List of cities in the United Kingdom

From Wikinfo

Image:LordMayorOxford20040228CopyrightKaihsuTai.png

Councillor Patrick (Pat) John Stannard, Lord Mayor of Oxford (2004) with chain of office.

In the UK, city status is not automatically granted to a community meeting any particular criteria. It can only be obtained by receiving a Royal Charter. However some British cities which predate the historical monarchy have been regarded as cities since "time immemorial".

Until the 1880s, a town was usually granted city status if it had a diocesan cathedral within its limits. As new dioceses were founded, city status was granted routinely. This process was changed to allow Birmingham and other large settlements that didn't have cathedrals to become cities.

These days, a town can apply for city status by submitting an application to the Lord Chancellor, who makes recomendations to the sovereign. These application competitions are usually held to mark special events, such as coronations or royal jubilees.

Some cities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have the further distinction of having a Lord Mayor (as opposed to a Mayor). In Scotland the equivalent are Lord Provosts.

There are currently 66 cities (including thirty Lord Mayoralties or Lord Provostships) in the UK: 50 cities (23 Lord Mayoralties) in England, 5 cities (2 Lord Mayoralties) in Wales, 6 cities (4 Lord Provostships) in Scotland and 5 cities (1 Lord Mayoralty) in Northern Ireland. Those which have been cities since time immemorial have '-' in the since column.

Rochester had city status from 1211 to 1998, but lost this status as a result of an administrative error when Medway became a unitary authority. The City of Rochester Society has pleaded for this status to be reinstated.

Cities with Lord Mayors or Lord Provosts are shown below in bold.

City	Since	Cathedral*	Gov.
English Cities
Bath	1590	Bath Abbey	5
Birmingham	1889	Birmingham Cathedral	1
Bradford	1897	Bradford Cathedral	1
Brighton and Hove	2000	none	1
Bristol	1542	Bristol Cathedral	1
Cambridge	1951	none	2
Canterbury	-	Christchurch Cathedral	2
Carlisle	-	Carlisle Cathedral	2
Chester	-	Chester Cathedral	2
Chichester	-	Chichester Cathedral	4
Coventry	1345	Coventry Cathedral	1
Derby	1977	Derby Cathedral	1
Durham	-	Durham Cathedral	2
Ely	-	Ely Cathedral	4
Exeter	-	Exeter Cathedral	2
Gloucester	-	Gloucester Cathedral	2
Hereford	1189	Hereford Cathedral	3
Kingston upon Hull	1299	none	1
Lancaster	1937	none	2
Leeds	1893	none	1
Leicester	1919	Leicester Cathedral	1
Lichfield	1553	Lichfield Cathedral	2
Lincoln	-	Lincoln Cathedral	2
Liverpool	1880	Liverpool Cathedral	1
City of London	-	St Paul's Cathedral	1
Manchester	1853	Manchester Cathedral	1
Newcastle upon Tyne	1882	Newcastle Cathedral	1
Norwich	1195	Norwich Cathedral	2
Nottingham	1897	none	1
Oxford	1542	Christ Church Cathedral	2
Peterborough	1541	Peterborough Cathedral	1
Plymouth	1928	none	1
Portsmouth	1926	Portsmouth Cathedral	1
Preston	2002	none	2
Ripon	1836	Ripon Cathedral	4
Salford	1926	none	1
Salisbury	-	Salisbury Cathedral	5
Sheffield	1893	Sheffield Cathedral	1
Southampton	1964	none	1
St Albans	1877	St Albans Cathedral	2
Stoke-on-Trent	1925	none	1
Sunderland	1992	none	1
Truro	1877	Truro Cathedral	4
Wakefield	1888	Wakefield Cathedral	1
Wells	1205	Wells Cathedral	4
Westminster	1540	Westminster Abbey	1
Winchester	-	Winchester Cathedral	2
Wolverhampton	2000	none	1
Worcester	1189	Worcester Cathedral	2
York	-	York Minster	1
Welsh Cities
Bangor	-	Bangor Cathedral	3
Cardiff	1905	Llandaff Cathedral	1
Newport	2002	St. Woolos Cathedral	1
St. David's	1994	St. David's Cathedral	3
Swansea	1969	none	1
Scottish Cities
Aberdeen	1891	Aberdeen Cathedral	1
Dundee	1889	none	1
Edinburgh	1329	Edinburgh Cathedral	1
Glasgow	1492	Glasgow Cathedral	1
Inverness	2000	none	?
Stirling	2002	none	?
Northern Irish Cities
Armagh	1994	Saint Patrick's Cathedral	1
Belfast	1888	Cathedral Church of Saint Anne	1
Londonderry	1613	Saint Columb's Cathedral	1
Lisburn	2002	none	1
Newry	2002	none	5
1 - City is a unitary authority 2 - City is a district within an administrative county 3 - City is within a unitary authority but has a parish council 4 - City is within a district but has a parish council 5 - City has no council *Cathedral or Episcopal Seat of the Estabished Church

City councils have four main types - unitary authorities like Leicester, London boroughs like Westminster, district councils, like Lancaster, and parish councils, like Hereford. All these are styled 'City Council'.

Many of the cities cover large rural areas and other towns with distinct identities. In some cases, notably Canterbury and Wakefield, the definition of 'city' is taken to breaking point.

City applications

For the 2000 city applications, held to celebrate the millennium, the following towns requested city status to be granted. The three winners are listed in boldface.

England: Blackburn, Blackpool, Bolton, Brighton and Hove, Chelmsford, Colchester, Croydon, Doncaster, Dover, Guildford, Ipswich, Luton, Maidstone, Medway, Middlesbrough, Milton Keynes, Northampton, Preston, Reading, Shrewsbury and Atcham, Southend on Sea, Southwark, Stockport, Swindon, Telford, Warrington, Wolverhampton.
Wales: Aberystwyth, Machynlleth, Newport, Newtown, St Asaph, Wrexham.
Scotland: Ayr, Inverness, Paisley, Stirling.
Northern Ireland: Ballymena, Lisburn.

For the 2002 applications, held to celebrate the Queen's Golden Jubilee, the entrants included all of the above towns (except Southwark) together with Greenwich and Wirral in England, Dumfries in Scotland, Carrickfergus, Coleraine, Craigavon and Newry in Northern Ireland. The winners were: