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City status in the United Kingdom is granted by themonarch of the United Kingdom to specific centres of population, which might or might not meet the generally accepted definition ofcities. As of 22 November 2022[update],[1] there are76 cities in the United Kingdom—55 inEngland,[2][3] eight inScotland, seven inWales and six inNorthern Ireland.[4] Although it carries no special rights, the status of city can be a marker of prestige and confer local pride.[5]
The status does not apply automatically on the basis of any particular criterion, though until 1889 inEngland and Wales it was limited to towns withdiocesan cathedrals. This association between having anAnglican cathedral and being called a city was established in the early 1540s whenKing Henry VIII founded dioceses (each having acathedral in thesee city) in six English towns and granted them city status by issuingletters patent. A city with a cathedral is often termed acathedral city.
City status in Ireland was granted to far fewer communities than in England and Wales, and there are only two pre-19th-century cities in present-dayNorthern Ireland. In Scotland, city status did not explicitly receive any recognition by the state until the 19th century. At that time, a revival of grants of city status took place, first in England, where the grants were accompanied by the establishment of new cathedrals, and later in Scotland and Ireland. In the 20th century, it was explicitly recognised that the status of city in England and Wales would no longer be bound to the presence of a cathedral, and grants made since have been awarded to communities on a variety of criteria, including population size.
The abolition of some corporate bodies as part of successive local-government reforms, beginning with theMunicipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840, has deprived some ancient cities of their status. However, letters patent have been issued for most of the affected cities to ensure the continuation or restoration of their status. At present,Rochester andElgin are the only former cities in the United Kingdom.
The name "City" does not, in itself, denote city status; it may be appended to place names for historic association (e.g.White City) or for marketing or disambiguation (e.g.Stratford City). A number of large towns (such as those with over 200,000 residents) in the UK are bigger than some small cities.
The initial cities (Latin:civitas) ofBritain were the fortified settlements organised by theRomans as the capitals of theCeltic tribes underRoman rule. TheBritishclerics of theearly Middle Ages later preserved a traditional list of the "28 Cities" (Old Welsh:cair) which was mentioned byGildas[7] and listed byNennius.[8]
In the 16th century, a town was recognised as a city by the English Crown if it had adiocesan cathedral within its limits, for which 22 dioceses existed in England & Wales (seeCity status conferment further in the article). This association between having a cathedral and being called a city was established whenHenry VIII founded new dioceses (each having a cathedral in thesee city) in six English towns and also granted them city status by issuingletters patent,[9] demonstrating these were discrete procedures. Some cities today are very small because they were granted city status in or before the 16th century, then were unaffected by population growth during theIndustrial Revolution—notablyWells (population about 10,000) andSt Davids (population about 2,000). After the 16th century, no new dioceses (and no new cities) were created until the 19th century in England (a further city was created in Ireland during the rule of King James I in the 17th century).
A long-awaited resumption ofcreating dioceses began in 1836 withRipon. Ripon Town Council assumed that this had elevated the town to the rank of a city, and started referring to itself as theCity and Borough of Ripon. The next diocese formed wasManchester and its Borough Council began informally to use the titlecity. WhenQueen Victoria visited Manchester in 1851, widespread doubts surrounding its status were raised. The pretension was ended when the borough petitioned for city status, which was granted by letters patent in 1853. This eventually forced Ripon to regularise its position; its city status was recognised byAct of Parliament in 1865. From this year Ripon bore city status whilst the rapidly expanding conurbation of Leeds – in the Ripon diocese – did not. The Manchester case established a precedent that anymunicipal borough in which an Anglican see was established was entitled to petition for city status. Accordingly,Truro,St Albans,Liverpool,Newcastle upon Tyne andWakefield were all officially designated as cities between 1877 and 1888.
This was not without opposition from theHome Office, which dismissedSt Albans as "a fourth or fifth rate market town" and objected toWakefield's elevation on grounds of population. In one new diocese,Southwell, a city was not created, because it was a village without a borough corporation and therefore could not petition the Queen. Thediocese covered the counties ofDerbyshire andNottinghamshire, and the boroughs ofDerby andNottingham were disappointed that they would not be able to claim the title of city.[10]
The link with Anglican dioceses was broken within England in 1889 whenBirmingham successfully petitioned for city status (it waspre-empted in Ireland by Belfast in 1888) on the grounds of its large population and history of good local government. At the time of the grant, Birmingham lacked an Anglican cathedral, althoughthe parish church later became a cathedral in 1905. This new precedent was followed by other large municipalities:Leeds andSheffield became cities in 1893, andBradford,Kingston upon Hull andNottingham were honoured on the occasion of Queen Victoria'sDiamond Jubilee in 1897. The last three had been the largestcounty boroughs outside the London area without city status.[10]
Between 1897 and 1914, applications were received from a number of other boroughs, but onlyCardiff was successful in being designated a city in 1905 and granted aLord Mayoralty as "the Metropolis of Wales".
TheLondon Government Act 1899 abolished the existing local authorities within theCounty of London and replaced them with 28metropolitan boroughs. Among the bodies to be dissolved was theCourt of Burgesses of theCity of Westminster.William Burdett-Coutts, one of Westminster's members of parliament, brought forward an amendment at thecommittee stage to rename the proposed borough of Greater Westminster to 'City of Westminster'. This was intended to give "recognition to the title which the area ... had possessed for over three and a half centuries". He felt that if the status was not retained for the new borough it "must necessarily disappear altogether". The amendment was rejected by the committee, however, with theFirst Lord of the Treasury,Arthur Balfour, believing it would be "an anomaly which, I think, would be not unnaturally resented by other districts which are as large in point of population as Westminster, although doubtless not so rich in historical associations".[11][12] The government eventually relented, with Balfour stating that "as soon as the necessary arrangements under the London Government Act have been completed, there will be conferred on the borough of Westminster, as constituted under the Act, the title of city, originally conferred in the time of Henry VIII".[13][14] Letters patent were duly issued granting the title of "city" to the newly createdMetropolitan Borough of Westminster.[15]
In 1907, the Home Office andKing Edward VII agreed on a policy that future applicants would have to meet certain criteria. This policy, which was not at the time made public, had the effect of stemming the number of city creations.
The 1907 policy contained three criteria:
However, well into the 20th century it was often assumed that the presence of a cathedral was sufficient to elevate a town to city status, and that for cathedral cities the city charters were recognising its city status rather than granting it. On this basis, the1911Encyclopædia Britannica said thatSouthwell andSt Asaph were cities.
The policy laid down by Edward VII was continued by his successor,George V, who ascended the throne in 1910. In 1911, an application for city status byPortsmouth was refused. Explaining theHome Secretary's reason for not recommending the King to approve the petition, theLord Advocate stated:
...during the reign of his late Majesty it was found necessary, in order to maintain the value of the distinction, to lay down a rule as to the minimum population which should ordinarily, in connexion with other considerations, be regarded as qualifying a borough for that higher status.[16][17]
Following theFirst World War, the King made an official visit toLeicester in 1919 to commemorate its contributions to the military victory. The borough council had made several applications for city status since 1889, and took the opportunity of the visit to renew its request.Leicester had a population of approximately 230,000 at the previous census, but its petition was granted as an exception to the policy, as it was officially a restoration of a dignity lost in the past.[18] When the county borough ofStoke-on-Trent applied for city status in 1925, it was initially refused as it had only 294,000 inhabitants. The decision was overturned, however, as it was felt to have outstanding importance as the centre of the pottery industry. The effective relaxation of the population rule led to applications fromPortsmouth andSalford. The civil servants in the Home Office were minded to refuse both applications. In particular,Salford was felt to be "merely a scratch collection of 240,000 people cut off from Manchester by the river". Salford's case, however, was considered favourably by the Home Secretary,William Joynson-Hicks, who had once been aMember of Parliament (MP) for a neighbouring constituency ofManchester North West. Following protests fromPortsmouth, which felt it had better credentials as a larger town and as the "first Naval Port of the kingdom", both applications were approved in 1926.[10]
In 1927, aRoyal Commission on Local Government was examining local council areas and functions in England and Wales. The question arose as to which towns were entitled to be called cities, and the chairman, theEarl of Onslow, wrote to theHome Office to seek clarification. The Home Office replied with a memorandum that read:
The title of a city which is borne by certain boroughs is a purely titular distinction. It has no connexion with the status of the borough in respect of local government and confers no powers or privileges. At the present time and for several centuries past the title has been obtained only by an express grant from the Sovereign effected by letters patent; but a certain number of cities possess the title by very ancient prescriptive right. There is no necessary connexion between the title of a city and the seat of a bishopric, and the creation of a new see neither constitutes the town concerned a city nor gives it any claim to the grant of letters patent creating it a city.[19]
In 1928,Plymouth submitted an application for city status. As the borough had more inhabitants thanPortsmouth and had absorbedDevonport andEast Stonehouse, the King agreed to the request. However, he indicated that he had "come to an end of city making", andSouthampton's application in the following year was turned down.[10] In 1932Sunderland's petition to gain city status was turned down,[20] as wasDerby's in 1935.[21] The next city to be created wasLancaster in 1937 as part of the celebrations of thecoronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. With a population of a little over 50,000,Lancaster was stated to be an exception due to the town's "long association with the crown" and because it was "the county town of the King's Duchy of Lancaster". Following theSecond World War, members ofCambridge Borough Council made contact withLancaster officials for assistance in their application.Cambridge became a city in 1951, again for "exceptional" reasons, as the only ancient seat of learning in the kingdom not a city orroyal burgh and to coincide with the 750th anniversary of the borough's first charter of incorporation.[22]
It was anticipated that the coronation ofElizabeth II in 1953 would lead to the creation of a city, andWolverhampton,Preston andSouthampton made approaches; the only civic honour given was that of a lord mayoralty toCoventry.Croydon applied in 1954, but failed as it was felt not to have a sufficient identity apart fromGreater London, and reports on the conduct of local government in the town were unfavourable.[23][24][10]Derby andSouthwark made unsuccessful applications in 1955. The planned reorganisations by theLocal Government Commissions for England andWales from 1958 effectively blocked new city grants.Southampton lodged a petition in 1958. Initially refused in 1959, pending the decision of the commission, it was eventually allowed in 1964.[25] In the meantime, the administration of London was reformed under theLondon Government Act 1963. While theCity of London was permitted to continue in existence largely unchanged,Westminster was merged with two neighbouring authorities to form a newLondon borough from 1 April 1965.[26] In December 1963 it was announced that a charter was to be granted incorporating the new authority as "Westminster", and that the Queen had accepted the advice of the Home Secretary to raise the London borough to the title and dignity of city.[27] This example, of a successor local authority to a merged local government entity taking on that former entity's city status, was to be replicated in many instances as a result of the 1972/74 local government reforms across England and Wales (see below).
With the establishment of theRoyal Commission on Local Government in England in 1966, city grants were again in abeyance in England. Attempts byDerby,Teesside andWolverhampton to become cities were not proceeded with. In Wales,Swansea campaigned for city status throughout the 1960s. The campaign came to a successful conclusion in 1969, in conjunction with the investiture ofCharles, Prince of Wales.[28]
TheLocal Government Act 1972 abolished all existing local authorities outside London (other thanparish councils) in England and Wales. This meant that the various local authorities that held city status ceased to exist on 1 April 1974.[29] To preserve city status new letters patent were issued to the most relevantmetropolitan borough,non-metropolitan district orsuccessor parish councils created by the Act.[30] Some of these came to cover local government districts many times wider than the previous city, even taking in many square miles of rural land outside the urban areas, for example the cities ofBradford,Leeds andWinchester. Three non-local authority preservations arose: herecharter trustees were established for the cities ofLichfield andSalisbury (or New Sarum) being neither districts nor civil parishes, and special letters patent for a time preserved the city ofRochester.[31]
In 1977, as part of the celebrations of theSilver Jubilee of Elizabeth II, the Home Office identified nine candidates for city status:Blackburn,Brighton,Croydon,Derby,Dudley,Newport,Sandwell,Sunderland andWolverhampton.[10] Ultimately,Derby received the award as the largest non-metropolitan district not already designated a city.[32] In April 1980 a parish council was created for Lichfield, and the charter trustees established six years earlier were dissolved. City status was temporarily lost until new letters patent were issued in November of the same year.[33] In 1992, on the fortieth anniversary of the monarch's accession, it was announced that another town would be elevated to a city. An innovation on this occasion was that a competition was to be held, and communities would be required to submit applications. Sunderland was the successful applicant.[34] This was followed in 1994 by the restoration of the dignity toSt David's, historic see of a bishop.[35] Since 2000, city status has been awarded to towns or local government districts by competition on special occasions. A large number of towns have applied for the honour in recent decades includingBlackpool,Colchester,Croydon,Gateshead,Ipswich,Middlesbrough,Milton Keynes,Reading,Swindon andWarrington. Four successful applicants in England have become cities, as well as two in Wales; in 2000 for the Millennium celebrations, the new cities wereBrighton and Hove andWolverhampton; in 2002 for the Queen's Golden Jubilee it wasPreston andNewport, and in 2012 for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee it wasChelmsford andSt Asaph.[36][37][38][39]
From June 2021,submissions for city status were invited to mark thePlatinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II in 2022. Places submitting bids (some for a second or subsequent time) includedBangor (Northern Ireland),Bournemouth,Doncaster,Dunfermline,Dudley,[40]Marazion,[41]Middlesbrough,Milton Keynes,[42]Reading,[43]St Andrews andWrexham.[44] Bids were also accepted fromoverseas territories andcrown dependencies for the first time. The competition closed on 8 December 2021 with 39 locations on the shortlist, and the winners were to be announced in June 2022.[45][46]
On 18 October 2021, thePrime Minister announced in Parliament that the Queen, in advance of the closing date, would accord city status to one of the applicants,Southend-on-Sea.[47][48] This was in memory of SirDavid Amess, the town's MP whowas murdered three days earlier and had long pressed for the status.[49] City status was officially granted by letters patent dated 26 January 2022. They were presented to Southend Borough Council byCharles, Prince of Wales, on 1 March 2022.[50]
An announcement on 20 May 2022 declared that eight new cities were to be created from the shortlist, with at least one in every UK country as well as inoverseas locations. In England, Milton Keynes, Colchester and Doncaster were to be the recipients of the honour. Dunfermline, a previous royal capital of Scotland, was granted the privilege. Bangor in Northern Ireland was also a recipient, and the title in Wales was granted to Wrexham. These awards increased the number of official mainland cities to 76, with 55 in England, eight in Scotland, seven in Wales, six in Northern Ireland.[51]
Other than the cities ofLondon andWestminster, no local authorities in theGreater London area have been granted city status. The Home Office had a policy of resisting any attempt by metropolitan boroughs to become cities even when their populations, and other proposed claims as qualifying criteria, might otherwise have made them eligible. It was felt that such a grant would undermine the status of the two existing cities in the capital. TheMetropolitan Borough of Southwark made a number of applications, but in 1955 the borough's town clerk was told not to pursue the matter any further.[10] Outside the boundaries of the county, theCounty Borough of Croydon made three applications, all of which were dismissed as it was not seen as being sufficiently separate from London. When the successorLondon Borough of Croydon applied in 1965 the Assistant Under Secretary of State summarised the case against Croydon: "...whatever its past history, it is now just part of the London conurbation and almost indistinguishable from many of the other Greater London boroughs".[10]
The same objections were made when theLondon Boroughs of Croydon andSouthwark unsuccessfully entered the competition for city status to mark the millennium:Croydon was said to have "no particular identity of its own" whileSouthwark was "part of London with little individual identity".[10] When the competition was held to mark the Golden Jubilee of 2002,Croydon made a sixth application, again unsuccessful. It was joined by theLondon Borough of Greenwich, which emphasised its royal and maritime connections, while claiming to be "to London whatVersailles is to Paris".[10] In this veinGreenwich joinedKingston-upon-Thames andKensington and Chelsea in London in having the title of Royal Borough in 2012.[52]
Rochester was recognised as a city from 1211 to 1998. On 1 April 1974, the city council was abolished, becoming part of theBorough of Medway, alocal government district in the county ofKent. However, underletters patent the former city council area was to continue to be styled the "City of Rochester" to "perpetuate the ancient name" and to recall "the long history and proud heritage of the said city".[53] The city was unique, as it had no council or charter trustees and no mayor or civic head. In 1979, theBorough of Medway was renamed asRochester-upon-Medway, and in 1982 further letters patent transferred the city status to the entire borough.[54]
On 1 April 1998, the existing local government districts of Rochester-upon-Medway andGillingham were abolished and became the newunitary authority ofMedway. Since it was the local government district that officially held city status under the 1982 letters patent, when it was abolished, it also ceased to be a city. Whilst the two other local government districts with city status (Bath andHereford) that were abolished around this time decided to appointcharter trustees to maintain the existence of the city and the mayoralty, Rochester-upon-Medway City Council did not do so. Medway Council apparently only became aware of this when, in 2002, they discovered thatRochester was not on theLord Chancellor's Office's list of cities.[55][56] The council campaigned unsuccessfully to be one of 2012 Diamond Jubilee cities. The campaign's "City of Medway" logo was used on a council tourism leaflet titled "Historic Rochester and MaritimeChatham" until theAdvertising Standards Authority upheld a 2010 complaint that itmisleadingly implied Medway had "officially been granted city status" because "readers of the leaflet were likely to be aware of [the] official definition of a city".[57][58]
Scotland had no cities byroyal charter or letters patent before 1889.[59] The nearest equivalent in pre-Union Scotland was theroyal burgh. The termcity was not always consistently applied, and there were doubts over the number of officially designated cities. The royal burghs ofEdinburgh andPerth anciently used the titlecivitas, but the termcity does not seem to have been used before the 15th century. Unlike the situation in England, in Scotland there was no link between the presence of a cathedral and the title ofcity.Aberdeen,Glasgow andEdinburgh were accepted as cities by ancient usage by the 18th century, whilePerth andElgin also used the title.[10] In 1856, the burgh ofDunfermline resolved to use the title ofcity in all official documents in the future, based on long usage and its former status as a royal capital. The status was not officially recognised[10] until 2022.
In 1889,Dundee was granted city status by letters patent. The grant by formal document led to doubts about the use of the titlecity by other burghs. In 1891, the city status ofAberdeen was confirmed when the burgh was enlarged by local Act of Parliament. The Royal Burgh ofInverness applied for promotion to a city as part of the Jubilee honours in 1897. The request was not granted, partly because it would draw attention to the lack of any charter granting the title to existing cities.[10]Aberdeen,Dundee,Edinburgh andGlasgow were constituted "counties of cities" by theLocal Government (Scotland) Act 1929. The Act made no statement on the titlecity for any other burgh. In 1969, the Home Secretary,James Callaghan, stated that there were six cities in Scotland (without naming them) andAberdeen,Dundee,Edinburgh,Elgin,Glasgow andPerth were the only burghs listed as cities in 1972.[10][60]
TheLocal Government (Scotland) Act 1973 completely reorganised Scotland's local administration in 1975. All burghs were abolished, and a system of districts created. The four districts ofAberdeen,Edinburgh,Dundee andGlasgow hadCity included in their titles by the Act. The 1975 districts were replaced with the present council areas in 1996 by theLocal Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, and the same four cities were designated. Since the 1996 reorganisation, four more Scottish cities have been designated: Inverness as part of the millennium celebrations,Stirling in 2002 to commemorateQueen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee,Perth in 2012 to mark theQueen's Diamond Jubilee[39] and Dunfermline in 2022 to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. In the case of these four cities, there are no city councils and no formal boundaries. In January 2008, a petition to matriculatearmorial bearings for the City of Inverness was refused byLord Lyon King of Arms on the grounds that there is no corporate body or legal persona to whom arms can be granted.[61]
City status in Ireland tended historically to be granted by royal charter. There are many towns in Ireland withChurch of Ireland cathedrals that have never been called cities. In spite of this,Armagh was considered a city, by virtue of its being the seat of thePrimate of All Ireland, until the abolition of Armagh's city corporation by theMunicipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840. The only historic city with a charter in present-day Northern Ireland isDerry. The garrison town of Derry wasattacked and destroyed byCahir O'Doherty in 1608.[62] The present city status is the result of a Royal Charter granted in 1615 toThe Honourable The Irish Society as part of thePlantation of Ulster,[63] providing for the building of a walled city, which was named "Londonderry" in recognition of theLondon Guilds that established the Society.[64]
In 1887, the Golden Jubilee ofQueen Victoria was celebrated, and the Borough of Belfast submitted a memorial to theLord Lieutenant of Ireland seeking city status. Belfast based its claim on its similarity to two English boroughs that had received the honour—the seaport ofLiverpool and the textile centre ofManchester—and the fact that it had (at the time) a larger population than the City ofDublin. Following some legal debate, city status was conferred in 1888. The grant of the honour on the grounds of being a large industrial town, rather than a diocesan centre, was unprecedented.Belfast's example was soon followed byBirmingham in England andDundee in Scotland.[10]
In 1994,Armagh's city status was restored.[35] In 2002,Lisburn andNewry were two of the five towns in the UK that were granted city status byQueen Elizabeth II to mark her Golden Jubilee. In the case ofLisburn, the status extended to the entire local government district.[65]Newry, likeInverness andStirling in Scotland, has no formal boundaries or city council. The letters patent were presented to representatives ofNewry and Mourne District Council on behalf of the city.[66]
During theBritish Empire, theColonial Office had the power to declare cities inCrown colonies by letters patent when appointing bishops. When theBishop of Guyana was created in 1842,Georgetown (then part ofBritish Guiana) was officially declared the "City of Georgetown". The same process was followed forGibraltar,Jamestown, St Helena,Bridgetown, Barbados,St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda,Victoria, Hong Kong andNassau, Bahamas.[10] Most of these have since gained independence from the United Kingdom, but Gibraltar and St Helena remainBritish Overseas Territories. This practice ended in 1865,[10] and led to legal disputes about whether these letters patent were valid or not in territories withresponsible government (primarily those in present day Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa).Goulburn in Australia for example found itself declared a city twice – once by letters patent in 1863 and once by law in 1885 after doubts arose to its status.[67]
Hamilton, Bermuda was named as a city in 1897 as part of the celebration of theDiamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria.[68] Since the second Millennium, competitions have been arranged by the UK government to grant the status to settlements. In 2021submissions for city status were invited to mark thePlatinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II, with Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories being allowed to take part for the first time. The applicants wereGeorge Town (in theCayman Islands),Gibraltar,Stanley (in theFalkland Islands),Douglas andPeel (both in theIsle of Man).[69] It was later discovered that Gibraltar had been previously named a city, researchers atThe National Archives confirming that Gibraltar's city status was still in effect, with the territory missing from the official list of cities for the past 140 years.[70] Stanley and Douglas were later granted the honour, and after confirmations this will take the overseastotal to five cities.[71][51]
According to a Memorandum from the Home Office issued in 1927,
If a town wishes to obtain the title of a city the proper method of procedure is to address a petition to the King through the Home Office. It is the duty of the Home Secretary to submit such petitions to his Majesty and to advise his Majesty to the reply to be returned. It is a well-established principle that the grant of the title is only recommended in the case of towns of the first rank in population, size and importance, and having a distinctive character and identity of their own. At the present day, therefore, it is only rarely and in exceptional circumstances that the title is given.[19]
A town can now apply for city status by submitting an application to theLord Chancellor, who makes recommendations to the sovereign. Competitions for new grants of city status have been held to mark special events, such ascoronations, royal jubilees or theMillennium.
Some cities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have the further distinction of having alord mayor rather than just a mayor – in Scotland, the equivalent is the lord provost. Lord mayors have the right to bestyled "The Right Worshipful The Lord Mayor". The lord mayors and provosts ofBelfast,Cardiff,Edinburgh,Glasgow, theCity of London andYork have the further right to be styled "The Right Honourable the Lord Mayor" (or Provost), although they are not members of thePrivy Council as this style usually indicates. The style is associated with the office, not the person holding it.[a]
There are currently 70 recognised cities (including 31 lord mayoralties or lord provostships) in the UK: 52 cities (23 lord mayoralties) in England, six cities (two lord mayoralties) in Wales, seven cities (four lord provostships) in Scotland and five cities (two lord mayoralties) in Northern Ireland.
In theRepublic of Ireland, the ceremonial head of the city government ofDublin is theLord Mayor of Dublin. This title was granted by Charles II in 1665 whenDublin was part of theKingdom of Ireland. Whilst the 1665 letters patent provided for the Lord Mayor to hold the formal title of Right Honourable, this was repealed in 2001. There is also aLord Mayor of Cork, a title granted in 1900 whenCork was part of the (then)United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
In modern practice, competitions are held for cities that wish to gain the distinction of a lord mayor. The 2002 competition was entered byBath,Cambridge,Carlisle,Chichester,Derby,Exeter,Gloucester,Lancaster,Lincoln,St Albans,St Davids,Salford,Southampton,Sunderland,Truro,Wolverhampton andWorcester; the successful candidate wasExeter.[72] In 2012 a further competition was held, as part of theDiamond Jubilee celebrations, withArmagh receiving the distinction.[73] Other than Armagh, eleven cities had entered the contest in 2012, namely: Cambridge, Derby, Gloucester, Lancaster,Newport,Peterborough, Salford, Southampton, St Albans, Sunderland, andWakefield.[74]
Since local government reorganisation in 1974 city status has been awarded to a number of local government districts which are not themselves towns. Each includes a number of towns and villages outside the urban area from which the district takes its name. In some of these cases city status was awarded to districts where the largest settlement had city status before 1974. In other cases a borough was formed to govern an area covering several towns and then city status was granted to the borough. The largest "city" district in terms of area was until 1 April 2023 theCity of Carlisle, which covered some 400 square miles (1,000 km2) of mostly rural landscape in the north of England, and was larger than smaller counties such asMerseyside orRutland. (The largest now is theCity of Winchester at 250 square miles (650 km2).) Such cities include:
There are some cities where the local government district is in fact smaller than the historical or natural boundaries of the city. Examples include:Manchester, where the traditional area associated includes areas of the neighbouring authorities ofTrafford,Tameside,Oldham,Bury and theCity of Salford;Kingston upon Hull, where surrounding areas and villages that are effectively suburbs, such asCottingham, come underEast Riding of Yorkshire Council;Glasgow, where suburban areas of the city are located inEast Dunbartonshire,East Renfrewshire,North Lanarkshire,Renfrewshire,South Lanarkshire andWest Dunbartonshire.
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The holding of city status gives a settlement no special rights other than that of calling itself a "city". Nonetheless, this appellation carries its own prestige and, consequently, competitions for the status are hard-fought.
Historically, city status could only be granted toincorporated towns. The grant was specifically awarded to the relevant local government area such as a civil parish or borough. However, recent grants have used a looser wording, where the status is awarded to the "town". In most cases the "town" is held to be coterminous with the relevant local government area, such that the city status holder is the corporate body of the council. Examples include the Letters Patent awarded to the "Towns ofBrighton and Hove", the "Town ofWolverhampton" and the "Town ofNewport in theCounty Borough of Newport". In each case the existing borough council became the city council.[needs update]
Most cities have city councils, which have varying powers depending on the country and type of settlement.
Thirteen of the 55 cities in England are inmetropolitan counties and their city councils are single-tiermetropolitan district councils. Outside the metropolitan counties fourteen cities areunitary authorities, and fourteen have ordinarydistrict councils, which are subordinate to their localcounty council. In London theWestminster City Council functions as aLondon borough council, and theCity of London Corporation is the council for theCity of London. Eight smaller episcopal cities such as Ripon andWells are neither local government districts nor within a 'local government district with city status', and have city councils which areparish councils, with limited powers. Two cities (Bath andChester) have no city council, whileDurham has a 'city' parish council; these, however, maintain the status through charter trustees on behalf of their prior district areas which held city status before being abolished in 1996 and 2009.[75][76][unreliable source?][77]
Aberdeen,Dundee,Edinburgh andGlasgow are themselvescouncil areas and have their own city councils. The cities ofDunfermline,Perth,Stirling andInverness are part of council areas which do not have city status, and have no city councils.Stirling Council's application for city status was specifically for the urban area of the (now former)Royal Burgh of Stirling and included proposed city boundaries which are much smaller thanStirling council area.
Cardiff,Newport, andSwansea areprincipal areas and have city councils.Wrexham, being awarded the status in 2022, still maintains itscounty borough council as of April 2023. The city councils ofBangor,St Asaph andSt Davids arecommunity councils with limited powers.
Belfast City Council is alocal government district council. Since thelocal government reforms of 2015 the four other cities of Armagh, Derry, Lisburn and Newry form parts of wider districts and do not have their own councils.
City status is conferred byletters patent and not by a royal charter (except historically in Ireland). There are twenty towns in England and Wales that were recognised as cities by "ancient prescriptive right"; none of these communities had been formally declared a city, but they had all used the title since "time immemorial" (legally defined as before 3 September 1189) and had been granted some form of privilege such as freedoms by way of a charter or being given borough or corporation status.[10] These ancient cities as listed by theHome Office in 1927:[78]
These twenty cities were concurrent with 22ancient diocese (pre-English Reformation) locations.[79]Bath and Wells being one diocese, the remaining three are in Wales:
The holding of city status brings no special benefits other than the right to be called a city. All cities where a local government unit that holds that status is abolished have to be re-issued with letters patent reconfirming city status following local government reorganisation where that holder has been abolished. This process was followed by a number of cities since 1974, andYork andHereford's status was confirmed twice, in 1974 and again in the 1990s. Failure to do so leads to the loss of city status as happened atRochester in 1998 (seeabove), and also previously inSt David's andArmagh, although both of these latter have regained city status since losing it. These three had been cities since time immemorial before the loss of city status.
There are currently76 officially designated cities in the UK, of which 17 have been created since 2000 in competitions to celebratethe new millennium andQueen Elizabeth II'sGolden Jubilee in 2002,Diamond Jubilee in 2012, andPlatinum Jubilee in 2022.[83] The designation is highly sought after, with over 40 communities submitting bids at recent competitions.
City status has been applied to a variety of entities including towns, local government districts and civil parishes.
While cities are regularly ranked by the number of residents, this is not an ideal measure.Population can vary based on the number and type of residences present, and has to be limited to an area. The official area of a city in the UK is typically the coverage up to a local government/council boundary,[84] there being a variety of council bodies. However, there are exceptions depending on the UK constituent country[85] and whether the council hassince been abolished.
Such a boundary can typically contain a built up (urban) area, and a surrounding, less populated rural landscape. Or the area of a city can be entirely built up, with that urban environment spilling over a boundary into another area which does not have city status. That wider urban area can still be considered in everyday parlance locally as a whole 'city' although it is not a formal designation.
With the 'square mile' City of London being in the middle of a huge urban area, it can be suggested that 'small' should be applied to only cities with minimal urban areas that have nearby surrounding areas of countryside and so is visibly representative of the term, the city of Wells being more suitable in this regard as the smallest standalone city council area. Therefore, sizing can be interpreted in a number of ways, and below are top 5 lists of the smallest and largest cities ranked by population, city council area, and urban area.[citation needed]
All statistics are 2021 census figures.[86]
Population is of the total residents in the city council area. Armagh (no local council) and the Largest Urban Area table both use urban population figures.
| 1 | Birmingham | 1,144,919 | England |
| 2 | Leeds | 811,956 | England |
| 3 | Glasgow | 620,700 (rounded)[87] | Scotland |
| 4 | Sheffield | 556,521 | England |
| 5 | Manchester | 551,938 | England |
| 1 | City of Winchester | 255.20 sq mi (660.96 km2) | England |
| 2 | City of Lancaster | 222.34 sq mi (575.86 km2) | England |
| 3 | City of Doncaster | 219.30 sq mi (567.98 km2) | England |
| 4 | City of Leeds | 213.02 sq mi (551.72 km2) | England |
| 5 | Wrexham | 194.5 sq mi (503.75 km2) | Wales |
| City | Area | Nation | Population (2011) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | City of London/City of Westminster (Greater London BUA) | 670.99 sq mi (1,737.86 km2) | England | 9,787,426 |
| 2 | Manchester/Salford (Greater Manchester BUA) | 243.34 sq mi (630.25 km2) | England | 2,553,379 |
| 3 | Birmingham/Wolverhampton (West Midlands BUA) | 231.23 sq mi (598.88 km2) | England | 2,440,986 |
| 4 | Leeds/Bradford/Wakefield (West Yorkshire UA) | 188.34 sq mi (487.80 km2) | England | 1,777,934 |
| 5 | Glasgow (Greater Glasgow) | 142.28 sq mi (368.50 km2) | Scotland | 1,209,143 |
'City' can refer to any large settlement, with no fixed limit but there are British towns with large urban areas that could qualify for city status on the grounds of population size. Some have applied for city status and had the application turned down. The report "Key Statistics for Built-Up Areas 2011"[88] published by theOffice for National Statistics showed that, at the 2011 Census, the following were the largest urban areas in the United Kingdom not having a city as a component:
| Built-up area (largest town in area) | Population2011 Pop. |
|---|---|
| Bournemouth/Poole (Bournemouth) | 466,266 |
| Teesside (Middlesbrough) | 376,633 |
| Birkenhead | 325,264 |
| Reading | 318,014 |
| Luton | 258,018 |
| Farnborough/Aldershot (Farnborough) | 252,397 |
| Medway Towns (Gillingham) (the former city ofRochester is part of this area) | 243,931 |
| Blackpool | 239,409 |
| Barnsley/Dearne Valley (Barnsley) | 223,281 |
| Northampton | 215,963 |
| Swindon | 185,609 |
| Warrington | 165,456 |
| Telford | 147,980 |
The largest local authorities to have been unsuccessful in applying for city status in recent competitions are:
A "cathedral city" is a place designated as a city which has a cathedral.
Since being the seat of anAnglican diocese is no longer sufficient or necessary to gain city status, some cathedral towns exist:
| Town | Anglican cathedral | Diocese established | Population (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blackburn | Blackburn Cathedral | 1926 | 105,085 |
| Brecon | Brecon Cathedral | 1923 | 7,901 |
| Bury St Edmunds | St Edmundsbury Cathedral | 1914 | 35,015 |
| Guildford | Guildford Cathedral | 1927 | 70,000 |
| Rochester | Rochester Cathedral | 604; previously a city (see above) | 27,000 |
| Southwell | Southwell Minster | 1884 | 6,900 |
The1911Encyclopædia Britannica referred to Southwell as a city,[92] A photograph of the Football XI sitting on the steps of Norwood Park (home since 1888 of the StarkeyBramley) in 1954 is titled Southwell City F.C. and in 1949 Bury St Edmunds was referred to as a city.[93]
There are 16 English and Welsh cities that have never hadAnglican cathedrals within their borders –Brighton and Hove,Cambridge,Hull,Lancaster,Leeds,Milton Keynes,Nottingham,Plymouth,Preston,Salford,Southampton,Southend-on-Sea,Stoke-on-Trent,Sunderland,Swansea, andWolverhampton.[94]
Bath Abbey was once a diocesan cathedral, as wasWestminster Abbey briefly during the reign ofHenry VIII. These cities retained their city status despite their cathedrals losing that status.
Thenational church of Scotland, theChurch of Scotland, ispresbyterian in governance (not recognising authority of bishops), and thus hashigh kirks rather than cathedrals. However, the pre-Reformation dioceses do have extant cathedrals, most notably atGlasgow andAberdeen, which remain in use by the Church of Scotland and continue to bear the honorific title of cathedral. Others (such asthat of St Andrews) are now in ruins.
BothPerth andElgin were recognised as cities before 1975; Perth's city status was restored in 2012.[95] Additionally, five other pre-Reformation sees—Brechin,Dunblane,Dunkeld,Kirkwall andSt Andrews—are often referred to as cities, notably in names associated with the settlements (e.g. 'City of Brechin and District' community council.[60] andBrechin City F.C., City Road inSt Andrews).Dornoch,Fortrose,Lismore,Saddell andWhithorn also possess pre-Reformation cathedrals but have never been described as cities.
Towns with non-Church of Scotland, post-Reformation cathedrals which are not recognised as cities areAyr (R.C.),Millport (Episcopal),Oban (R.C.),Motherwell (R.C.) andPaisley (R.C.). Of these,Ayr,Motherwell andPaisley have larger populations thanPerth,Stirling andInverness, and bothAyr andPaisley have formally made a bid for city status during the millennium competition.[96]
Of settlements granted city status in the 21st century,Inverness (awarded 2001) possesses an Episcopal cathedral (1866), but none under the auspices of the Church of Scotland.Stirling (awarded 2002) has never had a cathedral of any kind.Perth (reinstated 2012) has an Episcopal cathedral dating from 1860, but no pre-Reformation establishment.
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In Northern Ireland, possession of a diocesan cathedral has never (except in the anomalous case ofArmagh) been sufficient to attain this status. The Church of Ireland wasdisestablished in 1871, The1911Encyclopædia Britannica did refer to Armagh (which lost city status in 1840) andLisburn as cities. Armagh subsequently regained city status formally in 1994, and Lisburn achieved city status in 2002.
There are four towns in Northern Ireland with Church of Ireland cathedrals that do not have city status—Clogher,Downpatrick,Dromore andEnniskillen.
Newry is the only city in Northern Ireland that does not have a Church of Ireland cathedral within its borders.
A number of towns describe themselves as cities in some contexts, despite not having the requisite charter.
The Cathedral city was previously the only one of the twenty two ancient cathedral dioceses in England and Wales (pre-Reformation) not to have been awarded city status.
Although known historically as a 'city', due to its status as the Seat of the Bishop of Llandaf, it was never incorporated, and by the 19th century was considered little more than a village. Llandaf was gradually absorbed into the borough of Cardiff during the 19th and 20th centuries; and was officially incorporated into the city in 1922.
'It was only in the 1970s or 80s it was discovered [St Asaph] did not have any official honours or letters patent.'
Applications may only be made by an elected local authority – normally, in respect of the entire local authority area.
In recognition of the fact that the legislation underpinning local authorities is different in Scotland, however, applications may be submitted by Scottish local authorities on behalf of distinct areas within the unitary local authority boundary
