The West End of London (more commonly referred to as simply the West End) is an area of Central London containing many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buildings and entertainment venues (including the commercial West End theatres).

The use of the term 'West End' began in the early 19th century to describe fashionable areas to the west of Charing Cross. For strategic planning, the area is identified as one of two international centres in the London Plan. The West End is a large area, combining the boroughs of Westminster and Camden, which had a population of 468,138 in 2014.

While the City of London or the Square Mile is the main business and financial district in London, the West End is the main commercial and entertainment centre of the city. It is the largest central business district in the United Kingdom, comparable to Midtown Manhattan in New York City, the Shibuya district in Tokyo, Sol in Madrid or the 8th arrondissement in Paris and EUR in Rome. It is one of the most expensive locations in the world in which to rent office space, just behind Silicon Valley's Sand Hill Road.

West End most commonly refers to:

West End may also refer to:

Places

Anguilla

Australia

Bahamas

Canada

England

The West End is a downtown neighborhood in Portland, Maine. It is located on the western side of Portland's peninsula primarily on Bramhall Hill and is noted for its architecture and history. The neighborhood is home to a large number of historic homes and parks and, in 2010, it was called "one of the best preserved Victorian neighborhoods in the country". The Western Promenade, a park laid out in 1836, overlooks the Libbytown and Stroudwater neighborhoods of Portland and beyond. Other historic structures include 68 High Street, The Gothic House, Brown House, Butler House, Ingraham House, Morrill Mansion and the Minott House.

The West End is known for ethnic and socioeconomic diversity; in 1994, it was called one of Portland's 'gay-friendly' neighborhoods.

Education

Reiche Community School, a public school located on Brackett Street, serves the West End's K-5 school-age students. It also houses a branch library, swimming pool, and community center. Waynflete School, a private school located on Spring Street, is also located in the neighborhood. Learning Works, formally known as Portland West, is located on Brackett Street in the West End. Founded as a community group fighting the gentrification of the West End in 1967, Learning Works is now a social services agency which provides educational opportunities to at-risk teenagers, immigrants, refugees and low income families.

West End is a constituency of the Anguillan House of Assembly. The incumbent, elected in the Anguillan general election, 2015 is Cardigan Connor of the Anguilla United Front, replacing Walcott Richardson of the Anguilla United Movement.

Representatives

Election results

Elections in the 2010s

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s

Elections in the 1980s

External links

The County of London was a county of England from 1889 to 1965, corresponding to the area known today as Inner London. It was created as part of the general introduction of elected county government in England, by way of the Local Government Act 1888. The Act created an administrative County of London, which included within its territory the City of London. However, the City of London and the County of London formed separate counties for "non-administrative" purposes. The local authority for the county was the London County Council (LCC), which initially performed only a limited range of functions, but gained further powers during its 76-year existence. The LCC provided very few services within the City of London, where the ancient Corporation monopolised local governance, as it still does. In 1900 the lower-tier civil parishes and district boards were replaced with 28 new metropolitan boroughs. The territory of the county was 74,903 acres (303.12 km²) in 1961. During its existence there was a long-term decline in population as more residents moved into the outer suburbs; there were periodic reviews of the local government structures in the greater London area and several failed attempts to expand the boundaries of the county. In 1965, the London Government Act 1963 replaced the county with the much larger Greater London administrative area.

Charles Dickens' works are especially associated with London which is the setting for many of his novels. These works do not just use London as a backdrop but are about the city and its character.

Dickens described London as a Magic lantern, a popular entertainment of the Victorian era, which projected images from slides. Of all Dickens' characters 'none played as important a role in his work as that of London itself', it fired his imagination and made him write. In a letter to John Forster, in 1846, Dickens wrote 'a day in London sets me up and starts me', but outside of the city, 'the toil and labour of writing, day after day, without that magic lantern is IMMENSE!!'

However, of the identifiable London locations that Dickens used in his work, scholar Clare Pettitt notes that many no longer exist, and, while 'you can track Dickens' London, and see where things were, but they aren't necessarily still there'.

In addition to his later novels and short stories, Dickens' descriptions of London, published in various newspapers in the 1830s, were released as a collected edition Sketches by Boz in 1836.

London is a poem by Samuel Johnson, produced shortly after he moved to London. Written in 1738, it was his first major published work. The poem in 263 lines imitates Juvenal's Third Satire, expressed by the character of Thales as he decides to leave London for Wales. Johnson imitated Juvenal because of his fondness for the Roman poet and he was following a popular 18th-century trend of Augustan poets headed by Alexander Pope that favoured imitations of classical poets, especially for young poets in their first ventures into published verse.

London was published anonymously and in multiple editions during 1738. It quickly received critical praise, notably from Pope. This would be the second time that Pope praised one of Johnson's poems; the first being for Messiah, Johnson's Latin translation of Pope's poem. Part of that praise comes from the political basis of the poem. From a modern view, the poem is outshined by Johnson's later poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes as well as works like his A Dictionary of the English Language, his Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, and his periodical essays for The Rambler, The Idler, and The Adventurer.