United Kingdom

The UK is an Island situated on the North-west of Europe, it is sourraunded by the Atlantic Ocean. UK is made up by 4 states: England, Scotland, Wales and Northen Ireland. Its capital is London an enormous metropolitan city wordly known for its culture. 

St. Andrew’s Cross (the national flag of Scotland) 

St. Patrick’s Cross (the national flag of Northern Ireland). 

The words used today are those sung in 1745, substituting 'Queen' for 'King' where appropriate. On official occasions, only the first verse is usually sung. 

Since UK’s politics is based on a constitutional Monarchy, the British parliament is located in West Minster. It is composed by: the House of Commons (elected by citizens) and the House of Lords (an ereditary appellation). 

St. Andrew’s Cross (the national flag of Scotland) 

St. Patrick’s Cross (the national flag of Northern Ireland). 

Much of the north and west of the U.K. is covered in high ground, knife-edged mountain ridges separated by deep valleys. This terrain was shaped in the last Ice Age, when thick glaciers covered the land.

In the south of England, the countryside is mostly rolling hills.

In northwest England and the Scottish Highlands are dozens of lakes, called lochs. These were left behind when the Ice Age glaciers melted. They tend to be long and narrow, and some are very deep. Legends say that a giant monster called Nessie lives in Loch Ness in Scotland.

'God Save The King' was a patriotic song first publicly performed in London in 1745, which came to be known as the National Anthem at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

In September 1745 the 'Young Pretender' to the British Throne, Prince Charles Edward Stuart, defeated the army of King George II at Prestonpans, near Edinburgh.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/God-Save-the-Queen-British-national-anthem

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK or U.K.), or Britain, is a sovereign country in north-western Europe, off the north-­western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-­eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands within the British Isles. Northern Ireland shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland. Otherwise, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world. The Irish Sea separates Great Britain and Ireland. The total area of the United Kingdom is 94,000 square miles (240,000 km2).

 

The United Kingdom is a unitary parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 1952. The United Kingdom's capital is London, a global city and financial centre with an urban area population of 10.3 million. The United Kingdom consists of four countries: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Their capitals are London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. Apart from England, the countries have their own devolved governments, each with varying powers. Other major cities include Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, and Manchester.

 

The union between the Kingdom of England (which included Wales) and the Kingdom of Scotland in 1707 to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, followed by the union in 1801 of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The UK's name was adopted in 1927 to reflect the change.

 

The nearby Isle of Man, Bailiwick of Guernsey and Bailiwick of Jersey are not part of the UK, being Crown dependencies with the British Government responsible for defence and international representation.There are also 14 British Overseas Territories, the last remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's landmass and was the largest empire in history. British influence can be observed in the language, culture and political systems of many of its former colonies.

The United Kingdom has the world's fifth-largest economy by nominal gross domestic product (GDP), and the ninth-largest by purchasing power parity (PPP). It has a high-income economy and a very high human development index rating, ranking 15th in the world. It was the world's first industrialised country and the world's foremost power during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The UK remains a great power, with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific, technological and political influence internationally. It is a recognised nuclear weapons state and is sixth in military expenditure in the world. It has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946.

 

The United Kingdom is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the Council of Europe, the G7, the G20, NATO, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Interpol and the World Trade Organization (WTO). It was a member of the European Union (EU) and its predecessor, the European Economic Community (EEC), from 1 January 1973 until withdrawing on 31 January 2020.

THE BRITISH FLAG

The national flag of the United Kingdom is the Union Jack, also known as the Union Flag.

The design of the Union Jack dates back to the Act of Union 1801 which united the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland (previously in personal union) to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The flag consists of the red cross of Saint George (patron saint of England), edged in white, superimposed on the Cross of St Patrick (patron saint of Ireland), which are superimposed on the Saltire of Saint Andrew (patron saint of Scotland). Wales is not represented in the Union Flag by Wales's patron saint, Saint David, because the flag was designed while Wales was part of the Kingdom of England.

The earlier flag of Great Britain was established in 1606 by a proclamation of King James VI and I of Scotland and England. The new flag of the United Kingdom was officially created by an Order in Council of 1801, reading as follows:

The Union Flag shall be azure, the Crosses saltire of Saint Andrew and Saint Patrick quarterly per saltire, counter-changed, argent and gules, the latter fimbriated of the second, surmounted by the Cross of Saint George of the third fimbriated as the saltire.

The Union Flag can be flown by any individual or organisation in Great Britain on any day of their choice. Legal regulations restrict the use of the Union Flag on Government buildings in Northern Ireland. Long-standing restrictions on Government use of the flag elsewhere were abolished in July 2007.

 

Upside-down

While the flag appears symmetric, the white lines above and below the diagonal red are different widths. On the side closer to the flagpole (or on the left when depicted on paper), the white lines above the diagonals are wider; on the side farther from the flagpole (or on the right when depicted on paper), the converse is true. Thus, no change will be apparent when rotating the flag 180 degrees, but if mirrored the flag will be upside-down.

 

Placing the flag upside down is considered lèse majesté and is offensive to some. However, it can be flown upside down as a distress signal. While this is rare, it was used by groups under siege during the Boer War and during campaigns in India in the late 18th century.[citation needed]

 

St Patrick's saltire

Because of the relative positions of the saltires of St Patrick and St Andrew, the UK flag is not symmetrical. The red saltire of St Patrick is offset such that it does not relegate the white saltire of St Andrew to a mere border. St Andrew's saltire has the higher position at the hoist side with St Patrick's saltire in the higher position on the opposite side.

 

Half-mast

The Union Flag is flown from Government buildings at half-mast in the following situations: 

from the announcement of the death of the Sovereign (an exception is made for Proclamation Day – the day the new Sovereign is proclaimed, when the Flag is flown at full mast from 11 am to sunset)

the day of the funeral of a member of the British Royal Family

the funeral of a foreign Head of State

the funeral of a former British Prime Minister

The Sovereign sometimes declares other days when the Union Flag is to fly at half-mast. Half-mast means the flag is flown two-thirds of the way up the flagpole with at least the height of the flag between the top of the flag and the top of the flagpole.

 

Flying from public buildings

Until July 2007, the Union Flag was only flown on Government buildings on a limited number of special days each year. The choice of days was managed by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). Government buildings are those used by civil servants, the Crown, or the armed forces. They were not applicable to private citizens, corporations, or local authorities.

 

On 3 July 2007, the Justice Secretary Jack Straw laid a green paper before Parliament entitled The Governance of Britain. Alongside a range of proposed changes to the constitutional arrangements of the UK was a specific announcement that there would be consultation on whether the rules on flag-flying on Government buildings should be relaxed.

 

Two days later, Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that with immediate effect the Union Flag would fly from the flag pole above the front entrance of 10 Downing Street on every day of the year. The intention was to increase feelings of British national identity. Other Government departments were asked to follow this lead, and all Government buildings in Whitehall did so.

 

James Purnell, Culture Secretary from June 2007 to January 2008 in Brown's administration, subsequently concurred with the abolition of the restrictions – pending consultation on longer term arrangements.

THE BRITISH ANTHEM

The origins of “God Save the Queen” are lost in obscurity, but there is no doubt whatever that the words and the tune, as we know them today, suddenly became widely popular in September, 1745. In that month, demonstrations of loyalty to the reigning house were in special demand. Charles Edward, the Young Pretender, had routed Cope at Prestonpans, and was about to invade England; London was preparing to defend itself and its Hanoverian rulers. An example of popular feeling was given on September 28th when the entire male caste of Drury Lane theatre announced their intention of forming a special unit of the Volunteer Defence Force. That evening they gave a performance of Jonson’s The Alchemist. At its conclusion there was an additional item. Three of the leading singers of the day—Mrs. Cibber, Beard and Reinhold —stepped forward and began a special anthem:

 

“God bless our Noble King,

 

God Save great George our King ...”

 

The Daily Advertiser reported: “The universal applause sufficiently denoted in how just an Abhorrence they (the audience) hold the Arbitrary Schemes of our invidious enemies. ...” The other theatres were quick to follow Drury Lane. Benjamin Victor, the linen merchant, wrote to his friend Garrick, who was ill in the country: “The stage is the most loyal place in the three kingdoms,” and Mrs. Cibber noted: “The Rebellion so far from being a disadvantage to the playhouses, brings them very good houses.” Soon the anthem was being sung as far afield as Bath.

 

Neither words nor music were new. They had been published in 1744 in the Thesaurus Musicus. Dr. Thomas Arne compiled Drury Lane’s version in September 1745, and one of his younger pupils, Charles Burney, produced the setting for Covent Garden. Sixty years later, the eminent Dr. Burney recalled some interesting facts about the origins of the anthem for the benefit of his friend Sir Joseph Banks, the naturalist. Burney, in common with all contemporaries dealing with the 1745 versions, referred to an “old tune” and an “old anthem.” He continued:

 

“Old Mrs. Arne, the mother of Dr. Arne and Mrs. Cibber, a bigotted Roman Catholic, said she had heard it sung not only at the playhouse but in the street when the Prince of Orange was hovering over the coast.”

 

On a later occasion Burney was more definite:

 

“the earliest copy of the words we are acquainted with begin—God Save Great James Our King. I asked Dr. Arne if he knew who the composer was: he said he had not the least knowledge ... but that it was a received opinion that it was written and composed for the Catholic Chapel of James II.”

 

This is not unlikely. Musicians trace the origins of the melody from a medieval plainsong chant and on, through a carol, to a tune by the Elizabethan, John Bull. At the end of the seventeenth century, Purcell wrote a few bars which are almost identical with the opening phrases of the Arne and Burney versions. There is not a shred of reliable evidence that either Henry Carey or the French composer, Lully, had a hand in the music.

 

The words contain such an obvious sentiment of loyalty that it is impossible to give any precise date for their origin. The phrase “God Save the King” occurs in several places in the earliest English translations of the Bible. An Order of the Fleet at Portsmouth for August 10th, 1544, laid down the watchword for the day as “God Save King Henry” and the counterword as “Long to Reign Over Us.” From the Accession of Queen Elizabeth, Royal Proclamations end with “God Save the Queen.” Several other ideas in the anthem, such as “Scatter Our Enemies” and “Confound Their Devices” were often employed in loyal prayers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for the Sovereign and the State. It can be safely presumed that by the reign of James II, both words and music of “God Save The King” were known in an accepted form. It is possible—though this can be no more than speculation—that a Latin version, known to have been extant at the beginning of the eighteenth century, was first composed for use in his Catholic chapels. What is certain is that after the Revolution, the anthem was regarded as an expression of loyalty to the Hanoverian dynasty.

 

It was not yet, of course, the National Anthem. Such a concept would have been incomprehensible to the eighteenth cenutry. But within a year or so of 1745 it was being played and sung whenever Royalty appeared in public. Later in the century, Fanny Burney describes a visit with the Court to Cheltenham:

 

“All the way upon the road we rarely proceeded five miles without encountering a band of the most horrid fiddlers, scraping “God Save The King,” with all their might, out of time, out of time, and all in the rain ...”

 

Oddly enough, although it was loyal, it was not yet regarded as sacred music. At Lyndhurst, in 1789, Fanny Burney attended the Parish Church to give thanks for her Monarch’s recovery from one of his bouts of lunacy.

 

“After the service, instead of the psalm, imagine our surprise to hear the whole congregation join in ‘God Save The King.’ Misplaced as this was in a church, it’s interest was so kind, so loyal and so affectionate, that I believe there was not a dry eye. ...”

 

Miss Burney has also recorded some of the best-known occasions on which the anthem was played:

 

“At Weymouth God Save The King is inscribed on the hats and caps of children, all the bargemen wear it in cockades; and even the bathing women have it in large coarse girdles round their waists. The King bathes and with great success; a machine follows the Royal one into the sea filled with fiddlers who play ‘God Save The King’ as His Majesty takes his plunge!”

 

The anthem was being sung on a May night in the Theatre Royal in 1800 when Hadfield made his unsuccessful attempt on the life of George III. Sheridan improvised a special additional verse on the spur of the moment, expressive of the people’s gratitude for the benign intervention of Providence. But neither under the Regency nor under George IV was “God Save The King” regarded as a sacred melody. It was sung for the first time at a Coronation for the crowning of George IV, though a part of the congregation in the Abbey pointedly sang “God Save The Queen” to show where their sympathies lay in the question of the Royal Divorce.

 

William IV listened to an odd performance when he and Queen Adelaide opened the new London Bridge in 1831. They dined in the middle of the structure, and during the meal an official glee-party, under Sir George Smart, rendered musical honours, including “God Save The King.” To Smart’s consternation, a man and a woman walked forward,

 

“he playing ‘God Save The King’ with his knuckles on his chin, accompanied by his wife’s voice. The King called to me and asked me who they were. I told him I was sorry they had intruded without permission. ‘Oh, no. No intrusion ’ said the King. ‘It was charming. Tell them to perform it again.” 

 

After the accession of Queen Victoria it is regularly referred to as the National Anthem, though the Queen seems to have regarded it as a family anthem as well, for special verses were produced for royal births and marriages.

 

Probably it was in foreign countries that the National Anthem was first included in collections of hymns. It is believed to be the first example of its particular metre in any European language—6.6.4.6.6.6.4. Once it had established itself in popular fancy, it was bound to spread. Numberless hymn-writers employed the metre, and before the eighteenth century was out, suitable national words had been composed for the time in Holland and Denmark, and many German States had adopted for their own Schumacher’s verse beginning “Heil dir im Sieger-kranz.” Russia used the tune until 1833, and Sweden and Liechtenstein are two other states who have set their own words to the music. The Swiss have no National Anthem, but they have written both French and German words to the melody. The American version “My Country ’Tis of Thee” appeared in 1831. Among composers, Haydn was a great admirer of “God Save The King,” and was instructed to compose something on the same lines when commissioned to write the Emperor’s Hymn— better known today in its later form of Deutschland Ueber Alles. Beethoven declared “I must show the English what a blessing they have in ‘God Save The King'. He wrote several variations on the tune and included the theme in his tribute to Wellington, The Battle. Weber used the melody at least twice, and Brahms wove it into his Triumphlied. J. C. Bach and Liszt are among many others who improvised on the anthem.

 

Since its first popularity in 1745, endless attempts have been made to improve the words. In December of that year the Gentlemen’s Magazine declared “the words have no merit but their loyalty” and offered its own new version, "Fame, let thy trumpet sing.” But the public stuck to Arne and Burney. In these settings there was no ambiguity about one’s loyalty— “Great George,” “On him our hopes are fixed,” “Scatter his enemies,” “May he defend our laws.” With the omission of one stanza referring to Marshal Wade “crushing rebellious Scots',” the 1745 Anthem remains substantially the accepted version today. It is a curious fact that an official version seems never to have been laid down. Longfellow’s improving lines were included in a Jubilee rendering for Queen Victoria:

 

“Lord, let war’s tempest cease

 

Fold the whole world in peace

 

Under thy wings.”

 

In 1919 a “Peace Version” of the Anthem was approved by the Privy Council and is nowadays included in certain hymnbooks. In 1931 Mr. Philip Snowden, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, declared in the House of Commons: “It may be information to hon. members to know that the words to which the tune is sung are no part of the National Anthem. It is only the tune itself which is the National Anthem.” However this may be, the final and most precise arbiter on the performance of “God Save The Queen” does envisage its being sung to the accepted words. This is the appropriate section of Queen’s Regulations for the Army:

 

“The authorized arrangement of the National Anthem as published by Messrs. Boosey and Hawkes Ltd. will invariably be used and will be rendered in the following style:

 

“The first bars will be played pianissimo at M.M. 60 crotchets, using the full reeds, horns and basses ... (the brass will be brought smartly into playing position on the third beat of the fifth bar) ... The comets and the side drum will be added on the second beat of the sixth bar... . The last eight bars will be played fortissimo as broadly as possible... . For singing, the key of ‘F’ will be used.”

THE HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT

The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parliament after its occupants, the Palace lies on the north bank of the River Thames in the City of Westminster, in central London, England.

 

Its name, which derives from the neighbouring Westminster Abbey, may refer to several historic structures but most often: the Old Palace, a medieval building-complex largely destroyed by fire in 1834, or its replacement, the New Palace that stands today. The palace is owned by the monarch in right of the Crown and, for ceremonial purposes, retains its original status as a royal residence. Committees appointed by both houses manage the building and report to the Speaker of the House of Commons and to the Lord Speaker.

 

The first royal palace constructed on the site dated from the 11th century, and Westminster became the primary residence of the Kings of England until fire destroyed the royal apartments in 1512 (after which, the nearby Palace of Whitehall was established). The remainder of Westminster continued to serve as the home of the Parliament of England, which had met there since the 13th century, and also as the seat of the Royal Courts of Justice, based in and around Westminster Hall. In 1834 an even greater fire ravaged the heavily rebuilt Houses of Parliament, and the only significant medieval structures to survive were Westminster Hall, the Cloisters of St Stephen's, the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft, and the Jewel Tower.

 

In the subsequent competition for the reconstruction of the Palace, the architect Charles Barry won with a design for new buildings in the Gothic Revival style, specifically inspired by the English Perpendicular Gothic style of the 14th–16th centuries. The remains of the Old Palace (except the detached Jewel Tower) were incorporated into its much larger replacement, which contains over 1,100 rooms organised symmetrically around two series of courtyards and which has a floor area of 112,476 m2 (1,210,680 sq ft). Part of the New Palace's area of 3.24 hectares (8 acres) was reclaimed from the River Thames, which is the setting of its nearly 300-metre long (980 ft) façade, called the River Front. Augustus Pugin, a leading authority on Gothic architecture and style, assisted Barry and designed the interior of the Palace. Construction started in 1840 and lasted for 30 years, suffering great delays and cost overruns, as well as the death of both leading architects; works for the interior decoration continued intermittently well into the 20th century. Major conservation work has taken place since then to reverse the effects of London's air pollution, and extensive repairs followed the Second World War, including the reconstruction of the Commons Chamber following its bombing in 1941.

 

The Palace is one of the centres of political life in the United Kingdom; "Westminster" has become a metonym for the UK Parliament and the British Government, and the Westminster system of government commemorates the name of the palace. The Elizabeth Tower, in particular, often referred to by the name of its main bell, Big Ben, has become an iconic landmark of London and of the United Kingdom in general, one of the most popular tourist attractions in the city, and an emblem of parliamentary democracy. Tsar Nicholas I of Russia called the new palace "a dream in stone". The Palace of Westminster has been a Grade I listed building since 1970 and part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987.

PICCADILLY CIRCUS

Piccadilly Circus is a road junction and public space of London's West End in the City of Westminster. It was built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with Piccadilly. In this context, a circus, from the Latin word meaning "circle", is a round open space at a street junction.

 

Piccadilly now links directly to the theatres on Shaftesbury Avenue, as well as the Haymarket, Coventry Street (onwards to Leicester Square) and Glasshouse Street. The Circus is close to major shopping and entertainment areas in the West End. Its status as a major traffic junction has made Piccadilly Circus a busy meeting place and a tourist attraction in its own right. The Circus is particularly known for its video display and neon signs mounted on the corner building on the northern side, as well as the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain and statue of Anteros (which is popularly, though mistakenly, believed to be of Eros).

 

It is surrounded by several notable buildings, including the London Pavilion and Criterion Theatre. Directly underneath the plaza is Piccadilly Circus Underground station, part of the London Underground system.

Piccadilly Circus connects to Piccadilly, a thoroughfare whose name first appeared in 1626 as Piccadilly Hall, named after a house belonging to one Robert Baker, a tailor famous for selling piccadills, or piccadillies, a term used for various kinds of collars. The street was known as Portugal Street in 1692 in honour of Catherine of Braganza, the queen consort of King Charles II but was known as Piccadilly by 1743. Piccadilly Circus was created in 1819, at the junction with Regent Street, which was then being built under the planning of John Nash on the site of a house and garden belonging to a Lady Hutton; the intersection was then known as Regent Circus South (just as Oxford Circus was known as Regent Circus North) and it did not begin to be known as Piccadilly Circus until the mid 1880s, with the rebuilding of the Regent Street Quadrant and the construction of Shaftesbury Avenue. In the same period the circus lost its circular form. 

The junction has been a very busy traffic interchange since construction, as it lies at the centre of Theatreland and handles exit traffic from Piccadilly, which Charles Dickens Jr. described in 1879: "Piccadilly, the great thoroughfare leading from the Haymarket and Regent-street westward to Hyde Park-corner, is the nearest approach to the Parisian boulevard of which London can boast."

 

Piccadilly Circus tube station was opened on 10 March 1906, on the Bakerloo line, and on the Piccadilly line in December of that year. In 1928, the station was extensively rebuilt to handle an increase in traffic. The junction's first electric advertisements appeared in 1910, and, from 1923, electric billboards were set up on the façade of the London Pavilion. Electric street lamps, however, did not replace the gas ones until 1932. The circus became a one-way roundabout on 19 July 1926. Traffic lights were first installed on 3 August 1926.

 

During World War II many servicemen's clubs in the West End served American soldiers based in Britain. So many prostitutes roamed the area approaching the soldiers that they received the nickname "Piccadilly Commandos", and both Scotland Yard and the Foreign Office discussed possible damage to Anglo-American relations.

 

At the start of the 1960s, it was determined that the Circus needed to be redeveloped to allow for greater traffic flow. In 1962, Lord Holford presented a plan which would have created a "double-decker" Piccadilly Circus; the upper deck would have been an elevated pedestrian concourse linking the buildings around the perimeter of the Circus, with the lower deck being solely for traffic, most of the ground-level pedestrian areas having been removed to allow for greater vehicle flow. This concept was kept alive throughout the rest of the 1960s. A final scheme in 1972 proposed three octagonal towers (the highest 240 feet (73 m) tall) to replace the Trocadero, the Criterion and the "Monico" buildings. The plans were permanently rejected by Sir Keith Joseph and Ernest Marples; the key reason given was that Holford's scheme only allowed for a 20% increase in traffic, and the Government required 50%.

 

The Holford plan is referenced in the short-form documentary film "Goodbye, Piccadilly", produced by the Rank Organisation in 1967 as part of their Look at Life series when it was still seriously expected that Holford's recommendations would be acted upon. Piccadilly Circus has since escaped major redevelopment, apart from extensive ground-level pedestrianisation around its south side in the 1980s.

 

The Circus has been targeted by Irish republican terrorists multiple times. On 24 June 1939 an explosion occurred, although no injuries were caused. On 25 November 1974 a bomb injured 16 people. A 2 lb bomb exploded on 6 October 1992, injuring five people.

 

The Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain in Piccadilly Circus was erected in 1893 to commemorate the philanthropic works of Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury. It was removed from the Circus twice and moved from the centre once. The first time was in 1922, so that Charles Holden's new tube station could be built directly below it. The fountain returned in 1931. During the Second World War, the fountain was removed for the second time and replaced by advertising hoardings. It was returned again in 1948. When the Circus underwent reconstruction work in the late 1980s, the entire fountain was moved from the centre of the junction at the beginning of Shaftesbury Avenue to its present position at the southwestern corner.