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Warwick Castle

Warwick Castle is a medieval castle developed from a wooden fort, originally built by William the Conqueror during 1068. Warwick is the county town of Warwickshire, England, situated on a meander of the River Avon. The original wooden motte-and-bailey castle was rebuilt in stone during the 12th century. During the Hundred Years War, the facade opposite the town was refortified, resulting in one of the most recognisable examples of 14th-century military architecture. It was used as a stronghold until the early 17th century, when it was granted to Sir Fulke Greville by James I in 1604. Greville converted it to a country house, and it was owned by the Greville family (who became Earls of Warwick in 1759) until 1978, when it was bought by the Tussauds Group.

In 2007, the Tussauds Group was purchased by the Blackstone Group, which merged it with Merlin Entertainments. Warwick Castle was then sold to Nick Leslau's investment firm, Prestbury Group, under a sale and leaseback agreement. Merlin continues to operate the site under a renewable 35-year lease.

Location
Warwick Castle is situated in the town of Warwick, on a sandstone bluff at a bend of the River Avon. The river, which runs below the castle on the east side, has eroded the rock the castle stands on, forming a cliff. The river and cliff form natural defences.

When construction began in 1068, four houses belonging to the Abbot of Coventry were demolished to provide space. The castle's position made it strategically important in safeguarding the Midlands against rebellion. During the 12th century, King Henry I was suspicious of Roger de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Warwick. To counter the earl's influence, Henry bestowed Geoffrey de Clinton with a position of power rivalling that of the earl. The lands he was given included Kenilworth – a castle of comparable size, cost, and importance, founded by Clinton – which is about 8 km to the north.

Warwick Castle is about 1.6 km from Warwick railway station and less than 3.2 km from junction 15 of the M40 motorway; it is also relatively close to Birmingham Airport.

Antecedent
An Anglo-Saxon burh was established on the site in 914; with fortifications instigated by Æthelflæd, daughter of Alfred the Great. The burh she established was one of ten which defended Mercia against the invading Danes. Its position allowed it to dominate the Fosse Way, as well as the river valley and the crossing over the River Avon. Though the motte to the south-west of the present castle is now called "Ethelfleda's Mound" ('Ethelfleda' being an alternative form of Æthelflæd), it is in fact part of the later Norman fortifications, and not of Anglo-Saxon origin.

It was also at this time, that what is now Warwick School was founded in the castle - making it arguably the oldest boys' school in the country. It still resides just over the River Avon, visible from all of the castle's towers.

Middle Ages
After the Norman conquest of England, William the Conqueror established a motte-and-bailey castle at Warwick in 1068 to maintain control of the Midlands as he advanced northwards. Building a castle in a pre-existing settlement could require demolishing properties on the intended site. In the case of Warwick, the least recorded of the 11 urban castles in the 1086 survey, four houses were torn down to make way for the castle. A motte-and-bailey castle consists of a mound – on which usually stands a keep or tower – and a bailey, which is an enclosed courtyard. William II appointed Henry de Beaumont, the son of a powerful Norman family, as constable of the castle. In 1088, Henry de Beaumont was made the first Earl of Warwick. He founded the Church of All Saints within the castle walls by 1119; the Bishop of Worcester, believing that a castle was an inappropriate location for a church, removed it in 1127–28.

In 1153, Gundreda de Warenne was tricked into believing that her husband, Roger de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Warwick, was dead; she then surrendered control of the castle to the invading army of Henry of Anjou, later King Henry II of England. According to the Gesta Regis Stephani, a 12th-century historical text, Roger de Beaumont died upon hearing the news that his wife had handed over the castle. King Henry II later returned the castle to the Earls of Warwick, as they had been supporters of his mother, Empress Matilda, in The Anarchy of 1135–1154.

During the reign of King Henry II (1154–89), the motte-and-bailey was replaced with a stone keep castle. This new phase took the form of a shell keep with all the buildings constructed against the curtain wall. During the Barons' Rebellion of 1173–74, the Earl of Warwick remained loyal to King Henry II, and the castle was used to store provisions. The castle and the lands associated with the earldom passed down to the Beaumont family until 1242. When Thomas de Beaumont, 6th Earl of Warwick, died, the castle and lands passed to his sister, Margaret de Beaumont, 7th Countess of Warwick in her own right. Her first husband, John Marshal, died soon after, and while she looked for a suitable husband, the castle was in the ownership of King Henry III of England. When she married John du Plessis in December 1242, the castle was returned to her. During the Second Barons' War of 1264–67, William Maudit, 8th Earl of Warwick, was a supporter of King Henry III. The castle was taken in a surprise attack by the forces of Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, from Kenilworth Castle in 1264. According to 15th-century chronicler John Rous, the walls along the northeastern side of Warwick Castle were slighted, so "that it should be no strength to the king". Maudit and his countess were taken to Kenilworth Castle and were held there until a ransom was paid. After the death of William Maudit in 1267, the title and castle passed to his nephew, William de Beauchamp, 9th Earl of Warwick. Following William's death, Warwick Castle passed through seven generations of the Beauchamp family, who, over the next 180 years, were responsible for most of the additions made to the castle. In 1312, Piers Gaveston, 1st Earl of Cornwall, was captured by Guy de Beauchamp, 10th Earl of Warwick, and imprisoned in Warwick Castle, until his execution on 9 June 1312. A group of magnates led by the Earl of Warwick and Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, accused Gaveston of stealing the royal treasure.

Under Thomas de Beauchamp, 11th Earl, the castle defences were significantly enhanced in 1330–60 on the north eastern side by the addition of a gatehouse, a barbican (a form of fortified gateway), and a tower on either side of the reconstructed wall, named Caesar's Tower and Guy's Tower. The Watergate Tower also dates from this period.

Caesar's and Guy's Towers are residential and may have been inspired by French models (for example Bricquebec). Both towers are machicolated and Caesar's Tower features a unique double parapet. The two towers are also vaulted in stone on every storey. Caesar's Tower contained a grim basement dungeon; according to local legend dating back to at least 1644 it is also known as Poitiers Tower, either because prisoners from the Battle of Poitiers in 1356 may have been imprisoned there, or because the ransoms raised from the battle helped to pay for its construction. The gatehouse features murder holes, two drawbridges, a gate, and portcullises – gates made from wood or metal. The towers of the gatehouse were machicolated.

The facade overlooking the river was designed as a symbol of the power and wealth of the Beauchamp earls and would have been "of minimal defensive value"; this followed a trend of 14th-century castles being more statements of power than designed exclusively for military use.

15th and 16th centuries
The line of the Beauchamp Earls ended in 1449 when Anne de Beauchamp, 15th Countess of Warwick, died. Richard Neville, the Kingmaker, became the next Earl of Warwick through his wife's inheritance of the title. During the summer of 1469, Neville rebelled against King Edward IV of England and imprisoned him in Warwick Castle. Neville attempted to rule in the King's name; however, constant protests by the King's supporters forced the Earl to release the King. Neville was subsequently killed in the Battle of Barnet, fighting against the King in 1471 during the Wars of the Roses.

Warwick Castle then passed from Neville to his son-in-law, George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence (brother of King Edward IV). George Plantagenet was executed in 1478, and his lands passed onto his son, Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick; however, Edward Plantagenet was only two when his father died, so his lands were taken in the custody of The Crown. He was placed under attainder, and so could not inherit the throne, by King Henry VII of England, being held by the King for fourteen years in the Tower of London until he was executed for high treason in 1499, supposedly for conspiring to escape with the 'pretender' Perkin Warbeck. Edward was the last Earl of Warwick of the title's first creation.

In the early 1480s, King Richard III of England (the other son-in-law of Neville) instigated the construction of two gun towers, Bear and Clarence Towers, which were left unfinished on his death in 1485; with their own well and ovens, the towers were an independent stronghold from the rest of the castle, possibly in case of mutiny by the garrison. With the advent of gunpowder, the position of Keeper of the Artillery was created in 1486.

When antiquary John Leland visited the castle some time between 1535 and 1543, he noted that: "... the dungeon now in ruin standeth in the west-north-west part of the castle. There is also a tower west-north-west, and through it a postern-gate of iron. All the principal lodgings of the castle with the hall and chapel lie on the south side of the castle, and here the king doth much cost in making foundations in the rocks to sustain that side of the castle, for great pieces fell out of the rocks that sustain it."

While in the care of The Crown, Warwick Castle underwent repairs and renovations using about 500 loads of stone. The castle, as well as lands associated with the earldom, was in Crown care from 1478 until 1547, when they were granted to John Dudley with the second creation of the title the Earl of Warwick. When making his appeal for ownership of the castle Dudley said of the castle's condition: "... the castle of its self is not able to lodge a good baron with his train, for all the one side of the said castle with also the dungeon tower is clearly ruinated and down to the ground".

Warwick Castle had fallen into decay due to its age and neglect, and despite his remarks Dudley did not initiate any repairs to the castle. Queen Elizabeth I visited the castle in 1566 during a tour of the country, and again in 1572 for four nights. A timber building was erected in the castle for her to stay in, and Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick, left the castle to the Queen during her visits.

When Ambrose Dudley died in 1590 the title of Earl of Warwick became extinct for the second time. A survey from 1590 recorded that the castle was still in a state of disrepair, noting that lead had been stolen from the roofs of some of the castle's buildings, including the chapel.

17th-century country house
In October 1601 Sir Fulke Greville wrote that "the little stone building there was, mightily in decay, the timber lodgings built thirty years ago for herself (Elizabeth I) all ruinous; ... so as in very short time there will be nothing left but a name of Warwick". Greville was granted the ruinous Warwick Castle by King James I in 1604 and it was converted to a country house. The conversion of the castle coincided with a period of decline in the use of castles during the 15th and 16th centuries; many were either being abandoned or converted into comfortable residences for the gentry. In the early 17th century, Robert Smythson was commissioned to draw a plan of the castle before any changes were made. Whilst the castle was undergoing repairs, it was peripherally involved in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. The conspirators involved awaited news of their plot in Dunchurch in Warwickshire. When they discovered the plot had failed they stole cavalry horses from the stables at Warwick Castle to help in their escape.

When the title of Earl of Warwick was created for the third time in 1618, the Greville family were still in possession of Warwick Castle. Fulke Greville, who was himself ennobled as Baron Brooke in 1621, spent over £20,000 (£ as of ) renovating the castle, while occupying a suite of rooms in the Watergate Tower; according to William Dugdale, a 17th-century antiquary, this made it "a place not only of great strength but extraordinary delight, with most pleasant gardens, walks and thickets, such as this part of England can hardly parallel".

On 1 September 1628 Fulke Greville was murdered in Holborn by his manservant: Ralph Haywood – a "gentleman" – who stabbed the baron twice after discovering he had been omitted from mention in Greville's will. Greville died from his wounds four weeks later. The Watergate Tower, which is said to be haunted by his ghost, became known as the Ghost Tower. Under Robert Greville, 2nd Baron Brooke, Warwick Castle's defences were enhanced from January to May 1642 in preparation for attack during the First English Civil War. The garden walls were raised, bulwarks – barricades of beams and soil to mount artillery – were constructed and gunpowder and wheels for two cannons were obtained. Robert Greville was a Parliamentarian, and on 7 August 1642 a Royalist force laid siege to the castle. Greville was not in the castle at the time and the garrison was under the command of Sir Edward Peyto. Spencer Compton, 2nd Earl of Northampton, Lord Lieutenant of Warwickshire commanded the Royalist force. William Dugdale, acting as a herald, called for the garrison commander to surrender the castle, but he was refused. The besieging army opened fire on the castle, to little effect. According to Richard Bulstrode:

"... our endeavours for taking it were to little purpose, for we had only two small pieces of cannon which were brought from Compton House, belonging to the Earl of Northampton, and those were drawn up to the top of the church steeple, and were discharged at the castle, to which they could do no hurt, but only frightened them within the castle, who shot into the street, and killed several of our men."

The siege was lifted on 23 August 1642 when the garrison was relieved by the forces of the Earl of Essex, and the Royalists were forced to retreat to Worcester. After the Battle of Edgehill in 1642 – the first pitched battle of the English Civil War – prisoners were held in Caesar's and Guy's Towers.

During the Second English Civil War prisoners were again held at the castle, including those from the Battle of Worcester in 1651. A garrison was maintained in the castle complete with artillery and supplies from 1643 to 1660, at its strongest it numbered 302 soldiers. In 1660 the English Council of State ordered the castle governor to disband the garrison and hand over the castle to Robert Greville, 4th Baron Brooke. The state apartments were found to be outmoded and in poor repair.

Under Roger and William Hurlbutt, master carpenters of Warwick, extensive modernization of the interiors was undertaken, 1669–78. To ensure that they would be in the latest taste, William was sent to Dorset to make careful notes of the interiors recently finished at Kingston Lacy for Sir Ralph Bankes to designs by Sir Roger Pratt. On 4 November 1695 the castle was in sufficient state to host a visit by King William III.

Francis Greville, 8th Baron Brooke, undertook a renewed programme of improvements to Warwick Castle and its grounds. The 8th Baron Brooke was also bestowed with the title Earl of Warwick in 1759, the fourth creation of the title. With the recreation of the title, the castle was back in the ownership of the earls of Warwick. Daniel Garrett's work at Warwick is documented in 1748; Howard Colvin attributed to him the Gothic interior of the chapel. Lancelot "Capability" Brown had been on hand since 1749. Brown, who was still head gardener at Stowe at the time and had yet to make his reputation as the main exponent of the English landscape garden, was called in by Lord Brooke to give Warwick Castle a more "natural" connection to its river. Brown simplified the long narrow stretch by sweeping it into a lawn that dropped right to the riverbank, stopped at each end by bold clumps of native trees. A serpentine drive gave an impression of greater distance between the front gates and the castle entrance.

Horace Walpole saw Brown's maturing scheme in 1751 and remarked in a letter: "The castle is enchanting. The view pleased me more than I can express; the river Avon tumbled down a cascade at the foot of it. It is well laid out by one Brown who has set up on a few ideas of Kent and Mr Southcote."

In 1754 the poet Thomas Gray, a member of Walpole's Gothicising circle, commented disdainfully on the activity at the castle:

"... he [Francis Greville] has sash'd the great apartment ... and being since told, that square sash windows were not Gothic, he has put certain whimwams withinside the glass, which appearing through are to look like fretwork. Then he has scooped out a little burrough in the massy walls of the place for his little self and his children, which is hung with paper and printed linnen, and carved chimney-pieces, in the exact manner of Berkley-square or Argyle Buildings."

Gray's mention of Argyle Buildings, Westminster, London, elicited a connotation of an inappropriately modern Georgian urban development, for the buildings in Argyll Street were a speculation to designs of James Gibbs, 1736–40.

Greville commissioned Italian painter Antonio Canaletto to paint Warwick Castle in 1747, while the castle grounds and gardens were undergoing landscaping by Brown. Five paintings and three drawings of the castle by Canaletto are known, making it the artist's most often represented building in Britain. Canaletto's work on Warwick Castle has been described as "unique in the history of art as a series of views of an English house by a major continental master". As well as the gardens, Greville commissioned Brown to rebuild the exterior entrance porch and stairway to the Great Hall. Brown also contributed Gothick designs for a wooden bridge over the Avon (1758). He was still at work on Warwick Castle in 1760. Timothy Lightoler was responsible for the porch being extended and extra rooms added adjacent to it in 1763–69. and during the same years William Lindley provided a new Dining Room and other interior alterations. In 1786–88 the local builder William Eboral was commissioned to build the new greenhouse conservatory, with as its principal ornament the Warwick Vase, recently purchased in Rome.

In 1802 George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick of the new creation, had debts amounting to £115,000 (£ as of ). The earl's estates, including Warwick Castle, were given to the Earl of Galloway and John FitzPatrick, 2nd Earl of Upper Ossory, in 1806, but the castle was returned to the earls of Warwick in 1813. The Great Hall was reroofed and repaired in Gothic taste in 1830–31 by Ambrose Poynter. Anthony Salvin was responsible for restoring the Watergate Tower in 1861–63.

The castle was extensively damaged by a fire in 1871 that started to the east of the Great Hall. The fire was found to have been started deliberately by the under-butler who, with an accomplice, had stolen all the valuables in the private apartments and then set them on fire to conceal the robbery. Although the Great Hall and private apartments were gutted, the overall structure was unharmed. Restoration and reparations carried out by Salvin during 1872–75 were subsidised by donations from the public, which raised a total of £9,651 (£ as of ).

Advent of tourism
Individuals had been visiting the castle since the end of the 17th century, and this grew in importance through the 19th century. In 1858, Queen Victoria visited the 4th earl, with great local celebrations. However, by 1885 it would appear the visitors were becoming a nuisance, as the earl closed the castle to visitors, causing consternation in the town. A local report stated, "One day last week eight American visitors who were staying at one of the principal hotels left somewhat hurriedly in consequence of their being unable to gain admission to the castle". It soon re-opened, again and by 1900 had a ticket office and was employing a permanent guide. By 1936, Arthur Mee was enthusing not just that "these walls have seen something of the splendour of every generation of our [English] story", with rooms "rich in treasure beyond the dreams of avarice" but also that "their rooms are open to all who will".

Through the 20th century, successive earls expanded the castle's tourism potential.

Corporate ownership
In 1967, Charles Greville, 7th Earl of Warwick, transferred the castle and other estates to his son and heir, Lord Brooke, who in 1978 sold the Castle to the Tussauds Group for £1,300,000. The castle had been in the Greville family for 374 years, and its sale caused a public confrontation between father and son.

Tussauds kept the castle in use mainly as a tourist attraction, while making extensive restorations to the castle and grounds. In twelve of the apartments open to tourists after the sale, wax figures of historic people are presented. Those depicted here were guests at a weekend party in 1898 hosted by Frances, Countess of Warwick; the principal guest was the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII.

The collection of armoury on display at Warwick Castle is regarded as second only to that of the Tower of London. In 2001, Warwick Castle was named one of Britain's "Top 10 historic houses and monuments" by the British Tourist Authority; the list included Tower of London, Stonehenge, and Edinburgh Castle. Warwick Castle was recognised as Britain's best castle by the Good Britain Guide 2003. Around this time it was getting more than half a million visitors a year.

In March 2007, the Tussauds Group sold the castle to the Blackstone Inc. investment firm, and the site was then operated by Merlin Entertainments, a division of that Blackstone. In July of that year, Warwick Castle was sold again to the Prestbury Group but it continued to be operated by Merlin under a renewable 35-year lease.

Seasonal exhibits
Other tourist attractions include "Falconer's Quest'" (a bird show, featuring bald eagles, vultures, and sea eagles), archery displays, Jousting,"The Trebuchet Show" and "The Sword in the Stone Show". The Castle is also home to "The Castle Dungeon", a live actor experience similar to that of "London Dungeons". Warwick Castle is the subject of many ghost stories. One such instance is that of Fulke Greville who is said to haunt the Watergate Tower despite having been murdered in Holborn. The castle's reputation for being haunted is used as a tourist attraction with events such as "Warwick Ghosts Alive", a live-action show telling the story of Fulke Greville's murder. Musical events at the castle have included carolling, with performances by bands such as the Royal Spa Brass.

At times during Summer 2018, the castle offered its War of the Roses event with jousting and other action. On certain dates in August, Dragon Slayer evenings were scheduled, with dining, a projection light show, pyrotechnics, fire jousting and live action stunts.

Heritage protection
The castle is protected against unauthorised change as a scheduled monument in recognition of its status as a "nationally important" archaeological site or historic building, and is a Grade I listed building together with its boundary walls, stables, conservatory, mill and lodge.

On 23 June 2006, a £20,000 stained glass window was damaged by teenage vandals and a ceremonial sword stolen, recovered soon after.

Warwick Castle trebuchet
In June 2005, Warwick Castle became home to one of the world's largest working siege engines. The trebuchet is 18 m tall, made from over 300 pieces of oak and weighs 22 t. It sits on the riverbank below the castle.

The machine was built with drawings from the Danish living history museum Middelaldercentret, who, in 1989, were the first to recreate a fully functioning trebuchet. It was built in Wiltshire with expertise from the Danish museum.

The trebuchet takes eight men half an hour to load and release. The process involves four men running in 4 m tall treadwheels to lift the counterweight, weighing 6 t, into the air. It is designed to be capable of hurling projectiles of up to 150 kg distances of up to 300 m and as high as 25 m.

On 21 August 2006, the trebuchet claimed the record as the most powerful siege engine of its type when it sent a projectile weighing 13 kg a distance of 249 m at a speed of 195 km/h, beating the previous record held by the trebuchet at Middelaldercentret in Denmark.

On 10 April 2015 a thatched boathouse caught fire shortly after a burning cannonball was fired by the trebuchet. It was reported that a spark from the cannonball had started the blaze although a castle spokeswoman said the cause had not yet been established. Hundreds of tourists were evacuated from the castle, but the spokeswoman said they were not at any risk. The Daily Telegraph described the boathouse as "historic", "medieval" and dating to 1896, when the 5th Earl had it built to house an electric boat.

The trebuchet was decommissioned in 2020 due to safety concerns, and was deconstructed and replaced with a comparable trebuchet in 2023.

Layout

The current castle, built in stone during the reign of King Henry II, is on the same site as the earlier Norman motte-and-bailey castle. A keep used to stand on the motte which is on the south west of the site, although most of the structure now dates from the post-medieval period. In the 17th century the motte was landscaped with the addition of a path. The bailey was incorporated into the new castle and is surrounded by stone curtain walls.

When Warwick Castle was rebuilt in the reign of King Henry II it had a new layout with the buildings against the curtain walls. The castle is surrounded by a dry moat on the northern side where there is no protection from the river or the old motte; the perimeter of the walls is 130 m long by 82 m wide. The two entrances to castle are in the north and west walls. There was originally a drawbridge over the moat in the north east. In the centre of the north west wall is a gateway with Clarence and Bears towers on either side; this is a 15th-century addition to the fortifications of the castle. The residential buildings line the eastern side of the castle, facing the River Avon. These buildings include the great hall, the library, bedrooms, and the chapel.

Owners
Over its 950 years of history Warwick Castle has been owned by 36 different individuals, plus four periods as crown property under seven different monarchs. It was the family seat of three separate creations of the Earls of Warwick, and has been a family home for members of the Beaumont, Beauchamp, Neville, Plantagenet, Dudley and Greville families. The first creation of the Earldom specifically included the right of inheritance through the female line, so the castle three times had a woman (or girl) as the owner. Eleven of the owners were under 20 when they inherited, including a girl aged two and a boy aged three. At least three owners died in battle, two were executed and one murdered. Every century except the 21st has seen major building work or adaptations at the castle.

Grounds, park, accommodations
Formal gardens belonging to Warwick Castle were first recorded in 1534. Landscaping in the 17th century added spiral paths to the castle motte during Fulke Greville's programme of restoration. Francis Greville commissioned Capability Brown to re-landscape the castle grounds; he began working on the grounds and park in 1749 and had completed his work by 1757, having spent about £2,293 (£ as of ). on the project. The gardens cover 2.8 km2. Robert Marnock created formal gardens in the castle's grounds in 1868–69. Started in 1743 and originally known as Temple Park, Castle Park is located to the south of the castle. Its original name derived from the Knights Templar, who used to own a manor in Warwick. Houses around the perimeter of the park were demolished and the land they stood on incorporated into the park. Attempts to make profits from the park in the late 18th century included leasing it for grazing, growing wheat, and keeping sheep.

A water-powered mill in the castle grounds was probably built under Henry de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Warwick. By 1398 the mill had been relocated to just outside the eastern castle walls, on the west bank of the River Avon. Both mills were subject to flooding. By 1644, an engine house had been added to the mill. The mill was reused as an electricity generating plant after it had stopped being used to grind, but once Warwick Castle was fitted with mains electricity in 1940, the mill was no longer required and was dismantled in 1954.

The latest option at the castle is glamping, overnight stays in nicely decorated tents in an area labelled Knight's Village. The units include no cooking facilities, so the fee for the stay includes a buffet dinner and a breakfast. The previously introduced accommodations in timber lodges also remain available in the Woodland Hideaway area.

title: Warwick Castle


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Izamal

Izamal is a small city in the Mexican state of Yucatán, 72 km east of state capital Mérida, in southern Mexico.

Izamal was continuously occupied throughout most of Mesoamerican chronology; in 2000, the city's estimated population was 15,000 people. Izamal is known in Yucatán as the Yellow City (most of its buildings are painted yellow) and the City of Hills (that actually are the remains of ancient temple pyramids).

Pre-Columbian Izamal
Izamal is an important archaeological site of the Pre-Columbian Maya civilization. It is probably the biggest city of the Northern Yucatec Plains, covering a minimal urban extension of 53 km2. Its monumental buildings exceed 1,000,000 cubic meters of constructive volume and at least two raised causeways, known by their Mayan term sacbeob, connect it with other important centers, Ruins of Ake, located 29 km to the west and Kantunil, 18 kilometers to the south, evidencing the religious, political and economic power of this political unit over a territory of more than 5000 km2 in extension. Izamal developed a particular constructive technique involving use of megalithic carved blocks, with defined architectonical characteristics like rounded corners, projected mouldings and thatched roofs at superstructures, which also appeared in other important urban centers within its hitherland, such as Ake, Uci and Dzilam.

The city was founded during the Late Formative Period (750–200 BC) and was continuously occupied until the Spanish Conquest. The most important constructive activity stage spans between Protoclassic (200 BC – 200 AD) and Late Classic (600–800 AD). It was partially abandoned with the rise of Chichen Itza in the Terminal Classic (800–1000 A.D.) until the end of the Precolumbian era, when Izamal was considered a site of pilgrimages in the region, rivaled only by Chichen Itza. Its principal temples were sacred to the creator deity Itzamna and to the Sun god Kinich Ahau.

Five huge Pre-Columbian structures are still easily visible at Izamal (and two from some distance away in all directions). The first is a great pyramid to the Maya Sun god, Kinich Kak Moo (macaw of the solar fire face) with a base covering over 2 acres (8,000 m2) of ground and a volume of some 700,000 cubic meters. Atop this grand base is a pyramid of ten levels. To the south-east lies another great temple, called Itzamatul, and placed at the south of what was a main plaza, another huge building, called Ppap Hol Chak, was partially destroyed with the construction of a Franciscan temple during the 16th century. The south-west side of the plaza is partially limited by another pyramid, the Hun Pik Tok, and in the west lie the remains of the temple known as Kabul, where a great stucco mask still existed on one side as recently as the 1840s, as seen in a colored lithograph after a drawing by Frederick Catherwood. All these large man-made mounds probably were built up over several centuries and originally supported city palaces and temples. Other important residential buildings which have been restored and can be visited are Xtul (The Rabbit), Habuc and Chaltun Ha.

After more than a decade of archaeological work done by Mexican archaeologists at Izamal, over 163 archaeologically important structures have been found there, and thousands of residential structures at surrounding communities have been located.

Spanish Colonial era
After the Spanish conquest of Yucatán in the 16th century a Spanish colonial city was founded atop the existing Maya one; however it was decided that it would take a prohibitively large amount of work to level these two huge structures and so the Spanish contented themselves with placing a small Christian temple atop the great pyramid and building a large Franciscan Monastery atop the acropolis. It was named after San Antonio de Padua. Completed in 1561, the open atrium of the Monastery is still today second in size only to that at the Vatican. Most of the cut stone from the Pre-Columbian city was reused to build the Spanish churches, monastery, and surrounding buildings.

Izamal was the first chair of the Bishops of Yucatán before they were moved to Mérida. The fourth Bishop of Yucatán, Diego de Landa lived here.

Modern history
The town of Izamal was first granted the status of city by the government of Yucatán on 4 December 1841. On 13 August 1923 it was demoted to town status. It regained its status as a city on 1 December 1981.

For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, the henequen industry formed the basis of Izamal's economy. When that industry declined in the 1960s, the municipal and state government began efforts to turn Izamal into a tourist destination, transforming the city's appearance in the process. Izamal's buildings owe their distinctive color scheme to Jorge Carlos González Rodríguez, mayor of Izamal from 1959 to 1961, who ordered the removal of the commercial signs that blighted the facades and rooftops of many buildings at the time, and the painting of those buildings in yellow and white. In 1965, Governor of Yucatán Luis Torres Mesías ordered the demolition of several buildings surrounding the San Antonio de Padua convent. He and his successor Carlos Loret de Mola Mediz also oversaw the conversion of Plaza Zamná from a public market into a park.

Pope John Paul II visited Izamal in August 1993, where he performed a mass and presented the statue of the Virgin with a silver crown.

Present day
Izamal remains a place of pilgrimage within the state of Yucatán, now for the veneration of Roman Catholic saints. Several saints statues at Izamal are said to perform miracles. An early colonial era statue of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception ("Our Lady of Izamal") is particularly venerated, and is the state's patron saint.

The Yucatec Maya language is still heard at least as much as Spanish in Izamal. It is the first language in the homes of the majority of the people. Most signs are in both languages.

Major Fiestas are held in Izamal on April 3, May 3, August 15, and December 8.

Izamal is the home of a distillery which produces an eponymous mezcal from the hearts of the locally grown agave plants.

Izamal was named a "Pueblo Mágico" in 2002.

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

title: Izamal


text:
NeoStead 2000

The NeoStead 2000 (NS2000) is a bullpup combat shotgun developed by Truvelo Armoury of South Africa.

Production of the shotgun began in 2001 and the first models were made available in October of that same year. It is notable due to its unusual forward-and-back pump-action cycling motion.

Design and production
The NS2000 is a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun weighing just under 4 kg, designed primarily for security and civil disturbance situations.

The firearm includes a 570 mm barrel despite the overall weapon length of just 690 mm. The short length makes the weapon easier to handle in close-quarters situations; however it can still remain accurate at relatively long ranges. The long barrel length is achieved by using a bullpup configuration, with a rear-fed tubular magazine.

Another aspect of the NS2000 is its dual six-round (6+6) magazine. The selector switch can be set to left, right, or alternating. In riot conditions, for example, less-lethal flexible baton rounds can be used with standard rounds in reserve.

A possible production variant of the NS2000 has a 460 mm barrel in a weapon with an overall length of 560 mm. The shorter barrel length reduces capacity to a dual five-round (5+5) magazine. This makes the weapon easier to import or licence in some countries.

Its pump-action mechanism operates in a forward-and-back motion due to its moving-barrel mechanism, instead of the traditional moving-action of back-and-forward motion. This method of operation is quite rare. Safety is increased by this method, since the pumping hand cannot accidentally slide in front of the shooting barrel.

The NS2000 has been available for civilian purchase since 2003, with the majority of sales in Europe.

Patent drawings
Patent drawings of the NeoStead 2000.

title: NeoStead 2000


text:
User talk:JayTau

Hello everyone, I'm a .net developer from Seattle Washington, I love C#, scifi, and other nerdly things.

title: User talk:JayTau


text:
Georg Ebers

Georg Moritz Ebers (1 March 1837 – 7 August 1898) was a German Egyptologist and novelist. He is best known for his purchase of the Ebers Papyrus, one of the oldest Egyptian medical documents in the world.

Life
Georg Ebers was born in Berlin and was the youngest of the five children of an affluent family of bankers and porcelain manufacturers. The Ebers children were raised by their mother on her own, after their father committed suicide shortly after Ebers was born. His mother ran a salon popular among members of the intelligentsia, which included Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, the Grimm Brothers, and Alexander von Humboldt.

At Göttingen, Ebers studied jurisprudence, and at Berlin Oriental languages and archaeology. Having made a special study of Egyptology, he became in 1865 Dozent in Egyptian language and antiquities at Jena, becoming professor in 1868. In 1870 he was appointed professor in these subjects at Leipzig. He had made two scientific journeys to Egypt, and his first work of importance, Ägypten und die Bücher Moses, appeared in 1867–1868. In 1874 he edited the celebrated medical papyrus (Papyrus Ebers) which he had discovered in Thebes (translation by H. Joachim, 1890).

Ebers early conceived the idea of popularising Egyptian lore by means of historical romances. Eine ägyptische Königstochter (An Egyptian Princess) was published in 1864 and obtained great success. His subsequent works of the same kind — Uarda (1877), Homo sum (1878), Die Schwestern (1880), Der Kaiser (1881), of which the scene is laid in Egypt at the time of Hadrian, Serapis (1885), Die Nilbraut (1887), and Kleopatra (1894) — were also well received, and did much to make the public familiar with the discoveries of Egyptologists. Ebers also turned his attention to other fields of historical fiction — especially the 16th century (Die Frau Bürgermeisterin, 1882; Die Gred, 1887) — without, however, attaining the success of his Egyptian novels.

Ebers discovered the Ebers Papyrus (ca. 1550 BCE) at Luxor (Thebes) in the winter of 1873–74. Now in the Leipzig University Library, the Ebers Papyrus is among the most important ancient Egyptian medical papyri. It is one of two of the oldest preserved medical documents anywhere — the other being the Edwin Smith Papyrus (ca. 1600 BCE). The Ebers Papyrus mentions more than 700 substances and medical recipes that include incantations and concoctions. Ebers published it as a facsimile with an English-Latin vocabulary and introduction.

His other writings include a descriptive work on Egypt (Aegypten in Wort und Bild, 2nd ed., 1880); Palestine in Picture and Word (Palästina in Bild und Word), an 1884 translation of the English series Picturesque Palestine, Sinai, and Egypt; a life (1885) of his old teacher, the Egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius; and a guide to Egypt (1886). In 1889, the state of his health led him to retire from his chair at Leipzig on a pension.

Ebers's Collected Works appeared in 25 volumes at Stuttgart (1893–1895). Many of his books have been translated into English. For his life, see his Die Geschichte meines Lebens (Stuttgart, 1893); also R. Gosche, G. Ebers, der Forscher und Dichter (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1887).

Ebers was elected an International Member of the American Philosophical Society in 1895.

Arachne, which was published on 7 August 1898, was Ebers' last novel. It was written at the Villa Ebers in Tutzing, near Munich.

Works

 * Scholarship
 * Ägypten und die Bücher Moses (1867–1868) [transl. as Egypt and the Book of Moses] (Editor)
 * Egypt: Descriptive, Historical, and Picturesque (1879)
 * Aegypten in Wort und Bild, 2nd ed., 1880)
 * Palestine in Picture and Word (Palästina in Bild und Word), an 1884 translation of the English series Picturesque Palestine, Sinai, and Egypt
 * Richard Lepsius, ein Lebensbild (1885) [transl. as Richard Lepsius: A Biography (1887)]
 * Lorenz Alma Tadema: His Life and Works (1886) [transl. Mary J. Safford, 1834-1891]

 * Fiction - Egyptian
 * Eine ägyptische Königstochter (1864) [An Egyptian Princess, transl. by Eleanor Grove] - Ebers' first novel
 * Uarda: Roman aus dem alten Aegypten (1877) [Uarda: A Romance of Ancient Egypt, transl. by Clara Bell]
 * Homo sum (1878) [transl. by Clara Bell] - a novella about 4th century A.D. Christianity on the Sinai peninsula
 * Die Schwestern (1880) [The Sisters, transl. by Clara Bell]
 * Der Kaiser (1881) [The Emperor, transl. by Clara Bell] (Hadrian)
 * Serapis, a Romance (1885) - a novel on the destruction of the Library of Alexandria
 * Die Nilbraut (1887) [The Bride of the Nile]
 * Kleopatra (1894) [Cleopatra]
 * Arachne (1898) (transl. by Mary J. Safford]
 * A Thorny Path (Per Aspera) (1892) [transl. by Clara Bell]

 * Fiction - non-Egyptian
 * Die Frau Bürgermeisterin (1882) [transl. by Mary J. Safford as The Burgomaster's Wife; a Tale of the Siege of Leyden]
 * Die Gred (1887) [transl. by Clara Bell as Margery: A Tale of Old Nuremberg]
 * Barbara Blomberg: A Historical Romance
 * In the Blue Pike (Germany)
 * Ein Wort [A Word, Only a Word, transl. Mary J. Safford] ("Black Forest in the 16th century. Gives terrible pictures of the persecutions and sufferings of the Jews."

 * Additional Fiction
 * Eine Frage. Idyll zu einem Gemälde seines Freundes Alma Tadema [transl. A Question. The Idyll of a Picture by his Friend Alma Tadema by Mary J. Safford]
 * Joshua: A Story of Biblical Times (1890)
 * In the Fire of the Forge: A Romance of Old Nuremberg [transl. by Mary J. Safford]
 * Elixir, and Other Tales (fairy tales)
 * In the Desert (1900) [transl. by Mary J. Safford]
 * Elifen: A Dream of the Desert (verse)

 * Short fiction
 * The Greylock: A Fairy Tale
 * The Nuts

 * Memoir
 * Die Geschichte meines Lebens [The Story of My Life from Childhood to Manhood] (Stuttgart, 1893)

 * Collected Works
 * Collected Works appeared in 25 volumes at Stuttgart (1893–1895)

title: Georg Ebers


text:
Talk:Blessed Virgin Mary

Enoch and the BVM
I have found this interesting claim that Saint-Germain/Enoch/Metatron was also Saint Joseph, the husband of Mary. If this was the case, Enoch could almost be considered to be a Co-Redemptor too. ADM (talk) 03:55, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

 * Hi, although interesting, it is clearly original research and WP:OR disallows its use, even if it is 100% true. The missionsaintgermain site is not a reliable 3rd party type site either. But in any case, this is clearly a WP:OR situation. History2007 (talk) 03:12, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Liturgical Christians?
Hello, the very first sentence refers to "liturgical Christians". I feel embarrassed to ask this, but what does that mean? Is there another way to word this to make it easier to understand for people who don't know much about Christianity... or people who do but have gaps in their knowledge? Thank you. Loves Macs  (talk) 00:08, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

 * Hi, no worries. It happens that Wikipedia had a definition burried within a page, so I just added a link and a redirect. Cheers History2007 (talk) 03:11, 31 March 2009 (UTC)
 * I have never heard of a formal category for this, thank you for finding it. Loves  Macs  (talk) 15:14, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

 * You are welcome. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. There is a huge amount of information within Wikipedia that is not easily accessible or well categorized. And the situation within Wikimedia is even more desperate. And ironically, all the info needed to remedy the situation is also within Wikipedia: e.g. please see: my improvement list. Cheers. History2007 (talk) 16:16, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

BVM vs Mary, Mother of Jesus
Why is this page separate from the Mary, Mother of Jesus page?? Lily20 (talk) 23:11, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

 * Because there was a loooong debate 2 years ago about it. Decision was to separate. History2007 (talk) 00:45, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia: Index of Information, or Theological Authority?
As far as I was concerned, Wikipedia is a place for information, not a place to assert beliefs. "Maria is truly the Mother of God (De Fide). ...if Mary was not Mother of God, then Jesus was in fact not God." Really now! Is that a "fact?" Or is that the authoritive Roman Catholic view? Since it is, that is how it should be stated: "According to Roman Catholicism, Maria is thee mother of god," as opposed to presenting this as "fact." This is an encyclopedia, not a Roman Catholic mouthpiece. I don't adhere to Christianity or any religion for that matter, but I find this assertion absurd. Assuming for a moment, that there is actually a figure called "god" and there was a personage named "Mary/Maria," and the "Bible" is the ultimate authority, "if Mary was not Mother of God, then Jesus was in fact not God" is an theologically anachronistic statement. If "in the beginning, god created the heaven and earth," and Mary came a long time afterwards, then we have a big problem, because if Mary is THEE mother of god, then god couldn't have been around to create Adam, Even and all the people leading up to Mary. If god existed before Mary, and Jesus was supposed to be god, than this would make Mary basically a surrogate womb with no connection to god whatsoever. I'm no Christian, but please. Present the views and beliefs as they are, views and beliefs, and not as matter-of-fact, thank you.KogeJoe (talk) 02:41, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

 * Second paragraph in the article says: This ecumenical article is about general Christian views. Hence the article is already declared as being about the "Christan views". And I think you intended to say "as far as I am concerned" at the beginning... but we will not let grammar get in our way.... History2007 (talk) 06:23, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Links
I removed several dead links + two others : which is about a heart-shaped hole discovered in the snow in Poland, which seems to me as failing requirements for notability or relevance ; which, at least on the page linked to, has only limited reference to Mary, and no relation whatsoever to a "defense" of Mary.
 * Virgin Mary's Heart
 * Mary Defended

It would be best if more informative, and preferably more NPOV, links were added.--Alþykkr (talk) 22:09, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

merging
this and Virgin Mary is the same thing roxy: JELLO says HELLO (talk) 23:30, 3 May 2010 (UTC)

I agree. I'm going to tag the article. I don't think there are two BVM's, one Catholic and one "Ecumenical." I think Christ just had the one mother. Reminds me of the "separate but equal" law. Malke 2010 (talk) 22:22, 13 September 2010 (UTC)
 * This is at the top of the article: "This ecumenical article is about general Christian views on and veneration of the Virgin Mary." Catholics are Christians.  Anglicans are Christians.  Lutherans are Christians.  Don't see the need to "separate but equal" them out here.Malke 2010 (talk) 22:27, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

 * This discussion took place at length before. See the comments at the end of the Roman Catholic article. History2007 (talk) 22:36, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

 * It needs to be taken again. This article is heavily Catholic as is.  Both articles can easily be merged/purged.Malke 2010 (talk) 23:35, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

 * That is your opinion. We will wait for comments from other editors, but the discussion needs to be in one place, say: Talk:Blessed_Virgin_Mary_(Roman_Catholic) which has a detailed response. History2007 (talk) 23:39, 13 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Merge the two articles User:Lucifero4

Given that there have been no objections to the merger, and given the overlap of material, it should just be done to streamline the articles. The only logical way is:

 * A set of specialized articles such as Anglican Marian theology, Islamic views on Mary, Protestant views on Mary, Blessed Virgin Mary (Roman Catholic) give the details of specific viewpoints.

 * Mary (mother of Jesus) has a general discussion and has short sections that refer to the specialized articles via Main directives.

This is the only way the merger will make sense, for we could not have articles on Islamic views, Protestant views, etc. and not one on Roman Catholic views, given that there is much more material, and a much higher emphasis on Marian issues within the Catholic tradition than the others.

And the merger is not hard, given the large overlap of the material here with the Mother of Jesus aticle (Lutheran sections are identical) and the RC article, where rosary, music, art, etc. are almost identical. The protestant section has very few references, so I will also find and add some of those later to keep the overll article in shape. There is also some material about "socialimpact" and chivalry that really belongs in the Mariology article, not an article about Mary, so I will transfer it. The Islamic section in Mary (mother of Jesus) is a subsection and should probably become a section, so I will do that. The Chriistian section in Mary (mother of Jesus) should also be alphabetically sorted, and I will order it. History2007 (talk) 05:43, 26 September 2010 (UTC)

Virgin Mary and Blessed Virgin Mary
There was a discussion on Mary (mother of Jesus) about renaming that page to "Virgin Mary" and that was not accepted. So there are two pages that get redirected: "Virgin Mary" and "Blessed Virgin Mary". The page "Virgin Mary" redirects to Mary (mother of Jesus), but Blessed is mostly a Catholic title and this page should really redirect to the Catholic page, unlike the Virgin Mary itself. History2007 (talk) 12:17, 25 December 2010 (UTC)

title: Talk:Blessed Virgin Mary


text:
Marylebone station

Marylebone station is a Central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the Marylebone area of the City of Westminster. On the National Rail network, it is also known as London Marylebone and is the southern terminus of the Chiltern Main Line to Birmingham. An accompanying Underground station is on the Bakerloo line, sited between Edgware Road and stations in Transport for London's fare zone 1.

The station opened on 15 March 1899 as the London terminus of the Great Central Main Line (GCML), the last major railway to open in Britain for 100 years, linking the capital to the cities of Leicester, Sheffield and Manchester. Marylebone was the last of London's main line termini to be built and is one of the smallest, opening with half of the platforms originally planned. There has been an interchange with the Bakerloo line since 1907, but not with any other lines.

Traffic declined at Marylebone station from the mid-20th century, particularly after the GCML closed. By the 1980s, it was threatened with closure, but was reprieved because of commuter traffic on the London to Aylesbury Line (a remaining part of the GCML) and from High Wycombe. In 1993, the station found a new role as the terminus of the Chiltern Main Line. Following the privatisation of British Rail, the station was expanded with two additional platforms in 2006 and improved services to Birmingham Snow Hill. In 2015, services began between Marylebone and Oxford Parkway, via a new chord connecting the main line to the Oxford to Bicester Line and an extension to Oxford following in 2016. As of 2020, it is the only main London terminus to host only diesel trains, as none of the National Rail lines into it are electrified.

Marylebone is one of the squares on the British Monopoly board and is popular for filming because of its relative quietness compared to other London termini.

Location
The station stands on Melcombe Place just north of Marylebone Road, a straight west-to-east thoroughfare through Marylebone in Central London; Baker Street is close by to the east and south-east. It is in the northern, Lisson Grove, neighbourhood of the district, in a northern projection of the Bryanston and Dorset Square ward immediately south of St John's Wood. North-east is Regent's Park, north in a network of mostly residential streets is Lord's Cricket Ground and south, south-west and south-east are a mixed-use network of streets. Other nearby London termini are Euston and Paddington.

A number of TfL bus routes serve the station.

National Rail
The main line station has six platforms: two built in 1899, two inserted into the former carriage road in the 1980s and two added in September 2006. It is the only non-electrified railway terminus in London. Marylebone is operated by Chiltern Railways, making it one of the few London terminus stations not to be managed by Network Rail.

Chiltern Railways operates all services at the station, accessing the Chiltern Main Line and London to Aylesbury Line routes; these serve High Wycombe, Aylesbury, Bicester, Banbury, Leamington Spa, Warwick, Solihull, Birmingham Moor Street, Birmingham Snow Hill, and (at peak hours) Stourbridge Junction. There are services to Oxford, via the Oxford to Bicester Line, and some services to Stratford-upon-Avon, via the Leamington to Stratford branch line.

GCR and LNER
The early history of Marylebone is tied into the Great Central Railway (GCR)'s Great Central Main Line (GCML) extension into London. When Sir Edward Watkin became chairman of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) in 1864, the line was not particularly lucrative as it had no direct connection to London. Watkin was unhappy about transferring traffic to the Great Northern Railway and, when he became chairman of the Metropolitan Railway in 1872, he decided to build a dedicated line between the MS&LR and Central London.

The approach to Marylebone was the last section of the Great Central Main Line to be built. Progress was delayed in the 1890s because of objections, particularly as the line would pass through Lord's, the principal cricket ground in London and home of Marylebone Cricket Club. Watkin promised that Lord's would not be disrupted by the railway construction and an act of Parliament to complete the line was passed on 28 March 1893. The station was built on a 51 acre site around Blandford and Harewood Squares, west of Regent's Park. More than 4,000 working-class people were evicted from their homes to turn Harewood Avenue and Rossmore Road into approach roads; around 2,600 of them were rehomed in new apartments near St. John's Wood Road. Watkin resigned the chairmanship in 1894, following ill-health, and was replaced by Lord Wharncliffe. The approach to the station through Lord's was achieved by a cut-and-cover tunnel constructed between September 1896 and May 1897, avoiding the cancellation of any cricket.

The station opened to coal traffic on 27 July 1898 and to passengers on 15 March 1899. It was the terminus of the GCR's London extension main line – the last major railway line to be built into London until High Speed 1. The Great Central Railway linked London to stations in High Wycombe, Aylesbury, Rugby, Leicester, Nottingham, Sheffield and Manchester. Local services from north-west Middlesex, High Wycombe and Aylesbury also terminated at Marylebone. The GCR moved its headquarters to Marylebone from Manchester in 1905.

The station was designed by Henry William Braddock, a civil engineer for the GCR. It has a modest design owing to the GCR's lack of money. The main booking hall is 63 ft by 40 ft. It is a domestic version of the Wrenaissance revival style that fits in with the residential surroundings with Dutch gables, employing warm brick and cream-coloured stone. The GCR crest was worked into the wrought iron railings in numerous places.

The original plan was for eight platforms, but half were designated as a "possible future extension" and the cost of building the GCML was greater than expected. The line leading to the station cut through 70 acre of middle-class housing, including the Eyre Estate in St John's Wood and the area around Lord's, drawing protests and requiring a relocation of the track and station facilities. There was never enough money for the extra platforms and only four were built: three inside the train shed and one to its west (platform 4). As a result, the concourse is unusually long and had three walls for most of the 20th century. The northern wall was missing, as the GCR anticipated that the other four platforms, under an extended train shed, would be built later on. An office block was later built on the vacant site. The cost of the London Extension meant that the adjoining Great Central Hotel, designed by Sir Robert William Ellis, was built by a different company. The hotel operated for a relatively short time and was converted to offices in 1945, becoming the headquarters of British Rail from 1948 to 1986. The offices were restored as a hotel in 1993.

The GCR constructed an engine shed at the site in 1897, but it was short lived. A locomotive servicing area, consisting of a turntable and coaling stage remained in use until the end of steam traction at the station in 1966.

Passenger traffic on the GCR was never heavy because it was the last main line to be built; it therefore had difficulty competing against longer-established rivals, especially the Midland Railway from its terminal at St Pancras, for the lucrative inter-city passenger business. Low passenger traffic meant Marylebone was the quietest and most pleasant of London's termini. The GCR was unhappy about having to use part of the Metropolitan Railway's route to reach Marylebone and opened a new line to High Wycombe on 2 April 1906. The additional suburban services generated traffic for the station, which had previously been so empty on occasion that the staff outnumbered passengers. While passenger traffic remained relatively sparse, the line was heavily used for freight, especially coal; in 1914, 67% of traffic was goods-related. Trains ran from the north and East Midlands to the freight depot adjoining the station, which was marginally the largest in London.

The heyday of the line was between 1923, when the GCR was absorbed into the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) and 1948, when the LNER was nationalised to form the British Rail Eastern Region. As a result, many prestigious locomotives were frequent visitors to the line; these included Flying Scotsman, Sir Nigel Gresley and Mallard which ran on the East Coast Main Line. Special trains ran on the line to destinations such as Scotland. The station's busiest use came after the construction of Wembley Stadium in 1923, when it was used to contain large crowds wishing to see the FA Cup Final. Special services ran from Marylebone to the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Park the following year.

Unlike other London termini, Marylebone saw little direct damage during the Blitz. It was closed between 5 October and 26 November 1940, after the approach tunnels were breached and the goods depot was bombed on 16 April 1941.

British Rail
After the nationalisation of British Railways in 1948, Marylebone was initially kept open as a long-distance station. New services were introduced, including the Master Cutler service to Sheffield and the South Yorkshireman to Bradford, but they were not well-used. From 1949, all local services towards High Wycombe and Princes Risborough were routed into Marylebone, although the frequency of trains was reduced two years later.

The Great Central Main Line duplicated the route of the Midland Main Line and long-distance trains from Marylebone were scaled back from 1958, leading to the closure of the Great Central Main Line north of Aylesbury on 4 September 1966 in the Beeching Axe. The rundown of services began after the line was transferred from British Railways' Eastern Region to the London Midland Region, although the station and the first few miles of its route had been part of the Western Region from 1950. In 1958, the Master Cutler was diverted to London King's Cross and the East Coast Main Line. In 1960, all express services were discontinued, followed by freight in 1965. From then until closure, only a few daily long-distance semi-fast services to Nottingham remained. Marylebone's large goods yard was closed and sold to the Greater London Council for housing. The last long-distance service ran on 4 September 1966, except for a brief reprieve the following year when Paddington was undergoing signal works.

Marylebone was then the terminus for local services to Aylesbury and High Wycombe only, with some services extended to. They were switched to diesel multiple unit (DMU) operation following the phasing out of steam. British Rail Class 115 DMUs were introduced to local services in 1962. The station was transferred from the Western Region to the London Midland Region in 1973. The Great Central Railway's long-distance connection from Marylebone, via High Wycombe, was closed the same year.

Closure proposals
After the 1960s, lack of investment led to local services and the station becoming increasingly run down. By the early 1980s, Marylebone was under serious threat of closure. In 1983, British Rail chairman Peter Parker commissioned a report into the possibility of converting Marylebone into a high-speed busway, whereby Marylebone would be converted into a coach station. The tracks between Marylebone, Harrow-on-the-Hill and South Ruislip would have closed, and been converted into a road for the exclusive use of buses and coaches. British Rail services via High Wycombe would have been diverted into Paddington and the Aylesbury services would have been taken over by London Underground on an extended Metropolitan line, and then routed to Baker Street.

British Rail formally announced plans to close Marylebone on 15 March 1984, pending a statutory consultation process and closure notices were posted at the station. The proposals proved controversial and faced strong opposition from local authorities and the public, leading to a legal battle which lasted for two years. Despite the pending closure, passenger numbers only dropped by about 400 per day from 1968 levels. The conversion project proved impractical due to the headroom limitations on the line and the closure was quietly dropped.

1986 onwards – revival
The station was revived under the control of the Network SouthEast sector of British Rail. The introduction of the inter-modal and unlimited use Capitalcard (now known as the Travelcard) led to a sharp rise in commuters into London, absorbing the spare capacity at Paddington and Baker Street, eliminating the possibility of Marylebone's services being diverted.

Marylebone was reprieved from the threat of closure on 30 April 1986, and an £85 million modernisation and refurbishment programme of the station and its services was granted. This was funded by selling part of the station to developers, including two of the original four platforms at the west of the station and the third span of the train shed. In order to replace these, the central cab road was removed, and two new platforms numbered 2 and 3 were created in its place. The run-down lines into Marylebone were modernised with new signalling and higher line speeds. In 1991, the fleet of Class 115 trains on local services was replaced by Class 165 Turbo trains and service frequencies were increased. Services to Banbury were extended to the reopened Birmingham Snow Hill station in 1993, creating the first long-distance service into Marylebone since 1966. Initially, this service ran at two-hourly intervals, but it proved popular and was increased to an hourly frequency in 1994.

Privatisation
After rail privatisation, Chiltern Railways took over the rail services in 1996 and developed the interurban service to Birmingham Snow Hill. In 2002, a service to Kidderminster was opened. The line was restored to double track the same year and Marylebone was expanded in 2006, with two extra platforms in Chiltern's Evergreen 2 project. A new platform (platform 6) was inaugurated in May 2006 while Platform 5 and the shortened platform 4 opened in September. Platforms 5 and 6 were built on the site of the goods sidings and a depot was opened near Wembley Stadium railway station.

In September 2007, the Office of Rail Regulation granted the Wrexham Shropshire & Marylebone Railway (WSMR) Company permission to operate services from Wrexham in North Wales via Shrewsbury, Telford and the West Midlands to Marylebone; they started in early 2008, restoring direct London services to Shropshire (Wrexham already being served by a Virgin Trains service to Euston), with five return trips per day on weekdays. This was reduced to four trains a day in March 2009. These services ceased in January 2011, after passenger numbers reduced; the closure was blamed on the Great Recession.

In December 2008, it was proposed to restart direct services between Aberystwyth in mid-Wales and London, which last ran in 1991, with Marylebone as the London terminus. Arriva Trains Wales announced a consultation for two services a day, following the route of the WSMR connecting with the Cambrian line at Shrewsbury. This idea was abandoned following objections by Wrexham & Shropshire.

In 2011, Chiltern Railways took over the Oxford to Bicester Town route from First Great Western; this was in preparation for the opening of a link from the Chiltern Main Line to the Varsity Line, on which Bicester Town station is located, which would see twice-hourly services from Marylebone to Oxford. Construction was expected to start in 2011, but was delayed until the following year after bats were found roosting in one of the tunnels on the Varsity line. Services to Oxford Parkway started in October 2015 and services to Oxford began in December 2016. In 2018, a survey found that commuters from Oxford preferred the Chiltern route to Marylebone over the Great Western route to Paddington via Reading.

In 2017, Network Rail proposed an upgrade of Marylebone with 1,000 extra seats on trains approaching the station. These improvements are planned to be complete by 2024. Beyond this, improvements to Old Oak Common station are planned to relieve congestion at Marylebone. In a study by Network Rail, it was said that any expansion of the station could cost up to £700 million, with Old Oak Common a more feasible alternative for capacity increase.

Services
The typical off-peak weekday service pattern from Marylebone is:
 * 1 train per hour to Birmingham Moor Street
 * 1 train per hour to Banbury, with 1 train per 2 hours extending to Birmingham Snow Hill
 * 2 trains per hour to Oxford
 * 1 train per hour to High Wycombe (stopping)
 * 2 trains per hour to Aylesbury via Amersham, one of which continues to Aylesbury Vale Parkway (stopping)

Additional services run in the peak hours and some Birmingham trains extend to Stourbridge Junction.

Station facilities
The station opened with a dining restaurant and a buffet. The restaurant was changed to a self-service operation when British Rail took over in 1948. The Victoria and Albert bar opened on 14 December 1971. In the 21st century, the concourse contains a small selection of shops.

Accidents
On 28 March 1913, a train leaving for High Wycombe collided with another arriving from Leicester, killing one passenger and injuring 23 people on the incoming train. The cause was blamed on the intermediate starter signal being lowered before the main starter was ready; the view of the latter was obscured by the smoke.

On 11 December 2015, a train pulling into the station caught fire, causing it to be evacuated. The cause was believed to be a fault in its air conditioning unit.

London Underground
The London Underground station is on the Bakerloo line between Edgware Road and Baker Street stations; along with the main line station, it is sited in Transport for London fare zone 1. Access is via escalators from the main line station concourse, which houses the Underground station's ticket office. Until 2004, a wooden escalator led into the station, one of the last on the London Underground system that had not been replaced as a consequence of the King's Cross fire in 1987.

Marylebone has direct connections with just a single Tube line, unlike many other London termini such as Euston and Paddington. There is no direct interchange with the Circle line, which predates the station by more than 30 years and bypasses it to the south. The nearest stations on the Circle line are Edgware Road and Baker Street 550 m away.

History
The underground station was opened on 27 March 1907 by the Baker Street and Waterloo Railway under the name Great Central, following a change from its intended name Lisson Grove. The railway terminated here until the extension to Edgware Road opened on 15 June. The station was renamed Marylebone on 15 April 1917. The original name still appears in places on the platform wall tiling, although the tiling scheme is a replacement designed to reflect the original scheme.

The present entrance opened on 1 February 1943, following wartime damage to the original station building that stood to the west at the junction of Harewood Avenue and Harewood Row, and after the introduction of the escalators. The old building, designed by the Underground Electric Railways Company of London's architect, Leslie Green, used lifts to access the platforms. It was demolished in 1971 and the site is occupied by a budget hotel.

In August 2020, work began to install a third escalator in place of the present staircase, followed by replacement of the 1943 built escalators. The work is expected to be completed in 2023.

Services
The current Bakerloo Line service consists of:
 * 20 tph southbound to Elephant & Castle
 * 11 tph northbound to Queen's Park
 * 3 tph northbound to Stonebridge Park
 * 6 tph northbound to Harrow & Wealdstone

Cultural references
As one of the quietest London termini, Marylebone has been popular as a filming location. In particular, several scenes in The Beatles' film A Hard Day's Night were filmed there in April 1964, as was the opening scene of the 1965 film of The IPCRESS File and the 1978 film of The Thirty-Nine Steps (standing in for St Pancras). The station continues to be so used according to Film London.

Marylebone is one of four London termini depicted on the British version of the Monopoly board game, along with King's Cross, Fenchurch Street and Liverpool Street. During the time the board was designed in the mid-1930s, all the stations were being operated by the LNER.

title: Marylebone station


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Buzzword bingo

Buzzword bingo, also known as bullshit bingo, is a bingo-style game where participants prepare bingo cards with buzzwords and tick them off when they are uttered during an event, such as a meeting or speech. The goal of the game is to tick off a predetermined number of words in a row and then signal bingo to other players.

Concept
Buzzword bingo is generally played in situations where audience members feel that the speaker is relying too heavily on buzzwords or jargon rather than providing relevant details or clarity. Business meetings led by guest speakers or notable company personalities from higher up the pay scale are often viewed as a good opportunity for buzzword bingo, as the language used by these speakers often includes predictable references to arcane business concepts, which are perfect for use in the creation of buzzword bingo cards.

Turkey bingo requires the winner to ask a question or make a statement using his/her winning bingo words, thus signaling the win to insiders while ideally prompting the speaker to respond as if the question or statement were real. An alternate variation requires the person who has achieved bingo to raise his or her hand and use the word "Bingo" within the context of a comment or question. Other versions of the game require actually yelling "Bingo!" To avoid the reprimands that would likely result from doing so, participants may resort to looking at one another and silently mouthing the word "Bingo" instead.

An example of a buzzword bingo card for a business management meeting is shown below.

Creation and popularization
The game has existed for many years, though without a universally-used name, and it is likely that its creation can be credited to several people working independently.

By 1992, college students in the USA were playing a game called "turkey bingo" where they guessed which classmates would dominate conversations in classrooms. This led to a variant popular in business schools called "bullshit bingo" based on overused business lingo. The Buzzword Bingo name was coined in early 1993 in an internal Silicon Graphics tool made by principal scientist Tom Davis in collaboration with Seth Katz, and popularized in 1993 in the first public web version by fellow employee Chris Pirazzi The 22 February 1994 Dilbert comic featured buzzword bingo in an office meeting.

One documented example occurred when Al Gore, then the Vice President of the United States, known for his liberal use of buzzwords in enthusiastically promoting technology, spoke at MIT's 1996 graduation. MIT hackers had distributed bingo cards containing buzzwords to the graduating class. Gore, who had been informed of the prank, acknowledged it during his speech.

In 2007, IBM created a TV advertisement that was based on the concept of buzzword bingo. Video gaming website GameSpot hosted a video called "Executive Buzzword Bingo", in which they held a running tally of buzzwords uttered during Sony's "PlayStation Meeting 2013" conference event on 20 February 2013.

title: Buzzword bingo