College Green, London

Last updated

College Green
College Green, Westminster.jpg
College Green
College Green, London
TypePublic Park
LocationLondon
Nearest cityWestminster
Coordinates 51°29′52.6″N0°7′34.2″W / 51.497944°N 0.126167°W / 51.497944; -0.126167 Coordinates: 51°29′52.6″N0°7′34.2″W / 51.497944°N 0.126167°W / 51.497944; -0.126167

College Green (aka Abingdon Green, [1] formally known as Abingdon Street Gardens) is a public park in the City of Westminster in Central London. [2] It is east of Westminster Abbey including Westminster Abbey Gardens and across a road from the gardens of the Houses of Parliament. [2] The gardens are not enclosed and are accessible at all times. [2] For many months of 2019, during the Brexit deadlock, it exclusively hosted TV broadcasts and radio and media interviews.

The park is a common place for television reporters to interview Members of Parliament. [3] Henry Moore's bronze sculpture Knife Edge Two Piece 1962–65 is in the gardens. [2]

The gardens are a roof to a two-storey underground car park constructed from 1963 to 1964. [4] The site was originally a tidally flooded bank of the River Thames separated from the College Garden of Westminster Abbey by a medieval wall with a watergate. Its name refers to the collegiate church of Westminster Abbey, which includes Westminster School.

Related Research Articles

Palace of Westminster Meeting place of the Parliament of the United Kingdom

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, the Palace lies on the north bank of the River Thames in the City of Westminster, in central London, England.

Westminster Area of Central London, England

Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.

City of Westminster City and borough in London, England

The City of Westminster is a city and borough in Inner London which forms a core part of Central London. It is the site of the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament and much of the British government. It occupies a large area of central Greater London, including most of the West End. Many London landmarks are within the borough, including Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Whitehall, 10 Downing Street, and Trafalgar Square.

Kensington District within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in central London

Kensington is an affluent district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West of Central London.

Downing Street Street in London, England

Downing Street is a 200-metre (660 ft) long street in the City of Westminster that houses the official residences and offices of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Situated off Whitehall, a few minutes' walk from the Houses of Parliament, Downing Street was built in the 1680s by Irishman Sir George Downing.

Westminster School Public school in Westminster, England

Westminster School is a public school in Westminster, London, England, in the precincts of Westminster Abbey. It derives from a charity school founded by Westminster Benedictines before the 1066 Norman Conquest, as documented by the Croyland Chronicle and a charter of King Offa. Continuous existence is clear from the early 14th century. Its academic results place it among the top schools nationally; about half its students go to Oxbridge, giving it the highest national Oxbridge acceptance rate. Boys join Under School at seven and Senior School at 13 by examination. Girls join the Sixth Form at 16. About a quarter of the 750 pupils board. Weekly boarders may go home after Saturday morning school. The school motto, Dat Deus Incrementum, quotes 1 Corinthians 3:6: "I planted the seed... but God made it grow." Westminster was one of nine schools examined by the 1861 Clarendon Commission and reformed by the Public Schools Act 1868.

Millbank is an area of central London in the City of Westminster. Millbank is located by the River Thames, east of Pimlico and south of Westminster. Millbank is known as the location of major government offices, Burberry headquarters, the Millbank Tower and prominent art institutions such as Tate Britain and the Chelsea College of Art and Design.

Parliament Square

Parliament Square is a square at the northwest end of the Palace of Westminster in the City of Westminster in central London. Laid out in the 19th century, it features a large open green area in the centre with trees to its west, and it contains twelve statues of statesmen and other notable individuals.

Cities of London and Westminster (UK Parliament constituency) UK Parliament constituency in England, created 1950

Cities of London and Westminster is a constituency returning a single Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons in the United Kingdom Parliament. It is a borough constituency for the purposes of election expenses and type of returning officer. As with all constituencies, the election is decided using the first past the post system of election. Since its creation at the 1950 general election, the constituency has always elected the candidate nominated by the Conservative Party.

Thorney Island (Westminster)

Thorney Island was the eyot on the Thames, upstream of medieval London, where Westminster Abbey and the Palace of Westminster were built. It was formed by rivulets of the River Tyburn, which entered the Thames nearby. In Roman times, and presumably before, Thorney Island may have been part of a natural ford where Watling Street crossed the Thames, of particular importance before the construction of London Bridge.

University of Westminster University in London

The University of Westminster is a public research university based in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1838 as the Royal Polytechnic Institution, it was the first polytechnic to open in London. The Polytechnic formally received a Royal charter in August 1839, and became the University of Westminster in 1992.

New Palace Yard

New Palace Yard is a yard northwest of the Palace of Westminster in Westminster, London, England. It is part of the grounds not open to the public. However, it can be viewed from the two adjoining streets, as a result of Edward Middleton Barry, who also assisted with its landscaping, having used railings rather than walls or fencing in its design. The yard has existed since about the year 1100, but was greatly reduced in the 18th century to allow for the construction of new streets and buildings, the most notable of which is the wing taking up the eastern end and having the most prominent tower of the current palace. Speaker's Green fronts the Thames. An underground car park used by Members of Parliament is beneath. Before latest incarnations of the palace, the yard was an open public space used diversely such as for speeches, tournaments, pilloryings, and executions. It has twice been the scene of terrorist attacks.

Old Palace Yard

Old Palace Yard is a paved open space in the City of Westminster in Central London, England. It lies between the Palace of Westminster to its north and east and Westminster Abbey to its west. It is known as the site of executions, including those of Sir Walter Raleigh, Guy Fawkes and other conspirators of the Gunpowder Plot, and James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton, following the Battle of Preston.

Marylebone Area in London, England

Marylebone is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary.

<i>Knife Edge Two Piece 1962–65</i> Bronze sculpture by Henry Moore

Knife Edge Two Piece 1962–65 is an abstract bronze sculpture by Henry Moore. It is one of Moore's earliest sculptures in two pieces, a mode that he started to adopt in 1959. Its form was inspired by the shape of a bone fragment. Moore created the sculpture from an edition of 10 working models in 1962; these working models are now in public collections. Moore created four full-size casts between 1962-1965, with one retained by him. The three casts are on public display on College Green in Westminster, London; Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver; and the garden at Kykuit, the house of the Rockefeller family in Tarrytown, New York. Moore's own cast is on display at his former studio and estate, 'Hoglands' in Perry Green, Hertfordshire in southern England. A similar work, Mirror Knife Edge 1977, is displayed at the entrance to I. M. Pei's east wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The Westminster cast was donated by Moore through the Contemporary Art Society to what he believed was the City of London, but its actual ownership was undetermined for many years. The Westminster cast subsequently fell into disrepair, and was restored in 2013 after it became part of the British Parliamentary Art Collection; it was granted a Grade II* listing in January 2016.

UK Holocaust Memorial

The UK Holocaust Memorial is a proposed memorial and learning centre to preserve the testimony of British Holocaust survivors and concentration camp liberators and to honour the Jewish victims of the Holocaust and other victims of Nazi persecution, including Roma, LGBT, and disabled people.

References

  1. "Regulations or bylaws relating to the use of Abingdon Green (also known as College Green) by members of the public and the media" (PDF). FOI 3071. UK: www.parliament.uk. 10 July 2018. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Abingdon Street Gardens". City of Westminster . London. 11 February 2013. Archived from the original on 22 July 2011.
  3. History in the making BBC News, 12 May 2010
  4. Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Administration Committee (18 April 2007). Improving facilities for educational visitors to Parliament: first report of session 2006-07, report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence. The Stationery Office. pp. 79–. ISBN   978-0-215-03355-0 . Retrieved 12 February 2013.