone bankrupt. Moreover, Coulsdon & Purley are natural parts of Surrey, not Greater London or Croydon. Greater London is, in any event, much too big. It needs trimming down considerably and should preferably be dispensed with as a concept entirely.
@@californianreacts I think this video about the city of London is good ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-LrObZ_HZZUc.html there are a couple of other different history things but I can’t think of them right now 😅
It's interesting how you Americans pronounce the word borough as 'boro'. To us (by 'us' I mean specifically to Londoners) its 'bur-ah' - there's no 'o' sound in it. But, I will admit this, it does drive me nuts when names with it are pronounced incorrectly. As in David Attenborough. It's not Atten-boro!
Apologies! I understand! I'll have it down for part 2. Unfortunately, I said it incorrectly countless times here. Yikes! Reminds me of Edinburgh as well, us foreigners butcher that one all the time as well.
@@californianreacts Hey man! It's cool. I do get that over here in the UK our name pronunciations hardly ever match how they're spelt. I've seen a fair few of your vids now so I know you're genuine and keen to learn, so there's no beef here.
It was a big event because it made for some gerrymandering for the time, rebalancing the overblown power of the richer voters. It made London the more left wing, progressive city it is today.
