Talk:City status in the United Kingdom/Archive 1

I am not entirely convinced of this "awarded at the behest of the monarch status" stuff. As far as I was aware Plymouth was a city when I was a child (and was described as such during the Blitz i.e. about 50 years prior to this putative granting of status). Want to cite some sources to elucidate? My understanding was that it was conditional upon either size or as the site of an Anglican bishopric. user:sjc

thats what i thought - fonzy

According to the official website of the UK Lord Chancellor:

City status is a rare mark of distinction granted by the Sovereign and conferred by Letters Patent. It is granted by personal Command of the Queen, on the advice of Her Ministers.

According to The Royal Government official page:

City status and Lord Mayoralty are granted by personal command of The Queen, on advice from Ministers. Only local authorities may apply for these honours, which are sparingly bestowed as a mark of special distinction.

- Zoe

That's just English law of course, although there may well be analogous Scots law. And it only covers the award of city status to communities which don't possess it. However it is not meant to apply to communities which have been cities since "time immemorial". Some communities have been cities since before there was a Lord Chancellor or a monarchy and there is no law defining the conditions under which a community stops being a city... -- Derek Ross

Only one small problem with this. This is part of a piece of legislation which was brought in retroactively and has absolutely nothing to do with reality. Plymouth has been a city and was a city since the amalgamation of the 3 towns in 1914. It was an anglican bishopric and had a qualifying city size before this particular piece of legislation ergo it was a city prior to 1994: all that happened in 1994 was that the city status was regularised; most of the others in the list were cities anterior to the regal stuff.

Truro, btw, was a city at the point that it became the diocesan centre of west Cornwall in 1887; as far as I know it has not been granted city status by Royal Appointment: it would fail regularisation on a number of criteria in this day and age, notably population size.

Apparently Queen Victoria granted it city status in 1877 and laid the foundation stone of the cathedral. See http://truro.cornwall.net/history.html Mintguy

Nope. The foundation stones were laid by the Prince of Wales, not by Queen Victoria. The Bishopric of Truro bill 1876 gave the city de facto city status. user:sjc

Like I said, once a city, always a city. -- Derek Ross

The fact that someone forgot to do the official stuff until about 1994 is kind of neither here nor there: Plymouth was a city at the time of the amalgamation of the three towns since it was known jointly and severally at that time and thenceforth as the City of Plymouth. user:sjc

I've just read that Plymouth was granted city status in 1928, but have nothing to verify this. It also states that Plymouth has(or only had at the time) a catholic cathedral.

Again, it focuses on the merger of the 3 towns. That was why they merged in 1914, in order to acquire urban status as the City of Plymouth. I will dig out the records at DRO tomorrow. user:sjc

Wouldn't it be better to say 'officially has 66 cites' rather than 'at least 66'? It currently reads as a bit dumb that we can't put an exact figure on it.

I really do hate this 'Town,Country' format. As has been pointed out numerous times, this is distinctly US only style. Mintguy

Yeah, but crucial from the point of disambiguation. More significant yet in many cases it has to be town, county, country as in e.g. Newport, Shropshire, England; Newport, Cambridgeshire, England, etc. user:sjc