Editing Westminster

{{Short description|City in Central London, England}}
{{About||the wider London borough|City of Westminster|other uses}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}
{{Infobox UK place
 | country                  = England
 | region                   = London
 | official_name            = Westminster
 | coordinates              = {{coord|51|29|41|N|00|08|07|W|display=inline,title}}
 | london_borough           = Westminster
 | constituency_westminster = [[Cities of London and Westminster (UK Parliament constituency)|Cities of London and Westminster]]
 | post_town                = London
 | postcode_area            = SW
 | postcode_district        = SW1
 | dial_code                = 020
 | os_grid_reference        = TQ295795
 | static_image_name        = Westminster, 2023.jpg
 | static_image_caption     = The [[Palace of Westminster]]
 | static_image_2_name      = Westminster Abbey St Peter.jpg
 | static_image_2_caption   = Western facade of [[Westminster Abbey]]
 | charingX_distance_mi     = 0.58
 | charingX_direction       = NEbE
}}

'''Westminster''' is the main settlement of the [[City of Westminster]] in [[Central London|Central]] [[London]], England. It extends from the [[River Thames]] to [[Oxford Street]] and has many famous landmarks, including the [[Palace of Westminster]], [[Buckingham Palace]], [[Westminster Abbey]], [[Westminster Cathedral]], [[Trafalgar Square]] and much of the [[West End of London|West End]] cultural centre including the entertainment precinct of [[West End theatre]].

The name ({{langx|ang|Westmynstre}})<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://asc.jebbo.co.uk/c/c-L.html|title=Manuscript C: Cotton Tiberius C.i|website=asc.jebbo.co.uk|access-date=24 November 2018|quote='On þisum geare com Harold kyng of Eoforwic to Westmynstre'|archive-date=26 July 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726221008/http://asc.jebbo.co.uk/c/c-L.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> originated from the informal description of the [[abbey]] church and [[royal peculiar]] of St Peter's (Westminster Abbey), west of the [[City of London]] (until the [[English Reformation]] there was also an [[Eastminster]] abbey, on the other side of the [[City of London]], in the [[East End of London]]). The abbey's origins date from between the 7th and 10th centuries, but it rose to national prominence when rebuilt by [[Edward the Confessor]] in the 11th century. With the development of the old palace alongside the abbey, Westminster has been the home of [[Governance of England|England's government]] since about 1200, and from 1707 the [[Government of the United Kingdom]]. In 1539, it became a city.

Westminster is often used as a [[Metonymy|metonym]] to refer to the [[Parliament of the United Kingdom]], which sits in the [[Palace of Westminster]].

==Geography==
===Physical geography===
The [[City and Liberty of Westminster]] and other historical Westminster administrative units (except the broader modern [[City of Westminster]], a London Borough created in 1965) extended from the [[River Thames]] to the [[Devil's Highway (Roman Britain)|old Roman road]] from the [[City of London|City]] to western England, which is now locally called [[Oxford Street]].
{{Annotated image|image=LondonBeforeHouses.jpg|image-width=1000|image-left=-240|image-top=-355|width =195|height=175|float=left|caption=Westminster before urbanisation. The Roman road (modern [[Oxford Street]]) is shown at top running west.}}

[[Thorney Island (Westminster)|Thorney Island]] lay between the arms of the former [[River Tyburn]] at its confluence with the Thames, while the western boundary with Chelsea was formed by the similarly lost [[River Westbourne]].<ref>Boundary of Westminster and Chelsea 'The parish of Chelsea: Introduction', in A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 12, Chelsea, ed. Patricia E C Croot (London, 2004), pp. 1–2. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol12/pp1-2 [accessed 19 December 2020].</ref> The line of the river still forms (with very slight revisions) the boundaries of the modern borough with the [[Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea]].
[[File:Westminster Civil Parish Map 1870.png|thumb|Parishes and Places of the City and Liberty of Westminster. The lower [[River Westbourne|Westbourne]] formed part of the western boundary, and [[Oxford Street]] the north.]]

Further north, away from the river mouth, Westminster included land on both sides of the Westbourne, notably [[Knightsbridge]] (including the parts of Hyde Park west of the [[Serpentine (lake)|Serpentine]] lake (originally formed by damming the river) and most of Kensington Gardens).

===Localities===
Westminster includes the sub-districts of [[Soho]], [[St James's|St James]], [[Mayfair]], [[Covent Garden]] (shared with neighbouring [[London Borough of Camden|Camden]]), [[Pimlico]], [[Victoria, London|Victoria]], [[Belgravia]] and [[Knightsbridge]] (shared with neighbouring [[Kensington]]).

The former City of Westminster merged with the neighbouring boroughs of [[Paddington]] and [[Marylebone]] in 1965 to form a larger modern borough. These neighbouring areas (except for a small area of Paddington in part of Kensington Gardens), lie north of [[Oxford Street]] and its westward continuation, Bayswater Road.

===Open spaces===
The district's open spaces include:
* [[Hyde Park, London|Hyde Park]]
* [[Kensington Gardens]] (part)
* [[Green Park]]
* [[Garden at Buckingham Palace|Buckingham Palace Garden]]
* [[St James's Park]]

==Origins and administration==
The development of the area began with the establishment of [[Westminster Abbey]] on a site then called [[Thorney Island (Westminster)|Thorney Island]]. The site may have been chosen because of the [[Watling Street#Westminster ford|natural ford]] which is thought to have carried [[Watling Street]] over the [[River Thames|Thames]] in the vicinity.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Loftie's Historic London (review) |journal=The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art |volume=63 |issue=1,634 |date=19 February 1887 |page=271 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m1RJAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA271 |access-date=21 October 2015}}</ref> The wider district became known as Westminster in reference to the church.

===Legendary origin===
The legendary origin<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.choirschools.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/The-Abbey-Fishy-Tale.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190808142504/http://www.choirschools.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/The-Abbey-Fishy-Tale.pdf |archive-date=2019-08-08 |url-status=live |title=The Tale of a Fish - How Westminster Abbey became a Royal Peculiar|website=[[Choir Schools' Association]]}}</ref> is that in the early 7th century, a local fisherman named Edric (or Aldrich) ferried a stranger in tattered foreign clothing over the Thames to [[Thorney Island (London)|Thorney Island]]. It was a miraculous appearance of [[St Peter]], a fisherman himself, coming to the island to [[consecration|consecrate]] the newly built church, which later developed into [[Westminster Abbey]]. He rewarded Edric with a bountiful catch when he next dropped his nets. Edric was instructed to present the [[Sæberht of Essex|king]] and [[Mellitus|St. Mellitus, Bishop of London]], with a salmon and various proofs that the consecration had already occurred. Every year on 29 June, St Peter's Day, the [[Worshipful Company of Fishmongers]] presents the Abbey with a salmon in memory of this event.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/fishmongers-company|title=Fishmongers' Company|website=Westminster Abbey}}</ref>

===Recorded origin===
A charter of 785, possibly a forgery, grants land to ''the needy people of God in Thorney, in the dreadful spot which is called Westminster''. The text suggests a pre-existing monastic community who chose to live in a very challenging location.

The recorded origins of the Abbey (rather than a less important religious site) date to the 960s or early 970s, when [[Saint Dunstan]] and [[Edgar of England|King Edgar]] installed a community of [[Benedictine]] [[monk]]s on the site.<ref name=wpage>{{cite web|title='Benedictine monks: St Peter's abbey, Westminster', in A History of the County of London: Volume 1, London Within the Bars, Westminster and Southwark|first=William|last=Page|location=London|year=1909|pages=433–457|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/london/vol1/pp433-457|access-date=28 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180729013141/https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/london/vol1/pp433-457|archive-date=29 July 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

Between 1042 and 1052, King [[Edward the Confessor]] began rebuilding St Peter's Abbey to provide himself with a royal burial church. It was the first church in England built in the [[Romanesque architecture|Romanesque]] style. The building was completed around 1060 and was consecrated on 28 December 1065, only a week before Edward's death on 5 January 1066.<ref>Eric Fernie, in Mortimer ed., ''Edward the Confessor'', pp. 139–143</ref> A week later, he was buried in the church; and, nine years later, his wife [[Edith of Wessex|Edith]] was buried alongside him.<ref>Pauline Stafford, 'Edith, Edward's Wife and Queen', in Mortimer ed., ''Edward the Confessor'', p. 137</ref> His successor, [[Harold Godwinson|Harold II]], was probably crowned in the abbey, although the first documented coronation is that of [[William the Conqueror]] later the same year.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://westminster-abbey.org/our-history/royals/william-the-conqueror |title=William I (the Conqueror) |publisher = Westminster-abbey.org |date=2016 |access-date=21 July 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916025458/http://westminster-abbey.org/our-history/royals/william-the-conqueror |archive-date=16 September 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>
[[File:BayeuxTapestryScene26.jpg|thumb|upright=1.7|left|St Peter's Abbey at the time of King [[Edward the Confessor]]'s funeral, depicted in the [[Bayeux Tapestry]]]]

The only extant depiction of Edward's abbey, together with the adjacent [[Palace of Westminster]], is in the [[Bayeux Tapestry]]. Some of the lower parts of the monastic dormitory, an extension of the south transept, survive in the Norman Undercroft of the Great School, including a door said to come from the previous [[Anglo-Saxons|Saxon]] abbey. Increased endowments supported a community that increased from a dozen monks in Dunstan's original foundation, up to a maximum of about eighty monks.<ref>Harvey 1993, p. 2</ref>

===Local government===
[[File:Westminster Met. B Ward Map 1916.svg|thumb|The [[Metropolitan Borough of Westminster]] was almost co-terminous with the older [[City and Liberty of Westminster]], with ancient Oxford Street as the northern boundary.]]

====Parish of Westminster St Margaret====
[[File:John Norden's Map of Westminster Large version.jpeg|thumb|[[John Norden]]'s map of Westminster (1593)]]
Most of the parishes of Westminster originated as daughter parishes of [[Westminster St Margaret and St John#Governance|St Margaret's parish]], in the [[City and Liberty of Westminster]], [[Middlesex]]. The exceptions to this were [[St Clement Danes]], [[St Mary le Strand]] and possibly some other small areas.

The ancient parish was [[Westminster St Margaret and St John|St Margaret]]; after 1727 this became the civil parish of 'St Margaret and St John', the latter a new church required for the increasing population. The area around Westminster Abbey formed the extra-parochial [[Close of the Collegiate Church of St Peter]]. Like many large parishes, Westminster was divided into smaller units called ''[[Civil Parish#sub-divisions|Hamlets]]'' (meaning a territorial sub-division, rather than a small village). These would later become independent daughter parishes.

Until 1900 the local authority was the combined [[vestry]] of St Margaret and St John (also known as the [[Westminster District Board of Works]] from 1855 to 1887), which was based at [[Caxton Hall|Westminster Town Hall]] in [[Caxton Street]] from 1883.<ref>[http://legacy.london.gov.uk/mayor/planning_decisions/strategic_dev/2003/oct0803/caxton_hall_report.pdf GLA planning report PDU/0583/01] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120317181446/http://legacy.london.gov.uk/mayor/planning_decisions/strategic_dev/2003/oct0803/caxton_hall_report.pdf|date=17 March 2012}} 2003</ref>

====City and Liberty of Westminster====
The Liberty of Westminster, governed by the [[Westminster Court of Burgesses]], also included [[St Martin in the Fields (parish)|St Martin in the Fields]] and several other [[City and Liberty of Westminster#Constituent parishes and other areas|parishes and places]]. Westminster had its own [[quarter sessions]], but the Middlesex sessions also had jurisdiction.

====Metropolitan Borough of Westminster====
[[File:Westminster City Hall, Victoria Street SW1 - geograph.org.uk - 1284668.jpg|thumb|[[Westminster City Hall]], completed in 1965]]
Under local government reforms in 1889, the area fell within the newly created [[County of London]], and the local government of Westminster was further reformed in 1900, when the court of burgesses and the parish vestries were abolished and replaced by the [[Metropolitan Borough of Westminster]]. The borough was given [[City status in the United Kingdom|city status]] at the same time, allowing it to be known as the [[City of Westminster]] and its council as [[Westminster City Council]].

The [[City and Liberty of Westminster]] and the [[Metropolitan Borough of Westminster]] were very similar in extent, covering the parts of the wider modern [[City of Westminster]] south of the [[Oxford Street]], and its continuations Hyde Park Place. The exception is that part of [[Kensington Gardens]], south of that road, are part of [[Paddington]].

Westminster merged with St Marylebone and Paddington in 1965, but the combined area was allowed to keep the title [[City of Westminster]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1963/33/contents|title=Local Government Act 1963|publisher=Legislation.gov.uk|access-date=25 April 2020}}</ref>

==History==
{{For|a list of street name etymologies for Westminster|Street names of Westminster}}

===Royal seat===
[[File:Bird Eye Pictures of London Westminster in 1909.jpg|alt= B&W photo of Westminster from the air|upright=1.9|thumb|Bird's-eye view of Westminster and the [[River Thames]] in 1909]]
The former [[Thorney Island (Westminster)|Thorney Island]], the site of [[Westminster Abbey]], formed the historic core of Westminster. The abbey became the traditional venue of the [[coronation]]s of the [[List of English monarchs|kings and queens of England]] from that of [[Harold Godwinson]] (1066) onwards.

From about 1200 the [[Palace of Westminster]], near the abbey, became the principal royal residence, a transition marked by the transfer of royal treasury and financial records to Westminster from [[Winchester]]. Later the palace housed the developing [[Parliament of England|Parliament]] and [[Courts of England and Wales|England's law courts]]. Thus, London developed two focal points: the [[City of London]] (financial/economic) and Westminster (political and cultural).

The [[British monarchy|monarchs]] moved their principal residence to the [[Palace of Whitehall]] (1530–1698), then to [[St James's Palace]] in 1698, and eventually to [[Buckingham Palace]] and other palaces after 1762. The main law courts moved to the [[Royal Courts of Justice]] in the late-19th century.

===Medieval and Tudor===
The settlement grew up around the palace and abbey, as a service area for them. The parish church, [[St Margaret's, Westminster|St Margaret's Westminster]] served the wider community of the parish; the servants of the palace and abbey as well as the rural population and those associated with the high status homes developing on the road from the city. The area became larger and in the [[Georgian era|Georgian]] period became connected through urban [[ribbon development]] with the City along the Strand.

[[Henry VIII]]'s [[Reformation]] in the early 16th century abolished the abbey and established a cathedral – thus the parish ranked as a "City", although it was only a fraction of the size of the City of London and the Borough of [[Southwark]] at that time.

Indeed, the cathedral and diocesan status of the church lasted only from 1539 to 1556, but the "city" status remained for a mere parish within Middlesex. As such it is first known to have had two Members of Parliament in 1545 as a new [[Parliamentary Borough]], centuries after the City of London and Southwark were enfranchised.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/constituencies/westminster|title=Westminster &#124; History of Parliament Online|website=www.historyofparliamentonline.org}}</ref>
[[File:Emanuel Hospital, Westminster, 1890 by Philip Norman.jpg|thumb|Emanuel Hospital, Westminster, 1890 by [[Philip Norman (artist)|Philip Norman]]]]
The growing Elizabethan city had a High Constable, Bailiff, Town Clerk, and a keeper of the ponds.<ref>M.R.P. (1981). "Constituencies:Westminster-Borough"
''The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603'', ed. P.W. Hasler, London: Boydell and Brewer. [http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/research/constituencies History of Parliament website] Retrieved 12 July 2023.</ref>

===Victorian divide===
[[File:Booth map of Westminster.jpg|255px|thumb|right|Part of [[Charles Booth (philanthropist)|Charles Booth]]'s [[poverty map]] showing Westminster in 1889. The colours of the streets represent the economic class of the residents: Yellow ("Upper-middle and Upper classes, Wealthy"), red ("Lower middle class – Well-to-do middle class"), pink ("Fairly comfortable good ordinary earnings"), blue ("Intermittent or casual earnings"), and black ("lowest class occasional labourers, street sellers, loafers, criminals and semi-criminals"). Booth coloured Victoria Street, with its new shops and flats, yellow. The model dwellings built by the [[Peabody Trust]] on the side streets off Victoria Street appear as pink and grey, signalling modest respectability, while the black and blue streets represent the remaining slum areas housing the poorest.<ref>{{cite book | last= Richard | first= Dennis | year= 2008 | title= Cities in Modernity: Representations and Productions of Metropolitan Space | publisher= Cambridge University Press | pages= 140 | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Gq9_uNNkmKUC&q=Old+Pye+Street | isbn= 978-0-521-46841-1}}</ref>]]

[[Charles Booth (philanthropist)|Charles Booth]]'s [[poverty map]] showing Westminster in 1889 recorded the full range of income- and capital-brackets living in adjacent streets within the area; its central western area had become (by 1850) (the) Devil's Acre in the southern flood-channel ravine of the [[River Tyburn]], yet Victoria Street and other small streets and squares had the highest colouring of social class in London: yellow/gold. Westminster has shed the abject poverty with the clearance of this [[slum]] and with drainage improvement, but there is a typical [[Central London]] property distinction within the area which is very acute, epitomised by grandiose 21st-century developments, architectural high-point [[listed building]]s<ref>
{{Cite web|title=OS Map with Listed Buildings|url=http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/mapsearch.aspx|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110410235311/http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/mapsearch.aspx|archive-date=10 April 2011|website=English Heritage}}
</ref> and nearby [[social housing]] (mostly non-[[council housing]]) buildings of the [[Peabody Trust]] founded by philanthropist [[George Peabody]].

==Wider uses of the name ==
Given the focus on Westminster in English and British public life over centuries, the name "Westminster" is casually used as a [[metonymy|metonym]] for the UK Parliament and for the political community of the United Kingdom generally. (The [[Civil Service (United Kingdom)|civil service]] is similarly referred to using the name of the northern sub-neighbourhood which it inhabits, "[[Whitehall]]".) "Westminster" is consequently also used in reference to the [[Westminster system]], the parliamentary model of democratic government that has evolved in the United Kingdom and for those other nations, particularly in the [[Commonwealth of Nations]] and for other parts of the former [[British Empire]] that adopted it.

The term "Westminster Village", sometimes used in the context of British politics, does not refer to a geographical area at all; employed especially in the phrase "Westminster Village gossip", it denotes a supposedly close social circle of members of parliament, political journalists, so-called [[Spin (public relations)|spin-doctors]] and others connected to events in the Palace of Westminster and in Government ministries.

{{wide image|Westminster from the dome on Methodist Central Hall.jpg|750px|Panorama of Westminster taken from the roof of the [[Methodist Central Hall]], with [[Westminster Abbey]] at right}}

==Economy==
The area has a substantial residential population. By the 20th century Westminster saw rising numbers of residential [[apartments]] with wealthy inhabitants. Hotels, large Victorian homes and barracks exist near to [[Buckingham Palace]].

===High Commissions===
Westminster hosts the [[High commissioner (Commonwealth)|High Commissions]] of many [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]] countries:<ref>{{cite web |title=Foreign embassies in the UK |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/foreign-embassies-in-the-uk |website=GOV.UK |access-date=10 August 2021 |language=en}}</ref>
{{div col|colwidth=20em}}
* [[High Commission of Australia, London|Australia]]
* [[High Commission of The Bahamas, London|The Bahamas]]
* [[High Commission of Brunei, London|Brunei]]
* [[High Commission of Canada, London|Canada]]
* [[High Commission of Cyprus, London|Cyprus]]
* [[High Commission of Eswatini, London|Eswatini]]
* [[High Commission of Ghana, London|Ghana]]
* [[High Commission of India to the United Kingdom|India]]
* [[High Commission of Lesotho, London|Lesotho]]
* [[High Commission of Malaysia, London|Malaysia]]
* [[High Commission of New Zealand, London|New Zealand]]
* [[High Commission of Nigeria, London|Nigeria]]
* [[High Commission of Pakistan, London|Pakistan]]
* [[High Commission of Papua New Guinea, London|Papua New Guinea]]
* [[High Commission of the Seychelles, London|Seychelles]]
* [[High Commission of Singapore, London|Singapore]]
* [[High Commission of South Africa, London|South Africa]]
* [[High Commission of Trinidad and Tobago, London|Trinidad and Tobago]]
* [[High Commission of Uganda, London|Uganda]]
{{div col end}}

===Education===
Within the area is [[Westminster School]], a major [[public school (UK)|public school]] which grew out of the abbey, and the [[University of Westminster]], attended by over 20,000 students.

==Notable people==
<!---♦♦♦ Only add a person to this list if they already have their own article on the English Wikipedia ♦♦♦---> 
<!---♦♦♦ Please keep the list in alphabetical order by LAST NAME ♦♦♦--->
* [[Finn Azaz]] (born 2000), footballer
*[[Andy Bray]] (born 1981), cricketer
*[[Arthur Barnby]] (1881–1937), first-class cricketer and Royal Marines/Royal Naval Air Service officer
*[[Richard Colley (cricketer)|Richard Colley]] (1833–1902), first-class cricketer and British Army officer
*[[Geoffrey Cooke (cricketer)|Geoffrey Cooke]] (1897–1980), first-class cricketer and British Army officer
*[[John Fuller (cricketer)|John Fuller]] (1834–1893), first-class cricketer, clergyman and theologian
*[[Ava Gardner]] (24 December 1922 – 25 January 1990), American actress and singer
*[[Hady Ghandour]] (born 2000), footballer
*[[Tatiana Hambro]] (born 1989), fashion writer and editor
*[[Tom Hiddleston]] (born 1981), Golden Globe-winning actor
*[[Stephanie Leonidas]] (born 1982), actress
*[[Alice Liddell]] (1852–1934), inspiration for Alice In Wonderland
*[[Edward Low]] (1690–1724), [[pirate]] during the latter days of the [[Golden Age of Piracy]]
*[[Eddie Redmayne]] (born 1982), Oscar-winning actor
*[[Quintin Twiss]] (1835–1900), first-class cricketer and stage actor
*[[Mary Woffington]] (1729–1811), socialite<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Byrne-Costigan |first1=Ethna |author1-link=Ethna Byrne-Costigan |title=Peg Woffington |journal=[[Dublin Historical Record]] |date=1979 |volume=33 |issue=1 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30104171 |issn=0012-6861 |page=19|jstor=30104171 }}</ref>

==References==
===Notes===
{{Reflist}}

===Bibliography===
{{refbegin}}
* Manchee, W. H. (1924), ''The Westminster City Fathers (the Burgess Court of Westminster) 1585–1901: Being some account of their powers and domestic rule of the City prior to its incorporation in 1901''; with a foreword by Walter G. Bell and 36 illustrations which relate to documents (some pull-outs) and artefacts. London: John Lane (The Bodley Head).
* Davies, E. A. (1952), ''An Account of the Formation and Early Years of The Westminster Fire Office''; (Includes black-and-white photographic plates with a colour [[Book frontispiece|frontispiece]] of 'A Waterman' and a foreword by Major K. M. Beaumont. London: Country Life Limited for the Westminster Fire Office.
* Hunting, P. (1981), ''Royal Westminster''. [[The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors]]. Printed by Penshurst Press. {{ISBN|0-85406-127-4}} (paper); {{ISBN|0-85406-128-2}} (cased).
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
* {{Citation |first=John |last=Timbs |author-link=John Timbs |date=1867 |publisher=J.C. Hotten |location=London |title=Curiosities of London |edition=2nd  |oclc=12878129 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/curiositiesoflon00timbrich#page/820/mode/2up |chapter=Westminster }}

==External links==
{{Wikivoyage|Westminster}}
*[http://www.westminster.gov.uk/ Westminster Borough Council]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060222181831/http://www.gardenvisit.com/travel/london/3_westminster.htm Westminster Walks – from Findlay Muirhead's 1927 guidebook to ''London and its Environs'']
*[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21648 Westminster], by Sir Walter Besant and Geraldine Edith Mitton and A. Murray Smith, 1902, from [[Project Gutenberg]]
*[http://www.abandonedcommunities.co.uk/palmer's%20village.html Palmer's Village, a deserted village in Westminster]

{{LB City of Westminster}}
{{London Districts}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Districts of the City of Westminster]]
[[Category:Areas of London]]
[[Category:Market towns in London]]
[[Category:Districts of London on the River Thames]]