Total population | |
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Greek-born residents 35,169 (2001 Census) 57,000 (2015 ONS estimate) Ethnic Greeks 400,000 (2008 estimate) [1] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Languages | |
British English, Greek | |
Religion | |
Predominantly Greek Orthodox and Anglican; Minority Protestant, Catholic, Islam, Hellenic Polytheism, Jewish |
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Greeks in the United Kingdom are British residents and citizens of full or partial Greek heritage, or Greeks who emigrated to and reside in the United Kingdom.
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History of Greece (Ancient · Byzantine · Ottoman) |
The Mycenaean civilization was an early Greek civilization which flourished during the period between 1600 BC, when Helladic culture in mainland Greece was transformed under influences from Minoan Crete, and 1100 BC, when it perished with the collapse of Bronze-Age civilization in the eastern Mediterranean. Through trading and conquest, Mycenaean civilization spread its influence from Mycenae to many parts of the Mediterranean region and Europe. Mycenaean bronze double axes and other objects (Rillaton Barrow, Pelynt Dagger) dating from the thirteenth century BC have been found in Ireland and in Wessex and Cornwall in England, proving at least indirect Greek contact with Ireland and Great Britain at the time. [2] [3] [4] [5]
Ancient Greek writers, including Herodotus, mention a group of islands which were called Cassiterides. Modern researchers suggest that they may refer to the British Isles.
Aristotle, in the work On the Universe , mentions the Britannic islands (βρεττανικαί νήσοι), two islands which were called Albion (Ἀλβίων), which is the modern Great Britain, and Ierne (Ἰέρνη), which is the modern Ireland. [6]
The first known Greek to come to Britain was Pytheas who lived in late 4th and early 3rd centuries BC. He reported its name as Prettanike (Πρεττανική) and Brettaniai (Βρεττανίαι), for Britain and the British islands, which became Britannia, it is assumed that its Hellenised version was under Diodorus. It may have been used by some of the local peoples where Pytheas landed to themselves -Pretani.
Many Greeks later arrived with the Roman legions as soldiers and traders, and their presence is attested by inscriptions on curse tablets, [7] gravestones and dedicatory tablets in both Greek and Latin displayed in the Museum of London and elsewhere, including:
A ALFID POMP OLVSSA EX TESTAMENTO HER POS ANNOR LXX NA ATHENVI H S EST
"Aulus Alfidius Pompolussa, as stated in his will, his heirs placed this. Seventy years old, a native of Athens, he lies here." [8]
and:
I O M TEMPLVM VETVSTATE CONLABSVM AQVILINVS AVG LIB ET MERCATOR ET AVDAX ET GRAEC RESTITVER
"For Jupiter Best and Greatest, this temple, collapsed through old age, was restored by Aquilinus, freedman of the emperor, a trader, a man of courage, a Greek." [9]
and two dedicatory plaques found in York beneath what is now the railway station. These were erected by a certain Scribonius Demetrius, possibly to be identified with Demetrius of Tarsus, who visited Britain at the time of Gnaeus Julius Agricola: [10]
ΩΚΕΑΝῼ ΚΑΙ ΤΗΘΥΙ ΔΗΜΗΤΡΙΟΣ
"To Oceanus and Tethys, Demetrius [dedicates this]."
and
ΘΕΟΙΣ
ΤΟΙΣ ΤΟΥ ΗΓΕ
ΜΟΝΙΚΟΥ ΠΡΑΙ
ΤΩΡΙΟΥ ΣΚΡΙΒ. ΔΗ[Μ]ΗΤΡΙΟΣ
"To the gods of the governor's headquarters, Scribonius Demetrius [dedicates this]."
As far north as Cumbria, we find the tomb of Hermes of Commagene:
"Let some traveller, on seeing Hermes of Commagene, aged 16 years, sheltered in the tomb by fate, call out: I give you my greetings, lad, though mortal the path of life you slowly tread, for swiftly have you winged your way to the land of the Cimmerian folk. Nor will your words be false, for the lad is good, and you will do him a good service." [11]
Indeed, the Roman city of Carlisle, judging by surviving inscriptions, seems to have been home to a thriving Greek community. [12] It is a matter of historical record then, that Greek was being spoken in England hundreds of years before the English language or Anglo-Saxon peoples ever reached its shores. [12]
In the 7th century, following the death of the previous holder of the post, the Greek Theodore of Tarsus was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury (669 AD); he played an important part in the early history of England, building churches and monasteries and establishing theological studies. [12] According to the Venerable Bede, Theodore contributed to the bringing of a greater unity to English Christianity, and in 672 presided over the first council of the entire English Church, at Hertford. [12] The structure of dioceses and parishes he put in place is still substantially in place today. [12]
The Byzantine ruler Manuel II visited England in 1400, where he was received by Henry IV at Eltham Palace.
A Greek presence in London was recorded with the two brothers, Andronikos and Alexios Effomatos – described in contemporary records as "Grekes" – who were known to have been resident in London in 1440. They were from Constantinople, the capital of Byzantium. [13]
In 1445, the king of England, Henry VI (1421–1471), granted the brothers permission to remain in London and to practise their trade of gold wire drawing. They made a costly type of thread in which thin strands of gold were intertwined with silk, and which was then used in expensive luxury fabrics and in sacerdotal vestments, a craft for which Constantinople had been famous in its heyday. Thanks to this royal grant, the brothers remained in London for many years. [13] They lived first in the area of Cripplegate, much of which is now covered by the Barbican Centre, and later they moved to Broad Street, in what was then the Italian quarter of London. Andronikos, the elder, died in about 1472, but Alexios was still there in 1484, over forty years after his first arrival. [13]
That set the pattern for Greek settlement over the next two hundred years. Some came as soldiers during the reign of Henry VIII, led by the officers Theodore Luchisi, Antonios Stesinos, and Colonel Thomas of Argos, responsible for the garrisoning of the then-English possession of Calais. [13] Some came as visitors for a short period. In about 1545, Nikandros Noukios of Corfu spent time in London and left an interesting account of his impressions. Indeed, he followed as a non-combatant an English invasion of Scotland where the English forces included Greeks from Argos under the leadership of Thomas of Argos whose 'Courage, and prudence, and experience of wars' was lauded by the Corfiot traveller. [14] [note 1] Thomas was sent by Henry VIII to Boulogne in 1546, as commander of a battalion of 550 Greeks [15]
During Henry VIII's reign more Greeks migrated to England from the island of Rhodes following the Knights Hospitaller, after the island was conquered by the Ottomans. A notable Rhodian was the merchant Franciscos Galiardis. [16]
The descendants of the imperial Palaeologus dynasty carved out a niche as mercenary officers in Britain, and their tombs are still visible in locations as far apart – both geographically and in terms of social standing – as Westminster Abbey and Landulph parish church, Cornwall. [17] [18] A number of Palaeologi fought against each other as high-ranking officers for both sides in the English Civil War. [18]
Early Modern Greco-Britons were not solely soldiers. A few individuals settled permanently, such as a native of Rhodes called Konstantinos Benetos, who was recorded as living in Clerkenwell between 1530 and 1578. These visitors, refugees and occasional long-term residents did not, as yet, constitute a community. They were too few, too obscure and too transitory, and above all they lacked the one thing that would have given them cohesion and a common identity: a church where they could practise their Orthodox faith. [18] Nikodemos Metaxas, a printer by trade, worked in London for a time in the 1620s. Some came as refugees, seeking asylum or financial help as a result of misfortunes suffered under Ottoman rule. One of them was Gregorios Argyropoulos, the owner of an estate near Thessaloniki. [18] When a Turkish soldier was accidentally killed on Argyropoulos' land, the Ottoman authorities held him responsible and forced him to flee overseas and eventually to London in 1633. A charitable collection was made for him in London churches, and he was presented with £48 before he departed the following year. [18]
By the late 17th century, matters had changed. A number of Greeks now occupied prominent positions in London life. Constantinos Rodocanachi of Chios had become one of the physicians to King Charles II (163 I -I 685) (PI. 1). [18] Georgios Constantinos of Skopelos had established the Grecian coffeehouse in Devereux court, just off the Strand, and he could count Sir Isaac Newton and other members of the Royal Society among his clientele. Numbers had also increased. [18] The expansion of Britain's overseas trade with the Levant brought many more merchant ships to the port of London, some of them crewed by Greeks. The time was therefore ripe to press for the establishment of a Greek Church. [18]
In 1676 about one hundred families from the islands of Samos and Melos under the bishop Joseph Georgarinis migrated to England. Assisted by Konstantinos Rhodokanakis they were welcomed by the then Duke of York who later became King James II. They were granted settlements in Crown Str, Soho, later renamed to "Greek Str.".
The first documented organised Greek Orthodox community was established in London in the 1670s, with the first Greek Orthodox Church in London being erected in 1677, [19] in Soho, on the corner of Charing Cross Road and Greek Street. The church was dedicated to the Dormition of the Virgin and was consecrated by the Metropolitan of Samos, Joseph Georgerinis. [19] The founding inscription of the church (dated 1677), among others mentions that the church "was founded for the nation of the Greeks, in the reign of Most Serene King Jacob II". [16]
Oxford also became home to a Greek community centred on what is now Worcester College, which was known as 'Greek College' for much of the 17th century. The Greek College was founded by Lord Paget, then ambassador to Constantinople, though recruitment of Greek students was halted in 1705 because " 'the irregular life of some priests and laymen of the Greek Church living in London has greatly disturbed the Greek Orthodox Church. [19] Therefore the Church has also prevented those who wish to go and study at Oxford.'" [20]
In the 19th century, two events drew Greeks towards Britain; commercial potential after the defeat of Napoleon, and the Diaspora, in which the Greek War of Independence saw a wave of emigres settle in Britain. [20] Initially trading in shipping and commodities, most of these families were from Chios and Constantinople, and settled around Finsbury Circus in London, close to the commercial heart of the shipping industry; the Baltic Exchange and Lloyd's of London. [20] Others settled in the commercial cities of Liverpool and Manchester, [21] [22] and later Glasgow and Cardiff. They were joined by other Greeks from the Aegean, Ionan, Smyrna, Athens and beyond. [20] As they prospered these Greek merchants began to settle in London's Bayswater and established permanent institutions such as the Greek necropolis at Norwood in 1842, a Greek school and the Greek Orthodox church, later Cathedral of Aghia Sophia in 1877. [20]
Britain gained control over Cyprus on 4 June 1878 as a result of the Cyprus Convention and formally annexed it in 1914. Greek Cypriots began to settle in London only from the 1930s. [20] The earliest migrants came to the area around Soho, and many more arrived at the end of the Second World War. As rents in the West End increased, Camden and Fulham became popular areas for Greek-Cypriot migrants. [20] Women initially worked from home in industries such as dressmaking. By the 1960s, a Greek language school and Greek Orthodox church, St Nicholas, had been established in Fulham. [20]
It is estimated that the Greek population of London numbered several thousand by 1870, whereas in 1850 it had numbered just a few hundred. [23]
The 2001 UK Census recorded 35,169 British residents born in Greece and 77,673 born in Cyprus, although the latter includes Turkish as well as Greek Cypriots. [24] Recent estimates suggest that up to 300,000 ethnic Greeks may reside in the UK. [1] The Office for National Statistics estimates that, as of June 2021, the Greek-born population of the UK was 77,000. [25]
The 2001 Census recorded 12,360 Greek-born people living in London, with particular concentrations in the Hyde Park, Regent's Park, Chelsea and Kensington Census tracts. [26] There are also large Greek communities in Sunderland, Moss Side in Manchester, [21] Birmingham and Colchester. [26] Generally, clusters of Cypriot-born people are found in the same locations as Turkish-born people, with 60 per cent living in areas of London with notable Turkish communities. [27] The Census tracts with the highest number of Cypriot-born people in 2001 were Southgate, Palmers Green, Upper Edmonton, Cockfosters, Lower Edmonton, Tottenham North and Tottenham South. [27] Many Greek-Cypriots reside in Wood Green, Harringay and Palmers Green, the latter harbouring the largest community of Greek-Cypriots outside Cyprus, resulting in these areas bearing local nicknames whereby the Green is replaced by Greek – as in Greek Lanes and Palmers Greek. [28] [29] [30]
According to a City of London Corporation sponsored report, [31] there are between 280,600 and 300,000 Greek speakers in Greater London. [29]
A considerable number of Greek students study in the UK. According to the official UK Higher Education Statistics Agency statistics, 16,050 Greek students attended UK universities in 2006/07, making Greece the fourth most common country of origin amongst overseas students in 2006/07, after China, India and the Republic of Ireland. [32]
There are two Greek international schools in London:
This section needs additional citations for verification .(November 2015) |
The Greeks or Hellenes are an ethnic group and nation native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Albania, Anatolia, parts of Italy and Egypt, and to a lesser extent, other countries surrounding the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea. They also form a significant diaspora, with many Greek communities established around the world.
Human habitation of Cyprus dates back to the Paleolithic era. Cyprus's geographic position has caused Cyprus to be influenced by differing Eastern Mediterranean civilisations over the millennia.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch, also known as the Antiochian Orthodox Church and legally as the RūmOrthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East, is an autocephalous Greek Orthodox church within the wider communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity that branched off from the Church of Antioch. Headed by the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Antioch, it considers itself the successor to the Christian community founded in Antioch by the Apostles Peter and Paul. It is one of the largest Christian denominations of the Middle East, alongside the Copts of Egypt and the Maronites of Lebanon.
The Greek Dark Ages was the period of Greek history from the end of the Mycenaean palatial civilization, around 1100 BC, to the beginning of the Archaic age, around 750 BC, It followed the so-called Late Bronze Age collapse of civilisation in the Eastern Mediterranean world in c. 1200-1150, as the great palaces and cities of the Mycenaeans were destroyed or abandoned. At around the same time, the Hittite civilization also suffered serious disruption, with cities from Troy to Gaza being destroyed. In Egypt, the New Kingdom fell into disarray, leading to the Third Intermediate Period of Egypt. Following the collapse, there were fewer, smaller settlements, suggesting widespread famine and depopulation. In Greece, the Linear B script used by Mycenaean bureaucrats to write the Greek language ceased to be used, and the Greek alphabet did not develop until the beginning of the archaic period. The decoration on Greek pottery after about 1100 BC lacks the figurative decoration of Mycenaean ware and is restricted to simpler, generally geometric styles (1000–700 BC).
Cycladic culture was a Bronze Age culture found throughout the islands of the Cyclades in the Aegean Sea. In chronological terms, it is a relative dating system for artifacts which serves as a roughly contemporary dating system to Helladic chronology and Minoan chronology (Crete) during the same period of time.
The history of Greece encompasses the history of the territory of the modern nation-state of Greece as well as that of the Greek people and the areas they inhabited and ruled historically. The scope of Greek habitation and rule has varied throughout the ages and as a result, the history of Greece is similarly elastic in what it includes. Generally, the history of Greece is divided into the following periods:
Mycenaean Greece was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1750 to 1050 BC. It represents the first advanced and distinctively Greek civilization in mainland Greece with its palatial states, urban organization, works of art, and writing system. The Mycenaeans were mainland Greek peoples who were likely stimulated by their contact with insular Minoan Crete and other Mediterranean cultures to develop a more sophisticated sociopolitical culture of their own. The most prominent site was Mycenae, after which the culture of this era is named. Other centers of power that emerged included Pylos, Tiryns, and Midea in the Peloponnese, Orchomenos, Thebes, and Athens in Central Greece, and Iolcos in Thessaly. Mycenaean settlements also appeared in Epirus, Macedonia, on islands in the Aegean Sea, on the south-west coast of Asia Minor, and on Cyprus, while Mycenaean-influenced settlements appeared in the Levant and Italy.
Nafplio or Nauplio is a coastal city located in the Peloponnese in Greece and it is the capital of the regional unit of Argolis and an important touristic destination. Founded in antiquity, the city became an important seaport in the Middle Ages during the Frankokratia as part of the lordship of Argos and Nauplia, held initially by the de la Roche following the Fourth Crusade before coming under the Republic of Venice and, lastly, the Ottoman Empire. The city was the second capital of the First Hellenic Republic and of the Kingdom of Greece, from 1827 until 1834.
Greek Cypriots are the ethnic Greek population of Cyprus, forming the island's largest ethnolinguistic community. According to the 2011 census, 659,115 respondents recorded their ethnicity as Greek, forming almost 99% of the 667,398 Cypriot citizens and over 78% of the 840,407 total residents of the area controlled by the Republic of Cyprus. These figures do not include the 29,321 citizens of Greece residing in Cyprus, ethnic Greeks recorded as citizens of other countries, or the population of Northern Cyprus.
The Greek diaspora, also known as Omogenia, are the communities of Greeks living outside of Greece and Cyprus.
The Cathedral Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God and St. Andrew is a Greek Orthodox cathedral on Summer Hill Terrace in Birmingham, England, dedicated to the Dormition of the Theotokos and St Andreas. In 1958 the first Greek Orthodox Church in Birmingham was inaugurated. Regular liturgies began in Birmingham conducted by the first permanent priest, Father Nicodemos Anagnostou.
The Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain is an archdiocese of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in the Eastern Orthodox Church. The incumbent archeparch is Nikitas Loulias. Its jurisdiction covers those Orthodox Christians living in Great Britain, the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands. The adherents are largely of Cypriot Greek descent, mainland Greek migrants and their descendants, and more recently native British converts along with a few Poles, Belarusians, and Ukrainians. The episcopal seat is the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom which is situated in the city of London.
The Greek OrthodoxPatriarchate of Alexandria and all Africa, also known as the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria, is an autocephalous patriarchate that is part of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Its seat is in Alexandria and it has canonical responsibility for the entire African continent.
Christianity is the largest religion in England, with the Church of England being the nation's established state church, whose supreme governor is the monarch. Other Christian traditions in England include Roman Catholicism, Methodism and the Baptists. After Christianity, the religions with the most adherents are Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism, Buddhism, modern paganism, and the Bahá'í Faith. There are also organisations promoting irreligion, including humanism and atheism. According to the 2021 census, Shamanism is the fastest growing religion in England.
Hellenistic Judaism was a form of Judaism in classical antiquity that combined Jewish religious tradition with elements of Hellenistic culture. Until the early Muslim conquests of the eastern Mediterranean, the main centers of Hellenistic Judaism were Alexandria in Egypt and Antioch in Syria, the two main Greek urban settlements of the Middle East and North Africa, both founded in the end of the fourth century BCE in the wake of the conquests of Alexander the Great. Hellenistic Judaism also existed in Jerusalem during the Second Temple Period, where there was a conflict between Hellenizers and traditionalists.
Saint Sophia Cathedral is a Greek Orthodox church on Moscow Road in the Bayswater area of London.
London, the capital of England and the United Kingdom, has become one of the most ethnically diverse and multicultural cities in the world.
The Fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the subsequent fall of the successor states of the Eastern Roman Empire marked the end of Byzantine sovereignty. Since then, the Ottoman Empire ruled the Balkans and Anatolia, although there were some exceptions: the Ionian Islands were under Venetian rule, and Ottoman authority was challenged in mountainous areas, such as Agrafa, Sfakia, Souli, Himara and the Mani Peninsula. Orthodox Christians were granted some political rights under Ottoman rule, but they were considered inferior subjects. The majority of Greeks were called rayas by the Turks, a name that referred to the large mass of subjects in the Ottoman ruling class. Meanwhile, Greek intellectuals and humanists who had migrated west before or during the Ottoman invasions began to compose orations and treatises calling for the liberation of their homeland. In 1463, Demetrius Chalcondyles called on Venice and “all of the Latins” to aid the Greeks against the Ottomans, he composed orations and treatises calling for the liberation of Greece from what he called “the abominable, monstrous, and impious barbarian Turks.” In the 17th century, Greek scholar Leonardos Philaras spent much of his career in persuading Western European intellectuals to support Greek independence. However, Greece was to remain under Ottoman rule for several more centuries. In the 18th and 19th century, as revolutionary nationalism grew across Europe—including the Balkans —the Ottoman Empire's power declined and Greek nationalism began to assert itself, with the Greek cause beginning to draw support not only from the large Greek merchant diaspora in both Western Europe and Russia but also from Western European Philhellenes. This Greek movement for independence, was not only the first movement of national character in Eastern Europe, but also the first one in a non-Christian environment, like the Ottoman Empire.
The Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation, Manchester is a Greek Orthodox church in Salford, Greater Manchester. Completed in 1861 in a classical architectural style, it is the oldest purpose-built Greek Orthodox church in England and since 1980, a grade II listed building for its “special architectural or historic interest”. As of 2017 the church provides liturgies on Sundays and acts as a hub for a community of an estimated 2,500 Greek diaspora, particularly Greek Cypriots, British Cypriots and Greek students in Manchester.
Gregorios Theocharous of Thyateira and Great Britain served as the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Thyateira and Great Britain under the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. He was elected Archbishop by the Sacred and Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate on 16 April 1988. He resigned on 12 June 2019 for health reasons and has been succeeded by Nikitas Loulias. He died on 20 November 2019. His funeral took place on 5 December 2019 at St Mary's Greek Orthodox Church, Wood Green.