City (UK Cities)

In the UK a city is sometimes a name given to a large town, or a place which has a cathedral, and this is the most common way a location is called a city. However many decisions on whether a location is called a city or not are made by the monarchy.

City status is a mark of distinction granted by the Sovereign. It is granted by personal Command of The Queen, on the advice of Her Ministers. It is for Her Majesty The Queen to decide when a competition for city status should be held.

To most people, a city is a large town, but this is not always the case, for example St David's in Pembrokeshire in Wales with a population of around 1,950 is contained inside a national park and is one of the smallest cities in the UK. There are other small cities, Wells in Somerset and Ely in Cambridgeshire, both also relatively small.

Then we have large locations which are not called cities at all, a Conurbations are large urban areas which can include cities, but which are not officially designated a city as a composite. A well known example of this is Greater London, which is not a city, it has no charter, and is a conurbation which includes two cities, the City of London and the city of Westminster.

London is not the same as the "City Of London" or the "City Of Westminster" :)- Clear?
The City of London known also as "The Square Mile" is just over one square mile, and a financial centre of Greater London. Its daily working population of 300,000 makes a significant contribution to UK.

There are many other locations which are large but are not cities, for example Milton Keynes (population of 212,000), Northampton (population of 192,000), Luton (population of 189,000).

While there is inconsistency  between the common usage or meaning and the official definition of the word, for most its not important, but for some there is a principle at stake, some also say that the Crown shouldn't even be considered.

There are criticisms of the official definition of 'City'

• City status is a mark of distinction granted by the Sovereign and conferred by Letters Patent.
  Rochester lost its city status, they did not realize that Charter Trustees would be needed to protect the city's status.

• City status granted since time immemorial, there are no records that show why or when cities were granted their status.
  If some of the small cities had not been granted their status, they would never be called a city today.

• Cities granted in the past because they have a cathedral.
  When they were constructed, they were considered important, Now only their members and clergy think them important.

• The dictionaries
  Whose place is it to define the word "city" the expert in lexicography, or the Queen :)- (I vote the Queen)

So here then, on this day 08 June in the year of our lord 2009, is the UK city list, subject to change, if some local council forgets to put a stamp on their letters, The Queen visits a nice place and decides to call it a city or they dig up some medieval document naming a location as a city, or (AS in 1974) locations were merged (See also Coventry, Warwickshire, West Midlands)