Coordinates: 51°29′58″N 0°08′00″W / 51.4995°N 0.1333°W / 51.4995; -0.1333

Westminster /ˈwɛsᵗmɪnstə/ is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, southwest of the City of London and 0.5 miles (0.8 km) southwest of Charing Cross. It has a large concentration of London's historic and prestigious landmarks and visitor attractions, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, and Westminster Cathedral.

Historically a part of Middlesex, the name Westminster was the ancient description for the area around Westminster Abbey – the West Minster, or monastery church, that gave the area its name – which has been the seat of the government of England (and later the British government) for almost a thousand years. Westminster is the location of the Palace of Westminster, a UNESCO World Heritage Site which houses the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

The name Westminster describes the area around Westminster Abbey and Palace of Westminster. Its name derives from the West Minster, or monastery church, west of the City of London's St Paul's. The area has been the seat of the government of England for almost a thousand years. The name is also used for the larger City of Westminster which covers a wider geographical area; and, since 1965, has included the former boroughs of Marylebone and Paddington.

Anthony Neil Wedgwood "Tony" Benn, PC (born 3 April 1925), formerly 2nd Viscount Stansgate, is a British Labour Party politician, who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for fifty years, and was also a Cabinet Minister under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan.

His successful campaign to renounce his hereditary peerage was instrumental in the creation of the Peerage Act 1963. In the Labour Government of 1964–1970 he served first as Postmaster General, where he oversaw the opening of the Post Office Tower, and later as a notably "technocratic" Minister of Technology. In the period when the Labour Party was in Opposition, Benn served for a year as the Chairman of the Labour Party. In the Labour Government of 1974–1979, he returned to the Cabinet, initially serving as Secretary of State for Industry, before being made Secretary of State for Energy, retaining his post when James Callaghan replaced Wilson as Prime Minister. During the Labour Party's time in Opposition during the 1980s, he was seen as the party's prominent figure on the left, and the term "Bennite" has come to be used in Britain for someone of a more radical left-wing position.

The Westminster Chorus (formerly known as the Harmony Showcase Chorus) is a men's a cappella chorus based in Westminster, California. International Chorus Champions of the Barbershop Harmony Society in 2007 and 2010, they are composed almost entirely of men under the age of 30.

The town of Westminster, in Orange County, CA has supported a barbershop chapter for almost half a century; but by the 1990s, it had an aging membership and no active performing chorus. In 2002 a small group of younger men from the Masters of Harmony chorus in nearby Santa Fe Springs, CA decided they would like to try to start a barbershop chorus with the mission of bringing younger men together to make music with others their own age. Founding member Terry Ghiselli approached the men of the Westminster chapter, which at the time only boasted 8 members, and they were glad to allow the young men to pick up and use the chapter charter in order to produce their vision of a youth-oriented chorus.

With 15 members and only a half dozen rehearsals under their belt, they competed at the SoCal West divisional contest in April 2002. The oldest member on stage was 27, the youngest 16. The average age was 20, and 6 of the singers were brand new barbershoppers. Directed by Ghiselli, they surprised the crowd by walking away with the championship trophy that day, and advancing to the Far Western District contest the following fall.

Louis Victor Jules Vierne (8 October 1870 – 2 June 1937) was a French organist and composer.

Louis Vierne was born in Poitiers, Vienne, nearly blind due to congenital cataracts, but at an early age was discovered to have an unusual gift for music. (At age two he heard the piano for the first time. The pianist played him a Schubert lullaby and he promptly began to pick out the notes of the lullaby on the piano.)

After completing school in the provinces, Louis Vierne entered the Paris Conservatory. From 1892, Vierne served as an assistant to the organist Charles-Marie Widor at the church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris. Vierne subsequently became principal organist at the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris, a post he held from 1900 until his death in 1937.

Vierne had a life that was physically and emotionally very difficult, with severe spiritual trials that are reflected in much of his music. His congenital cataracts did not make him completely blind, but he was what would be called today "legally blind." Early in his career, he composed on outsized manuscript paper, using "a large pencil" as his friend Marcel Dupré described. Later in life, as his limited sight continued to diminish, he resorted to Braille to do most of his work.

Dan Cruickshank (born 26 August 1949) is an art historian and BBC television presenter.

As a young child he lived for some years in Poland. His father was a journalist based in Warsaw.

Cruickshank holds a BA in Art, Design and Architecture and was formerly a Visiting Professor in the Department of Art at the University of Sheffield and a member of the London faculty of the University of Delaware. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Artists, a member of the Executive Committee of the Georgian Group and on the Architectural Panel of the National Trust, and is an Honorary Fellow of RIBA.

He has served as Historic Buildings Consultant for ADAM Architecture since 1999 and has been involved in the repair and restoration of many historical buildings including Spencer House in St James’s, Heveningham Hall in Suffolk and numerous early 18th century houses in Spitalfields and other parts of London.

His professional publications include London - the Art of Georgian Buildings, The National Trust and Irish Georgian Society Guide to the Georgian Buildings of Britain and Ireland and ‘’Life in the Georgian City’’. He edited the 20th edition of Sir Banister Fletcher’s History of Architecture and Timeless Architecture: a study of key buildings in architectural history and is a contributing editor to Architects’ Journal, The Architectural Review and Perspectives on Architecture.