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• 
  

• 
  Aldgate
  Coordinates: 51°30′48″N 0°04′40″W / 51.5132°N 0.0777°W / 51.5132; -0.0777
  Aldgate was the eastern-most gateway through London Wall leading from the City of London to Whitechapel and the East End of London. It gives its name to a ward of the City bounded by White Kennet Street in the north and Crutched Friars in the south, taking in Leadenhall and Fenchurch Streets, which remain principal thoroughfares through the City of London, each splitting from the short street named Aldgate that connects to Aldgate High Street. Sir John Cass's school, where a plaque records the former placement of London Wall, is sited on the north side of Aldgate.
  The ward of Aldgate is bounded on the east by the line of the former City wall, effectively parallel with Houndsditch, which separates it from Portsoken ward; it is bounded on the south by Tower-street ward and on the west and north by Langbourn, Limestreet, and Bishopsgate wards.
  It is thought that a gate at Aldgate was already spanning the road to Colchester in the Roman period, when the City wall itself was constructed. The gateway stood at the corner of the modern Duke's Place and was always an obstacle to traffic. It was rebuilt between 1108–47, again in 1215, and reconstructed completely between 1607-09. The gate was finally removed in 1761; it was temporarily re-erected at Bethnal Green.
  
  wn.com/Aldgate
• 
  Barking
  Coordinates: 51°32′N 0°05′E / 51.54°N 0.08°E / 51.54; 0.08
  Barking is a suburban town in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, in East London, England. A retail and commercial centre situated in the west of the borough, it lies 9.1 miles (14.6 km) east of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Barking is an area of regeneration with two main centres of activity, Barking Town Centre and Barking Riverside.
  Its name came from Anglo-Saxon Berecingas, meaning either "the settlement of the followers or descendants of a man called Bereca" or "the settlement by the birch trees".
  "Barking", in English slang, is short for "barking mad". Barking is sometimes cited as the origin of the phrase. This is attributed to the alleged existence of a medieval insane asylum attached to Barking Abbey. However, the phrase is not medieval, and first appeared only in the 20th century. A more likely derivation is from comparing an insane person to a mad dog.
  
  wn.com/Barking
• 
  Basildon
  Coordinates: 51°34′34″N 0°29′19″E / 51.5761°N 0.4886°E / 51.5761; 0.4886
  Basildon ( /ˈbæzɪldən/)^{[citation needed]} is a town located in the Basildon District of the county of Essex, England.
  It lies 25 miles (40 km) east of Central London and 11 miles (18 km) south of the county town of Chelmsford. Nearby towns include Billericay to the north, Wickford northeast and South Benfleet to the east.
  It was designated as a new town after World War II in 1948 to accommodate the London population overspill, created from the conglomeration of four small villages, namely Pitsea, Laindon, Basildon and Vange (the new town took the name Basildon as it was the most central of the four villages).
  The local government district of Basildon, formed in 1974 was first led by Ryan O'Rourke and encapsulates a larger area than the town itself; the two neighbouring towns of Billericay and Wickford, as well as rural villages and smaller settlements set among the surrounding countryside, fall within its borders.
  Basildon Town is one of the most densely populated areas in the County of Essex, mostly due to its influx of families from the Boroughs of London. However, it is thought that Basildon's population will continue to increase as many people are re-locating to the Town from the Boroughs of London, Essex and the Country. This is mostly due to Basildon's booming economy in industrial areas, the Towns tertiary sector, and its close travel link to Central London.
  
  wn.com/Basildon
• 
  Bermondsey
  Coordinates: 51°29′55″N 0°04′33″W / 51.4986°N 0.0757°W / 51.4986; -0.0757
  Bermondsey ( /ˈbɜrməndziː/) is an area in London on the south bank of the river Thames, and is part of the London Borough of Southwark. To the west lies Southwark, to the east Rotherhithe, and to the south, Walworth and Peckham.
  Bermondsey may be understood to mean 'Beornmund's island'; but, while "Beornmund" represents an Old English personal name, identifying an individual once associated with the place, the element "-ey" represents Old English "eg", for "island", "piece of firm land in a fen", or simply a "place by a stream or river". Thus Bermondsey need not have been an island as such in the Anglo-Saxon period, and is as likely to have been a higher, drier spot in an otherwise marshy area. Though Bermondsey's earliest written appearance is in the Domesday Book of 1086, it also appears in a source which, though surviving only in a copy written at Peterborough Abbey in the 12th century, reliably describes earlier events. This is a letter of Pope Constantine (708-715), in which he grants privileges to a monastery at Vermundesei, then in the hands of the abbot of Medeshamstede, as Peterborough was known at the time.
  
  wn.com/Bermondsey
• 
  Bethnal Green
  Coordinates: 51°31′39″N 0°03′58″W / 51.5275°N 0.066°W / 51.5275; -0.066
  Bethnal Green is a district of the East End of London, England and part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, with the far northern parts falling within the London Borough of Hackney.^{[citation needed]} Located 3.3 miles (5.3 km) northeast of Charing Cross, it was historically an agrarian hamlet in the ancient parish of Stepney, Middlesex. Following population increases caused by the expansion of London during the 18th century, it was split off as the parish of Bethnal Green in 1743, becoming part of the Metropolis in 1855 and the County of London in 1889. The parish became a metropolitan borough in 1900 and the population peaked in 1901, entering a period of steady decline which lasted until 1981. The economic history of Bethnal Green is characterised by a shift away from agricultural provision for the City of London to market gardening, weaving and light industry, which has now all but disappeared. The quality of the built environment had deteriorated by the turn of the 20th century and was radically reformed by the aerial bombardment of World War II and the subsequent social housing developments. 173 people were killed at a single incident at Bethnal Green tube station in 1943. Bethnal Green has formed part of Greater London since 1965.
  
  wn.com/Bethnal_Green
• 
  Bexley
  Coordinates: 51°26′28″N 0°08′56″E / 51.441°N 0.149°E / 51.441; 0.149
  Bexley is a town in South East London in the London Borough of Bexley, England. It is located on the banks of the River Cray south of the Roman Road, Watling Street. There are two parts to the town - Old Bexley, still with the appearance of a village (and often referred to locally as "Bexley Village"), and more recent suburban sprawl that blends into the surroundings (which include Albany Park, Lamorbey, Bladindon, Blendon, and Bexleyheath). It is the suburban area that is now the main town centre of the borough, rather than Old Bexley. Bexley's Old Heath between Welling and Crayford now contains the council's main administrative offices and council chamber as well as suburban housing. The High Street is 12.76 miles from Charing Cross.
  The main landmark in Bexley is the Anglican St. Mary's Church which gives its name to the London Borough of Bexley electoral ward containing the village. The church's most distinctive feature is probably the unusual spire which resembles an octagonal cone balanced precariously on top of a truncated pyramid.
  
  wn.com/Bexley
• 
  Black Country
  Coordinates: 52°32′N 2°2′W / 52.533°N 2.033°W / 52.533; -2.033
  The Black Country is a loosely defined area of the English West Midlands conurbation, to the north and west of Birmingham, and to the south and east of Wolverhampton. During the industrial revolution in the 19th century this area had become one of the most intensely industrialised in the nation. The South Staffordshire coal mines, the coal coking operations, and the iron foundries and steel mills that used the local coal to fire their furnaces, produced a level of air pollution that had few equals anywhere in the world.
  The Black Country is relatively recent as a concept and identity, the expression deriving from the 1840s. It is popularly believed that the area got its name because of pollution from these heavy industries that covered the area in black soot. There is an anecdote (of dubious authenticity) about Queen Victoria ordering the blinds lowered on her carriage as the royal train passed through^{[citation needed]}. However, historians^[who?] suggest that it is more likely that the name existed even before the Industrial Revolution; outcroppings of black coal scarred the surface of the local heath, and the presence of coal so near the surface rendered the local soil very black.
  
  wn.com/Black_Country
• 
  Brimsdown
  Coordinates: 51°39′35″N 0°01′32″W / 51.6596°N 0.0255°W / 51.6596; -0.0255
  Brimsdown is a place in the London Borough of Enfield, North London generally known as the Lea Valley. The Brimsdown area is roughly located in the area either side of Mollison Avenue, to Bilton Way, just south of Ordnance Road, extending as far south as the Mollison Avenue/Jeffreys Road roundabout. It is home to the Brimsdown Industrial Estate and also includes a residential area just west of the Lea Valley railway line.
  This area was the eastern-most part of the old parish of Enfield.
  The area east of the Lea Valley Lines railway is almost exclusively reserved for industrial use, while west of this railway (which serves Brimsdown and Enfield Lock stations) is a residential area primarily built up in the 1930s which extends, without any particular border, to Enfield Highway, Enfield Wash and Enfield Lock. This residential area around Brimsdown Avenue, Brimsdown railway station and Brimsdown School is also considered part of Brimsdown.
  
  wn.com/Brimsdown
• 
  British Empire
  The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the largest empire in history and, for over a century, was the foremost global power. By 1922 the British Empire held sway over about 458 million people, one-fifth of the world's population at the time, and covered more than 33,700,000 km² (13,012,000 sq mi), almost a quarter of the Earth's total land area. As a result, its political, linguistic and cultural legacy is widespread. At the peak of its power, it was often said that "the sun never sets on the British Empire" because its span across the globe ensured that the sun was always shining on at least one of its numerous territories.
  During the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal and Spain pioneered European exploration of the globe, and in the process established large overseas empires. Envious of the great wealth these empires generated, England, France and the Netherlands began to establish colonies and trade networks of their own in the Americas and Asia. A series of wars in the 17th and 18th centuries with the Netherlands and France left England (and then, following union between England and Scotland in 1707, Great Britain) the dominant colonial power in North America and India. The loss of the Thirteen Colonies in North America in 1783 after a war of independence deprived Britain of some of its oldest and most populous colonies.
  
  wn.com/British_Empire
• 
  Canvey Island
  Coordinates: 51°30′58″N 0°34′59″E / 51.516°N 0.583°E / 51.516; 0.583
  Canvey Island (area 18.45 km² - 7.12 mi²; pop. 37,479) is a civil parish and reclaimed island in the Thames estuary in England. It is separated from the mainland of south Essex by a network of creeks. Lying only just above sea level it is prone to flooding at exceptional tides, but has nevertheless been inhabited since the Roman invasion of Britain.
  The island was mainly agricultural land until the 20th century when it became the fastest growing seaside resort in Britain between 1911-1951. The North Sea flood of 1953 devastated the island costing the lives of 58 islanders, and led to the temporary evacuation of the 13,000 residents. Canvey is consequently protected by modern sea defences comprising 15 miles (24 km) of concrete seawall.
  Canvey is also notable for its relationship to the petrochemical industry. The island was the site of the first delivery in the world of liquefied natural gas by container ship, and later became the subject of an influential assessment on the risks to a population living within the vicinity of petrochemical shipping and storage facilities.
  
  wn.com/Canvey_Island
• 
  Cheshunt
  Coordinates: 51°42′07″N 0°02′06″W / 51.702°N 0.035°W / 51.702; -0.035
  Cheshunt ( /ˈtʃɛzənt/) is a town in Hertfordshire, England with a population of around 52,000 according to the United Kingdom's 2001 Census. It is a dormitory town and part of the Greater London Urban Area and London commuter belt served by Cheshunt railway station. The town is located 13 miles (21 km) from Charing Cross, making it one of the closest parts of Hertfordshire to Central London.
  The Prime Meridian passes to the east of Cheshunt.
  The town name comes from the Old English name (as recorded in the Domesday Book) for the area, Cestrehunt, which probably refers to a "castle, erected by the Romans", the word cestre (along with the form ceastre), or even its modern forms, chester and caster being derived from the Latin castrum meaning "fort". The town Chester also derives from this root and it is an element in various English place-names. This is commemorated in the arms of the former Cheshunt urban district council.
  
  wn.com/Cheshunt
• 
  Chigwell
  Coordinates: 51°37′21″N 0°04′20″E / 51.6225°N 0.07227°E / 51.6225; 0.07227
  Chigwell is a civil parish and town in the Epping Forest district of Essex. It is located 11.6 miles (18.7 km) north east of Charing Cross. It is served by two London Underground stations and uses the London (020) area code.
  According to P. H. Reaney's Place-Names of Essex, the standard guide to etymology in the county, the name means 'Cicca's well', Cicca being an Anglo-Saxon personal name. In medieval sources the name appears with a wide variety of spellings including "Cinghe uuella" and Chikewelle". Folk etymology has sought to derive the name from a lost 'king's well', supposed to have been to the south-east of the parish near the border of what is now the London Borough of Redbridge. There were several medicinal springs in Chigwell Row documented by Miller Christy in his book History of the mineral waters and medicinal springs of the county of Essex, published in 1910. The proposal by 18th-century local historian Nathaniel Salmon that the "-well" element in the name derives from Anglo-Saxon weald (forest), indicating Chigwell's location in a royal demesne rather than Anglo-Saxon wielle (well) has long been superseded by modern onomastic study and is no longer credible.
  
  wn.com/Chigwell
• 
  Clerkenwell
  Coordinates: 51°31′34″N 0°06′13″W / 51.52604°N 0.103475°W / 51.52604; -0.103475
  Clerkenwell ( /ˈklɑrkənwɛl/) is an area of central London in the London Borough of Islington. From 1900 to 1965 it was part of the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury. The well after which it was named was rediscovered in 1924. The watchmaking and watch repairing trades were once of great importance. Clerkenwell was once known as London's "Little Italy" because of the large number of Italians living in the area from the 1850s until the 1960s.
  Clerkenwell took its name from the Clerks' Well in Farringdon Lane (clerken was the Middle English genitive plural of clerk, a variant of clerc, meaning literate person or clergyman). In the Middle Ages, the London Parish clerks performed annual mystery plays there, based on biblical themes. Part of the well remains visible, incorporated into a 1980s building called Well Court. It is visible through a window of that building on Farringdon Lane. Access to the well is managed by Islington Local History Centre and visits can be arranged by appointment.
  
  wn.com/Clerkenwell
• 
  Dagenham
  Coordinates: 51°32′23″N 0°08′32″E / 51.5397°N 0.1422°E / 51.5397; 0.1422
  Dagenham is a large suburb in East London, forming the eastern part of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and located 12 miles (19.3 km) east of Charing Cross. It was historically an agrarian village in the county of Essex and remained mostly undeveloped until 1921 when the London County Council began construction of the large Becontree estate. The population of the area significantly increased during the 20th century, with the parish of Dagenham becoming an urban district in 1926 and a municipal borough in 1938. It has formed part of Greater London since 1965 and is a predominantly residential area, with some areas of declining industrial activity, including the Ford Dagenham plant. The population is set to rise as the southern part of Dagenham, adjacent to the River Thames, forms part of the London Riverside section of the Thames Gateway redevelopment area.
  Dagenham first appeared in a document (as Dæccanhaam) in a charter of Barking Abbey dating from 686 AD. The name almost certainly originated with a small farmstead, the "ham" or farm of a man called Daecca, as Dæccan hamm in Old English means home of a man called Dæcca.
  
  wn.com/Dagenham
• 
  East Anglia
  East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of the East Anglian princess Etheldreda, the Isle of Ely also became part of the kingdom. Formerly a standard statistical region, for administrative purposes East Anglia now forms part of the East of England government office region and is defined as a Level 2 Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics, comprising the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire including the city of Peterborough unitary authority area.
  The Kingdom of the East Angles, formed about the year 520 by the merging of the North and the South Folk (Angles who had settled in the former lands of the Iceni during the previous century) was one of the seven Anglo-Saxon heptarchy kingdoms (as defined in the 12th century writings of Henry of Huntingdon). For a brief period following a victory over the rival kingdom of Northumbria around the year 616, East Anglia was the most powerful of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England, and its king Raedwald was Bretwalda (overlord of the Anglo-Saxons kingdoms). But this did not last: over the next forty years, East Anglia was defeated by the Mercians twice, and it continued to weaken relative to the other kingdoms until in 794, Offa of Mercia had its king Æthelberht killed and took control of the kingdom himself.
  
  wn.com/East_Anglia
• 
  East End of London
  The East End of London, also known simply as the East End, is the area of London, England, east of the medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames. Although not defined by universally accepted formal boundaries, the River Lea can be considered another boundary. For the purposes of his book, East End Past, Richard Tames regards the area as coterminous with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets: however, he acknowledges that this narrow definition excludes parts of southern Hackney, such as Shoreditch and Hoxton, which many would regard as belonging to the East End. Others again, such as Alan Palmer, would extend the area across the Lea to include parts of the London Borough of Newham; while parts of the London Borough of Waltham Forest are also sometimes included. It is universally agreed, however, that the East End is to be distinguished from East London, which covers a much wider area.
  Use of the term East End in a pejorative sense began in the late 19th century, as the expansion of the population of London led to extreme overcrowding throughout the area and a concentration of poor people and immigrants. The problems were exacerbated with the construction of St Katharine Docks (1827) and the central London railway termini (1840–1875) that caused the clearance of former slums and rookeries, with many of the displaced people moving into the East End. Over the course of a century, the East End became synonymous with poverty, overcrowding, disease and criminality.
  
  wn.com/East_End_of_London
• 
  East Ham
  Coordinates: 51°31′56″N 0°03′19″E / 51.5323°N 0.0554°E / 51.5323; 0.0554
  East Ham is a suburban district of London, England, and part of the London Borough of Newham. It is a built-up district located 8 miles (12.8 km) east-northeast of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.
  A settlement in the area named Ham is first recorded as Hamme in an Anglo-Saxon charter of 958 and then in the 1086 Domesday Book as Hame. It is formed from Old English 'hamm' and means 'a dry area of land between rivers or marshland', referring the location of the settlement within boundaries formed by the rivers Lea, Thames and Roding and their marshes.
  In 1859 East Ham railway station opened and, although in 1863 the area was still being described as a "scattered village" the availability of transport resulted in increasing urbanisation, especially from 1890 onwards. The electric services of the District Railway first served East Ham in 1908.
  From 1894 East Ham formed the East Ham Urban District of Essex and was incorporated as a borough on 10 August 1903. As a result of popular pressure East Ham sought and obtained county borough status; becoming, in modern terms, a unitary authority on 1 April 1915 and remaining such until 1965 when it was abolished and its former area was merged with that of the County Borough of West Ham to form the London Borough of Newham.
  
  wn.com/East_Ham
• 
  Eltham
  Coordinates: 51°27′05″N 0°03′06″E / 51.451476°N 0.051773°E / 51.451476; 0.051773
  Eltham ( /ˈɛltəm/) is a district of south London, England, located in the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It is situated 8.6 miles (13.8 km) east south-east of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.
  Eltham was originally developed along part of the road from London to Maidstone (Pilgrims' Way) and lies 3 miles (4.8 km) almost due south of Woolwich. Mottingham, to the south, was originally part of the parish, explaining why Eltham College is not actually in Eltham any more.
  Eltham was a civil parish of Kent until 1889 when it became part of the County of London and from 1900 formed part of the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich. The metropolitan borough was abolished in 1965 and Eltham then became part of the then London Borough of Greenwich.
  Eltham today is one of the largest suburban developments in the borough with a population of almost 88,000 people.
  
  wn.com/Eltham
• 
  Essex
  Essex ( /ˈɛsɨks/) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west. Essex County Council is the principal local authority for much of the county, sharing functions with twelve district councils. The county town is Chelmsford. The southern Essex boroughs of Thurrock and Southend-on-Sea are governed separately as unitary authorities. It was established in antiquity and formed the eastern portion of the Kingdom of Essex. Sections of the county closer to London are part of the Metropolitan Green Belt, which prohibits development. It is the location of the regionally significant Lakeside Shopping Centre and London Stansted Airport; and the new towns of Basildon and Harlow.
  The name Essex originates in the Anglo-Saxon period of the Early Middle Ages and has its root in the Old English Ēastseaxe (i.e. the "East Saxons"), the eastern kingdom of the Saxons. Originally (in 527 AD) it occupied territory to the north of the River Thames, incorporating all of what later became Middlesex and most of what later became Hertfordshire, though its territory was later restricted to lands east of the River Lea.Colchester in the north east of the county is Britain's oldest recorded town, dating back to before the Roman conquest, when it was known as Camulodunum and was sufficiently well-developed to have its own mint. Subsequently the Kingdom of Essex was subsumed into the Kingdom of England and Essex eventually became a county.
  
  wn.com/Essex
• 
  Glasgow
  Coordinates: 55°51′29″N 4°15′32″W / 55.858°N 4.259°W / 55.858; -4.259
  Glasgow (ⁱ/ˈɡlɑːzɡəʊ/, locally /ˈɡlazɡo/, GLAZ-goh; Scots: Glesga  listen (help·info); Scottish Gaelic: Glaschu ([ˈkɫ̪as̪əxu]  listen (help·info))) is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's West Central Lowlands.
  Glasgow grew from a small rural settlement on the River Clyde to become one of the largest seaports in Britain. Expanding from the medieval bishopric of Glasgow and the later establishment of the University of Glasgow in the 15th century, it became a major centre of the Scottish Enlightenment in the 18th century. From the 18th century the city also grew as one of Britain's main hubs of transatlantic trade with British North America and the British West Indies. With the Industrial Revolution, the city and surrounding region shifted to become one of the world's pre-eminent centres of heavy engineering, most notably in shipbuilding and marine engineering industry, which produced many innovative and famous vessels. Glasgow was known as the "Second City of the British Empire" for much of the Victorian era and Edwardian period. Today it is one of Europe's top ten financial centres and is home to many of Scotland's leading businesses. Glasgow is also ranked as the 57th most liveable city in the world.
  
  wn.com/Glasgow
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  Great Fire of London
  The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through the central parts of the English city of London, from Sunday, 2 September to Wednesday, 5 September 1666. The fire gutted the medieval City of London inside the old Roman City Wall. It threatened, but did not reach, the aristocratic district of Westminster, Charles II's Palace of Whitehall, and most of the suburban slums. It consumed 13,200 houses, 87 parish churches, St. Paul's Cathedral and most of the buildings of the City authorities. It is estimated to have destroyed the homes of 70,000 of the City's 80,000 inhabitants. The death toll is unknown but traditionally thought to have been small, as only six verified deaths were recorded. This reasoning has recently been challenged on the grounds that the deaths of poor and middle-class people were not recorded, while the heat of the fire may have cremated many victims leaving no recognisable remains.
  
  wn.com/Great_Fire_of_London
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  Guyana
  Coordinates: 5°00′N 58°45′W / 5°N 58.75°W / 5; -58.75
  Guyana (ⁱ/ɡaɪˈænə/ gy-AN-ə), officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and (for over 200 years) the British. It is the only state of the Commonwealth of Nations on mainland South America, and the only one on that continent where English is an official language.It is one of the few Caribbean countries that is not an island. It is also a member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), which has its secretariat headquarters in Guyana's capital, Georgetown. Guyana achieved independence from the United Kingdom on 26 May 1966, and became a republic on 23 February 1970. In 2008 the country joined the Union of South American Nations as a founding member.
  Historically, the region known as "Guiana" or "Guyana" comprised the large shield landmass north of the Amazon River and east of the Orinoco River known as the "Land of many waters". Historical Guyana is made up of three Dutch colonies: Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice. Modern Guyana is bordered to the east by Suriname, to the south and southwest by Brazil, to the west by Venezuela, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean.
  
  wn.com/Guyana
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  Hackney Central
  Coordinates: 51°32′36″N 0°03′34″W / 51.543307°N 0.059486°W / 51.543307; -0.059486
  Hackney Central is the central district of the London Borough of Hackney in London, England. It comprises the area roughly surrounding, and extending north from Mare Street. It is situated 4 miles (6.4 km) north east of Charing Cross. It is also the name of Hackney Central ward, an electoral division for Hackney Council.
  Hackney Central is the area that once would have been known as Hackney Village. This was a place that flourished from the Tudor period, when principal members of the Court had their houses in the surrounding area, and King Henry VIII of England had a palace (located near the modern Lee Bridge Road roundabout). Hackney Central remained a popular resort for Londoners until the end of the Georgian era, when this suburb of London began to be completely built up. Railways, trams and factories brought an end to Hackney's rural atmosphere during the Victorian era, and its fortunes declined.
  The industries of nearby Homerton and the Lee Valley have largely disappeared, leaving the NHS and local council as the largest employers. Successive waves of immigrants, both from abroad and within the United Kingdom, make modern Hackney a culturally vibrant part of inner London, with both the benefits and challenges that this brings.
  
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  Harlow
  Harlow is a new town and local government district in Essex, England. It is located in the west of the county and on the border with Hertfordshire, on the Stort Valley, The town is near the M11 motorway and forms part of the London commuter belt.The district has a current population of 78,889 (2010 estimate).
  There is some dispute as to where the placename Harlow derives from. One theory is that it derives from the Anglo-Saxon words 'here' and 'hlaw', meaning "army hill", probably to be identified with Mulberry Hill, which was used as the moot or meeting place for the district.
  The other theory is that it derives from the words 'here' and 'hearg', meaning "temple hill/mound", probably to be identified with an Iron Age burial mound, later a Roman temple site on River Way.
  The original village, mentioned in the Norman Domesday Book, developed as a typical rural community around what is now known as Old Harlow, with many of its buildings still standing.
  The earliest deposits are of a Mesolithic (circa 10,000 BC) hunting camp excavated by Davey in Northbrooks in the 1970s(Unpublished) closely followed by the large and unexcavated deposits of Neolithic flint located at Gilden Way. These deposits are mostly known of due to the large numbers of surface bound worked flint ; indeed there is substanital amounts to speculate on organised working of flint in the area. Large amounts of debetage litter the area and tools found include Axeheads, hammers, blades, dowles and other boring tools and multipuprpose flints such as scrapers. An organised Field Walk in the late 1990s by Bartlett(Unpublished)indicates that most of the area, some 80 hectares, produces worked flint from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age with a smattering of Mesolithic ; so basically it indicates organised industry from 5000 BC to 2000 BC. Indeed the deposits are so large and dispersed that any major archaeological work in the area will have to take this into consideration before any ground work is started.
  
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  Hertfordshire
  Hertfordshire (ⁱ/ˈhɑrtfərdʃɪər/ or /ˈhɑrfərdʃər/; abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.
  Hertfordshire is one of the home counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London (to the south), Buckinghamshire (to the west), Bedfordshire (including the unitary authorities of Luton and Central Bedfordshire to the north), Cambridgeshire (to the north east) and Essex (to the east).
  Hertfordshire was originally the area assigned to a fortress constructed at Hertford under the rule of Edward the Elder in 913. The name Hertford is derived from the Anglo-Saxon heort ford, meaning deer crossing (of a watercourse). The name Hertfordshire first appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 1011. Deer feature prominently in many county emblems.
  There is evidence of human beings living in Hertfordshire since the Middle Stone Age. It was first farmed during the Neolithic period and permanent habitation appeared at the beginning of the Bronze Age. This was followed by tribes settling in the area during the Iron Age.
  
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  Highgate
  Coordinates: 51°34′18″N 0°08′41″W / 51.5716°N 0.1448°W / 51.5716; -0.1448
  Highgate ( /ˈhaɪɡeɪt/ or /ˈhaɪɡɨt/) is an area of North London on the north-eastern corner of Hampstead Heath.
  Highgate is one of the most expensive London suburbs in which to live. It has an active conservation body, the Highgate Society, to protect its character.
  Until late Victorian times it was a distinct village outside London, sitting astride the main road to the north. The area retains many green expanses including the eastern part of Hampstead Heath, three ancient woods,Waterlow Park and the eastern-facing slopes known as Highgate bowl.
  At its centre is Highgate village, a collection of largely Georgian shops, pubs, restaurants and residential streets, interspersed with diverse landmarks such as St Michael's Church and steeple, Highgate School (1565), Jacksons Lane arts centre housed in a Grade II listed former church, the Gatehouse inn dating from 1670 and Berthold Lubetkin's 1930s Highpoint buildings. Highgate is also famous for its atmospheric Victorian cemetery in which the communist philosopher Karl Marx is buried.
  
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  Hollywood
  Hollywood is a district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema. Today, much of the movie industry has dispersed into surrounding areas such as the Westside neighborhood, and the San Fernando and Santa Clarita Valleys, but significant auxiliary industries, such as editing, effects, props, post-production, and lighting companies remain in Hollywood, as does the backlot of Paramount Pictures.
  On February 16, 2005, California Assembly Members Jackie Goldberg and Paul Koretz introduced a bill to require California to keep specific records on Hollywood as if it were independent, although it is not the typical practice of the City of Los Angeles to establish specific boundaries for districts or neighborhoods. For this to be done, the boundaries were defined. The bill was unanimously supported by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and the Los Angeles City Council. Assembly Bill 588 was approved by the Governor of California on August 28, 2006, and now the district of Hollywood has official borders. The border can be loosely described as the area east of West Hollywood, south of Mulholland Drive, Laurel Canyon, Cahuenga Boulevard, and Barham Boulevard, and the cities of Burbank and Glendale, north of Melrose Avenue and west of the Golden State Freeway and Hyperion Avenue. This includes all of Griffith Park and Los Feliz^{[citation needed]} – two areas that were hitherto considered separate from Hollywood by most Angelenos. The population of the district, including Los Feliz, as of the 2000 census was 123,436 and the median household income was $33,409 in 1999.
  
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  Hoxton
  Coordinates: 51°32′04″N 0°04′27″W / 51.534557°N 0.074279°W / 51.534557; -0.074279
  Hoxton is an area in the London Borough of Hackney, immediately north of the financial district of the City of London. The area of Hoxton is bordered by Regent's Canal on the north side, Wharf Road and City Road to the west, Old Street to the south, and Kingsland Road to the east.
  Hoxton is also a ward, electing three councillors to the borough council. It forms part of the Hackney South and Shoreditch constituency.
  "Hogesdon" is first recorded in the Domesday Book, meaning an Anglo-Saxon farm (or "fortified enclosure") belonging to Hoch, or Hocq. Little is recorded of the origins of the settlement, though there was Roman activity around Ermine Street, which ran to the east of the area from the 1st century. In medieval times, Hoxton formed a rural part of Shoreditch parish. It achieved independent ecclesiastical status in 1826 with the founding of its own parish church dedicated to St John the Baptist, though civil jurisdiction was still invested in the Shoreditch vestry. The Worshipful Company of Haberdashers remains patron of the advowson of the parish of St John's Hoxton.
  
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  Islington
  Coordinates: 51°32′38″N 0°06′10″W / 51.5440°N 0.1027°W / 51.5440; -0.1027
  Islington ( /ˈɪzlɪŋtən/) is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a desirable residential district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street. The name is often applied to the areas of the borough close to Upper Street such as St Mary's, St Peter's, Barnsbury, and Canonbury, developed in the Georgian era.
  Islington grew as a sprawling Middlesex village along the line of the Great North Road, and has provided the name of the modern borough. This gave rise to some confusion, as neighbouring districts may also be said to be in Islington. This district is bounded by Liverpool Road to the west and City Road to the south-east. Its northernmost point is in the area of Canonbury. The main north-south high street, Upper Street splits at Highbury Corner to Holloway Road to the west and St. Paul's Road to the east.
  
  wn.com/Islington
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  Kent
  Kent /ˈkɛnt/ is a county in South East England, and one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of Medway. Kent has a nominal border with France halfway through the Channel Tunnel. Maidstone is its county town and historically Rochester and Canterbury have been accorded city status, though only the latter still holds it.
  Kent's location between London and the continental Europe has led to its being in the front line of several conflicts, including the Battle of Britain during World War II. East Kent was known as Hell Fire Corner during the conflict. England has relied on the county's ports to provide warships through much of the past 800 years; the Cinque Ports in the 12th–14th centuries and Chatham Dockyard in the 16th–20th centuries were of particular importance to the country's security. France can be seen clearly in fine weather from Folkestone, and the iconic White Cliffs of Dover.
  
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  Leytonstone
  Coordinates: 51°34′08″N 0°00′36″E / 51.569°N 0.010°E / 51.569; 0.010
  Leytonstone is an area of east London and part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It is a high density suburban area, located seven miles north east of Charing Cross in the ceremonial county of Greater London and the historic county of Essex. It borders Walthamstow to the northwest, Wanstead (in the London Borough of Redbridge) to the north, Leyton to the south, and Forest Gate (in the London Borough of Newham) to the east.
  The main thoroughfare in Leytonstone, High Road Leytonstone, which runs the length of Leytonstone to Stratford is an ancient pathway dating to pre-Roman times. Roman archaeological features have been found in the area.^{[citation needed]}
  The name Leytonstone — in early documents Leyton-Atte-Stone — may derive from the large stone standing at the junction of Hollybush Hill and New Wanstead; in the 18th-century an obelisk was mounted on top of it, and it has been claimed that it is the remains of a Roman milestone.^{[citation needed]}
  
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  Limehouse
  Coordinates: 51°30′57″N 0°01′54″W / 51.5158°N 0.0318°W / 51.5158; -0.0318
  Limehouse is a place in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is on the northern bank of the River Thames opposite Rotherhithe and between Ratcliff to the west and Millwall to the east.
  Limehouse stretches from Limehouse Basin in the west to the edge of the former Chinatown in Pennyfields in the east; and from the Thames in the south to the Victory Bridge at the junction of Ben Jonson Road and Rhodeswell Road in the north.
  The area gives its name to Limehouse Reach, a section of the Thames which runs from Shadwell, through Ratcliff and then Limehouse and on to Millwall.
  The name relates to the local lime kilns or, more precisely, lime oast located by the river and operated by the large potteries that served shipping in the London Docks. The name is from Old English lim-ast "lime-oast". The earliest reference to Les Lymhostes occurs in 1356.
  From its foundation, Limehouse, like neighbouring Wapping, has enjoyed better links with the river than the land, the land route being across a marsh. Limehouse became a significant port in late medieval times, with extensive docks and wharves. Although most cargoes were discharged in the Pool of London before the establishment of the docks, industries such as shipbuilding, ship chandlering and rope making were established in Limehouse.
  
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  Mile End
  Coordinates: 51°31′29″N 0°01′53″W / 51.5248°N 0.0314°W / 51.5248; -0.0314
  Mile End is an area within the East End of London, England, and part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is located 3.6 miles (5.8 km) east-northeast of Charing Cross. It developed on the London to Colchester road as one of the earliest suburbs of the City of London and the parish of Mile End Old Town became part of the metropolitan area of London in 1855.
  Mile End is recorded in 1288 as La Mile ende. It is formed from the Middle English 'mile' and 'ende' and means 'the hamlet a mile away'. The mile distance was in relation to Aldgate in the City of London, reached by the London to Colchester road. In around 1691 Mile End became known as Mile End Old Town because a new unconnected settlement to the west and adjacent to Spitalfields had taken the name Mile End New Town.
  Whilst there are many references to settlements in the area, excavations have suggested there were very few buildings before 1300.
  Mile End Road is an ancient route from London to the East, and was moved to its present day alignment after the foundation of Bow Bridge in 1110. In the medieval period it was known as ‘Aldgatestrete’, as it led to the eastern entrance to the City of London at Aldgate. The area running alongside Mile End Road was known as Mile End Green, and became known as a place of assembly for Londoners, reflected in the name of Assembly Passage. For most of the medieval period, this road was surrounded by open fields on either side, but speculative developments existed by the end of the 16th century and continued throughout the 18th century.
  
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  Millwall
  Coordinates: 51°29′19″N 0°01′07″W / 51.488661°N 0.018589°W / 51.488661; -0.018589
  Millwall is an area in London, on the western side of the Isle of Dogs, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the south of the developments at West India Docks, including Canary Wharf.
  Originally known as Marshwall, its name derives from the large number of windmills built on the river wall, in the 19th century. Corn was brought along the River Thames to be ground into flour here, before being delivered to bakers who kneaded the dough.
  On January 31, 1858, the largest ship of that time, the SS Great Eastern designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, was launched from Napier Yard, the shipyard leased by Messrs J Scott Russell & Co. The 211 metre (692 ft) length was too wide for the river, and the ship had to be launched sideways. A section of the concrete and timber sub-structure from the launch site is now preserved on site for public display at the modern Napier Avenue. Due to the technical difficulties of the launch, this was the last ship of such a size to be built on the Island, though other builders such as Yarrows and Samuda Brothers continued building warships on the island for another 50 years.
  
  wn.com/Millwall
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  Northern England
  Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North or the North Country, is a cultural region of England. It is not an official government region, but rather an informal amalgamation of counties. The southern extent of the region is roughly the River Trent, while the North is bordered by Scotland.
  Northern England comprises three regions of England - the North East, North West and Yorkshire and the Humber. The counties of Northern England combined have a population of around 14.5 million covering an area of 37,331 km² (14,414 sq mi).
  During antiquity most of the area was part of Brigantia — homeland of the Brigantes and the largest Brythonic kingdom of Great Britain. After the Roman conquest of Britain the city of York became capital of the area, called Britannia Inferior then Britannia Secunda. In Sub-Roman Britain new Brythonic kingdoms of the Hen Ogledd emerged. The Angle settlers created Bernicia and Deira from which came Northumbria and a Golden Age in cultural, scholarly and monastic activity, centred around Lindisfarne and aided by Irish monks.Norse and Gaelic Viking raiders gained control of much of the area, creating the Danelaw. During this time there were close relations with Mann and the Isles, Dublin and Norway. Northumbria was unified with the rest of England under Eadred around 952.
  
  wn.com/Northern_England
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  Romford
  Coordinates: 51°34′36″N 0°10′48″E / 51.5768°N 0.1801°E / 51.5768; 0.1801
  Romford is a large suburban town in northeast London, England and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Havering. It is located 14.1 miles (22.7 km) northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. It was historically a market town in the county of Essex and formed the administrative centre of the liberty of Havering, until it was dissolved in 1892. Good road links and the opening of the railway station in 1839 were key to the development of the town and the economic history of Romford is underpinned by a shift from agriculture to light industry and more recently to retail and commerce. As part of the suburban growth of London in the 20th century, Romford significantly expanded and increased in population,becoming a municipal borough in 1937 and has formed part of Greater London since 1965. It now forms one of the largest commercial, retail, entertainment and leisure districts outside central London and has a developed night time economy.
  
  wn.com/Romford
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  Rotherhithe
  Coordinates: 51°29′56″N 0°02′33″W / 51.4989°N 0.0426°W / 51.4989; -0.0426
  Rotherhithe ( /ˈrɒðəhaɪð/) is a residential district in inner southeast London, England and part of the London Borough of Southwark. It is located on a peninsula on the south bank of the Thames, facing Wapping and the Isle of Dogs on the north bank, and is a part of the Docklands area. It borders Bermondsey to the west and Deptford to the south east.
  Rotherhithe has a long history as a port, with many shipyards from Elizabethan times until the early 20th Century and with working docks until the 1970s. In the 1980s the area along the river was redeveloped as upmarket housing, through a mix of warehouse conversions and new-build developments. Following the arrival of the Jubilee line in 1999 (giving quick connections to the West End and to Canary Wharf) and the London Overground in 2010 (providing a quick route to the City of London), the rest of Rotherhithe is now a rapidly gentrifying residential and commuter area, with current regeneration progressing most quickly around Canada Water, where a new town centre with restaurant and retail units as well as new residential developments is emerging around the existing freshwater lake and transport hub.
  
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  Shoreditch
  Coordinates: 51°31′34″N 0°04′41″W / 51.526°N 0.078°W / 51.526; -0.078
  Shoreditch is an area of London within the London Borough of Hackney in England. It is a built-up part of the inner city immediately to the north of the City of London, located 2.5 miles (4.0 km) east-northeast of Charing Cross.
  The etymology of 'Shoreditch' is debated. One legend holds that the place was originally named "Shore's Ditch", after Jane Shore, the mistress of Edward IV, who is supposed to have died or been buried in a ditch in the area. This legend is commemorated today by a large painting, at Haggerston Branch Library, of Jane Shore being retrieved from the ditch, and by a design on glazed tiles in a shop in Shoreditch High Street showing her meeting Edward IV.
  However, the area was known as "Soersditch" long before Jane Shore's life. A more plausible origin for the name is "Sewer Ditch", in reference to a drain or watercourse in what was once a boggy area. It may have referred to the headwaters of the river Walbrook, which rose in the Curtain Road area.
  
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  Sidcup
  Coordinates: 51°25′35″N 0°06′09″E / 51.4263°N 0.1024°E / 51.4263; 0.1024
  Sidcup is a district in South East London in the London Borough of Bexley and small parts of the district in the Royal Borough of Greenwich.Located 11.3 miles (18.2 km) south east of Charing Cross, Sidcup is bordered by the London Boroughs of Greenwich and Bromley and Kent County Council, and whilst now part of Greater London, was once referred to as the gateway to Kent. Sidcup retains Kent as its county reference, (much like most of Outer London with the other Home counties, although small parts of Sidcup correspond with the London postal address such as SE9.
  Sidcup has a mixture of large Victorian and Edwardian properties alongside typical 1930s suburbia, primarily owner occupied semi-detached and detached housing. It retains many parks and open spaces hinting at the great estates and large homes which once stood in the area.
  The town contains a major hospital, a recently opened sports and leisure centre, as well as two colleges (Bird College and Rose Bruford College). The town centre has a mix of high street stores, independent shops, a modern library, coffee shops, and several pubs. A Waitrose store and Travelodge (budget motel) are due to open in the town in mid 2012, on the site of a former pub, the Black Horse. Sidcup contains a number of districts, some of them once villages in their own right - Blackfen, Foots Cray, Longlands, and Lamorbey.
  
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  Spitalfields
  Coordinates: 51°31′00″N 0°04′30″W / 51.5166°N 0.0750°W / 51.5166; -0.0750
  Spitalfields is a former parish in the borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London, near to Liverpool Street station and Brick Lane. The area straddles Commercial Street and is home to many markets, including the historic Old Spitalfields Market, founded in the 17th century, Sunday UpMarket, and the various other Brick Lane Markets on Brick Lane and Cheshire Street. The Liberty of Norton Folgate and the neighbouring Liberty of the Old Artillery Ground were merged into Spitalfields in 1921.
  The name Spitalfields is a contraction of 'hospital fields', in reference to the open land which lay behind and to the east of "The New Hospital of St Mary without Bishopgate" erected on the east side of the Bishopsgate thoroughfare in 1197. Before that time the area was apparently known as Lollesworth. The original Spital Field is depicted, and labelled as such, at the top right hand corner of the 16th century Civitas Londinium map of Ralph Agas.
  
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  Stepney
  Coordinates: 51°30′55″N 0°02′46″W / 51.5152°N 0.0462°W / 51.5152; -0.0462
  Stepney is a district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in London's East End that grew out of a medieval village around St Dunstan's church and the 15th century ribbon development of Mile End Road. The area built up rapidly in the 19th century, mainly to accommodate immigrant workers and displaced London poor, and developed a reputation for poverty, overcrowding, violence and political dissent. It was severely damaged during the Blitz, with over a third of housing totally destroyed; and then, in the 1960s, slum clearance and development replaced most residential streets with tower blocks and modern housing estates. Some Georgian architecture and Victorian era terraced housing survive in patches: for example Arbour Square, the eastern side of Stepney Green, and the streets around Matlock Street.
  The area has not yet experienced the levels of gentrification seen in nearby Bow, Wapping and Limehouse but some redevelopment has taken place. The former Arbour Square Police Station and the East End Mission building are also being redeveloped.
  
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  Thurrock
  Thurrock is a unitary authority with borough status in the English ceremonial county of Essex. It is part of the London commuter belt and an area of regeneration within the Thames Gateway redevelopment zone. The local authority is Thurrock Council.
  It lies on the River Thames just to the east of London. With over 18 miles (29 km) of riverfront it covers an area of 64 square miles (166 km²), with more than half defined as Green Belt. With Greater London to the west and the river to the south, the county of Essex abuts the Borough to the north and east, and across the river lies Kent.
  The local authority is Thurrock Council. Elections are held 3 out of every 4 years. In the last election in 2012, Labour took control after a period in which no party had overall control.
  Thurrock is covered by two parliamentary constituencies. Thurrock includes most of the borough while South Basildon and East Thurrock includes some wards in the east of the borough. Both seats were Conservative gains from Labour at the 2010 general election.
  
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  Tottenham
  Coordinates: 51°35′49″N 0°04′16″W / 51.597°N 0.071°W / 51.597; -0.071
  Tottenham (local /ˈtɒʔnəm/) is an area of north London in the London Borough of Haringey, England, situated 6.6 miles (10.6 km) north north east of Charing Cross.
  Tottenham is believed to have been named after Tota, a farmer, whose hamlet was mentioned in the Domesday Book; hence Tota's hamlet became Tottenham. It was recorded in the Domesday Book as Toteham.
  There has been a settlement at Tottenham for over a thousand years. It grew up along the old Roman road, Ermine Street (some of which is part of the present A10 road), and between High Cross and Tottenham Hale, the present Monument Way.
  When the Domesday Book was compiled in 1086, about 70 families lived within the area of the manor, mostly labourers working for the Lord of the Manor. A humorous poem entitled the Tournament of Tottenham, written around 1400, describes a mock-battle between peasants vying for the reeve's daughter.
  In 1894, Tottenham was made an urban district and on 27 September 1934 it became a municipal borough. As from 1 April 1965, the municipal borough formed part of the London Borough of Haringey.
  
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  Wapping
  Coordinates: 51°30′26″N 0°03′40″W / 51.5073°N 0.0610°W / 51.5073; -0.0610
  Wapping (/ˈwɒpɪŋ/ WOP-ing) is a place in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets which forms part of the Docklands to the east of the City of London. It is situated between the north bank of the River Thames and the ancient thoroughfare simply called The Highway. Wapping's proximity to the river has given it a strong maritime character, which it retains through its riverside public houses and steps, such as the Prospect of Whitby and Wapping Stairs.
  Many of the original buildings were demolished during the construction of the London Docks and Wapping was further seriously damaged during the Blitz. As the London Docklands declined after the Second World War, the area became run down, with the great warehouses left empty. The area's fortunes were transformed during the 1980s by the London Docklands Development Corporation when the warehouses started to be converted into luxury flats.
  Rupert Murdoch moved his News International printing and publishing works into Wapping in 1986, resulting in a trade union dispute that became known as the "Battle of Wapping".
  
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  Welling
  Coordinates: 51°27′34″N 0°06′35″E / 51.4594°N 0.1097°E / 51.4594; 0.1097
  Welling is a district in the London Borough of Bexley, South East London. It is a suburban development situated between Shooter's Hill and Bexleyheath north of the A2 road and 10.5 miles (16.9 km) east south-east of Charing Cross.
  The East Wickham part of Welling is probably one of the oldest settlements in this area. A Neolithic stone axe was found in East Wickham in 1910 and more recently in 1989 the remains of Roman buildings were unearthed near Danson.
  Before the coming of the railway, with the opening of the Bexleyheath Line on 1 May 1895, Welling was a village on the main road between London and Kent (Watling Street). It had been a traditional staging post for coaches; the presence of three inns along the main road is the result of that.
  After World War I, Bexley Urban District Council built over 400 houses north of the railway. Later, when the Danson estate was sold to developers, the land to the south was opened up to suburban sprawl and the settlement incorporated the local parishes of St Michael's East Wickham and St Johns Welling.
  
  wn.com/Welling
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  West Ham
  Coordinates: 51°32′05″N 0°00′28″E / 51.5347°N 0.00769°E / 51.5347; 0.00769
  West Ham is in the London Borough of Newham in London, England. In the west it is a post-industrial neighbourhood abutting the site of the London Olympic Park and in the east it is mostly residential, consisting of Victorian terraced housing interspersed with higher density post-War social housing. The area has been one of the most deprived in the country and as part of the New Deal for Communities programme it forms, with neighbouring Plaistow, a regeneration area. The place lends its name to West Ham United F.C..
  A settlement in the area named Ham is first recorded as Hamme in an Anglo-Saxon charter of 958 and then in the 1086 Domesday Book as Hame. The earliest recorded use of West Ham, as distinct from East Ham, is in 1186 as Westhamma. It is formed from Old English 'hamm' and means 'a dry area of land between rivers or marshland', referring the location of the settlement within boundaries formed by the rivers Lea, Thames and Roding and their marshes.
  
  wn.com/West_Ham
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  Whitechapel
  Coordinates: 51°30′59″N 0°04′30″W / 51.5165°N 0.0750°W / 51.5165; -0.0750
  Whitechapel is a built-up inner city district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, London, England. It is located 3.4 miles (5.5 km) east of Charing Cross and roughly bounded by the Bishopsgate thoroughfare on the west, Fashion Street on the north, Brady Street and Cavell Street on the east and The Highway on the south. The resident population are of varied ethnic origin, primarily Bengali. It is notably best known for being the location of the infamous Jack the Ripper murders in the late 1880s. The murderer was never identified, although rumours suggest over 100 names.
  Whitechapel's heart is Whitechapel High Street, extending further east as Whitechapel Road, named after a small chapel of ease dedicated to St Mary. The church's earliest known rector was Hugh de Fulbourne in 1329 and around 1338 it became the parish church of Whitechapel, called, for unknown reasons, St Mary Matfelon. The church was destroyed through enemy action in World War II and its location and graveyard is now a public garden on the south side of the road.
  
  wn.com/Whitechapel

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  Alan Sugar
  Alan Michael Sugar, Baron Sugar (born 24 March 1947) is a British business magnate, media personality, and political advisor. From humble origins in the East End of London, Sugar now has an estimated fortune of £770m (US$1.14 billion), and was ranked 89th in the Sunday Times Rich List 2011. In 2007, he sold his remaining interest in the consumer electronics company Amstrad, his largest and best known business venture.
  Sugar is also notable for his time as chairman of Tottenham Hotspur from 1991 to 2001. He starred in the BBC TV series The Apprentice, which has run to eight series. It has been broadcast annually since 2005 and is based upon the popular U.S. television show of the same name, featuring the American entrepreneur Donald Trump.
  Sugar was born in Hackney, east London. He is the youngest of four children of Fay (1907–1994) and Nathan (1907–1987) Sugar. His father was a tailor in the East End garment industry.
  When Sugar was a child, his family lived in a council flat. Because of his profuse, curly hair, he was nicknamed "Mopsy". He attended Northwold Primary School and then Brooke House Secondary School in Upper Clapton, Hackney, and made extra money by boiling and selling beetroot from a stall. In The Apprentice (2009), Sugar revealed "I was in the Jewish Lads Brigade, Stamford Hill Division, Trainee Bugler, but it didn't make me sell computers!" After leaving school at 16, he worked briefly for the civil service as a statistician at the Ministry of Education. He started selling car aerials and electrical goods out of a van he had bought with his savings of £100.
  
  wn.com/Alan_Sugar
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  Alexander John Ellis
  Alexander John Ellis FRS (14 June 1814 - 28 October 1890) was an English mathematician and philologist. He changed his name from his father's name Sharpe to his mother's maiden name Ellis in 1825, based on a condition for receiving significant financial support from a relative on his mother's side.
  He was born Alexander John Sharpe in Hoxton, Middlesex to a wealthy family. His father, James Birch Sharpe, was a notable artist and physician, who was later appointed Esquire of Windlesham. His mother, Ann Ellis, was from a noble background herself, but was not known by anyone, even to this day, from where her family fortune arose. His brother James Birch Sharpe junior, died at the Battle of Inkerman, during the Crimean War, and his other brother William Henry Sharpe, served with the Lancashire Fusiliers, after moving north with his family, to Cumberland, due to military work.
  Alexander was educated at Shrewsbury School, Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1837). Initially trained in mathematics and the classics, he became a well-known phonetician of his time. Through his work in phonetics he also became interested in vocal pitch and by extension in musical pitch as well as speech and song.
  
  wn.com/Alexander_John_Ellis
• Alfie Bass
  Alfred Bass (born Abraham Basalinsky, 12 April 1916 – 15 July 1987) was an English actor. He was born in Bethnal Green, London, the youngest in a Jewish family with ten children; their parents had fled persecution in Russia. He appeared in a variety of stage, film, television and radio productions throughout his career.
  After leaving primary school in Bethnal Green at the age of 14, he worked as a tailor's apprentice, a messenger boy and a shop-window display fitter, before taking to the stage.
  Bass's acting career began at Unity Theatre, London in the late 1930s, appearing in Plant In The Sun alongside Paul Robeson, and as the pantomime King in Babes In The Wood. After the outbreak of the Second World War, Bass joined the Middlesex regiment as a despatch rider. Despite being kept busy with his duties, he found time to become involved in concert parties, as well as taking part in documentaries for the Army Film Unit.
  His stage career included plays by Shakespeare and Shaw^{[citation needed]}. During the 1950s he continued to direct shows at Unity, and on one occasion appeared in court (along with Vida Hope) charged with putting on a play without a licence. His stage work also included an adaptation of Gogol's short story "The Bespoke Overcoat", transposed to the East End of London, which was filmed by Jack Clayton in 1956, and won the Oscar for best short. Bass also took over from Chaim Topol in the role of Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof on the West End stage^{[citation needed]}.
  
  wn.com/Alfie_Bass
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  Barbara Windsor
  Barbara Ann Deeks, (born 6 August 1937) better known by her stage name Barbara Windsor, is an English actress. Her best known roles are in the Carry On films and as Peggy Mitchell in the BBC soap opera EastEnders.
  Born in Shoreditch, London in 1937, Windsor was the only child of John Deeks, a costermonger, and his wife, formerly Rose Ellis, a dressmaker. Windsor is of English and Irish ancestry. She passed her 11-plus exams with the highest marks in North London, and won a place at Our Lady’s Convent in Stamford Hill. Her mother paid for her to have elocution lessons, and she trained at the Aida Foster School in Golders Green, making her stage debut at 13 and her West End debut in 1952 in the chorus of the musical Love From Judy.
  Her first film role was in The Belles of St Trinian's in 1954. She joined Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, coming to prominence in their stage production Fings Ain't Wot They Used to Be and Littlewood's film Sparrers Can't Sing in 1963, achieving a BAFTA nomination for Best British Film Actress. She also appeared in the 1964 film comedy Crooks in Cloisters, the 1968 film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and in the sitcoms The Rag Trade and Wild, Wild Women. In 1980, Windsor appeared as "Saucy Nancy" in the second series of Worzel Gummidge.
  
  wn.com/Barbara_Windsor
• Bernard Bresslaw
  Bernard Bresslaw (25 February 1934 – 11 June 1993) was an English actor. He is best remembered for his comedy work, especially as a member of the Carry On team.
  Bernard Bresslaw was born into a Jewish family in Stepney, London, on 25 February 1934. He attended the Coopers' Company's School in Tredegar Square, Bow, London E3. His father was a tailor's cutter and he became interested in acting after visits to the Hackney Empire. London County Council awarded him a scholarship to train at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art where he won the Emile Littler Award as the most promising actor. After Educating Archie on radio and The Army Game on television, more television, film and Shakespearean theatre roles followed, until his big break when he was cast in Carry on Cowboy in 1965.
  He featured as Varga, the lead villain in the 1968 Doctor Who story The Ice Warriors. Even though all the actors playing the aliens were over six feet tall, Bresslaw towered over them. Sonny Caldinez, who played an Ice Warrior in the story, stated in a 2004 interview that Bresslaw "was the only man that could make me feel small."
  
  wn.com/Bernard_Bresslaw
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  Brummie
  Brummie (sometimes Brummy) is a colloquial term for the inhabitants, accent and dialect of Birmingham, England, as well as being a general adjective used to denote a connection with the city, locally called Brum. The terms are all derived from Brummagem or Bromwichham, historical variants or alternatives to 'Birmingham'.
  The Brummie accent is an example of a regional accent of English.
  Examples of celebrity speakers include singer TV presenter Adrian Chiles, comedian Jasper Carrott, historian and broadcaster Carl Chinn, the Goodies actor and TV presenter Bill Oddie, rock musicians Ozzy Osbourne (and all other members of the original Black Sabbath), Roy Wood, Jeff Lynne (ELO founders), Rob Halford (Judas Priest), Dave Pegg (of Fairport Convention and Jethro Tull), broadcaster Les Ross, politician Clare Short, SAS soldier, author John "Brummie" Stokes and many actresses and actors; Martha Howe-Douglas, Donnaleigh Bailey, Nicolas Woodman, Sarah Smart, John Oliver and Ryan Cartwright.
  It is not the only accent of the West Midlands, although the term, Brummie, is often, erroneously, used in referring to all accents of the region. It is markedly distinct from the traditional accent of the adjacent Black Country, although modern-day population mobility has tended to blur the distinction. For instance, Dudley-born comedian Lenny Henry, Daniel Taylor, Smethwick-born actress Julie Walters and award winning soap actress Jan Pearson are sometimes mistaken for Brummie-speakers by people outside the West Midlands county.
  
  wn.com/Brummie
• Bud Flanagan
  Bud Flanagan OBE (14 October 1896 – 20 October 1968) was a popular English music hall and vaudeville entertainer from the 1930s until the 1960s. Flanagan was famous as a wartime entertainer and his achievements were recognised when he was awarded the OBE in 1959.
  Flaganan was born Chaim Reuben Weintrop in Whitechapel, in the East End of London. His parents, Wolf and Yetta (Kitty) Weintrop were Polish Jews who were married in the city of Radom, Poland, and fled to Łódź on their wedding day to avoid a pogrom. Wolf and Yetta Weintrop intended to escape to the "New World" from Eastern Europe - they paid for a ticket to New York and a dishonest ticket agent gave them a ticket to London. In London, Wolf learned to be a shoe and bootmaker, and earned extra money singing as a part-time cantor (Hazzan) and by singing in pubs on Saturday nights. Wolf and Yetta Weintrop had ten children all born in London. At the time of the 1881 UK Census, Wolf "Wienkopf" and family lived in Brick Lane and by the 1891 UK Census, the "Wientrob" family had moved on to 12 Hanbury Street, Spitalfields.
  
  wn.com/Bud_Flanagan
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  Charlie Chaplin
  Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE (16 April 1889 – 25 December 1977) was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I. Chaplin used mime, slapstick and other visual comedy routines, and continued well into the era of the talkies, though his films decreased in frequency from the end of the 1920s. His most famous role was that of The Tramp, which he first played in the Keystone comedy Kid Auto Races at Venice in 1914. From the April 1914 one-reeler Twenty Minutes of Love onwards he was writing and directing most of his films, by 1916 he was also producing them, and from 1918 he was even composing the music for them. With Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith, he co-founded United Artists in 1919.
  Chaplin was one of the most creative and influential personalities of the silent-film era. He was influenced by his predecessor, the French silent film comedian Max Linder, to whom he dedicated one of his films. His working life in entertainment spanned over 75 years, from the Victorian stage and the music hall in the United Kingdom as a child performer, until close to his death at the age of 88. His high-profile public and private life encompassed both adulation and controversy. Chaplin was identified with left-wing politics during the McCarthy era and he was ultimately forced to resettle in Europe from 1952.
  
  wn.com/Charlie_Chaplin
• Colin Wood
  Colin Arthur Wood (born 15 June 1943) is a British musician engaged in the field of jazz and rock music.
  Wood was born in Camberwell, South East London, & was moved to Somerset in 1950. He played jazz piano while still at school. In 1962 he went to Durham University to study mathematics. In 1965 he moved to London to play with Bill Nile's Delta Jazz Band and with Monty Sunshine (1968). He was also playing on rock sessions with The Yardbirds, David Bowie, Cat Stevens, Kevin Coyne and was the keyboardist on two songs included as part of the debut album of Uriah Heep. Wood, whose other musical talents also include playing the flute, did not, however (although offered the job), become an official member of the band. He lectured in maths for a time while freelancing musically. In September 1977 he joined Acker Bilk and remained with him into the 2000s.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Colin_Wood
• Craig Fairbrass
  Craig Fairbrass (born 6 May 1964) is an English actor. He is known for his distinctive Cockney accent.
  Fairbrass was born in Stepney, London. He made his acting debut in an episode of the television series Shelley in 1980. This was followed by appearances in series such as Emmerdale, Three Up Two Down and London's Burning. He has also appeared in such films as For Queen and Country with Denzel Washington, and Cliffhanger with Sylvester Stallone.
  He is well known in Britain for his appearance and portrayal of Dan Sullivan in the BBC soap, EastEnders from 1999 to 2001. He went onto appear in several other television series such as Dream Team where he played Terry Rose. In January 2007, Fairbrass starred in White Noise: The Light as Henry Caine. The film is a sequel to the Michael Keaton film White Noise. In February 2007 he appeared as the renegade Jaffa Arkad in the episode "Talion" in the final season of Stargate SG-1.
  Most recently he starred in the film Rise of the Footsoldier. He voiced "Gaz" in the videogame Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007), "Ghost" in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009) and Sgt. Wallcroft in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. In March 2008 he appeared in the US television series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. He stars also in the vampire film Dead Cert and played alongside Billy Murray in this as well as Freight and 'Just For The Record. Fairbrass also worked alongside Billy Murray in Eastenders. His most recent role was mercenary Cole opposite Danny Dyer and Jaime Murray in Mark McQueen's freerunning zombie film Devil's Playground.
  
  wn.com/Craig_Fairbrass
• Dave Courtney
  Dave Courtney (born 17 February 1959) is a self-proclaimed English former gangster who has become both an author and celebrity-gangster figure. Author Bernard O'Mahoney and the former member of the Richardson gang Frankie Fraser have accused Courtney of embellishing and fabricating his criminal record and position in the underworld; however, Courtney has denied overstating his past.
  Courtney was educated at Forest Hill Comprehensive, where he was an active member of the drama group, taking the lead role in several plays.^{[citation needed]}
  Born in Bermondsey, London, Courtney often focuses on his links with hard men such as Reggie Kray and the infamous Lenny McLean, though in the case of the former, he was nine years old when Kray was imprisoned. Courtney has claimed to have been shot, stabbed, had his nose bitten off, and stated that he has had to kill to stay alive himself. He also makes the claim that unarmed police officers were behind a car crash on the M20 in an attempt to kill him.
  He often refers to himself as Dave Courtney OBE–"One Big Ego"–but is not an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. His house in south London, called 'Camelot', is decorated with Union Flags, a painted depiction of himself as a knight and a large knuckle duster.
  
  wn.com/Dave_Courtney
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  Dizzee Rascal
  Dylan Kwabena Mills (born 18 September 1984), better known by his stage name Dizzee Rascal, is a UK and US-based rapper, songwriter and record producer of Ghanaian and Nigerian descent. His music is a blend of garage, hip hop, grime, ragga, pop and electronic music, with eclectic samples and more exotic styles. Best known for his number-one hits "Dance wiv Me", "Bonkers", "Holiday", "Dirtee Disco" & "Shout", his debut album, Boy in da Corner, won him the 2003 Mercury Prize. Follow-up albums Showtime, Maths + English and Tongue n' Cheek have all been critically acclaimed and certified gold, the last going platinum for sales exceeding 300,000 units.
  Mills' Nigerian father died when he was young, and he was raised in Bow, in the East End of London in a single-parent family by his Ghanaian mother Priscilla, about whom he says: "I had issues as a kid. I was violent and disruptive. The way my mum helped was by finding me a different school every time I got kicked out, always fighting to keep me in the school system" he attended St Pauls Way Community School.
  
  wn.com/Dizzee_Rascal
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  Eric Bristow
  Eric Bristow MBE ("The Crafty Cockney") (born 25 April 1957) is a British darts player, whose skill at the game in the 1980s helped turn it into a worldwide spectator sport.
  
  
  Bristow won his first world championship in 1980, defeating fellow Londoner Bobby George, and so began a decade's worth of domination, in which he would retain his title in 1981 and win it again in 1984, 1985 and 1986. Like his snooker contemporary Steve Davis, however, he had to cope also with a shock defeat during this period, when young unknown Keith Deller beat him in the 1983 final, not to mention Steve Brennan in the previous year's 1st Round. He finished as runner-up on four other occasions up to 1991.
  The nickname of the Crafty Cockney was given to Bristow when he visited an English pub of that name in 1976 during a visit to Santa Monica, California. Bristow wore a shirt (which he received from the same pub) depicting a uniformed British policeman, a Union Flag and the title Crafty Cockney whenever he took part in a tournament.
  
  wn.com/Eric_Bristow
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  Francis Grose
  Francis Grose (b. before 11 June 1731 – 12 June 1791) was an English antiquary, draughtsman, and lexicographer. He was born at his father's house in Broad Street, St-Peter-le-Poer, London, son of a Swiss immigrant and jeweller, Francis Jacob Grose (d. 1769), and his wife, Anne (d. 1773), daughter of Thomas Bennett of Greenford in Middlesex. Grose was baptized on 11 June 1731 in the parish of St Peter-le-Poer.
  The eldest of seven children, Francis probably received a classical education but first aimed at a career in the Army. In 1747 he was in Flanders, apparently as a volunteer in Howard's (later 19th) regiment of foot: later he received a commission as cornet in Cobham's (later 10th) regiment of dragoons. Posted to Kent on excise duties in 1750 he met and married Catherine Jordan of Canterbury. They were eventually to have ten children, six of whom survived to adulthood. Their eldest son was Francis Grose, the Lieutenant Governor of New South Wales.
  Grose left the army in October 1751, possibly to avoid his regiment's posting to Scotland. In 1755 his father bought him the post of Richmond Herald but Francis showed little interest in heraldry and was to sell it again in February 1763. In 1757 Grose was elected a member of the Society of Antiquaries, and 1759 he resumed his soldiering career; but this time in the militia, which meant he could avoid distant postings. He was commissioned into the Surrey regiment as a lieutenant, and it was his subsequent promotion to captain in 1765 led to his adoption of the familiar title "Captain Grose". The Surrey militia was disembodied in 1762 but this hardly affected Grose, who continued to received a salary as paymaster and adjutant even in peacetime. With bequests from his parents and from his wife, who died in 1774, added to the salary he drew as a militia captain, Grose at this time was able to live reasonably well despite the demands made on his purse by the need to raise, educate and provide for his children.
  
  wn.com/Francis_Grose
• Frank Harper
  Frank Harper (born 1962) is an English actor and film producer. He is best known for his "Hard Man" roles, such as Billy Bright in The Football Factory (2004), Dog in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998).
  He appears as a white nationalist in South West 9, and as the bank robber in Harry Enfield's film Kevin & Perry Go Large. He was featured in The Streets' music video "Fit But You Know It", and cast as real life villain Jack Whomes in Rise of the Foot Soldier. During his career Harper has also appeared on many British TV shows including The Bill, Doctors, Lovejoy and Waking the Dead.
  Harper is an ardent Millwall F.C. fan. He has admitted to partaking in casual football hooliganism and was interviewed for Cass Pennants book "Terrace Legends". Also, in the mid to late 1980s he was a "top boy" in the notorious southeast London mob, "The Banta Boys". As of August 2011, he lives in Marbella, because London as he claims "Wern't like this in my day".
  
  wn.com/Frank_Harper
• Fynes Moryson
  Fynes Moryson (or Morison) (1566 – 12 February 1630) spent most of the decade of the 1590s travelling on the European continent and the eastern Mediterranean lands. He wrote about it later in his multi-volume "Itinerary", a work of value to historians as a picture of the social conditions existing in the lands he visited.
  Moryson was the son of Thomas Moryson and his wife Elizabeth Moigne, daughter of Thomas Moigne of North Willingham, Lincolnshire. His father was a Lincolnshire gentleman who had been member of parliament for Grimsby. Moryson was educated at Peterhouse, Cambridge, where, after graduating, he gained a fellowship. From May 1591 to May 1595 Moryson travelled round Continental Europe for the specific purpose of observing local customs, institutions, and economics. He took written notes. From early 1596 to mid-1597, he journeyed to Jerusalem, Tripoli, Antioch, Aleppo, Constantinople, and Crete, for the same purpose.
  In 1600, Moryson was appointed personal secretary to Lord Mountjoy, head of government and commander-in-chief of the crown army in Ireland, then fighting against Tyrone's Rebellion. One of Moryson's brothers Sir Richard Moryson also held an upper level government appointment in Ireland. When the rebellion ended in 1603, Moryson and Mountjoy both returned to England. Moryson remained Mountjoy's secretary until the latter's death in 1606. Later Moryson wrote a book about the military and government affairs of Ireland during the years when he was there with Mountjoy.
  
  wn.com/Fynes_Moryson
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  Gary Holton
  Gary Frederick Holton (22 September 1952 – 25 October 1985) was an English singer-songwriter, musician and actor from London. He was the frontman of the band Heavy Metal Kids (1974–77), his work with Casino Steel (1981–84) and played the part of Wayne in the UK television comedy Auf Wiedersehen, Pet (1983–85). Holton died from an overdose of morphine combined with alcohol in 1985.
  Gary was the third child of Ernie and Joan Holton. He grew up in the slums of the East End, whilst musically talented Gary's real ambition was to act.
  Early on in his life, he began working in the theatre world with the Sadlers Wells Opera Company and was with them for three years. Soon after leaving education at Westminster School, he joined the Old Vic Theatre Company and from there he went on to work with the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford.
  At seventeen he joined the touring company of Hair and remained with them for two years. When he left the Company his musical talents led him to front the rock band Heavy Metal Kids as vocalist.
  
  wn.com/Gary_Holton
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  Geoffrey Chaucer
  Geoffrey Chaucer ( /ˈtʃɔːsər/; c. 1343 – 25 October 1400), known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey. While he achieved fame during his lifetime as an author, philosopher, alchemist and astronomer, composing a scientific treatise on the astrolabe for his ten year-old son Lewis, Chaucer also maintained an active career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier and diplomat. Among his many works, which include The Book of the Duchess, the House of Fame, the Legend of Good Women and Troilus and Criseyde, he is best known today for The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer is a crucial figure in developing the legitimacy of the vernacular, Middle English, at a time when the dominant literary languages in England were French and Latin.
  Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London sometime around 1343, though the precise date and location of his birth remain unknown. His father and grandfather were both London vintners; several previous generations had been merchants in Ipswich. (His family name derives from the French chausseur, meaning "shoemaker".) In 1324 John Chaucer, Geoffrey's father, was kidnapped by an aunt in the hope of marrying the twelve-year-old boy to her daughter in an attempt to keep property in Ipswich. The aunt was imprisoned and the £250 fine levied suggests that the family was financially secure—bourgeois, if not elite. John Chaucer married Agnes Copton, who, in 1349, inherited properties including 24 shops in London from her uncle, Hamo de Copton, who is described in a will dated April 3, 1354 and listed in the City Hustings Roll as "moneyer"; he was said to be moneyer at the Tower of London. In the City Hustings Roll 110, 5, Ric II, dated June 1380, Geoffrey Chaucer refers to himself as me Galfridum Chaucer, filium Johannis Chaucer, Vinetarii, Londonie' .
  
  wn.com/Geoffrey_Chaucer
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  George Carey
  George Leonard Carey, Baron Carey of Clifton PC, FRSA, FKC (born 13 November 1935) is a former Archbishop of Canterbury, holding the office from 1991 to 2002. During his time as archbishop the Church of England ordained its first women priests and the debate over attitudes to homosexuality became more prominent, especially at the 1998 Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops.
  George Carey was born on 13 November 1935 in the East End of London in England. He attended Bonham Road Primary School in Dagenham, then failed his eleven plus. He then attended Bifrons Secondary Modern School in Barking before leaving at the age of 15. He worked for the London Electricity Board as an office boy before doing his National Service at 18 in the Royal Air Force as a wireless operator, during which time he served in Iraq.
  Carey became a committed Christian at age 17 when he attended a church service with some friends. He said that "I had a conversion experience which was very real ... There were no blinding lights, simply a quiet conviction I had found something."
  
  wn.com/George_Carey
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  Harry Redknapp
  Henry James "Harry" Redknapp (born 2 March 1947) is a former English footballer who has enjoyed a long career in football management starting in 1983 with Bournemouth. He is the current manager of Tottenham Hotspur.
  He previously managed Bournemouth, West Ham United, Portsmouth (twice) and Southampton. While in his second spell at Portsmouth, he managed the side that won the 2008 FA Cup. At the conclusion of the 2009–10 season he guided Tottenham into the UEFA Champions League for the very first time. Redknapp subsequently oversaw Spurs' progress to the last 16 of that tournament when defeating German side Werder Bremen at home. They were the only new club to have qualified for the next stage of the competition and went on to top their group ahead of holders Inter Milan. Redknapp then helped his team beat AC Milan over two legs to reach the quarter-finals.
  His son, Jamie Redknapp, played under him at Bournemouth and Southampton. He is also uncle to Chelsea player Frank Lampard, who played under him at West Ham United.
  
  wn.com/Harry_Redknapp
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  Hoxton Tom McCourt
  'Hoxton' Tom McCourt (born 1961, Shoreditch, London, England) is the former bassist and bandleader of punk rock/Oi! band, The 4-Skins. He was one of the most influential members of the skinhead revival of 1977 to 1978, the mod revival of 1978 to 1979 and the Oi! movement from 1979 to 1984.
  McCourt moved to Hoxton, and was given the nickname Hoxton Tom by West Ham United supporters, at a time when a number of key people involved in football hooliganism from outside West Ham's natural recruiting ground were given tags after the area they came from. He was and still is a Tottenham Hotspur F.C. supporter, but went to West Ham United matches with friends, many of whom were part of the Inter City Firm (ICF), which he became associated with.
  An engineer by trade, Tom McCourt formed The 4-Skins in late 1979 along with Gary Hodges, Steve 'H' Harmer and Gary Hitchcock. Their first concert was in summer 1980, supporting The Damned and Cockney Rejects at the Bridge House in Canning Town. McCourt, Hodges and Harmer were all part of the Cockney Rejects road crew, as featured on the back cover of the album Cockney Rejects Greatest Hits Volume 1.
  
  wn.com/Hoxton_Tom_McCourt
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  Jah Wobble
  Jah Wobble (born John Joseph Wardle, 11 August 1958 in Stepney, London) is an English bass guitarist, singer, poet and composer. He became known to a wider audience as the original bass player in Public Image Ltd (PiL) in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but left the band after two albums. Following his departure from PiL, he went on to a successful solo career, continuing to the present. Jah Wobble has four children; two daughters, actress Hayley Angel Wardle and Natalie Wardle from his first marriage, and two sons with his second wife, the Chinese-born guzheng player and harpist Zi Lan Liao. In 2009, he published his autobiography, Memoirs of a Geezer.
  His father, Harry Eugene Wardle, was a tea clerk with the East India Company and worked later in life as a postman, while his mother, Kathleen Bridget (née Fitzgibbon), was a school and County Hall secretary. Wobble grew up with his family in Whitechapel's Clichy Estate in London’s East End, and is a long-time friend of John Lydon (Johnny Rotten) whom he had met in the 1970s along with John Simon Ritchie (later known as Sid Vicious) at London's Kingsway College (now Westminster Kingsway College). Along with John Gray they were known as "The Four Johns". Jah Wobble acquired his stage name through the drunken, mumbled version of Wardle's name by Sid Vicious, which Wobble kept because "people would never forget it". According to Rotten's autobiography, Wobble was once on the short list of replacements for original Pistols bassist Glen Matlock.
  
  wn.com/Jah_Wobble
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  Jimmy Bullard
  James Richard "Jimmy" Bullard (born 23 October 1978) is a footballer who currently plays for Ipswich Town. He played youth football at West Ham before moving to Gravesend & Northfleet in 1998. Two seasons at Peterborough United was followed by a spell at Wigan Athletic where he scored ten goals in 145 appearances in the league.
  A transfer to Fulham in 2006 resulted in six goals in 39 league appearances before he moved to Hull City in 2009. A loan move to Ipswich commenced in 2011 where Bullard scored on his debut.
  Bullard was born in East Ham, east London. He played schools' representative football for Bexley Primary Schools FA and Kent Schools FA whilst at primary school, and then represented North Kent Schools FA whilst a pupil at Erith School. He was a painter decorator but turned his career to professional football aged 20. He started his career in non-League football with amateur club Corinthian before moving to Gravesend & Northfleet before being signed by the club he supported as a boy, West Ham United, for a fee of £30,000 in 1999. He did not manage to break into the team, however, and was given a free transfer at the end of the 2000–01 season. After a three-week trial, he then signed for Peterborough United, where he first made a name for himself, scoring 11 goals in 62 league starts for Barry Fry's team. This earned him a move to Wigan Athletic for £275,000 in January 2003.
  
  wn.com/Jimmy_Bullard
• John Minsheu
  John Minsheu (or Minshew) (1560–1627) was an English linguist and lexicographer. He was born and died in London. Little is known about his life. He published some of the earliest dictionaries and grammars of the Spanish language for speakers of English. His major work was the Ductor in linguas (Guide into tongues), an eleven-language dictionary. With his Ductor in linguas he is also one of the first known inventors of the use of subscription as a method of funding publication of a book.
  
  
  
  wn.com/John_Minsheu
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  John Terry
  John George Terry (born 7 December 1980) is an English professional footballer. Terry plays in a centre back position and is the captain of Chelsea in the Premier League. He was also captain of the England national football team, holding the post from August 2006 to February 2010, and from March 2011 to February 2012.
  Terry was named UEFA Club Defender of the Year in 2005, 2008 and 2009.PFA Players' Player of the Year in 2005, and was included in the FIFPro World XI for four consecutive seasons, from 2005 to 2008. He was also named in the all-star squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the only English player to make the team. He wears the number 26 shirt for Chelsea.
  Terry is Chelsea's most successful captain, having led them to three Premier League titles, four FA Cups and two League Cups since 2004. He is one of five players to have made over 500 appearances for Chelsea and is also the club's all-time highest scoring defender. In 2007, he became the first captain to lift the FA Cup at the new Wembley Stadium in Chelsea's 1–0 win over Manchester United, and also the first player to score an international goal there, scoring a header in England's 1–1 draw with Brazil.
  
  wn.com/John_Terry
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  Kenney Jones
  Kenneth Thomas "Kenney" Jones (born 16 September 1948, London Hospital, Whitechapel, East London) is a veteran English rock drummer best known for his work in the Small Faces and the Faces, for which he was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2012, and The Who.
  Having previously been in a band with Ronnie Lane, Jones was one of the founding members of the English rock group, the Small Faces. Active from 1965 to 1969, Small Faces were part of the Mod revolution of the 1960s. Their hits included "All or Nothing", "Sha-La-La-La-Lee", "Itchycoo Park" and "Tin Soldier". Small Faces have been cited as a major influence on musicians for the past 35 years, including Paul Weller and Noel Gallagher.
  In 2007, the Small Faces were honoured by Westminster Council with a commemorative plaque placed at what was Don Arden's offices in Carnaby Street, the band's "spiritual home". Jones himself unveiled the plaque. In a BBC interview Jones said: "To honour the Small Faces after all these years is a terrific achievement. I only wish that Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane and Don Arden were here to enjoy this moment with me". (The only other surviving member of the Small Faces, Ian McLagan, has long moved to Austin, Texas).
  
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  Kray twins
  Reginald "Reggie" Kray (24 October 1933 – 1 October 2000) and his twin brother Ronald "Ronnie" Kray (24 October 1933 – 17 March 1995) were the foremost perpetrators of organised crime in London's East End during the 1950s and '60s. Ronald, commonly referred to as Ron or Ronnie, most likely suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. The Krays were involved in armed robberies, arson, protection rackets, violent assaults including torture and the murders of Jack "The Hat" McVitie and George Cornell. As West End nightclub owners, they mixed with prominent entertainers including Diana Dors, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and with politicians. The Krays were much feared within their milieu, and in the '60s became celebrities in their own right, even being photographed by David Bailey and interviewed on television. They were arrested on 9 May 1968 and convicted in 1969 by the efforts of a squad of detectives led by Detective Superintendent Leonard "Nipper" Read, and were both sentenced to life imprisonment.
  
  wn.com/Kray_twins
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  Len Goodman
  Leonard Gordon 'Len' Goodman (born 25 April 1944) is a British professional ballroom dancer, dance judge, and coach. He is a leading personality on television dance programmes such as Strictly Come Dancing and Dancing with the Stars and runs a ballroom dance school in Dartford, Kent.
  Goodman was born in Bethnal Green, the son of Louisa (née Eldridge) and Len Goodman. He moved to Blackfen near Welling (then in Kent) when he was six years old and attended Westwood Secondary Modern School where he was a member of the cricket team. He started dancing at the age of 19 after a short time as an apprentice welder (for Harland and Wolff in Woolwich). He tried dancing only in an attempt to recover from a foot injury sustained while playing football. He turned professional, won various competitions, and retired from dancing after winning the British Championships at Blackpool in his late twenties. He is a recipient of the Carl Alan Award, in recognition of outstanding contributions to dance. In 2006 and 2007, he was nominated for the Emmy Award in the Outstanding Reality/Competition Program category.
  
  wn.com/Len_Goodman
• Lenny McLean
  Leonard John "Lenny" McLean (9 April 1949 – 28 July 1998), also known as "The Guv'nor," was an East End of London bareknuckle fighter, bouncer, criminal and prisoner, author, businessman, bodyguard, enforcer, weightlifter, television presenter and actor, and has been referred to as "the hardest man in Britain".
  McLean's pugilist reputation began in the late 1960s and was sustained through to the mid 1980s. He has stated that he had been involved in up to 4,000 fight contests.
  McLean claimed in his autobiography to have been well known in the criminal underworld. As a respected and feared figure, he often associated with such people as the Kray twins, Ronnie Biggs, Dave Courtney and Charles Bronson. He was also known in the London nightclub scene as a bouncer, where he often managed security.
  In his later life, McLean became an actor, performing his most acclaimed role of 'Barry The Baptist' in Guy Ritchie's 1998 British gangster comedy film: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
  Lenny McLean was born into a large working-class family in Hoxton in the East End of London. His father, Leonard McLean senior, had been a Royal Marine during the Second World War, but after being debilitated by a near-fatal disease which he contracted in India he became a petty criminal and swindler. He died when Lenny was six years old, and was buried in a pauper's grave, as many working class men of the time were.
  
  wn.com/Lenny_McLean
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  Marc Bolan
  Marc Bolan (born Mark Feld; 30 September 1947 – 16 September 1977) was an English singer-songwriter, guitarist and poet. He is best known as the frontman of glam rock group T. Rex.
  Bolan grew up in post-war Hackney, northeast London, the son of Phyllis Winifred (née Atkins) and Simeon Feld, a lorry driver. His father was Jewish (of Russian and Polish origin) and his mother was from a Christian background. Later moving to Wimbledon, southwest London, he fell in love with the rock and roll of Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Arthur Crudup and Chuck Berry^{[citation needed]} and was considered a mod because of dress, hanging around coffee bars such as the 2 I's in Soho.^{[citation needed]} He appeared as an extra in an episode of the television show Orlando, dressed as a mod. At the age of nine, Bolan was given his first guitar and began a skiffle band. While at school, he played guitar in "Susie and the Hoops," a trio whose vocalist was a 12-year old Helen Shapiro. At 15, he left school "by mutual consent".^{[citation needed]}
  
  wn.com/Marc_Bolan
• Max Bygraves
  Max Bygraves OBE (born Walter William Bygraves on 16 October 1922) is an English comedian, singer, actor and variety performer. He appeared on his own television shows, sometimes performing comedy sketches between songs. Shows he presented included the gameshow Family Fortunes.
  Max Bygraves was born the son of poor parents in Rotherhithe, southeast London docklands. His father was a professional boxer known as Battling Tom Smith, and a casual dockworker.
  He protrayed Charley Moon in the film of the same name.
  Bygraves married WAAF sergeant Gladys (known as Blossom) Murray in 1942. The couple have three children: Christine, Anthony, and Maxine. Bygraves also has three other children: John Rice, Beverly Mayhew-Sass, and Stephen Rose.
  Bygraves and his wife moved from Bournemouth to Queensland, Australia, in 2008. She died there in 2011, aged 88.
  
  wn.com/Max_Bygraves
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  Michael Caine
  Sir Michael Caine, CBE (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite; 14 March 1933) is an English actor.
  Caine is one of two actors nominated for an Academy Award for acting in every decade from the 1960s to 2000s, the other one being Jack Nicholson. In 2000, Caine was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of his contribution to cinema.
  Caine was born in St Olave's Hospital, Rotherhithe, Southwark in South East London, the son of Ellen Frances Marie (née Burchell; 1900-1989), a cook and charwoman, and Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, a fish market porter. His father was of English, Irish, and, reportedly, Irish Traveller ancestry. Caine was brought up in his mother's Protestant religion (his father was Catholic).
  Caine grew up in Southwark, South London, and during the Second World War he was evacuated to North Runcton near King's Lynn in Norfolk. After the war, when his father was demobilised, the family was rehoused by the council in Marshall Gardens at the Elephant and Castle in a pre-fabricated house made in Canada, as much of London's housing stock had been damaged during the Blitz in 1940-41.
  
  wn.com/Michael_Caine
• Mockney
  Mockney (a portmanteau of "mock" and "Cockney") is an affected accent and form of speech in imitation of Cockney or working class London speech, or a person with such an accent. A stereotypical Mockney comes from an upper-middle class background.
  Mockney is distinct from Estuary English by being the deliberate affectation of the working-class London (Cockney) accent.
  A person speaking with a Mockney accent might adopt Cockney pronunciation but retain standard grammatical forms where the Cockney would use non-standard forms (e.g. negative concord).
  The first published use of the word according to the Oxford English Dictionary was in 1989.
  It is an affectation sometimes adopted for aesthetic or theatric purposes, other times just to sound “cool”, generate street credibility or give the false impression that the speaker rose from humble beginnings and became prominent through some innate talent rather than the education, contacts and other advantages a privileged background tends to bring. Britpop band Blur was said to have “Blur's mockney, down-the-dogs blokey charm”.Mick Jagger is often accused of having been the first celebrity in modern times to overplay his regional accent in order to boost his street credibility.
  
  wn.com/Mockney
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  Phil Collen
  Philip Kenneth "Phil" Collen (born 8 December 1957) is the co-lead guitarist and one of the backing vocalists for English rock band Def Leppard. He joined the band in 1982 following the departure of Pete Willis.
  Collen was born in Hackney, London, England. He got his first guitar from his cousin David Pilley, who said "he used to just sit in his bedroom just playing it". Then, at the age of 16, Phil got his first guitar (a red Gibson SG), taught himself how to play, and left school to pursue a career in music. He then joined a line-up of early bands including Lucy, Tush, Dumb Blondes, and Girl. During his tenure at Girl, Collen's career began rising, spurred by the relative success of the Girl albums Sheer Greed and Wasted Youth, which allowed Collen the opportunity to play at more significant venues.
  Before Collen's entrance to Def Leppard, he had been previously asked to consider joining the band by Steve Clark and Joe Elliott, who he knew at the time. Despite this invitation, there was no need to replace Pete Willis, and as a result, Collen stayed as a member of Girl.
  
  wn.com/Phil_Collen
• Phil Daniels
  Philip W. "Phil" Daniels (born 25 October 1958, Islington) is an English actor, most noted for film and television roles as cockneys such as Jimmy in Quadrophenia, Richards in Scum, Stewart in The Class of Miss MacMichael, Mark in Meantime, Kevin Wicks in EastEnders, DCS Frank Patterson in New Tricks and Grandad Trotter in the Only Fools and Horses prequel Rock & Chips.
  He attended Anna Scher Theatre School in Islington.
  Daniels has made appearances in many films and television series. He made his film debut in 1976, aged 17, as a waiter in Bugsy Malone, That same year he had significant roles in three television series: The Molly Wopsies, Four Idle Hands, and The Flockton Flyer; however, he had enjoyed an incidental appearance (with fellow drama students) the previous year (1975) in Thames Television's You Must Be Joking! Over the following four years he appeared in Quadrophenia, Breaking Glass, and Scum. He also appeared in the 1970s TV drama serial Raven.
  In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Daniels was a member of new wave band The Cross, along with fellow actor Peter Hugo Daly, the band releasing a single, "Kill Another Night" on RCA Records in 1979. His musical inclinations were revealed when he starred in a 1985 British snooker musical Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire. He narrated tracks on the Parklife and Think Tank albums for Blur.
  
  wn.com/Phil_Daniels
• Philip Ridley
  Philip Ridley (born 1964 in East London ) is a British artist working with various media.
  Ridley was born in Bethnal Green, in the East End of London, where he still lives and works. Ridley studied painting at St. Martin’s School of Art and his work has been exhibited throughout Europe and Japan. He started as both a performance artist and the creator of a long sequence of charcoal drawings called The Epic Fail of Oracle Foster. One drawing from this sequence, "Corvus Cum", portraying a man ejaculating a black bird, was exhibited at the ICA in London while Ridley was still a student and – with calls for it to be displayed behind a curtain – became a cause célèbre. Ridley also started his own theatre group as a student, acting in many of the productions, and made several short art films, including Visiting Mr Beak which starred the veteran actor Guy Rolfe. His short film for Channel 4, The Universe of Dermot Finn, was officially selected for the Cannes Film Festival, where it was a critical success and went on to receive theatrical distribution.
  
  wn.com/Philip_Ridley
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  Ray Winstone
  Raymond Andrew "Ray" Winstone (born 19 February 1957) is an English film and television actor. He is mostly known for his "tough guy" and "geeza" roles, beginning with that of Carlin in the 1979 film Scum and as Will Scarlet in the cult television adventure series Robin of Sherwood. He has also become well known as a voice over actor. More recently he has branched out into film production. His film résumé includes Cold Mountain, Nil By Mouth, King Arthur, The Proposition, The Departed, Beowulf, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and Edge of Darkness.
  Winstone was born in Hackney Hospital, Homerton, Hackney, London. His family was originally from Cirencester, Gloucestershire – half of them moving to London, the other half to Wales. Winstone moved via Plaistow to Enfield when he was seven, and grew up on a council estate just off the A10 road. His father, Raymond J. Winstone, ran a fruit and vegetable business (he is now a black cab driver), while his mother, Margaret (née Richardson), had a job emptying fruit machines. Winstone recalls playing with his friends on bomb sites until "Moors Murderers" Ian Brady and Myra Hindley were arrested for killing three children. Winstone joined Brimsdown Primary School and then he was educated at Edmonton County School, which had changed from a grammar school to a comprehensive upon his arrival. He also attended Corona Theatre School. He did not take to school, eventually leaving with a single CSE (Grade 2) in Drama.
  
  wn.com/Ray_Winstone
• Richard Whiteing
  Richard Whiteing ( 27 July 1840 - 29 June 1928), English author and journalist.
  Richard Whiteing was born in London the son of Mary Lander and William Whiteing, a civil servant employed as an Inland Revenue Officer. His mother died early and Richard claimed to have spent much of his upbringing with foster parents.^{[citation needed]}
  For seven years in his youth Whiteing was apprenticed to Benjamin Wyon as a medalist and seal-engraver; meanwhile he was also educating himself on the side.^{[citation needed]} In 1866, after a failed attempt to start his own medalist business,^{[citation needed]} he turned to journalism as a career. He made his debut with a series of papers in the Evening Star in 1866, printed separately in the next year as Mr Sprouts, His Opinions. He became leader-writer and correspondent on the Morning Star, and was subsequently on the staff of the Manchester Guardian, the New York World, and for many years the Daily News, resigning from the last-named paper in 1899.
  His first novel The Democracy (3 vols, 1876) was published under the pseudonym of Whyte Thorne. His second novel The Island (1888) was about a utopian life on Pitcairn Island; it attracted little attention until, years afterwards, its successor, No. 5 John Street (1899), made him famous; the earlier novel was then republished. No. 5 John Street has the character from the first novel return to London, but has no money, and describes the low-life of London. Later works were The Yellow Van (1903), Ring in the New (1906), All Moonshine (1907).
  
  wn.com/Richard_Whiteing
• Roger Delgado
  Roger Caesar Marius Bernard de Delgado Torres Castillo Roberto (1 March 1918 – 18 June 1973) was an English actor, best known for his role as the Master in Doctor Who.
  He was born in Whitechapel, in the East End of London—Delgado often remarked to Doctor Who actor Jon Pertwee, a close friend, that this made him a true Cockney, as he was born within the sound of the Bow bells—although his mother was Belgian and his father Spanish. He attended Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School, a Roman Catholic secondary school in Holland Park.
  Delgado worked extensively on the British stage, and on TV, film and radio. He appeared in the 1955 BBC Television serial Quatermass II, had a role in the Powell and Pressburger wartime drama Battle of the River Plate (1956), and came to wide popular attention in Britain when he played the duplicitous Spanish envoy Mendoza in the ITC Entertainment series Sir Francis Drake (1961–62), after which he was much in demand; an 'in-joke' in the 1971 Doctor Who story Colony in Space refers to that role: the Brigadier tells the Doctor not to worry — the suspected sighting of the Master was only the Spanish Ambassador! Delgado was frequently cast as a villain, appearing in many noted British action-adventure TV series by ITC, including The Champions (1969), Danger Man (1961), The Saint (1962, 1966), and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) (1969). He made a total of sixteen guest appearances in ITC shows — the most of any actor — with his last completed role being ITC's The Zoo Gang shown in 1974. He also appeared in The Avengers (1961, 1969), The Power Game (1966) and Crossfire (1967). In film, he appeared alongside Bing Crosby and Bob Hope in The Road to Hong Kong.
  
  wn.com/Roger_Delgado
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  Ronnie Lane
  Ronald Frederick "Ronnie" Lane (1 April 1946, Plaistow Maternity Hospital, Plaistow, East London – 4 June 1997) was an English musician, songwriter, and producer who is best known as the bass guitarist and founding member of two prominent English rock and roll bands; the Small Faces where he was nicknamed "Plonk", (1965–69) – and, after losing the band's frontman, Faces, with two new members added to the line up, (from The Jeff Beck Group), who dubbed him "Three-Piece" (1969–73). It was for his work in both the Small Faces and the Faces that Lane was inducted posthumously into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2012.
  Subsequently Lane collaborated with other musicians, leading his own bands as well as pursuing a solo career while remaining close to his former bandmates. In the late 1970s he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and, despite charity projects and financial support from friends, former bandmates and fans, Lane, after suffering from the disease for 21 years, died at 51.
  
  wn.com/Ronnie_Lane
• Roy Shaw
  Royston Henry Shaw (born 11 March 1936 in Stepney, London), also known as Roy "Pretty Boy" Shaw, Roy "Mean Machine" Shaw and Roy West, is an English millionaire, real estate investor, author and businessman from the East End of London who was formerly a criminal and Category A prisoner. During the 1970s-1980s, Shaw was active in the criminal underworld of London and was frequently associated with the Kray twins. Shaw is best remembered today for his career as a fighter on the unlicensed boxing scene, becoming an arch-rival with Lenny McLean.
  Shaw was born in Stepney, London, to a working class family and from an early age was involved in illegal activities. He was acquainted with the Kray twins since at least the very early 1960s; Shaw attended the funeral of Reggie Kray in 2000, and was quoted as having said: "We grew up in the same era. They were into protection rackets and I was into blags. I never got in their way and they never got in mine. Ronnie was more of a friend than Reggie, but I've come along today because he was one of the 'chaps'. Today is like the end of an era. The Krays were legends." As an adult Shaw has mainly lived in Bethnal Green.
  
  wn.com/Roy_Shaw
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  Samantha Fox
  Samantha Karen "Sam" Fox (born 15 April 1966) is an English dance-pop singer, actress, and former glamour model. In 1983, at the age of 16, she began her topless modelling career on Page Three of The Sun, and went on to become a popular pin-up girl. In 1986, she launched her pop music career with her debut single "Touch Me (I Want Your Body)", which became a Number 1 hit in 17 countries. She has since sold over 30 million albums worldwide. Fox has also appeared in a number of films and reality television shows, and has occasionally worked as a television presenter.^{[citation needed]}
  The eldest daughter of the late John Patrick Fox and Carole Ann Wilken, Samantha Karen Fox comes from a family of market traders from Chapel Market, Islington, London. She has a sister, Vanessa, who is six years younger, a half-sister, Frederica, and a half brother, Frankie, from her father's second marriage.^{[citation needed]}
  Fox attended St Thomas More RC School, Haringey and took an interest in the theatre from an early age. She first appeared on a theatre stage at the age of three, and was enrolled in the Anna Scher Theatre School from the age of 5. Her first television appearance came in 1976, at the age of 10, in a BBC play entitled No Way Out.^{[citation needed]} Following on from this, she started at the Mountview Theatre School, near her home in Haringey, at the age of 11.^{[citation needed]}
  
  wn.com/Samantha_Fox
• Samuel Rowlands
  Samuel Rowlands (c. 1573–1630), English author of pamphlets in prose and verse, which reflect the follies and humours of the lower middle-class life of his time, seems to have had no contemporary literary reputation; but his work throws considerable light on the development of popular literature and social life in London of his day.
  He spent his life in London, and it is thought that he kept close contact with the middle and lower classes of London society. It is also believed that from 1600-1615 he worked for William White, and then George Loftus, booksellers who published Rowlands’ pamphlets during this time.
  Among his works, which include some poems on sacred subjects, are:
  Of his later works may be mentioned Sir Thomas Overbury; or the Poysoned Knights Complaint, and The Melancholic Knight (1615), which suggests a hearing of Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle. The last of his humorous studies, Good Newes and Bad Newes, appeared in 1622, and in 1628 he published a pious volume of prose and verse, entitled Heaven's Glory, Seeke it: Earts vanitie, Flye it: Hells Horror, Fere it.
  
  wn.com/Samuel_Rowlands
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  Sid Vicious
  Sid Vicious (born John Simon Ritchie 10 May 1957 – 2 February 1979) was an English musician best known as the bassist of the influential punk rock group Sex Pistols. In 2006 he was inducted posthumously into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Sex Pistols.
  Sid Vicious was born John Simon Ritchie in Lewisham, South East London, to John and Anne Ritchie (née McDonald). His mother dropped out of school early due to a lack of academic success and went on to join the RAF, where she met her husband-to-be, Ritchie's father. He was a guardsman at Buckingham Palace and a semi-professional trombone player on the London Jazz scene. Shortly after John's birth, he and his mother moved to Ibiza, where they expected to be joined by his father who, it was planned, would support them financially in the meantime. However, after the first few pay cheques failed to arrive, Anne realised that he would not be coming. Anne later married Christopher Beverley, a middle class man in 1965, before setting up a family home back in Kent. Ritchie took his stepfather's surname and was known as John Beverley.
  
  wn.com/Sid_Vicious
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  Steve Marriott
  Stephen Peter Marriott (30 January 1947 – 20 April 1991), popularly known as Steve Marriott, was an English musician, songwriter and frontman of several notable rock and roll bands, spanning over two decades. Marriott is remembered for his powerful singing voice which belied his small stature, and for his aggressive approach as a guitarist in the mod rock bands- the Small Faces (1965–1969) and Humble Pie (1969–1975 and 1980–1981). Marriott was inducted posthumously into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2012 as a member of the Small Faces.
  In Britain, Marriott became a popular, often-photographed mod style icon through his role as lead singer and guitarist with the Small Faces in the mid to late 1960s. Marriott was influenced from an early age by his heroes including Buddy Holly, Booker T & the MG's, Ray Charles, Otis Redding, Muddy Waters and Bobby Bland. In later life Marriott became disillusioned with the music industry and turned his back on the big record companies, remaining in relative obscurity. He returned to his music roots playing the pubs and clubs around London and Essex.
  
  wn.com/Steve_Marriott
• Steven Berkoff
  Steven Berkoff (born 3 August 1937) is an English actor, writer and director. He is best known for his performance as General Orlov in the James Bond film Octopussy, and is typically cast in villanous roles, such as Lt. Col Podovsky in Rambo: First Blood Part II, Victor Maitland in Beverly Hills Cop, and Adolf Hitler in epic mini-series War and Remembrance.
  Berkoff was born Leslie Steven Berks, in Stepney, in the East End of London, on 3 August 1937, the son of Pauline (Hyman) and Alfred Berks (Berkovitch), who was a tailor. His family was of Romanian Jewish background. He attended Raine's Foundation Grammar School (1948-50),Hackney Downs School, the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art (1958), and the Ecole Jacques Lecoq (1965).
  As well as being an actor, Berkoff is a playwright and director.
  He joined the Repertory Company at Her Majesty's Theatre in Barrow-in-Furness for approximately two months in 1962.
  His earliest plays are adaptations of works by Franz Kafka: The Metamorphosis (1969); In the Penal Colony (1969); and The Trial (1971); these complex psychological plays are said to be nightmarish and to create a disturbing sense of alienation in their audiences.^{[citation needed]}
  
  wn.com/Steven_Berkoff
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  Terence Stamp
  Terence Henry Stamp (born 22 July 1938) is an English actor. Since starting his career in 1962 he has appeared in over 60 films. His title role as Billy Budd in his film debut earned Stamp an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor and a BAFTA nomination for Best Newcomer.
  His other major roles include butterfly collector Freddie Clegg in The Collector, arch-villain General Zod in Superman and Superman II, trans woman Bernadette in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, tough guy Wilson in The Limey, Supreme Chancellor Valorum in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, ghost antagonist Ramsley in The Haunted Mansion, Elektra's master Stick in Elektra, Pekwarsky in Wanted, Maxwell Smart's arch-villain Siegfried in Get Smart, council of high help Terrence Bundley in Yes Man and General Ludwig Beck in Valkyrie.
  Stamp has won a Golden Globe, a Cannes Film Festival Award, a Seattle International Film Festival Award, a Satellite Award and a Silver Bear.
  Stamp, the eldest of five children, was born in Stepney, London in 1938, the son of Ethel Esther (née Perrott) and Thomas Stamp, who was a tugboat captain. His early years were spent in Canal Road, Bow, in the East End of London, but later in his childhood the family moved to Plaistow, West Ham, London. His brother, Chris, is a rock 'n roll impresario credited with helping to bring the Who to prominence during the 1960s. As his father was away for long periods with his job in the Merchant Navy, the young Stamp was mostly brought up by his mother, grandmother and aunts. He grew up idolising the film actor Gary Cooper after his mother had taken him to see Beau Geste at the age of three. He was also inspired by the 1950s avant-garde Method actor James Dean.
  
  wn.com/Terence_Stamp
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  Tommy Steele
  Tommy Steele OBE (born Thomas William Hicks, 17 December 1936, Bermondsey, London), is an English entertainer. Steele is widely regarded as Britain's first teen idol and rock and roll star.
  Before landing a singing career, Steele tried his hand at a number of odd jobs and had a brief spell as a merchant seaman. Like many singers of his era he never did national service, having failed the medical examination because, at eighteen years old, he was diagnosed as suffering with cardiomyopathy. However, according to his autobiography, Bermondsey Boy: Memories of a Forgotten World, he failed the medical because he had flat feet. While on leave or during dock strikes, he played guitar and banjo and sang in The 2i's Coffee Bar and the Cat's Whisker where hand-jiving was devised, two coffee houses in Soho, both as a solo performer and with Wally Whyton's Vipers Skiffle Group. When a ship Steele was serving on docked in Norfolk, Virginia, he heard Buddy Holly and fell in love with rock and roll, turning his back on the British skiffle craze. He was discovered by freelance photographer John Kennedy, who believed Steele could be Britain's answer to Elvis Presley. Later co-manager Larry Parnes was incorrectly credited with creating the stage name 'Tommy Steele.' It was Steele who adapted the surname of his Scandinavian paternal grandfather, Thomas Stil-Hicks (pronounced Steel-Hicks), adding another E to the spelling.^{[citation needed]}
  
  wn.com/Tommy_Steele
• William Langland
  William Langland (ca. 1332 – ca. 1386) is the conjectured author of the 14th-century English dream-vision Piers Plowman.
  The attribution of Piers to Langland rests principally on the evidence of a manuscript held at Trinity College, Dublin (MS 212). This directly ascribes 'Perys Ploughman' to one 'Willielmi de Langlond', son of 'Stacy de Rokayle, who died in Shipton-under-Wychwood, a tenant of the Lord Spenser in the county of Oxfordshire'. Other manuscripts also name the author as 'Robert or William langland', or 'Wilhelmus W.' (most likely shorthand for 'William of Wychwood'). The poem itself also seems to point towards Langland's authorship. At one stage the narrator remarks: 'I have lyved in londe...my name is longe wille' (B.XV.152). This can be taken as a coded reference to the poet's name, in the style of much late-medieval literature (see, for instance, Villon's acrostics in Le Testament). Although the evidence may appear slender, Langland's authorship has been widely accepted by commentators since the 1920s. It is not, however, entirely beyond dispute, as recent work by Stella Pates and C. David Benson has demonstrated.
  
  wn.com/William_Langland

The Case of the Cockney Cupcake (1989)

Genres

• Adult
• Comedy

Taglines:

Quotes: