West End of London
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- For other uses of the name West End, see West End (disambiguation).
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The West End of London is part of the city centre of London in England. The city centre also includes the City of London, which is the financial district, and by some definitions some other districts as well (see Central London). The West End contains the highest concentration of London's attractions, shops (epitomised by Oxford Street), administrative functions and business headquarters. It also includes most of its major theatres, so the term 'the West End' is also used to refer to London's commercial theatre; (see West End theatre). Colloquially and symbolically, the West End can be seen as one of three poles in central London: the City for finance (and to a lesser extent business in general), Westminster for government (Whitehall and Parliament) , and the West End for fun (retail and entertainment).
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Location
Located to the west of the historic Roman and Mediaeval City of London, the West End was long favoured by the rich elite as a place of residence because it was more often upwind of the smoke drifting from the crowded City. It was also located close to the royal seat of power at Westminster, and is largely contained within the City of Westminster. Developed in the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries it was originally built as a series of palaces, expensive town houses, fashionable shops and places of entertainment. The areas closest to the City around Holborn Seven Dials and Covent Garden historically contained poorer communities that were cleared and redeveloped in the nineteenth century.
The West End is a flexible term with different meanings in different contexts. It may refer to the entertainment district around Leicester Square and Covent Garden; to the shopping district centred on Oxford Street, Regent Street, and Bond Street (but the geographically distinct shopping district around Knightsbridge would be counted as "West End Shopping" by some); or to the whole of that part of Central London (itself an area with no generally agreed boundaries) which lies to the west of the City of London.
One of the local government wards within the City of Westminster is called "West End". It is bounded by the City of London to the east, the Thames to the south east, Horseferry Road and Victoria Street to the south, Grosvenor Place to the west and Piccadilly and Long Acre to the north. [1] This is quite a narrow boundary. However, in the United Kingdom, ward boundaries are generally only familiar to people involved in local politics and administration, and this ward carries little weight as an "official" definition of the West End, and is not intended to do so.
Activities
Taking a fairly broad definition of the West End, the district contains the main concentrations of most of the London's metropolitan activities apart from financial services offices, which are concentrated primarily in the City of London. There are major concentrations of the following buildings and activities in the West End:
- Art galleries and museums
- Company headquarters outside the financial services sector (although London's many hedge funds are based mainly in the West End)
- Educational institutions
- Embassies
- Government buildings (mainly around Whitehall)
- Hotels
- Institutes, learned societies and think tanks
- Legal institutions
- Media establishments
- Places of entertainment: theatres; cinemas; nightclubs; bars and restaurants
- Shops
The annual New Year’s Day Parade takes place on the streets of the West End.
Districts in the West End
These are the inner districts of the West End, which were all developed by about 1815:
- Bloomsbury
- Holborn
- Covent Garden
- Seven Dials
- Soho
- Fitzrovia
- Westminster
- Marylebone
- Mayfair
- St. James's
The districts to the south, north and west of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens were developed between the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and the late 19th century, in some cases based on existing villages. The more fashionable of them were generally regarded as being in the West End at that time, but the extension of the term to these areas west of Park Lane is less common nowadays. The last two listed especially are fringe cases:
- Knightsbridge
- Belgravia
- Pimlico
- Chelsea
- South Kensington
- Bayswater
- Paddington
- Notting Hill
- Holland Park
Famous streets in the West End
- Charing Cross Road
- Oxford Street
- Regent Street
- Bond Street
- Shaftesbury Avenue
- Tottenham Court Road
- The Strand
- Piccadilly
- Kingsway
- Wardour Street
- Park Lane
Famous squares and circuses in the West End
- Leicester Square
- Trafalgar Square
- Berkeley Square
- Grosvenor Square
- Piccadilly Circus
- Oxford Circus
- Hyde Park Corner
- Marble Arch
- Soho Square
See also
- Central London
- West End theatre
- West End girls
- East End of London
- East London
- North London
- South Londonde:West End (Theater)
fr:West End ja:ウエスト・エンド (ロンドン) no:West End, London sv:West End