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Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge

Fitzwilliam College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.

The college traces its origins back to 1869 and the foundation of the Non-Collegiate Students Board, a venture intended to offer academically excellent students of all backgrounds a chance to study at the university. The institution was originally based at Fitzwilliam Hall (later renamed Fitzwilliam House), opposite the Fitzwilliam Museum in south-west Cambridge. Having moved to its present site in the north of the city, Fitzwilliam attained collegiate status in 1966. Female undergraduates were first admitted in 1978, around the time most colleges were first admitting women.

Fitzwilliam is now home to around 500 undergraduates, 400 graduate students and 90 fellows. By overall student numbers, it was the seventh-largest college in Cambridge as of 2018/19.

Notable alumni of Fitzwilliam College include six Nobel laureates, a large number of prominent academics, public officials, businesspeople, clergy and athletes, three heads of state or government, one current UK Supreme Court Justice, and a significant number of political figures including a former Liberal Democrats leader, a former Chancellor of the Exchequer, and two former Commissioners of the Metropolitan Police.

Foundation
In 1869, Cambridge University altered its statutes to allow men who were not members of a college to become members of the university under the supervision of a censor, whose office was in Trumpington Street, opposite the Fitzwilliam Museum, founded in 1816 under the will of Richard FitzWilliam, 7th Viscount FitzWilliam (1745–1816). This provided students who could not afford to belong to a college with a base from which to study at the university, allowing them to be admitted to degrees, sit examinations and compete for scholarships. The name "Fitzwilliam" was chosen by the students at a meeting of the Non-Collegiate Amalgamation Club in 1887 and, as a result, the university decreed that the house in Trumpington Street could be known as Fitzwilliam Hall. The coat of arms of the new establishment appropriated the arms of the Fitzwilliam family (lozengy argent and gules), to which it had no connection, and added as a chief the arms of Cambridge University. Fitzwilliam Hall became the headquarters of the Non-Collegiate Students Board and provided student facilities and limited accommodation. It was renamed Fitzwilliam House in 1922.

Due to its emphasis on academic ability rather than wealth, Fitzwilliam quickly attracted a strong academic contingent that included future Nobel Prize winners, Heads of State and important judicial figures. It developed a tradition in Medicine and established a reputation as one of the most internationally diverse institutions within the university.

In the second half of the 20th century, the availability of grants made Cambridge more accessible and the need for a non-collegiate body of undergraduates began to decline. The suggestion that Fitzwilliam close prompted an outcry from former students and it was therefore decided that it should aim for collegiate status. Funds were accumulated and a new site was acquired at Castle Hill, about one mile north of the city centre. The first new buildings were opened in 1963.

In 1966, Fitzwilliam House was granted a royal charter by the Queen-in-Council and became Fitzwilliam College.

Expansion
Since Fitzwilliam began operating at its current site in the north-west of Cambridge, it has grown steadily and developed into one of the university's larger, more cosmopolitan colleges. Built around a regency manor house, the college has grown by one or two buildings each decade and now consists of five interconnected courts, enclosing large, rectangular gardens. In contrast to most of the university, and indeed the regency estate at the college's centre, the majority of the buildings are of modern design.

The first two courts and the central building (comprising, among other things, the rooms formerly belonging to the old library, the dining hall, the junior common room and the bar) were designed by Sir Denys Lasdun and completed in 1963. The intention was for these buildings to constitute the back of the college and, as funding became available, the college grew to the south, with New Court (1985), the Chapel (1991) and Wilson Court (1994). Finally, the plan was completed when Gatehouse Court (2003) became the college's new front. In the following year, the college completed the new Auditorium building, and in doing so became home to some of the best performance facilities in the university.

In 2007 the college built a new boathouse on the River Cam, in 2009 the Library and IT Centre was added and, in 2010, the college acquired the buildings and grounds that formerly belonged to the Cambridge Lodge Hotel with the intention of renovating them for the use of graduate students.

Fitzwilliam has, over the years, also become known for its beautiful gardens, which largely predate the college. In 2008, an archaeological dig discovered on the college site the earliest clear evidence of settlement in Cambridge, the remains of a 3,500-year-old farmstead.

Fitzwilliam was the third Cambridge college and is, as of today, one of only seven to have won University Challenge. It did so in 1973 with a team that consisted of Philip Bassett (Botany), David Curry (Material Sciences), David Wurtzel (Law) and Michael Halls (English). The same team featured in the 2002 Reunited Series and won its only game, which was against a team from neighbouring college Churchill, winner of the 1970 series.

Buildings and grounds
The main grounds of the college are located off Storey's Way, towards the north-west of Cambridge. The college is sometimes identified as one of the Hill Colleges, together with Churchill College, St Edmund's College, Girton College and Murray Edwards College. These colleges are all among the most recently established and tend to share certain architectural features.

Fitzwilliam consists of a variety of modern buildings, built in the grounds of a regency estate.

The Grove (1813)
The college's centrepiece is the Grove, a Grade II regency manor house, designed by the architect William Custance and constructed in 1813. Custance was also the house's first resident and his initials, along with the date '1814', can be found on a rainwater hopper at the side of the house.

Another slightly smaller building known as Grove Lodge was also designed by Custance and is now part of Murray Edwards College. For some time, both properties were owned by the Darwin family and the Grove served as Emma Darwin's primary residence between 1883 and 1896, following the death of her husband Charles. During this time, she had the interior lined with original William Morris wallpaper and two of her sons had smaller houses built in the grounds. Although both have since been demolished, the house built by Horace Darwin, which was known as the Orchard, was donated to Murray Edwards College in 1962 and the site now serves as its primary campus. In 1988, the Grove became part of Fitzwilliam and today it is home to the Senior Tutor's office and various multi-purpose rooms, as well as the Middle and Senior Common Rooms.

The Hall Building (1963)
The Hall Building is a large complex towards the back of the college. It was built between 1960 and 1963 and was designed by Sir Denys Lasdun, who won Royal Gold Medal in 1977 and is best known for having designed the National Theatre in London. The building consists primarily of the college dining hall, but also houses the bar, kitchens, the junior common room, a couple of seminar rooms and a music room. The dinner gong, just outside the dining hall, was originally the bell of the aircraft carrier HMS Ocean, and was presented to Fitzwilliam House by Admiral of the Fleet Sir Caspar John in 1962.

Fellows' Court (1963)
Like the Hall Building, Fellows' Court was part of the initial construction, designed by Sir Denys Lasdun and completed in 1963 at a cost of approximately £300,000. It occupies an area in the far corner of the college and is enclosed by the Hall Building, the Law Library and two dormitories. It is generally reserved for fellows, and, as well as residence, housed the Fellows' Parlour.

Tree Court (1963)
Tree Court, the last component of the initial 1963 construction, is located at the north end of the college, opposite Fellows' Court. The court was initially the college's main entrance and, with a car park and a cycling bay just outside, it remains a back door to the college. Tree Court was Lasdun's first student accommodation; he would go on to design similar buildings at the University of East Anglia and Christ's College, Cambridge. Although the court opens out onto the college gardens, the wall opposite the Hall Building was recently lengthened with the addition of the college's new Library and IT Centre. Today, Tree Court provides residence for the majority of first-year students.

New Court (1985)
In the mid-eighties, the college expanded to the south with the construction of New Court, a three-walled residential compound, designed by MacCormac Jamieson Prichard. Students and fellows contributed to the design with such ideas as intersecting staircases and elongated windows. The building won 1989 David Urwin Award for Best New Building.

In 2004, the court gained its fourth wall with the completion of the college's new auditorium.

The Chapel (1991)
In 1991, a college chapel was appended to the north wing of New Court. The building, which was also designed by MacCormac Jamieson Prichard, faces directly towards the Grove and is in the International style. It is designed to resemble the hull of a ship, hinting at the religious themes of journey and protection. The building is home to a fine two-manual organ designed by Peter Collins, a Bechstein grand piano and a Goble harpsichord. The addition won the 1992 Civic Trust Award, the 1993 Carpenters' Award and the 1993 David Urwin Award for Best New Building. The firm later used a similar design for the Ruskin Library at the University of Lancaster.

Wilson Court (1994)
The fourth court was added to the south of the college, next to the boundary with Murray Edwards, in 1994. It was designed by van Heyningen and Haward Architects and includes 48 acoustically independent student bedrooms, three seminar rooms, a large common room with a bar and the Gordon Cameron Lecture Theatre, which is also used as the college cinema. It won the 1996 RIBA Award.

Gatehouse Court (2003)
The completion of Gatehouse Court in 2003 saw the realisation of Sir Denys Lasdun's original vision. The design, courtesy of Allies & Morrison, reorientated the college by giving it a new entrance, complete with Porter's Lodge, administrative offices, meeting rooms, parking facilities, a large-scale engraving of the college crest and a flagpole. It also provided an extra 42 en suite bedrooms for student accommodation. The college now faces south and opens onto Storey's Way, a smaller, primarily residential, street branching off Madingley Road; in 2021 it was reported to be the most expensive street in East Anglia.

This development expanded the college's main site dramatically and the quality of the design was recognised with the award of the 2005 RIBA Award and the 2005 BDA Award for Building of the Year.

Auditorium (2004)
The Auditorium building was completed in 2004. Having overseen the construction of Gatehouse Court, Allies & Morrison were employed to design the college's new performance facilities. Built using a similar brick to that used for the Grove almost 200 years earlier, the building is largely below ground-level, resulting in a direct view of the surrounding landscape for audience members towards the back of the gallery. It won the 2005 Concrete Society Award and the 2005 BDA Award for Best Public Building.

Located near the front of the college, the building faces New Court and backs onto the college gardens. Consisting of a large central performance area, three smaller practice rooms and an entrance hall, the auditorium is the official home of the Fitzwilliam Quartet.

The main hall, which has been praised for its acoustics, houses a Steinway grand piano, and a tympani, a full-size drum kit, amplifiers and a Bösendorfer piano for student use. Although used primarily for music, the building has also hosted drama performances and important lectures.

In recent years, guest speakers have included the American politician Jesse Jackson, former poet laureate Sir Andrew Motion, and the former head of MI6 Sir Richard Dearlove, who visited the college as part of the Arrol Adam Lecture Series in 2008.

The Olisa Library (2009)
A new library and IT centre was completed in 2009. As of January 2010, its book collection contains around 60,000 volumes and increases by about 1,000 volumes each year. At a cost of £5m, the building was designed by Edward Cullinan, who had worked with Lasdun on the original college plan, and who was undertaking his first major project after receiving the Royal Gold Medal in 2008. It was built as an extension to the uncompleted east wing of Tree Court and was designed to allow maximum luminosity and energy efficiency.

The building, opened in April 2010 by the Duke of Edinburgh, is also fitted with extensive computing facilities and includes separate underground computer rooms for undergraduates and postgraduates. In 2011, alumnus Ken Olisa donated £1.4m to the development of the Library and IT Centre. In tribute to this generosity, the building was named the Olisa Library. Unlike most college libraries, it is open 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.

Because Fitzwilliam is at the top of one of the few hills in Cambridge, the Olisa Library's tower is one of the highest points in the city, sometimes said to be the highest.

Name
The name of the college refers ultimately to the Fitzwilliam family, prominent members of the Anglo-Irish nobility, whose ancestral seat Milton Hall is located to the north of Cambridge and who, as students and benefactors, have been associated with the university for several hundred years; more directly, it refers to the Fitzwilliam Museum, founded in 1816 with the bequest of the library, art collection and personal fortune of the 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam and situated directly opposite the original headquarters of the Non-Collegiate Students Board, and also to the adjacent Fitzwilliam Street, where many of the non-collegiate students were housed.

Coat of arms
Along with the name, the college's coat of arms first came into use in the 1880s when Fitzwilliam Hall needed an emblem to represent its newly formed boat club. The result was a combination between the university coat of arms and the lozengy shield used by the Earls of Fitzwilliam. Initially, the design was used unofficially and it was only when Fitzwilliam was in the process of attaining collegiate status, some 80 years later, that it actually applied for a grant of arms. The design was formally recorded by the Duke of Norfolk on behalf of the Queen-in-Council in the late 60s. Notably, the Fitzwilliam coat of arms is the only college emblem to reference the university's own coat of arms.

Motto
The college motto is: Ex antiquis et novissimis optima (the best of the old and the new). The motto has since been adopted by the nearby village of Hardwick and is very similar to that of St Catherine's College, Oxford, which was established with aims very similar to those with which Fitzwilliam was.

Colours
The earliest records of the college's sporting clubs describe the colours as 'grey and ruby'. By Easter 1892, the colours were more closely defined as 'cardinal and French grey'. Since then various shades have been used, although the Middle Combination Room's ties, which celebrate the 1869 foundation, have reverted to cardinal as their main colour. Today, the college is firmly associated with the colours grey and dark red, although they were at one time 'blue and buff', with blue remaining the principal colour of some sporting blazers right up until the 1960s.

Mascot
Students from Fitzwilliam are sometimes informally referred to as Fitzbillys or Billygoats. As a consequence, the goat has become a popular college mascot and the image of a goat can be found on the front of the boat house, on the boat club flag, and in various places around the college.

Academic reputation
Between 1997 and 2006, Fitzwilliam achieved an average of 17th place, near the bottom of the second third, in the Tompkins Table which lists the university's 29 undergraduate colleges in order of their students' examination performances. In the last decade, between 2007 and 2016, Fitzwilliam averaged 21st place, near the top of the bottom third.

The college places an increasing emphasis on Natural Sciences, with students of the discipline accounting for approximately 20% of its undergraduate intake, and has developed traditional strengths in both Music and Politics; in 2010, there were more Fitzwilliam graduates in Parliament than graduates of any other college (6 MPs and 4 life peers). Additionally, Geography students have represented a disproportionately-high presence across generations of Fitzwilliam's undergraduate cohort, with the college hosting a unique annual taster day in reflection of this disciplinary strength.

Fitzwilliam is also home to a noted Criminology department, headed by Emeritus Professor Sir Anthony Bottoms and the former College Master Professor Nicola Padfield, and is one of the two colleges (the other being Wolfson) that takes in postgraduate students, in association with the Institute of Criminology, as part of the Police Executive Programme. As a consequence, many prominent figures in Britain's police force are associated with Fitzwilliam.

Wealth
With, as of 2019, fixed assets worth slightly more than £144m and an endowment of just under £60m, Fitzwilliam is broadly average in terms of college wealth. It is the wealthiest college to have been established (as a college) in the second half of the twentieth century.

Student life
Former pupils of state schools usually comprise around 70–75% of the college's undergraduate population. However, as many of these are either overseas students or from provincial grammar schools and leading comprehensive schools, membership is a lot more diverse than the figures may suggest.

Fitzwilliam has no distinct political leaning and has, in recent years, produced prominent members of all three major national parties.

Sport
Fitzwilliam enjoys a very strong sporting reputation and is traditionally strong in football, rugby union and table tennis. In 2017, Fitzwilliam became the first college in CUAFL history to win all 4 major university men's football titles in one season, with Fitzwilliam's women's side winning their league simultaneously. As of 2021, Fitzwilliam are the reigning Men's Football Cuppers Champions, having won the last five years in a row.

On site, the college has a multi-gym in the Hall Building, a badminton court in the Auditorium Building and three Squash courts, which are also used for table tennis, in a separate sports hall towards the front of the college.

The college's main sports grounds are located on Oxford Road, just a few minutes' walk from the college's Huntingdon Road entrance. The land was donated to Fitzwilliam Hall in honour of the students who died in the First World War. The grounds include tennis courts, a netball court, a cricket pitch, a rugby pitch, and both full-size and five-a-side football pitches. It is the only sports ground in the university with an on-site club house, complete with a bar. It's regularly used by varsity teams and is also made available to students of Murray Edwards College.

In 2007, the college completed its new boat house, home to Fitzwilliam College Boat Club.

Music
In recent years, Fitzwilliam has developed a strong musical tradition. Former students include composer and Master of the King's Music Sir Walford Davies, award-winning conductor David Atherton, the TV and radio presenter Humphrey Burton, music broadcasting executive Sonita Alleyne and singer-songwriter Nick Drake, who secured a record deal with a four-track demo recorded in his college room in 1968. Other prominent music graduates include violist Martin Outram, baritone John Noble, bassist Simon H. Fell and two founding members of the Fitzwilliam String Quartet, which often returns to the college to perform and hold workshops. Opera singer Sally Bradshaw is also on the college teaching staff.

In 2010 Fitzwilliam had more active music groups than any other college. As well as the traditional Chapel Choir, which also takes in choristers from nearby Murray Edwards, the college is home to numerous singing ensembles. The college's two a cappella groups, Fitz Barbershop and The Sirens, are respectively the oldest and the oldest all-female a cappella groups currently running in Cambridge; both are regular and often successful competitors at the annual Voice Festival UK. Other student groups include Fitz Swing, a big band established in 1990 and the longest-running student jazz band in Cambridge and Fitzwilliam Chamber Opera, 'the only permanent collegiate opera group in Cambridge'.

To encourage musical activity, the college hosts the annual Alkan Piano Competition, named after the nineteenth-century virtuoso Charles Valentin Alkan and sponsored by the Alkan Society. The competition is followed by a recital from a professional pianist with a particular interest in Alkan's music, the first of whom was Ronald Smith. Fitzwilliam also offers many music scholarships and bursaries, including, somewhat unusually, a saxophone scholarship.

Fitzwilliam new Auditorium performance venue hosts the Fitzwilliam Chamber Series, a collection of concerts by professional musicians. Performers at the college have included the cellist Julian Lloyd Webber, the DJ Annie Mac and the English Touring Opera.

It was at Fitzwilliam that Indie band Good Shoes played their first ever gig.

The Fitzwilliam Quartet
Fitzwilliam is the only college in Cambridge with a resident professional string quartet. The Fitzwilliam Quartet was established by Cambridge undergraduates, two of them Fitzwilliam students, in 1968. They made their first professional appearance a year later at the Sheffield Arts Festival and, following graduation in 1971, became the Resident Quartet at the University of York.

Just a year into their residence, they became personally acquainted with the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich and gained international recognition when they were asked to premier several of his string quartets. They went on to become the first group to perform and record all 15 of his string quartets and Shostakovich himself described them as his "preferred performers". When the composer died in August 1975, they had been scheduled to visit him in Moscow just a month later.

The group proceeded to record acclaimed interpretations of many other composers, notably Brahms and Haydn, and won the Grammy Award for Chamber Music in 1977. In 1981, they were awarded Honorary Doctorates of Music by Bucknell University, which were presented by Shostakovich's son, Maxim.

In 2005, a number of their recordings were included in Gramophone magazine's list of the "Hundred Greatest-ever Recordings". They have a long-term contract with Decca Records and perform regularly all over the world. Although membership has changed over the years, the group returned to Fitzwilliam in 1999 when they were appointed the college's Resident Quartet. They visit for performances and workshops each term and even premier pieces written by students. In 2008, they celebrated their 40th anniversary.

The University Orchestra
The University of Cambridge Philharmonic Orchestra (UCPO) was founded as an offshoot of Fitzwilliam College Music Society. In its early days, the orchestra was supported by grants from the college and rehearsing took place on site. It was initially called the West Cambridge Symphony Orchestra, because the majority of its members were from West Cambridge colleges – predominantly Fitzwilliam, Churchill and New Hall. Although the orchestra later changed its name, a smaller affiliated group, known as the West Cambridge Sinfonia, maintains the reference.

In 2010 the orchestra was rehearsing primarily at St Giles' Church. It toured and recorded on a regular basis and performs University concerts once a term. At Fitzwilliam, the role originally played by WCSO has since been taken over by the Orchestra on the Hill.

Masters
The current Master of the college is Sally Morgan, Baroness Morgan of Huyton. She is a Labour peer, working for eight years at 10 Downing Street and was Minister for Women and Equalities.

She served on the Olympic Delivery Authority board for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and is a former chair of Ofsted and vice-chair at King's College London.

After her first degree at Durham University, where she graduated in 1980 with a BA in geography, she went to King's College London to study for a Postgraduate Certificate in Education and worked as a secondary school teacher from 1981 to 1985. She later received an MA in education from the Institute of Education.

From 1985, she worked for the Labour Party in opposition and then government under Neil Kinnock, John Smith and Tony Blair.

She has always been very involved in education, and since 2005 has been chair or advisor to charities serving disadvantaged young people including ARK, Ambition Institute and Frontline. She is currently a trustee of the Education Policy Institute and is also chair of the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust.

title: Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge


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Clipboard

A clipboard is a thin, rigid board with a clip at the top for holding paper in place. A clipboard is typically used to support paper with one hand while writing on it with the other, especially when other writing surfaces are not available. The earliest forms were patented in 1870–1871 and referred to as board clips. Another early version of the clipboard, known as the "memorandum file", was invented by American inventor George Henry Hohnsbeen in 1921, for which he was granted. Related to the clipboard is the Shannon Arch File, which was developed around 1877.

Variations
Clipboards can be constructed from a variety of material, including but not limited to, hardboard, aluminum, PVC, polypropylene, High Impact Polystyrene, and Foamex. Clipboards generally come in two different designs—single or folding. Single clipboards are the more traditional type and consist of a single piece of rigid material and some sort of fixing mechanism along the top. Folding clipboards are usually constructed from a single piece of flexible PVC with two rigid materials enclosed within. A folding hinge connects the two sections to allow the front to be folded over the content to provide protection and often to allow some sort of promotional print or instructions. Folding clipboards also provide additional benefits because of the extra space available, allowing the incorporation of pen holders and pockets for storage. The arrival of the microprocessor and Internet age gave rise to high-tech variants of the traditional clipboard, the first being the Ferranti Market Research Terminal that retained a clip, to hold A4 paper sheets (looking like a large clipboard) but recording answers to questions in its electronic memory.

Storage clipboards
Storage clipboards have one or more compartments designed for paperwork, both to allow for easy transport of needed papers, and to protect those papers. They may also feature one or several compartments for writing implements. Some versions feature a hinged panel to slide between portions of a two-sided multi-part form.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Clipboard


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The Tortilla Curtain

The Tortilla Curtain is a 1995 novel by American author T.C. Boyle. It is about middle-class values, illegal immigration, xenophobia, poverty, and environmental destruction. In 1997, it was awarded the French Prix Médicis Étranger prize for best foreign novel.

Plot summary
Cándido Rincón (33) and América (his pregnant common-law wife, 17) are two Mexicans who enter the United States illegally, dreaming of a good life in their own little house somewhere in California. Meanwhile, they are homeless and camping at the bottom of the Topanga Canyon area of Los Angeles, in the hills above Malibu. Another couple, Delaney and Kyra Mossbacher, have recently moved into a gated community on top of Topanga, in order to be closer to nature yet be close enough to the city to enjoy those amenities. Kyra is a successful real estate agent while Delaney keeps house, looks after Kyra's son by her first marriage and writes a regular column for an environmentalist magazine.

The two couples' paths cross unexpectedly when Cándido is hit and injured by Delaney, who is driving his car along the suburban roads near his home. For different reasons, each man prefers not to call the police or an ambulance. Cándido is afraid of being deported and Delaney is afraid of ruining his perfect driving record. Delaney soothes his conscience by giving Cándido "$20 blood money," explaining to Kyra that "He's a Mexican." From that moment on, the lives of the two couples are constantly influenced by the others.

After the accident, Cándido's problems deepen. At first he can't work after being injured by the car crash and when he does not find a temporary job at a local work exchange anymore, he unavailingly tries to find one in the city, hoping to save money for an apartment in the North despite the low wages offered. With América, his wife, pregnant, his shame at not being able to get a job and procure a home and food for his family increases, especially when América decides to find some illegal—and possibly dangerous—work herself. At one point in the novel, after Cándido is robbed by some Mexicans in the city, they are forced to go through the trash cans behind a fast-food restaurant so they do not starve.

The Mossbachers, Delaney's family, are also having problems of their own, though of an altogether different nature. Comfortably settled in their new home, in a gated community, they are faced with the cruelty of nature when one of their two pet dogs is killed by a coyote. In addition, the majority of inhabitants of their exclusive estate feel increasingly disturbed and threatened by the presence of—as they see it—potentially criminal, illegal immigrants and vote for a wall to be built around the whole estate.

Cándido has a stroke of luck when he is given a free turkey at a grocery store by another customer, who has just received it through the store's Thanksgiving promotion. When Cándido starts roasting the bird back in their shelter, he inadvertently causes a fire which spreads so quickly that even the gated community the Mossbachers live in has to be evacuated.

In the midst of the escalating disasters, América gives birth to Socorro, a daughter, who she suspects might be blind. But the couple has no money to see the doctor. Delaney stalks Cándido back to their shack. He carries a gun, but does not intend to kill Cándido with it. Meanwhile, América tells Cándido about the night when she was raped, as she suspects that the baby's blindness was caused by a venereal disease transmitted by the rapist. Just as she is telling him this, Delaney finds their shack and is about to confront Cándido about the forest fire, when the shack is knocked over in a landslide. Cándido and América manage to save themselves, but Socorro drowns in a river. The book ends with Cándido helping Delaney out of the river. Time and again in the novel, however, it is hinted at that the real perpetrators can be found inside rather than outside the projected wall: well-to-do people insensitive to the plight of the have-nots.

Book information
Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle
 * Hardcover – ISBN 0-670-85604-5 (1995, First Edition)
 * Hardcover – ISBN 1-56895-287-2 (1996, Large Type Edition)
 * Paperback – ISBN 0-14-023828-X (1996)

Similar and related works

 * In Bharati Mukherjee's novel Jasmine (1989), a young Indian woman living as an illegal alien in the United States tries to make ends meet.
 * American musical group Eddie From Ohio's song "Cándido & América" is based on the novel.

Adaptations
A script was completed by Dayan Ballweg in about 2003 and a planned film adaptation was announced at that time. By early 2007, Kevin Costner and Meg Ryan were attached to the project. It was slated for release in 2010, but has been pushed back with no known release date as of March 2012.

Playwright Matthew Spangler adapted Tortilla Curtain for the stage. It received its world premiere production at the San Diego Repertory Theatre in March/April 2012.

title: The Tortilla Curtain


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Scholarship

A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need, research experience or specific professional experience.

Scholarship criteria usually reflect the values and goals of the donor of the award, and while scholarship recipients are not required to repay scholarships, the awards may require that the recipient continue to meet certain requirements during their period of support, such as maintaining a minimum grade point average or engaging in a certain activity (e.g., playing on a school sports team for athletic scholarship holders).

Scholarships also range in generosity; some cover partial tuition, while others offer a 'full-ride', covering all tuition, accommodation, housing and others.

Some prestigious, highly competitive scholarships are well-known even outside the academic community, such as Fulbright Scholarship and the Rhodes Scholarships at the graduate level, and the Robertson, Morehead-Cain and Jefferson Scholarships at the undergraduate level.

Scholarships vs. grants

While the terms scholarship and grant are frequently used interchangeably, they are distinctly different. Where grants are offered based exclusively on financial need, scholarships may have a financial need component but rely on other criteria as well.

 * Academic scholarships typically use a minimum grade-point average or standardized test score such as the ACT or SAT to narrow down awardees.
 * Athletic scholarships are generally based on athletic performance of a student and used as a tool to recruit high-performing athletes for their school's athletic teams.
 * Merit scholarships can be based on a number of criteria, including performance in a particular school subject or club participation or community service.

A federal Pell Grant can be awarded to someone planning to receive their undergraduate degree and is solely based on their financial needs.

Types
The most common scholarships may be classified as:
 * Merit-based: These awards are based on a student's academic, artistic, athletic, or other abilities, and often a factor in an applicant's extracurricular activities and community service record. Most such merit-based scholarships are paid directly by the institution the student attends, rather than issued directly to the student.
 * Need-based: Some private need-based awards are confusingly called scholarships, and require the results of a FAFSA (the family's expected family contribution). However, scholarships are often merit-based, while grants tend to be need-based.
 * Student-specific: These are scholarships for which applicants must initially qualify based upon gender, race, religion, family, and medical history, or many other student-specific factors. Minority scholarships are the most common awards in this category. For example, students in Canada may qualify for a number of Indigenous scholarships, whether they study at home or abroad. The Gates Millennium Scholars Program is another minority scholarship funded by Bill and Melinda Gates for excellent African American, American Indian, Asian Pacific Islander American, and Latino students who enroll in college.
 * Career-specific: These are scholarships a college or university awards to students who plan to pursue a specific field of study. Often, the most generous awards go to students who pursue careers in high-need areas, such as education or nursing. Many schools in the United States give future nurses full scholarships to enter the field, especially if the student intends to work in a high-need community.
 * College-specific: College-specific scholarships are offered by individual colleges and universities to highly qualified applicants. These scholarships are given on the basis of academic and personal achievement. Some scholarships have a "bond" requirement. Recipients may be required to work for a particular employer for a specified period of time or to work in rural or remote areas; otherwise, they may be required to repay the value of the support they received from the scholarship. This is particularly the case with education and nursing scholarships for people prepared to work in rural and remote areas. The programs offered by the uniformed services of the United States (Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps, and Public Health Service Commissioned Corps) sometimes resemble such scholarships.
 * Athletic: Awarded to students with exceptional skill in a sport. Often this is so that the student will be available to attend the school or college and play the sport on their team, although in some countries government funded sports scholarships are available, allowing scholarship holders to train for international representation. School-based athletics scholarships can be controversial, as some believe that awarding scholarship money for athletic rather than academic or intellectual purposes is not in the institution's best interest.
 * Brand: These scholarships are sponsored by a corporation that is trying to gain attention to their brand, or a cause. Sometimes these scholarships are referred to as branded scholarships. The Miss America beauty pageant is a famous example of a brand scholarship.
 * Creative contest: These scholarships are awarded to students based on a creative submission. Contest scholarships are also called mini project-based scholarships, where students can submit entries based on unique and innovative ideas.
 * "Last dollar": can be provided by private and government-based institutions, and are intended to cover the remaining fees charged to a student after the various grants are taken into account. To prohibit institutions from taking last dollar scholarships into account, and thereby removing other sources of funding, these scholarships are not offered until after financial aid has been offered in the form of a letter. Furthermore, last dollar scholarships may require families to have filed taxes for the most recent year, received their other sources of financial aid, and not yet received loans.
 * Open: a scholarship open to any applicant.

Name of scholarship with institution and/or sponsoring organisation

 * Chevening Scholarship: Foreign & Commonwealth Office (UK)
 * China Scholarship Council Scholarship: Government of China
 * Commonwealth Scholarship: Commonwealth governments
 * Coca-Cola Scholarship: the Coca-Cola Company
 * Endeavour Awards: Government of Australia
 * Erasmus Mundus: European Union
 * Fulbright Scholarship
 * Gates Cambridge Scholarship: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; University of Cambridge
 * Jardine Scholarship: Jardine Matheson; Universities of Oxford and Cambridge
 * Marshall Scholarship: UK universities
 * Mitchell Scholarship: US-Ireland Alliance
 * Monbukagakushō Scholarship: Government of Japan
 * Morehead-Cain Scholarship: University of North Carolina
 * Foundation Scholarship: Trinity College Dublin
 * Rhodes Scholarship: University of Oxford
 * Schwarzman Scholars: Tsinghua University

title: Scholarship


text:
Richmond, North Yorkshire

Richmond is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is located at the point where Swaledale, the upper valley of the River Swale, opens into the Vale of Mowbray. The town's population at the 2011 census was 8,413. The town is 13 miles north-west of Northallerton, the county town, and 41 miles north-west of York.

In the Domesday Book of 1086 the area was collected under Yorkshire and the town was in the Gilling Wapentake. After the book it became the centre for wapentakes in the Honour of Richmond for the North Riding of Yorkshire. Between 1974 and 2023 the town was the administrative centre of the Richmondshire district of the North Yorkshire non-metropolitan county. Richmond is located near the eastern boundary of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, for which it has become a tourist centre.

History
The town of Richemont, in Normandy (now in the Seine-Maritime département of the Upper Normandy region), was the origin of the place name Richmond. It is the most duplicated UK place name, with 56 occurrences worldwide.

Richmond in North Yorkshire was the Honour of Richmond of the Earls of Richmond (or comtes de Richemont), a dignity also held by the Duke of Brittany from 1136 to 1399. Richmond was founded in 1071 by Alan Rufus, a Breton nobleman, on lands granted to him by William the Conqueror, though it was called Hindrelag initially. Richmond Castle was completed in 1086 with a keep and walls encompassing the area now known as the Market Place.

Richmond was part of the lands of the earldom of Richmond, which was intermittently held by the Dukes of Brittany until the 14th century. John V, Duke of Brittany, died in 1399, and Henry IV took possession. Richmond is one of a few settlements that was spared from being raided by the Scots during The Great Raid of 1322 by bribing them off. In 1453, the earldom was conferred on Edmund Tudor, and it was merged with the crown when Edmund's son became King Henry VII in 1485. During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, the Covenanter Army led by David Leslie, Lord Newark, took over the castle, and conflict ensued between local Catholics and Scottish Presbyterians.

In 1608, Robert Willance became the first alderman of Richmond, two years prior in 1606, whilst hunting on the nearby Whitcliffe Scar, the horse Willance was riding became nervous when thick mist descended, bolting over the edge and falling over 200 ft to the valley floor, Willance survived this fall with a broken leg and erected a monument on top of the cliff as a show of gratitude for his survival. Willance died in 1616.

The prosperity of the medieval town and centre of the Swaledale wool industry greatly increased in the late 17th and 18th centuries with the burgeoning lead mining industry in nearby Arkengarthdale. It is from this period that the town's Georgian architecture originates, the most notable examples of which are to be found on Newbiggin and in Frenchgate. One of Europe's first gas works was built in the town in 1830. A permanent military presence was established in the town with the completion of Richmond Barracks in 1877.

During the First World War, Richmond's own Green Howards Regiment raised 24 battalions for the war effort, the castle assumed a role as a barracks and training camp for new recruits and members of the Non-Combatant Corps, in 1915, the first troops occupied the area south of Richmond in what was to become Catterick Camp, the planning of which was commissioned by Lord Baden Powell during his residence at the town's barracks.

In 1916, a group of "absolutist" conscientious objectors known as the Richmond Sixteen were held at the castle after refusing to undertake even non-combatant military duties. After being transported to France, they were court-martialled and formally sentenced to be executed by firing squad, but this sentence was immediately commuted to ten years' penal servitude, and the men were eventually released in 1919. Richmond Castle's 19th-century cell block continued to be used to house prisoners into the Second World War.

In June 1927, Richmond was a centre line of totality during a solar eclipse, the event is marked with a plaque at the top of Reeth Road.

Local government
Richmond is located in the eponymous district of Richmondshire, created under the Local Government Act 1972 by a merger of the municipal borough of Richmond with the rural districts of Richmond, Aysgarth, Leyburn, Reeth, and part of Croft. The town itself is split between three local government wards, Richmond East, Richmond North, and Richmond West, however the most southerly residential areas including Holly Hill and the area surrounding the former railway station are covered by the Hipswell ward, and as a result these residents are not able to elect members of the town council. The town council consists of 15 councillors elected from the three Richmond wards, a new town mayor is elected by the council members each February and taking office in May; meetings are held at Richmond Town Hall.

Parliamentary representation
The serving member for Richmond constituency in Westminster is the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak of the Conservative Party, who has held the seat since 2015 when he succeeded former party leader and Foreign Secretary William Hague. In modern times it has been an ultra-safe seat for the Conservative Party with them having held it continually since 1910.

Geography
Situated approximately 16 mi north-west of the county town Northallerton, Richmond straddles the eastern border of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, at the edge of a valley or dale known as Swaledale, which takes its name from the river that flows through the town, said to be one of the fastest flowing in England.

The nearest official Met Office weather station to Richmond is Leeming, about 12 mi to the south-east. Temperature extremes have ranged from 33.5 C during August 1990, down to -17.9 C during December 2010.

Demography
According to the 2011 United Kingdom census, the parish of Richmond had a total resident population of 8,413, of which 4,374 females and 4,039 males. 95.8% of the population identified as white British, 1.4% as other white, 1.1% as Asian or Asian British, and 0.8% as black, Afro-Caribbean or black British. The place of birth of the town's residents was 93.8% United Kingdom, 3.3% from European Union countries, and 2.5% from elsewhere in the world. 71.7% said they had religious beliefs; 70.4% of those were Christian, 1.3% is made up of all other religions, the largest being Buddhism at 0.8%, 21.4% said they had no religion.

The following table shows historic population changes in the Richmond parish area between 1801 and 1961.

Economy
As a gateway town to the Yorkshire Dales, tourism is important to the local economy, but the single largest influence is the Catterick Garrison army base, which is rapidly becoming the largest population centre in Richmondshire. National chain retailers such as Lidl, WHSmith, Boots, and the Co-op, as well as local independent shops, restaurants and pubs, also provide a source of employment. The Gallowfields Trading Estate in the north of the town accommodates several builder's merchants, car garages and showrooms, a Royal Mail delivery office and a veterinarian surgery.

A traditional market still operates every Saturday in one of the largest cobbled market places in England, as well as a week round indoor one in the town's 19th-century market hall. The origins of the markets date back as far as 1093 when they were authorised by the Earls, and the first known royal charter was granted in 1155.

According to the 2011 United Kingdom census, the economic activity of residents aged 16–74 was 37.6% in full-time employment, 15.5% in part-time employment, 10.4% self-employed, 3.4% unemployed, 2.4% students with jobs, 3.6% students without jobs, 20% retired, 2.9% looking after home or family, 2.8% permanently sick or disabled, and 1.4% economically inactive for other reasons.

The average price of a house in Richmond for the 12-month period ending February 2020 was £241,583 compared to £223,537 for North Yorkshire and the national average of £232,320.

Landmarks
Richmond Castle in the town centre overlooks the River Swale and is a major tourist attraction, bringing in close to 40,000 visitors a year. Scolland's Hall is the gatehouse and was staffed by the Lords of Bedale, such as Bryan FitzAlan, Lord FitzAlan, and Miles Stapleton, Founder KG. Other staff residences were Constable Burton and Thornton Steward. Also, Richmond had an extended Wensleydale castlery initially consisting of Middleham Castle, Ravensworth and Snape (Baron FitzHugh & Neville Baron Latymer). The Conyers, Wyville, Gascoigne, Stapleton and Lovell families were all notable gentry.

Within walking distance from the town centre are the ruins of the premonstratensian Easby Abbey, managed by English Heritage, and adjacent Easby Hall, built in 1729. A popular town legend tells the story of the Little Drummer Boy, a young member of an 18th-century regiment who was sent by soldiers to investigate a tunnel leading away from the castle towards Easby, playing his drum to guide the soldiers above ground, however the drums ceased suddenly and the boy was never seen or located since, a stone marker stands at the point at which the boy's drumming stopped, on a footpath between the town and Easby.

The tall market cross or "obelisk" was built in 1771 to replace the medieval cross that stood before it. On the south-west side of the town stands the folly of Culloden Tower, originally built in 1746 to commemorate the Duke of Cumberland's at the Battle of Culloden, after falling into disrepair it was restored in 1981 and now is used a holiday let. Another small folly is Oliver Duckett on the northern outskirts of the town, a rounded bastion tower, built from the same stone as Richmond Castle and now lying on public land.

Swale House on Frenchgate, built around 1750, was home to the headmaster and students of the nearby grammar school, before being used as a hospital for wounded officers in the First World War. For many years, it was the headquarters of Richmondshire District Council, before being closed and sold off in 2013. Millgate House bed & breakfast has received mentions in several national publications for its accompanying gardens.

There are two war memorials sited in Richmond, the Gallowgate Memorial stands overlooking Frenchgate, taking the form of a Celtic cross and is dedicated to the losses suffered by the Green Howards regiment during both the First and Second World Wars, the other monument commissioned is located in the friary gardens and commemorates all of the victims of the two World Wars who resided in Richmond.

Richmond Falls are a short walk from the town centre and to the west of the town, on the road to Marske, is the unusually named Richmond Out Moor.

Religious sites
There are four extant churches within the town, the Church of England's St Mary the Virgin, the Roman Catholic St Joseph and St Francis Xavier, Richmond Methodist Church and Influence Church, formed in 1950 as Richmond Pentecostal Church. Former religious buildings and structures include Holy Trinity Church, a grade I Listed building in the centre of the market place, no longer conducting regular services, the 15th century bell tower of the former friary of Greyfriars, stands over an area of public green space, known as the Friary Gardens, and a former United Reformed Church building on Dundas Street.

Transport
Richmond Railway Station opened in 1846 and closed in 1968, a year before the branch line itself was taken out of service. After the station closed, the building was used for many years as a garden centre. It has now been renovated by the Richmondshire Building Preservation Trust and opened in late 2007, now titled "The Station", a mixed-use space for community and commercial activities. The nearest main line station to Richmond is now Darlington on the East Coast Main Line, 13 mi north-east.

The town is served by Arriva North East buses to Darlington and Catterick Garrison, as well as links to Barnard Castle and Northallerton provided by Hodgsons and routes to Leyburn and Ripon by Dales & District, along with council run services that serve Richmond's residential areas. The Little White Bus connects Richmond with the villages of Swaledale as far west as Keld and is operated solely by volunteer drivers.

Richmond has two four digit A-roads passing through it; the A6108 is the main entry route from the A1(M) junction at Scotch Corner, and continues west towards Leyburn and then Ripon. The A6136 connects to nearby Catterick Garrison across Mercury Bridge that spans the River Swale. Mercury Bridge is grade II listed, and as its original name of Station Bridge suggests, it was built to give vehicular access to the railway station. In June 2000, heavy flooding resulted in the bridge suffering considerable structural damage to one side, repairs were made at a cost of approximately £500,000 and the bridge re-opened to traffic in December of the same year.

The closest airport is Teesside International Airport just to the east of Darlington approximately 18 mi north-east.

Education
The town is home to two secondary schools: Richmond School, a large school and sixth form with specialisms in performing arts, science, and mathematics, and St Francis Xavier School, which is a smaller, voluntary aided, joint Roman Catholic and Church of England School for boys and girls aged 11–16.

There are also three non- sectarian primary schools: Trinity Academy (formerly Richmond C of E), Richmond Methodist School, and St Mary's Roman Catholic School.

Sport
The town's football club, Richmond Town F.C. was founded in 1945 and they currently play in the Wearside League in level 7 of the National League System with their games being held at the Earl's Orchard ground, the pavilion was officially opened in March 1975 by then Middlesbrough F.C. manager Jack Charlton.

Richmond is also home to Richmondshire Rugby Union Football club, currently playing in Durham/Northumberland 3.

Richmondshire Cricket Club play in the North Yorkshire and South Durham Cricket League, where they have won the league title a total of five times and the ECB National Club Cricket Championship once, in 2018.

Richmond was also the starting point for the third stage of the 2018 Tour de Yorkshire road cycling race.

The town's racecourse opened in 1765 and closed in 1891, but the site is still used for horse training and by the public for walking. The poor condition of the grandstand led it to appear on Historic England's Heritage at Risk register in 2019.

Media and filmography
The town is served by two local newspapers, North Yorkshire editions of the daily Northern Echo and the weekly Darlington & Stockton Times both published by Newsquest.

Local news and television programmes are by BBC North East and Cumbria and ITV Tyne Tees. Television signals are received from the Bilsdale TV transmitter.

The town is served by both BBC Radio York on 104.3 FM and BBC Radio Tees 95.0 FM. Other radio stations including Greatest Hits Radio York and North Yorkshire on 103.5 FM, Nation Radio North East on 103.2 FM and Sun FM on 102.6 FM.

Richmond has been used as a filming location for a number of television programmes and films including The Fast Show, Century Falls, Earthfasts, A Woman of Substance (1984) and All Creatures Great and Small.

Arts
The official gallery of Middlesbrough born artist Mackenzie Thorpe is located in town, Richmond local Lucy Pittaway was also chosen as the official artist for the Tour de Yorkshire from 2016 to 2018.

Richmondshire Concerts is a classical music society that puts on six concerts a year, generally of chamber music, at the Influence Church. The society has an average of 250 annual subscribers from North Yorkshire and the North East.

Richmond Live was an annual music festival held every August on a riverside venue known as "The Batts", notable headliners included The Lightning Seeds and The Hoosiers. The festival was cancelled permanently by the organisers following the 2019 event due to a lack of sustainability.

Cinema and theatre
Richmond has a two-screen cinema that opened in 2007 in the former railway station the town was also home to the one screen Zetland Cinema, between from 1937 until its closure in 1983, the building was then sold to become a religious centre for the local Pentecostal Church, as of 2020 it is owned by the Influence Church, and also houses a food bank serving the local area.

The Georgian Theatre Royal in Richmond, built in 1788, is the UK's most complete 18th century theatre. A decline in the fortunes of theatre led to closure in 1848 and it was used as a warehouse until 1963 when the theatre was restored and reopened, with a museum added in 1979, after renovation in 2003, a new block providing services and access was added next to the original auditorium.

Community
The Richmond Meet is an annual fair taking place every Whit Monday, consisting of a parade and the arrival of amusement rides into the market place, in 2019 it ran for the 127th time, but was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Richmond has been twinned with Vinstra, Norway since 1988, and Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier, France since 2006.

Public services
The town is served by the Friary Community Hospital, officially opened in 1999 and managed by South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. It provides non-emergency care and general practice, the Victoria Ward in the hospital contains 18 beds, for purposes such as acute illnesses, rehabilitation and palliative care. The Victoria Hospital, served as a main health facility from when it opened as the Richmond Cottage Hospital in 1899 until its closure in 1999, coinciding with the opening of the Friary building, the premises is now in use as funeral director's offices, a few yards down the road from the old Victoria Hospital is the town's smaller general practitioner, the Quakers Lane Surgery. The historic St. Nicholas house on the eastern outskirts of the town was once the site of a benedictine hospital dating back to 1137.

The local ambulances are run by the Yorkshire Ambulance Service, the town is also in the catchment area of the Great North Air Ambulance. North Yorkshire Police and North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service both have stations in the town within the same complex on I'Anson Road, water is supplied by Yorkshire Water.

Richmond Information Centre is based in the town's Victorian-era Market Hall. Having previously been run by Richmondshire District Council, RIC is now a non-profit volunteer-run organisation, dedicated to "welcoming visitors and locals alike", which provides advice on attractions and services across a wide area, including the whole of the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Born in Richmond

 * Rob Andrew, former rugby union international
 * Peter Auty, opera singer who sang the song Walking In The Air from the TV film The Snowman
 * George Bell, publisher, founder of George Bell & Sons
 * Amanda Sonia Berry, CEO of BAFTA
 * Francis Blackburne, archdeacon and dissenter
 * John Brasse, writer
 * William Brice, ethnographer
 * Samuel and Nathaniel Buck, engravers and printmakers
 * George Cuitt the Younger, painter
 * George Errington, Roman Catholic archbishop
 * John James Fenwick, founder of Fenwick's department stores
 * Henry Greathead, inventor of the lifeboat
 * Anthony Hammond, legal writer
 * Thomas Harrison, architect
 * Herbert Sedgwick, first class cricketer
 * Theo Hutchcraft, one half of synth-pop duo, Hurts
 * Francis Johnson, dissenter
 * John Lawrence, 1st Baron Lawrence, viceroy of India
 * Robert Lawrence Ottley, theologian
 * Zoe Lee, European champion rower and Olympic silver medalist
 * George McGuigan, rugby player
 * Conyers Middleton, clergyman
 * Tanya Bardsley, model
 * Tim Rodber, rugby union international
 * Edward Roper, first class cricketer
 * Fran Summers, model
 * James Tate, headmaster
 * Thomas Taylor, clergyman

Residents

 * Lord Baden-Powell, Founder of the scouting movement.
 * Robert Barclay Allardice, pedestrian, educated at Richmond School.
 * John Bathurst, physician to Oliver Cromwell.
 * Marcus Beresford, Primate of All Ireland.
 * Lewis Carroll, author, attended Richmond School, lived in nearby Croft-on-Tees.
 * Henry Butler Clarke, historian of Spain
 * J. R. Cohu, headmaster of Richmond School.
 * Edward Ellerton, educational philanthropist, educated at Richmond School.
 * Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, British Prime Minister. Educated at Richmond School.
 * Brenda Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond, a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.
 * Angela Harris, Baroness Harris of Richmond, Deputy Speaker in the House of Lords.
 * Thomas Hounsfield, first class cricketer.
 * Samuel Howitt, painter.
 * Peter Inge, Baron Inge, former head of the British army and colonel of the Green Howards (1982–1994).
 * Joanne Jackson, Olympic swimmer.
 * Philip Mayne, last surviving British officer of the First World War.
 * William Young Ottley, writer on art and collector. Educated at Richmond School.
 * George Peacock, mathematician, attended a school in Richmond, one of "Tate's invincibles".
 * Donald Peers, singer.
 * James Raine, antiquarian, educated at Richmond School, one of "Tate's invincibles".
 * Peter Robinson, author, DCI Banks series
 * Thomas Sedgwick, clergyman.
 * Richard Sheepshanks, astronomer. Educated at Richmond School, one of "Tate's invincibles".
 * T. H. Stokoe, head of Richmond school.
 * Mackenzie Thorpe, artist.
 * Stanley Vann, composer.
 * John Warburton, herald and antiquary.
 * Tim Clissold, author.

title: Richmond, North Yorkshire


text:
Ostinato

In music, an ostinato (derived from the Italian word for stubborn, compare English obstinate) is a motif or phrase that persistently repeats in the same musical voice, frequently in the same pitch. Well-known ostinato-based pieces include classical compositions such as Ravel's Boléro and the Carol of the Bells, and popular songs such as Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder's "I Feel Love" (1977), Henry Mancini's theme from Peter Gunn (1959), The Who's "Baba O'Riley" (1971), The Verve's "Bitter Sweet Symphony" (1997), and Flo Rida's "Low" (2007).

Both ostinatos and ostinati are accepted English plural forms, the latter reflecting the word's Italian etymology.

The repeating idea may be a rhythmic pattern, part of a tune, or a complete melody in itself. Strictly speaking, ostinati should have exact repetition, but in common usage, the term covers repetition with variation and development, such as the alteration of an ostinato line to fit changing harmonies or keys.

"If the cadence may be regarded as the cradle of tonality, the ostinato patterns can be considered the playground in which it grew strong and self-confident."

- Edward Lowinsky

Within the context of European classical and film music, Claudia Gorbman defines an ostinato as a repeated melodic or rhythmic figure that propels scenes that lack dynamic visual action.

Ostinati play an important part in improvised music (rock and jazz), in which they are often referred to as riffs or vamps. A "favorite technique of contemporary jazz writers", ostinati are often used in modal and Latin jazz and traditional African music including Gnawa music.

The term ostinato essentially has the same meaning as the medieval Latin word pes, the word ground as applied to classical music, and the word riff in contemporary popular music.

European classical music
Within the domain of European classical music traditions, Ostinati are used in 20th-century music to stabilize groups of pitches, as in Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring Introduction and Augurs of Spring. A famous type of ostinato, called the Rossini crescendo, owes its name to a crescendo that underlies a persistent musical pattern, which usually culminates in a solo vocal cadenza. This style was emulated by other bel canto composers, especially Vincenzo Bellini; and later by Wagner (in pure instrumental terms, discarding the closing vocal cadenza).

Applicable in homophonic and contrapuntal textures, they are "repetitive rhythmic-harmonic schemes", more familiar as accompanimental melodies, or purely rhythmic. The technique's appeal to composers from Debussy to avant-garde composers until at least the 1970s "... lies in part in the need for unity created by the virtual abandonment of functional chord progressions to shape phrases and define tonality". Similarly, in modal music, "... relentless, repetitive character help to establish and confirm the modal center". Their popularity may also be justified by their ease as well as range of use, though, "... ostinato must be employed judiciously, as its overuse can quickly lead to monotony".

Medieval
Ostinato patterns have been present in European music from the Middle Ages onwards. In the famous English canon "Sumer Is Icumen In", the main vocal lines are underpinned by an ostinato pattern, known as a pes:

Later in the medieval era, Guillaume Dufay's 15th-century chanson Resvelons Nous features a similarly constructed ostinato pattern, but this time 5 bars long. Over this, the main melodic line moves freely, varying the phrase-lengths, while being "to some extent predetermined by the repeating pattern of the canon in the lower two voices."

Ground bass: Late Renaissance and Baroque
Ground bass or basso ostinato (obstinate bass) is a type of variation form in which a bass line, or harmonic pattern (see Chaconne; also common in Elizabethan England as Grounde) is repeated as the basis of a piece underneath variations. Aaron Copland describes basso ostinato as "... the easiest to recognize" of the variation forms wherein, "... a long phrase—either an accompanimental figure or an actual melody—is repeated over and over again in the bass part, while the upper parts proceed normally [with variation]". However, he cautions, "it might more properly be termed a musical device than a musical form."

One striking ostinato instrumental piece of the late Renaissance period is "The Bells", a piece for virginals by William Byrd. Here the ostinato (or 'ground') consists of just two notes:

In Italy, during the seventeenth century, Claudio Monteverdi composed many pieces using ostinato patterns in his operas and sacred works. One of these was his 1650 version of "Laetatus sum", an imposing setting of Psalm 122 that pits a four-note "ostinato of unquenchable energy." against both voices and instruments:

Later in the same century, Henry Purcell became famous for his skilful deployment of ground bass patterns. His most famous ostinato is the descending chromatic ground bass that underpins the aria "When I am laid in earth" ("Dido's Lament") at the end of his opera Dido and Aeneas: While the use of a descending chromatic scale to express pathos was fairly common at the end of the seventeenth century, Richard Taruskin pointed out that Purcell shows a fresh approach to this musical trope: "Altogether unconventional and characteristic, however, is the interpolation of an additional cadential measure into the stereotyped ground, increasing its length from a routine four to a haunting five bars, against which the vocal line, with its despondent refrain ("Remember me!"), is deployed with marked asymmetry. That, in addition to Purcell's distinctively dissonant, suspension-saturated harmony, enhanced by additional chromatic descents during the final ritornello and by many deceptive cadences, makes this little aria an unforgettably poignant embodiment of heartache." See also: Lament bass.

However, this is not the only ostinato pattern that Purcell uses in the opera. Dido's opening aria "Ah, Belinda" is a further demonstration of Purcell's technical mastery: the phrases of the vocal line do not always coincide with the four-bar ground:

"Purcell's compositions over a ground vary in their working out, and the repetition never becomes a restriction." Purcell's instrumental music also featured ground patterns. A particularly fine and complex example is his Fantasia upon a Ground for three violins and continuo:

The intervals in the above pattern are found in many works of the Baroque Period. Pachelbel's Canon also uses a similar sequence of notes in the bass part:

Two pieces by J.S.Bach are particularly striking for their use of an ostinato bass: the Crucifixus from his Mass in B minor and the Passacaglia in C minor for organ, which has a ground rich in melodic intervals: The first variation that Bach builds over this ostinato consists of a gently syncopated motif in the upper voices: This characteristic rhythmic pattern continues in the second variation, but with some engaging harmonic subtleties, especially in the second bar, where an unexpected chord creates a passing implication of a related key: In common with other Passacaglias of the era, the ostinato is not simply confined to the bass, but rises to the uppermost part later in the piece: A performance of the entire piece can be heard here.

Late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
Ostinatos feature in many works of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Mozart uses an ostinato phrase throughout the big scene that ends Act 2 of the Marriage of Figaro, to convey a sense of suspense as the jealous Count Almaviva tries in vain to incriminate the Countess, his wife, and Figaro, his butler, for plotting behind his back. A famous type of ostinato, called the Rossini crescendo, owes its name to a crescendo that underlies a persistent musical pattern, which usually culminates in a solo vocal cadenza.

In the energetic Scherzo of Beethoven’s late C sharp minor Quartet, Op. 131, there is a harmonically static passage, with "the repetitiveness of a nursery rhyme" that consists of an ostinato shared between viola and cello supporting a melody in octaves in the first and second violins: Beethoven reverses this relationship a few bars later with the melody in the viola and cello and the ostinato shared between the violins:

Both the first and third acts of Wagner's final opera Parsifal feature a passage accompanying a scene where a band of Knights solemnly processes from the depths of forest to the hall of the Grail. The "Transformation music" that supports this change of scene is dominated by the iterated tolling of four bells: Brahms used ostinato patterns in both the finale of his Fourth Symphony and in the closing section of his Variations on a Theme by Haydn:

Twentieth century
Debussy featured an ostinato pattern throughout his Piano Prelude "Des pas sur la neige". Here, the ostinato pattern stays in the middle register of the piano – it is never used as a bass. "Remark that the footfall ostinato remains nearly throughout on the same notes, at the same pitch level... this piece is an appeal to the basic loneliness of all human beings, oft-forgotten perhaps, but, like the ostinato, forming a basic undercurrent of our history." Of all the major classical composers of the 20th century, Stravinsky is possibly the one most associated with the practice of ostinato. In conversation with the composer, his friend and colleague Robert Craft remarked "Your music always has an element of repetition, of ostinato. What is the function of ostinato?" Stravinsky replied; "It is static – that is, anti-development; and sometimes we need a contradiction to development." Stravinsky was particularly skilled at using ostinatos to confound rather than confirm rhythmic expectations. In the first of his Three Pieces for String Quartet, Stravinsky sets up three repeated patterns, which overlap one another and never coincide. "Here a rigid pattern of (3+2+2/4) bars is laid over a strictly recurring 23-beat tune (the bars being marked by a cello ostinato), so that their changing relationship is governed primarily by the pre-compositional scheme." "The rhythmical current running through the music is what binds together these curious mosaic-like pieces."

A subtler metrical conflict can be found in the final section of Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms. The choir sing a melody in triple time, while the bass instruments in the orchestra play a 4-beat ostinato against this. "This is built up over an ostinato bass (harp, two pianos and timpani) moving in fourths like a pendulum."

Counter-metric structure
Many instruments south of the Sahara Desert play ostinato melodies. These include lamellophones such as the mbira, as well as xylophones like the balafon, the bikutsi, and the gyil. Ostinato figures are also played on string instruments such as the kora, gankoqui bell ensembles, and pitched drums ensembles. Often, African ostinatos contain offbeats or cross-beats, that contradict the metric structure. Other African ostinatos generate complete cross-rhythms by sounding both the main beats and cross-beats. In the following example, a gyil sounds the three-against-two cross-rhythm (hemiola). The left hand (lower notes) sounds the two main beats, while the right hand (upper notes) sounds the three cross-beats.

African harmonic progressions
Popular dance bands in West Africa and the Congo region feature ostinato-playing guitars. The African guitar parts are drawn from a variety of sources, including the indigenous mbira, as well as foreign influences such as James Brown-type funk riffs. However, the foreign influences are interpreted through a distinctly African ostinato sensibility. African guitar styles began with Congolese bands doing Cuban cover songs. The Cuban guajeo had a both familiar and exotic quality to the African musicians. Gradually, various regional guitar styles emerged, as indigenous influences became increasingly dominant within these Africanized guajeos.

As Moore states, "One could say that I – IV – V – IV [chord progressions] is to African music what the 12-bar blues is to North American music." Such progressions seem superficially to follow the conventions of Western music theory. However, performers of African popular music do not perceive these progressions in the same way. Harmonic progressions which move from the tonic to the subdominant (as they are known in European music) have been used in Traditional sub-Saharan African harmony for hundreds of years. Their elaborations follow all the conventions of traditional African harmonic principles. Gehard Kubik concludes:

"The harmonic cycle of C–F–G–F [I–IV–V–IV] prominent in Congo/Zaire popular music simply cannot be defined as a progression from tonic to subdominant to dominant and back to subdominant (on which it ends) because in the performer's appreciation they are of equal status, and not in any hierarchical order as in Western music—(Kubik 1999)."

Afro-Cuban guajeo
A guajeo is a typical Cuban ostinato melody, most often consisting of arpeggiated chords in syncopated patterns. The guajeo is a hybrid of the African and European ostinato. The guajeo was first played as accompaniment on the tres in the folkloric changüí and son. The term guajeo is often used to mean specific ostinato patterns played by a tres, piano, an instrument of the violin family, or saxophones. The guajeo is a fundamental component of modern-day salsa, and Latin jazz. The following example shows a basic guajeo pattern.

The guajeo is a seamless Afro-Euro ostinato hybrid, which has had a major influence upon jazz, R&B, rock 'n' roll and popular music in general. The Beatles' "I Feel Fine" guitar riff is guajeo-like.

Riff
In various popular music styles, riff refers to a brief, relaxed phrase repeated over changing melodies. It may serve as a refrain or melodic figure, often played by the rhythm section instruments or solo instruments that form the basis or accompaniment of a musical composition. Though they are most often found in rock music, heavy metal music, Latin, funk and jazz, classical music is also sometimes based on a simple riff, such as Ravel's Boléro. Riffs can be as simple as a tenor saxophone honking a simple, catchy rhythmic figure, or as complex as the riff-based variations in the head arrangements played by the Count Basie Orchestra.

David Brackett (1999) defines riffs as "short melodic phrases", while Richard Middleton (1999) defines them as "short rhythmic, melodic, or harmonic figures repeated to form a structural framework". Rikky Rooksby states: "A riff is a short, repeated, memorable musical phrase, often pitched low on the guitar, which focuses much of the energy and excitement of a rock song."

In jazz and R&B, riffs are often used as the starting point for longer compositions. The riff from Charlie Parker's bebop number "Now's the Time" (1945) re-emerged four years later as the R&B dance hit "The Hucklebuck". The verse of "The Hucklebuck"—another riff—was "borrowed" from the Artie Matthews composition "Weary Blues". Glenn Miller's "In the Mood" had an earlier life as Wingy Manone's "Tar Paper Stomp". All these songs use twelve bar blues riffs, and most of these riffs probably precede the examples given.

Neither of the terms 'riff' or 'lick' are used in classical music. Instead, individual musical phrases used as the basis of classical music pieces are called ostinatos or simply phrases. Contemporary jazz writers also use riff- or lick-like ostinatos in modal music. Latin jazz often uses guajeo-based riffs.

Vamp

In music, a vamp is a repeating musical figure, section, or accompaniment used in blues, jazz, gospel, soul, and musical theater. Vamps are also found in rock, funk, reggae, R&B, pop, and country. Vamps are usually harmonically sparse: A vamp may consist of a single chord or a sequence of chords played in a repeated rhythm. The term frequently appeared in the instruction 'Vamp till ready' on sheet music for popular songs in the 1930s and 1940s, indicating the accompanist should repeat the musical phrase until the vocalist was ready. Vamps are generally symmetrical, self-contained, and open to variation. The equivalent in classical music is an ostinato, in hip hop and electronic music the loop, and in rock music the riff.

The slang term vamp comes from the Middle English word vampe (sock), from Old French avanpie, equivalent to Modern French avant-pied, literally before-foot.

Many vamp-oriented songwriters begin the creative process by attempting to evoke a mood or feeling while riffing freely on an instrument or scat singing. Many well known artists primarily build songs with a vamp/riff/ostinato based approach—including John Lee Hooker ("Boogie Chillen", "House Rent Boogie"), Bo Diddley ("Hey Bo Diddley", "Who Do You Love?"), Jimmy Page ("Ramble On", "Bron Yr Aur"), Nine Inch Nails ("Closer"), and Beck ("Loser").

Classic examples of vamps in jazz include "A Night in Tunisia", "Take Five", "A Love Supreme", "Maiden Voyage", and "Cantaloupe Island". Rock examples include the long jam at the ends of "Loose Change" by Neil Young and Crazy Horse and "Sooner or Later" by King's X.

Jazz, fusion, and Latin jazz
In jazz, fusion, and related genres, a background vamp provides a performer with a harmonic framework supporting improvisation. In Latin jazz guajeos fulfill the role of piano vamp. A vamp at the beginning of a jazz tune may act as a springboard to the main tune; a vamp at the end of a song is often called a tag.

Examples
"Take Five" begins with a repeated, syncopated figure in time, which pianist Dave Brubeck plays throughout the song (except for Joe Morello's drum solo and a variation on the chords in the middle section).

The music from Miles Davis's modal period (c. 1958–1963) was based on improvising songs with a small number of chords. The jazz standard "So What" uses a vamp in the two-note "Sooooo what?" figure, regularly played by the piano and the trumpet throughout. Jazz scholar Barry Kernfeld calls this music vamp music.

Examples include the outros to George Benson's "Body Talk" and "Plum", and the solo changes to "Breezin'". The following songs are dominated by vamps: John Coltrane, Kenny Burrell, and Grant Green's versions of "My Favorite Things", Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man" and "Chameleon", Wes Montgomery's "Bumpin' on Sunset", and Larry Carlton's "Room 335".

The Afro-Cuban vamp style known as guajeo is used in the bebop/Latin jazz standard "A Night in Tunisia". Depending upon the musician, a repeating figure in "A Night in Tunisia" could be called an ostinato, guajeo, riff, or vamp. The Cuban-jazz hybrid spans the disciplines that encompass all these terms.

Gospel, soul, and funk
In gospel and soul music, the band often vamps on a simple ostinato groove at the end of a song, usually over a single chord. In soul music, the end of recorded songs often contains a display of vocal effects—such as rapid scales, arpeggios, and improvised passages. For recordings, sound engineers gradually fade out the vamp section at the end of a song, to transition to the next track on the album. Salsoul singers such as Loleatta Holloway have become notable for their vocal improvisations at the end of songs, and they are sampled and used in other songs. Andrae Crouch extended the use of vamps in gospel, introducing chain vamps (one vamp after the other, each successive vamp drawn from the first).

1970s-era funk music often takes a short one or two bar musical figure based on a single chord one would consider an introduction vamp in jazz or soul music, and then uses this vamp as the basis of the entire song ("Funky Drummer" by James Brown, for example). Jazz, blues, and rock are almost always based on chord progressions (a sequence of changing chords), and they use the changing harmony to build tension and sustain listener interest. Unlike these music genres, funk is based on the rhythmic groove of the percussion, rhythm section instruments, and a deep electric bass line, usually all over a single chord. "In funk, harmony is often second to the 'lock,' the linking of contrapuntal parts that are played on guitar, bass, and drums in the repeating vamp."

Examples include Stevie Wonder's vamp-based "Superstition" and Little Johnny Taylor's "Part Time Love", which features an extended improvisation over a two-chord vamp.

Musical theater
In musical theater, a vamp, or intro, is the few bars, one to eight, of music without lyrics that begin a printed copy of a song. The orchestra may repeat the vamp or other accompaniment during dialogue or stage business, as accompaniment for onstage transitions of indeterminate length. The score provides a one or two bar vamp figure, and indicates, "Vamp till cue", by the conductor. The vamp gives the onstage singers time to prepare for the song or the next verse, without requiring the music to pause. Once the vamp section is over, the music continues to the next section.

The vamp may be written by the composer of the song, a copyist employed by the publisher, or the arranger for the vocalist. The vamp serves three main purposes: it provides the key, establishes the tempo, and provides emotional context. The vamp may be as short as a bell tone, sting (a harmonized bell tone with stress on the starting note), or measures long. The rideout is the transitional music that begins on the downbeat of the last word of the song and is usually two to four bars long, though it may be as short as a sting or as long as a Roxy Rideout.

Indian classical music
In Indian classical music, during Tabla or Pakhawaj solo performances and Kathak dance accompaniments, a conceptually similar melodic pattern known as the Lehara (sometimes spelled Lehra) or Nagma is played repeatedly throughout the performance. This melodic pattern is set to the number of beats in a rhythmic cycle (Tala or Taal) being performed and may be based on one or a blend of multiple Ragas.

The basic idea of the lehara is to provide a steady melodious framework and keep the time-cycle for rhythmic improvisations. It serves as an auditory workbench not only for the soloist but also for the audience to appreciate the ingenuity of the improvisations and thus the merits of the overall performance. In Indian Classical Music, the concept of 'sam' (pronounced as 'sum') carries paramount importance. The sam is the target unison beat (and almost always the first beat) of any rhythmic cycle. The second most important beat is the Khali, which is a complement of the sam. Besides these two prominent beats, there are other beats of emphasis in any given taal, which signify 'khand's (divisions) of the taal. E.g. 'Roopak' or 'Rupak' taal, a 7-beat rhythmic cycle, is divided 3–2–2, further implying that the 1st, 4th, and 6th beats are the prominent beats in that taal. Therefore, it is customary, but not essential, to align the lehara according to the divisions of the Taal. It is done with a view to emphasize those beats that mark the divisions of the Taal.

The lehara can be played on a variety of instruments, including the sarangi, harmonium, sitar, sarod, flute and others. The playing of the lehara is relatively free from the numerous rules and constraints of Raga Sangeet, which are upheld and honoured in the tradition of Indian Classical Music. The lehara may be interspersed with short and occasional improvisations built around the basic melody. It is also permissible to switch between two or more disparate melodies during the course of the performance. It is essential that the lehara be played with the highest precision in Laya (Tempo) and Swara control, which requires years of specialist training (Taalim) and practice (Riyaaz). It is considered a hallmark of excellence to play lehara alongside a recognised Tabla or Pakhawaj virtuoso as it is a difficult task to keep a steady pulse while the percussionist is improvising or playing difficult compositions in counterpoint. While there may be scores of individually talented instrumentalists, there are very few who are capable of playing the lehra for a Tabla / Pakhawaj solo performance.

title: Ostinato


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List of tallest buildings and structures in London

At 111 m, St Paul's Cathedral was the tallest building in London from 1710 until it was eventually surpassed by the 118 metre (387 ft) Millbank Tower in 1963. This in turn was overtaken by the BT Tower at 177 m tall in 1964. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s several high-rise buildings were built, mostly in the western side of Central London and the City of London. In 1980, the 183 metre (600 ft) NatWest Tower (now Tower 42) was completed in the City of London. In 1991, One Canada Square was topped-out at 235 m, becoming the centrepiece of the Canary Wharf development.

The 2000s saw the beginnings of a boom in skyscraper building, mostly in the City of London and Canary Wharf. Since 2012, the tallest building in London has been The Shard at London Bridge, which was topped out at 309.6 m. There are several tall buildings planned for the City and Canary Wharf, with further clusters emerging in other districts of London including: Stratford, the South Bank, Elephant and Castle, Vauxhall, Nine Elms, Islington, Lewisham as well as in places in Outer London such as Croydon.

As of 2022, there are 121 buildings or structures that are at least 100 m tall in the Greater London metropolitan area, with 24 of these being in the City of London and 27 being in the Canary Wharf / Isle of Dogs district. The Greater London metropolitan area contains the second most skyscrapers of any city in Europe after Moscow. There are 56 skyscrapers in Greater London that reach a roof height of at least 150 m.

Medieval and early modern period
The history of tall structures in London began with the completion of the 27 m White Tower, a part of the Tower of London, in 1098. The first structure to surpass a height of 100 m was the Old St Paul's Cathedral. Completed in 1310, it stood at a height of 150 m. St Paul's was the world's tallest structure until 1311, when its height was surpassed by Lincoln Cathedral in Lincoln. It regained the title when the spire of Lincoln Cathedral fell in 1549.

Although the spire of the Old St Paul's was destroyed by lightning        in 1561, it still stood as the tallest structure in London, while the world's tallest structure became Strasbourg Cathedral in Strasbourg, France. St Paul's was severely damaged by the Great Fire of London in 1666. The title of the tallest structure in London passed to Southwark Cathedral, which stands at a height of 50 m and no structure in London again rose above 100 metres until 1710, when the current St Paul's Cathedral was completed at 111 m, becoming London's tallest building.

19th century
Few skyscrapers were built in London before the late 20th century, owing to restrictions on building heights originally imposed by the London Building Act of 1894, which followed the construction of the 14-storey Queen Anne's Mansions. Though restrictions have long since been eased, strict regulations remain to preserve protected views, especially those of St Paul's, the Tower of London and Palace of Westminster, as well as to comply with the requirements of the Civil Aviation Authority.

1960s and 1970s
The lifting of height restrictions caused a boom in the construction of tall buildings during the 1960s. St Paul's Cathedral remained as London's tallest building until it was overtaken in 1963 by the Millbank Tower at 118 m, which in turn was overtaken by the BT Tower which topped out just one year later in 1964 at 177 m and officially opened in 1965 (then known as the Post Office Tower). One of London's first notable tall buildings was the 117 m Centre Point, completed in 1966.

Others completed in the 1960s include: the Empress State Building at 100 m in 1961, the Shell Centre at 107 m in 1961, the London Hilton at 101 m in 1963, Portland House at 101 m in 1963, and Euston Tower at 124 m in 1970, all built on the west side of Central London. In 1969, St. Helen's at 118 m was completed in the City of London, along with Britannic House in 1967 at 122 metres (400 ft), but the latter was refurbished in 2000, increased to 127m in height and renamed Citypoint. Cromwell Tower, completed in 1973, Lauderdale Tower, completed in 1974 and Shakespeare Tower, completed in 1976, all at 123 m, were built as part of the Barbican Estate in the northern part of the City of London.

1980s, 1990s and 2000s
The NatWest Tower, later renamed Tower 42, was completed in 1980, which at 183 m and 42 storeys, was considered the first "skyscraper" in the City of London. Its height was controversial, being contrary to the previous height restrictions, it was the tallest building in the United Kingdom at the time and also the tallest cantilever building in the world. Following an over ten-year gap, One Canada Square was completed in 1991 at 235 m and formed the centrepiece of the Canary Wharf development, which itself is part of the Isle of Dogs and can be considered the east-side of Central London. At 50 storeys, it became the tallest building in the United Kingdom.

With the encouragement of Ken Livingstone who was Mayor of London from 2000 to 2008, a renewed trend for building tall was established in the 2000s.

Following another over 10-year gap, 8 Canada Square and 25 Canada Square, both standing at 200 m, were completed at Canary Wharf in 2002. Several others of a smaller height followed at Canary Wharf including: Heron Quays, 40 Bank Street in 2003 at 153 m, 10 Upper Bank Street in 2003 at 151 m, and 25 Bank Street in 2004 at 153 m. In the City of London, The Gherkin was completed in 2003 at 180 m, Heron Tower in 2007 at 230 m, and the Broadgate Tower in 2008 at 165 m. Notably, some of the awards given to 30 St Mary Axe include the Emporis Skyscraper Award in 2003 and the RIBA Stirling Prize for Architecture in 2004.

2010s to present
Boris Johnson, who was Mayor of London from 2008 to 2016, approved the construction of more skyscrapers in London.

At the time of its completion in 2010, Strata SE1 was the tallest residential building in London. The Shard topped out in 2012 at London Bridge and at 309.6 m remains London's tallest building. In 2014, the 225 m tall 122 Leadenhall Street, nicknamed "the Cheesegrater", was completed in the City of London. In September 2016, a refit was completed of the 111m King's Reach Tower, originally built in the 1970s, which included an 11-storey height increase to bring it up to 150 m tall and it was renamed the South Bank Tower.

One Blackfriars, also located on the South Bank, topped out in 2017 at 163 m. The Scalpel, at 190 m was completed in the City of London in 2018 and it was designed to protect views of St Paul's Cathedral. Newfoundland Quay, at 220 m and Landmark Pinnacle at 233 m topped out in Canary Wharf in 2018 and 2019 respectively. One Park Drive at 205 m and South Quay Plaza at 215 m both also topped out at Canary Wharf in 2019. 22 Bishopsgate, at 278 m topped out in the City of London in 2019, after being approved by the current Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, in 2016.

1 Undershaft, at 290 m, also approved by Sadiq Khan in 2016, is planned to form the centrepiece of the City of London's skyscraper cluster. It is the tallest skyscraper currently proposed for London and will only be exceeded in height by The Shard. It will be built on the site of the aforementioned 1969 St Helen's building which will be demolished. 100 Leadenhall, at 249 m, and already nicknamed the "Cheesegrater 2", is also planned for the City of London. Spire London, at 235 m is planned for Canary Wharf. However, construction was halted after concerns that the building only had one escape stairwell for residents on the upper floors. The tallest of the two Riverside South towers that have been planned for construction at Canary Wharf since 2008 would have exceeded that cluster's tallest building, One Canada Square, by 1 metre in height, but construction has been stalled since 2011. Construction has started on the 216 m tall Consort Place (previously called Alpha Square) also at Canary Wharf.

There is another major skyscraper cluster emerging in the Vauxhall and Nine Elms districts of London. The first skyscraper to appear here was St George Wharf Tower at 181 m and which was completed in 2014. The tallest tower planned for this cluster is the 200 m One Nine Elms City Tower.

In 2019, Sadiq Khan blocked the construction of the 290 metre tall Tulip that would have been built in the City of London. After an appeal was launched by the developers against Khan's decision, UK housing secretary Michael Gove rejected the proposal in November 2021.

Tallest buildings and structures
This list ranks externally complete London skyscrapers and free-standing towers that stand at least 100 m (327 ft) tall, based on standard height measurement. This includes spires and architectural details but does not include antenna masts. An equals sign (=) following a rank indicates the same height between two or more buildings. The "Year" column indicates the year in which a building was completed.

* Indicates still under construction, but has been topped-out

Under construction
This lists buildings that are under construction in London and are planned to rise at least 328 ft. Under construction buildings that have already been topped out are listed above.

Approved
This lists buildings that are approved for construction in London and are planned to rise at least 328 ft.

* Table entries without text indicate that information regarding a building's expected year of completion has not yet been released.

** Approximate figure.

Proposed
This lists buildings that are proposed for construction in London and are planned to rise at least 328 ft. Once a planning application has been submitted, a decision by the relevant authority may take two or three years.

* Approximate figure.

Cancelled constructions
This lists proposals for the construction of buildings in London that were planned to rise at least 328 ft, for which planning permission was rejected or which were otherwise withdrawn.

Demolished buildings
This lists all demolished buildings in London that stood at least 328 ft tall.

Visions of skyscrapers
* Estimated height.

Timeline of tallest buildings and structures

This lists free-standing structures that have at some point held the title of tallest structure in London.