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English alphabet

Modern English is written with a Latin-script alphabet consisting of 26 letters, with each having both uppercase and lowercase forms. The word alphabet is a compound of alpha and beta, the names of the first two letters in the Greek alphabet. Old English was first written down using the Latin alphabet during the 7th century. During the centuries that followed, various letters entered or fell out of use. By the 16th century, the present set of 26 letters had largely stabilised:

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There are 5 vowel letters and 19 consonant letters—as well as Y and W, which may function as either type.

Written English has a large number of digraphs, such as $⟨ch⟩$, $⟨ea⟩$, $⟨oo⟩$, $⟨sh⟩$, and $⟨th⟩$. Diacritics are generally not used to write native English words, which is unusual among orthographies used to write the languages of Europe.

Letter names

The names of the letters are commonly spelled out in compound words and initialisms (e.g., tee-shirt, deejay, emcee, okay, etc.), derived forms (e.g., exed out, effing, to eff and blind, aitchless, etc.), and objects named after letters (e.g., en and em in printing, and wye in railroading). The spellings listed below are from the Oxford English Dictionary. Plurals of consonant names are formed by adding -s (e.g., bees, efs or effs, ems) or -es in the cases of aitches, esses, exes. Plurals of vowel names also take -es (i.e., aes, ees, ies, oes, ues), but these are rare. For a letter as a letter, the letter itself is most commonly used, generally in capitalised form, in which case the plural just takes -s or -'s (e.g. Cs or c's for cees).

Etymology
The names of the letters are for the most part direct descendants, via French, of the Latin (and Etruscan) names. (See Latin alphabet: Origins.)

The regular phonological developments (in rough chronological order) are:
 * palatalization before front vowels of Latin successively to, , and finally to Middle French . Affects C.
 * palatalization before front vowels of Latin to Proto-Romance and Middle French . Affects G.
 * fronting of Latin to Middle French, becoming Middle English  and then Modern English . Affects Q, U.
 * the inconsistent lowering of Middle English to . Affects R.
 * the Great Vowel Shift, shifting all Middle English long vowels. Affects A, B, C, D, E, G, H, I, K, O, P, T, and presumably Y.

The novel forms are aitch, a regular development of Medieval Latin acca; jay, a new letter presumably vocalised like neighboring kay to avoid confusion with established gee (the other name, jy, was taken from French); vee, a new letter named by analogy with the majority; double-u, a new letter, self-explanatory (the name of Latin V was ū); wye, of obscure origin but with an antecedent in Old French wi; izzard, from the Romance phrase i zed or i zeto "and Z" said when reciting the alphabet; and zee, an American levelling of zed by analogy with other consonants.

Some groups of letters, such as pee and bee, or em and en, are easily confused in speech, especially when heard over the telephone or a radio communications link. Spelling alphabets such as the ICAO spelling alphabet, used by aircraft pilots, police and others, are designed to eliminate this potential confusion by giving each letter a name that sounds quite different from any other.

Ampersand
The ampersand (&) has sometimes appeared at the end of the English alphabet, as in Byrhtferð's list of letters in 1011. & was regarded as the 27th letter of the English alphabet, as taught to children in the US and elsewhere. An example may be seen in M. B. Moore's 1863 book The Dixie Primer, for the Little Folks. Historically, the figure is a ligature for the letters Et. In English and many other languages, it is used to represent the word and, plus occasionally the Latin word et, as in the abbreviation &c (et cetera).

Archaic letters
Old and Middle English had a number of non-Latin letters that have since dropped out of use. Some of these either took the names of the equivalent runes, since there were no Latin names to adopt, or were runes themselves (thorn, wyn).
 * Æ æ Æ|Ash or æsc, used for the vowel , which disappeared from the language and then reformed. Replaced by ae and e now.
 * Ð ð Edh, eð or eth, used for the consonants and  (which did not become phonemically distinct until after the letter had fallen out of use). Replaced by th now.
 * Þ þ Thorn or þorn, used for the consonants and  (which did not become phonemically distinct until after the letter had fallen out of use). Replaced by th now.
 * Œ œ Œ|Ethel, ēðel, œ̄þel, etc., used for the vowel , which disappeared from the language quite early. Replaced by oe and e now.
 * Ƿ ƿ Wyn, ƿen (Kentish) or wynn, used for the consonant . (The letter 'w' had not yet been invented.) Replaced by w now.
 * Ȝ ȝ Yogh, ȝogh or yoch or , used for various sounds derived from , such as  and . Replaced by y, j, gh, and ch now.
 * ſ long s, an earlier form of the lowercase "s" that continued to be used alongside the modern lowercase s into the 1800s. Replaced by lowercase s now.
 * ꝛ r rotunda, an alternative form of the lowercase "r".

Diacritics
The most common diacritic marks seen in English publications are the acute (é), grave (è), circumflex (â, î, or ô), tilde (ñ), umlaut and diaeresis (ü or ï—the same symbol is used for two different purposes), and cedilla (ç). Diacritics used for tonal languages may be replaced with tonal numbers or omitted.

Loanwords
Diacritic marks mainly appear in loanwords such as naïve and façade. Informal English writing tends to omit diacritics because of their absence from the keyboard, while professional copywriters and typesetters tend to include them.

As such words become naturalised in English, there is a tendency to drop the diacritics, as has happened with many older borrowings from French, such as hôtel. Words that are still perceived as foreign tend to retain them; for example, the only spelling of soupçon found in English dictionaries (the OED and others) uses the diacritic. However, diacritics are likely to be retained even in naturalised words where they would otherwise be confused with a common native English word (for example, résumé rather than resume). Rarely, they may even be added to a loanword for this reason (as in maté, from Spanish yerba mate but following the pattern of café, from French, to distinguish from mate).

Native English words
Occasionally, especially in older writing, diacritics are used to indicate the syllables of a word: cursed (verb) is pronounced with one syllable, while cursèd (adjective) is pronounced with two. For this, è is used widely in poetry, e.g., in Shakespeare's sonnets. J. R. R. Tolkien used ë, as in O wingëd crown.

Similarly, while in chicken coop the letters -oo- represent a single vowel sound (a digraph), they less often represent two which may be marked with a diaresis as in zoölogist and coöperation. This use of the diaeresis is rare but found in some well-known publications, such as MIT Technology Review and The New Yorker. Some publications, particularly in UK usage, have replaced the diaeresis with a hyphen such as in co-operative.

In general, these devices are not used even where they would serve to alleviate some degree of confusion.

Apostrophe
The apostrophe (ʼ) is not usually considered part of the English alphabet nor used as a diacritic, even in loanwords. But it is used for two important purposes in written English: to mark the "possessive" and to mark contracted words. Current standards require its use for both purposes. Therefore, apostrophes are necessary to spell many words even in isolation, unlike most punctuation marks, which are concerned with indicating sentence structure and other relationships among multiple words.

 * It distinguishes (from the otherwise identical regular plural inflection -s) the English possessive morpheme " 's" (apostrophe alone after a regular plural affix, giving -s' as the standard mark for plural + possessive). Practice settled in the 18th century; before then, practices varied but typically all three endings were written -s (but without cumulation). This meant that only regular nouns bearing neither could be confidently identified, and plural and possessive could be potentially confused (e.g., "the Apostles words"; "those things over there are my husbands" )—which undermines the logic of "marked" forms.
 * Many common contractions have near-homographs from which they are distinguished in writing only by an apostrophe, for example it's (it is or it has) as opposed to its, the possessive form of "it", or she'd (she would or she had) as opposed to shed.

In a Chronicle of Higher Education blog, Geoffrey Pullum argued that apostrophe is the 27th letter of the alphabet, arguing that it does not function as a form of punctuation.

Hyphen
Hyphens are often used in English compound words. Written compound words may be hyphenated, open or closed, so specifics are guided by stylistic policy. Some writers may use a slash in certain instances.

Frequencies
The letter most commonly used in English is E. The least used letter is Z. The frequencies shown in the table may differ in practice according to the type of text.

Phonology
The letters A, E, I, O, and U are considered vowel letters, since (except when silent) they represent vowels, although I and U represent consonants in words such as "onion" and "quail" respectively.

The letter Y sometimes represents a consonant (as in "young") and sometimes a vowel (as in "myth"). Very rarely, W may represent a vowel (as in "cwm", a Welsh loanword).

The consonant sounds represented by the letters W and Y in English (/w/ and /j/ as in went /wɛnt/ and yes /jɛs/) are referred to as semi-vowels (or glides) by linguists, however this is a description that applies to the sounds represented by the letters and not to the letters themselves.

The remaining letters are considered consonant letters, since when not silent they generally represent consonants.

Old English
The English language itself was initially written in the Anglo-Saxon futhorc runic alphabet, in use from the 5th century. This alphabet was brought to what is now England, along with the proto-form of the language itself, by Anglo-Saxon settlers. Very few examples of this form of written Old English have survived, mostly as short inscriptions or fragments.

The Latin script, introduced by Christian missionaries, began to replace the Anglo-Saxon futhorc from about the 7th century, although the two continued in parallel for some time. As such, the Old English alphabet began to employ parts of the Roman alphabet in its construction. Futhorc influenced the emerging English alphabet by providing it with the letters thorn (Þ þ) and wynn (Ƿ ƿ). The letter eth (Ð ð) was later devised as a modification of dee (D d), and finally yogh (Ȝ ȝ) was created by Norman scribes from the insular g in Old English and Irish, and used alongside their Carolingian g.

The a-e ligature æ|ash (Æ æ) was adopted as a letter in its own right, named after a futhorc rune æsc. In very early Old English the o-e ligature œ|ethel (Œ œ) also appeared as a distinct letter, likewise named after a rune, œðel. Additionally, the v–v or u-u ligature double-u (W w) was in use.

In the year 1011, a monk named Byrhtferð recorded the traditional order of the Old English alphabet. He listed the 24 letters of the Latin alphabet first, including the ampersand, then 5 additional English letters, starting with the Tironian note ond (⁊), an insular symbol for and:

A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T V X Y Z & ⁊ Ƿ Þ Ð Æ

Modern English
In the orthography of Modern English, the letters thorn (þ), eth (ð), wynn (ƿ), yogh (ȝ), æ|ash (æ), and ethel (œ) are obsolete. Latin borrowings reintroduced homographs of æ and œ into Middle English and Early Modern English, though they are largely obsolete (see "Ligatures in recent usage" below), and where they are used they are not considered to be separate letters (e.g., for collation purposes), but rather ligatures. Thorn and eth were both replaced by th, though thorn continued in existence for some time, its lowercase form gradually becoming graphically indistinguishable from the minuscule y in most handwriting. Y for th can still be seen in pseudo-archaisms such as "Ye Olde Booke Shoppe". The letters þ and ð are still used in present-day Icelandic (where they now represent two separate sounds, and  having become phonemically-distinct – as indeed also happened in Modern English), while ð is still used in present-day Faroese (although only as a silent letter). Wynn disappeared from English around the 14th century when it was supplanted by uu, which ultimately developed into the modern w. Yogh disappeared around the 15th century and was typically replaced by gh.

The letters u and j, as distinct from v and i, were introduced in the 16th century, and w assumed the status of an independent letter. The variant lowercase form long s (ſ) lasted into early modern English, and was used in non-final position up to the early 19th century. Today, the English alphabet is considered to consist of the following 26 letters:

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A a

B b

C c

D d

E e

F f

G g

H h

I i

J j

K k

L l

M m

N n

O o

P p

Q q

R r

S s

T t

U u

V v

W w

X x

Y y

Z z

Written English has a number of digraphs, but they are not considered separate letters of the alphabet:

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ch (usually makes tsh sound)

ci (makes s sound)

ck (makes k sound)

gh (makes f or g sound (also silent))

ng (makes a voiced velar nasal)

ph (makes f sound)

qu (makes kw sound)

rh (makes r sound)

sc (makes s sound (also a blend))

sh (makes ch sound without t)

th (makes theta or eth sound)

ti (makes sh sound)

wh (makes w sound)

wr (makes r sound)

zh (makes j sound without d)

Ligatures in recent usage
Outside of professional papers on specific subjects that traditionally use ligatures in loanwords, ligatures are seldom used in modern English. The ligatures æ and œ were until the 19th century (slightly later in American English) used in formal writing for certain words of Greek or Latin origin, such as encyclopædia and cœlom, although such ligatures were not used in either classical Latin or ancient Greek. These are now usually rendered as "ae" and "oe" in all types of writing, although in American English, a lone e has mostly supplanted both (for example, encyclopedia for encyclopaedia, and maneuver for manoeuvre).

Some typefaces used to typeset English texts contain commonly used ligatures, such as for $\langlett\rangle$, $\langlefi\rangle$, $\langlefl\rangle$, $\langleffi\rangle$, and $\langleffl\rangle$. These are not independent letters – although in traditional typesetting, each of these ligatures would have its own sort (type element) for practical reasons – but simply type design choices created to optimize the legibility of the text.

Proposed reforms
There have been a number of proposals to extend or replace the basic English alphabet. These include proposals for the addition of letters to the English alphabet, such as eng or engma (Ŋ ŋ), used to replace the digraph "ng" and represent the voiced velar nasal sound with a single letter. Benjamin Franklin's phonetic alphabet, based on the Latin alphabet, introduced a number of new letters as part of a wider proposal to reform English orthography. Other proposals have gone further, proposing entirely new scripts for written English to replace the Latin alphabet such as the Deseret alphabet and the Shavian alphabet.

title: English alphabet


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Princes Risborough

Princes Risborough is a market town and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England, about 9 mi south of Aylesbury and 8 mi north west of High Wycombe. It lies at the foot of the Chiltern Hills, at the north end of a gap or pass through the Chilterns, the south end of which is at West Wycombe. The A4010 road follows this route from West Wycombe through the town and then on to Aylesbury.

Historically it was both a manor and an ecclesiastical parish, of the same extent as the manor, which comprised the present ecclesiastical parish of Princes Risborough (excluding Ilmer) and also the present ecclesiastical parish of Lacey Green, which became a separate parish in the 19th century. It was long and narrow (a "strip parish"), taking in land below the Chiltern scarp, the slope of the scarp itself and also land above the scarp extending into the Chiltern hills. The manor and the parish extended from Longwick in the north through Alscot, the town of Princes Risborough, Loosley Row and Lacey Green to Speen and Walters Ash in the south.

Since 1934 the civil parish of Princes Risborough (formerly the same as the ecclesiastical parish) has included the town of Princes Risborough, the village of Monks Risborough (but not the outlying parts) and part of Horsenden but has excluded Longwick. It is within the Wycombe district of Buckinghamshire and operates as a town council within Wycombe district.

The town is overlooked by the Whiteleaf Cross, a chalk cross carved into the hillside that's just northeast of the town. Though the cross itself lies just above the village with the same name, the landmark is located within the area of Monks Risborough.

Toponym
The name 'Risborough' comes from the Old English hrisen beorgas meaning 'brushwood-covered hills'. Hrisen, an adjective meaning brushwood-covered derived from hris meaning brushwood or scrub, and beorgas which meant hills. The spelling varies in the documents in which the name is found.

In the 13th century, it was known as Magna Risberge (Great Risborough) which distinguished it from Parva Risberge (Little Risborough), which is now Monks Risborough. Later it was Earls Risborough because the manor was held by the Earls of Cornwall between 1242 and 1336. At some point, following the death of Edward the Black Prince, it became Prince Risberge and later Princes Risborough, as the manor belonged to various Princes during the Wars of the Roses during the 15th century.

Risborough 1066–1086
Great Risborough, as it was then known, had been a Saxon village held by Edward the Confessor. As a royal manor it could be used by the King to make financial provision for members of the royal family or others whom the King at any point might wish to reward. The current land where the royal manor once stood (now a car park known as The Mount) bares traces of banks and entrenchments, enclosed by a moat and is originally believed to have been a Saxon encampment. The land was then held shortly by Harold Godwinson before he was defeated at the Battle of Hastings.

Before 1066 the land of the manor and village only paid £10 at face value (i.e. without weighing the coins). Furthermore, a burgess of Oxford paid 2s and a saltboiler of Droitwich an amount left blank. A freeman held 3 virgates and had the right to sell his land, though it was said that he served the sheriff. At the time of the Domesday survey in 1086, the Manor of Risborough was an extensive complex of a royal manor, stud farm, deer park and a large fishery. There most likely was an earlier church on the current site of St Mary's Church today. It was part of the Hundred of Risborough, which also comprised Bledlow, Horsenden and Monks Risborough.

In 1086, the land was assessed at 30 hides both before and after the conquest, of which 20 hides related to the demesne. The manor had land for 24 ploughs, four of them in the lord's demesne. There were 30 villagers and they together with 12 bordars (cottagers or small holders ) had 20 ploughs. There were 3 slaves. There were 2 mills, worth 14s 8d a year, meadow for 7 ploughteams (generally taken as needing 8 oxen each) and woodland sufficient for 1,000 pigs. In total it paid £47 a year in white silver, less 16d.

Risborough as a Royal Manor
After the Norman Conquest, the local woods on the land of the Manor were privatized under the forest law and formed part of the lands of the new King, William the Conqueror who granted Risborough's royal manor as one of 48 Buckinghamshire manors to the feudal barony of Long Crendon held by Walter Giffard, Lord of Longueville for his many years of loyal service. In 1085, lordship of the manor of Risborough passed to his son Walter Giffard, 1st Earl of Buckingham. By the 12th century it was still held by the Giffard family, namely Walter Giffard, 2nd Earl of Buckingham, when he died without issue in 1164 it reverted to the Crown.

It was then granted to the Constable of Normandy, Robert de Humeto, who obtained a charter from King Henry II, and remained in his family until about 1242. King Henry III then granted the manor to his brother Richard, Earl of Cornwall, it was then meant to pass to Richard's eldest son Henry of Almain but when he was murdered before his father died, Richard ordered his estates be passed to his second son, Edmund, 2nd Earl of Cornwall. When Edmund died childless in 1300, his estates including the royal manor of what was now called Earls Risborough were escheated to the Crown.

Between 1302 and 1305 King Edward I granted it to Queen Margaret for her life, subject to the rights of Edmund's widow Margaret, Countess of Cornwall, in one third part for life as part of her dower. King Edward II gave the reversion (subject to these life interests) to his unpopular favourite, Piers Gaveston and his wife, but this grant was surrendered in the same year. Queen Margaret died in 1318. In 1327, when Edward III succeeded to the throne at the age of fifteen, he granted the manor to his mother, Queen Isabella for her services during his father's reign. The King's brother, John of Eltham, Earl of Cornwall, also had an interest for a time.

The King then granted the manor to his eldest son, Edward Prince of Wales, known later (though not during his lifetime) as the Black Prince. He held the manor for 32 years from 1344 to 1376 when he died.

On the death of the Black Prince the manor passed to his son, Richard of Bordeaux, who became King Richard II in the following year. He granted it to Lewis de Clifford who held it for his life. When it reverted to King Henry IV, the manor passed through the royal family for many years who granted it to his son Henry, Prince of Wales, who became King Henry V in 1413. It then passed to Henry VI and was part of the dower of his Queen, Margaret of Anjou. Later it was held by his son, Edward, and then appears to have remained vested in the Crown until Edward VI granted it to his half-sister, the Princess (later Queen) Elizabeth for her life.

Subsequently, James I held it and it formed part of the dower of his Queen, Anne of Denmark. Later again it was held by Prince Charles, later King Charles I, who in 1628 sold it to the City of London in part satisfaction of the large debts of the Crown. Thus, after more than 600 years, the manor's long connection with the Crown of England finally came to an end. Subsequently, the manor was bought and sold in the market and changed hands from time to time but its later manorial history is only a record of commercial transactions.

Risborough under the Black Prince
King Edward III granted the Manor of Risborough in 1344 to his eldest son, Edward Prince of Wales, known posthumously as the Black Prince. He was 14 years of age and he held the manor for 32 years until his death in 1376. Edward III did not die until 1377 and the Prince never became king. It was after the Black Prince's death that the market town became known as Prince Risberge later Princes Risborough.

At the time when the Prince became lord of the manor of Risborough there was a manor house and hall on the west side of the church (where there is now a car park), which old sources describe as his "palace". To some extent, the manor was laid out on much the same lines as other manor houses (also called "palaces" at the time) like Much Hadham Palace in Hertfordshire and Woking Palace in Surrey and possibly the manor at Watlington which also belonged to the Black Prince. The manor house and grounds may have been extensive but it was hardly palatial and might be better described as a hunting lodge. The Prince seems never to have spent an extended period of time there. The nearest place where he lived for any length of time was Berkhamsted Castle, where he stayed after his marriage to Joan Countess of Kent from November 1361 to January 1362 and occasionally at other times.

By the 14th century, the Manor was known for its Royal stud for breeding horses and hunting. The main purpose of the Prince's visits to Risborough is likely to have been to visit the stud and inspect and/or select stallions with such resounding names as Grisel, Tankarvill, Morel de Salesbirs.

Much of his adult life was spent on campaign in France, where he won the great victory of Poitiers in 1356. In July 1362 his father (Edward III) made him Prince of Aquitaine and he remained in that province until he returned to England in 1371, probably already a sick man. In 1346, when the Prince (aged 16) was about to leave with his father for his first campaign in France, which culminated in the battle of Crecy, a Council was set up to manage on his behalf his various manors and lordships throughout the country. The transactions of this Council were recorded and have been printed and published by the Public Record Office. Many decisions affecting Risborough were made by this Council rather than by the Prince himself. They give us some insight into life at Risborough in the 14th century.

The manor was in the charge of a steward (not always resident there), but its day-to-day management was in the hands of the reeve, and there was a parker, responsible for the management of the park, and a keeper of the stud.

In November 1346 John de Alveton was appointed to be steward of the Prince's manors of Watlington and Risborough. In 1347 the keeper of the stud was Richard de Bekenesfield and he was ordered to render tithes due to the Abbot of Notley if there were sufficient foals of the year for the purpose. In the same year the Reeve had been ordered to pay money out of the profits of Risborough to make a new kitchen at the Prince's manor of Byfleet. In 1354 (in which year the Prince was at Berkhamsted) a piece of land in the Park was enclosed by the Prince and the Reeve (William Onyot) paid 18 shillings for it. The Prince may well have been there in person that year for the Treasurer of his household was ordered "by command of the Prince himself" to make payment for various things taken for the Prince's use and expended in the Prince's household at Risborough "after verifying that the same are really due". These included a total of 186 gallons of ale and "to John Dayly of Risborough 17 pence for underwood and fuel for the fire".

In 1359 Sir Peter de Lacey the Prince's clerk and receiver-general was ordered to provide hay, oats, shoes and litter until further order for two destriers (warhorses) which Sir Baldwin Bottecourt had lent to the Prince to be stallions at Risborough and Cippenham and to pay 3d a day to a groom that keeps them.

There seems to have been a great storm in 1362, when the Reeve was to allow the Parker to sell all the wood which had fallen in the Park except the great ash, if its value did not exceed £4.

In April 1364 the Reeve had to make provision for a grey courser which was sent to cover the mares at Risborough and in July to pay £10.10s for a black stallion for the same purpose. Also in 1364 the Reeve was to cause the garret over the gate of the Prince's Park to be demolished and pulled down, as it was reported very weak and ruinous, and to use the timber and other materials to build a lodge near the gate. He was also to flush out the ditches round the manor and to sell as dearly as possible all the large fish caught there, keeping the small fish as stock.

The Prince died at Westminster on 8 June 1376 aged 46.

St Mary's Church
The church in its present general form dates from the 13th century. There was an earlier small church, probably just a small chancel and a nave without aisles, which would have been in roughly the same position as the present nave. The church was enlarged and improved from the 13th to the 15th centuries as described below. By the 19th century it was in bad condition and was extensively restored and partly rebuilt in 1867–68. The tower and spire were rebuilt in 1907–08 and parish rooms were added in the 21st century.

Nave and chancel
The church was enlarged by the addition of the nave arcades and aisles in the early or mid-13th century The arches at the western end of each arcade were added in the late 13th or early 14th century, those on the south being later. The columns are octagonal with plain chamfered bases and moulded capitals. There were originally deep solid responds at the eastern end of each arcade (altered to make a narrower additional arch in the 19th century). There are now seven arches on each side.

The chancel was rebuilt about 1290 and the two-light window in the north wall is of that date (much restored) with a modern quatrefoil above. The two windows in the south wall of the chancel are probably of about 1340. The east window is modern.

In the south aisle the window at the east end is of about 1300. The easternmost window in the south wall is "a fine triplet of lancets", "a very remarkable window" and has attached and detached shafts of Purbeck marble making an open arcade of three bays. This is dated to the early 13th century. The other window in this aisle (on the western side of the door) is of about 1340.

Below the windows in the south aisle are four 14th-century recesses with ogee heads which once probably held tombs.

At the end of the south wall of the south aisle, next to the altar, are a piscina (a shelf on which the sacred vessels were washed after Mass) and a sedile (a stone seat for the priest), both in the decorated gothic style of the 14th century but badly damaged. These were always found on the right side of an altar and show that there was an altar at the end of this aisle in the Middle Ages. This piscina has no drain but there is a stone shelf above it.

In the north aisle are four modern windows from the 19th-century rebuilding of this wall, using some old materials. The 14th-century door on the north side was formerly blocked, but now serves as the entrance to the new parish rooms which were built at the start of the 21st century on the north side of the church.

Tower and spire
The church originally had a tower with a spire above it, probably built in the 15th century, but this spire fell down in 1803, damaging the church and destroying a peal of bells. A new stone spire was built, octagonal in shape, and described in 1862 as covered with galvanised iron. In 1907–08 a new tower and spire were built from the foundations, designed by John Oldrid Scott.

In 1765 the Earl of Buckingham gave the rectory of Princes Risborough to the manor at Nutley Abbey in Long Crendon, to which it is still attached today.

St Teresa's Church
This domed church, on the corner of the Aylesbury Road and New Road, was designed by Giuseppe Rinvolucri and built in 1937–38. Pevsner & Williamson explain that in plan it is a triangle interpenetrating a hexagon, with an apse in the middle of each side of the triangle.

Inside the church there are two painted ceramic statues, of St Teresa of Lisieux and St Joseph, by Richard Guino. The altar relief is also by him. The Stations of the Cross are timber reliefs (1990–1) by Stephen Foster, which Pevsner & Williamson considered of high quality. An altar rail (1957) by Rosamund Fletcher now serves as a screen to St Teresa's chapel.

Baptist Church
The Baptist church, off Bell Street, with its own burial ground, dates from 1804 to 1805. It is built of flint with brick dressings with arched windows and has a hipped slated roof. The interior has galleries on three sides with the original baptistery under one of them.

The history of the Baptists in Princes Risborough began about 1701, when some members of the General Baptist church at Ford (later moved to Cuddington) seceded for doctrinal reasons and established a Particular Baptist meeting there. A meeting house was erected in 1707. (The Particular or Peculiar Baptists were closer to Calvinism than the General Baptists) After the present building had been erected in 1804–5, it was extended and re-arranged in 1814. The galleries were enlarged in 1833 and a vestry was added in 1871.

In the mid-20th century two sides were rendered with pebble-dash and a new entrance and porch were added in the front. Extensive additions with additional rooms have been made later, adjoining the original building.

Medieval
In medieval times, from the 13th to the 15th centuries, Manor House was a building on the south western side of the church surrounded by an earthen rampart and a moat, most of the site being now occupied by the Mount car park (the area was formerly known as the Mount). Only the base of some of the walls remained from the old building and these were partially excavated in 1955 before the car park was constructed. The remains of the building lie under the far side of the car park (farthest from the church) extending from north west to south east, parallel with the fence at the end. The whole building was about 150 ft long with a minimum width of 15 ft. Most of the remains had been pillaged for building material over the centuries and there was only time for a partial excavation in 1955, with the result that the excavator could only reach provisional conclusions about the nature of the building and the uses of the rooms.

Most of the remaining walls were 1 ft high or less and of dry-set flint and chalk. They were only 1 foot to 1 foot 6 inches (30 to 46 cm) in width (with offsets) in shallow foundation trenches. The excavator thought that the upper part of the walls were probably made of wychert, a local building material still existing in some buildings particularly at Haddenham and consisting of chalk mud mixed with straw which would set very solid. The roofs may have been partly thatched but part must have been tiled, because a fair number of roofing tiles were found spread over the site. Looking at the building from the church side, the excavator thought that on the left was probably a two-story building which would have been the accommodation reserved for the lord of the manor. The room on the first floor would have been the "great chamber" serving as bedroom and sitting room. The great hall probably extended in front of this part of the building towards the church, but this was not found or excavated. On the right of this room was probably the kitchen and beyond that more living accommodation, perhaps for the steward, with a smaller hall extending in front of it. This was roughly in the centre of the building. The excavator considered whether this might be the great hall but thought it probably too small. Beyond it to the right was a range of single storey rooms.

The remainder of the area could not be excavated, but trial holes indicated that most of it may have been paved with cobbles.

The only positive evidence of date was a somewhat worn penny of Edward I, struck at the Bristol mint in 1280–1, which might have been lost at any time up to about 1300. The majority of the pottery found was datable to the 14th century.

The indications were that the buildings were first erected in the 13th century, perhaps in the reign of Henry III (1207–72), that they were in use throughout the 14th century (Edward II, the Prince of Wales during the reign of Edward III and Richard II) but went out of use at the end of that century or in the early 15th century.

Another building may have been erected on some part of the site at a later date, because there are documentary references to such a building in the reign of Elizabeth I and its remains are said to have been demolished around 1800, but there is no certain information about this.

Modern
The house now known as the Manor House stands opposite the east end of the church. It was formerly known as Brook or Brooke House and the name was only changed in the late 19th century.

The house is first mentioned (as Broke House) in the reign of Elizabeth I in a grant dated 1589, but this was an earlier building, though some parts of it are incorporated in the present house. Arthur Oswald thought that the interior wall parallel to the front outside wall and fireplaces in two of the bedrooms may come from the Elizabethan house. The house was substantially enlarged and rebuilt in the mid-17th century.

Inigo Jones had brought the classical Renaissance style to England in the early 17th century. His followers took the new classical style into the country, characterised by its symmetry and proportion and such classical elements as pilasters, while wide eaves took the place of a cornice. Often a bricklayer would also be the principal contractor, controlling the other trades, and he could avoid the necessity to employ a mason for stonework if he could produce the classical elements in brick. So in this house we have brick pilasters, one above the other, with capitals and bases shaped in brickwork. The rebuilding seems to have been carried out in two stages, though without a long gap between them. There is a straight joint in the brickwork to the left of the second pilaster on the north side. In front of this the bricks are laid in English bond, but Flemish bond is used towards the back, indicating that this part was built a little later.

The house is built of red brick with two storeys and an attic. The frontage has five windows, widely spaced and separated by brick pilasters in two orders corresponding to the ground and first floors. Originally there was a large central attic window of 'Dutch' type (as can be seen in the woodcut from Lipscomb's History of the County of Buckingham (1847)). This was replaced by three dormer windows in the late 19th century.

Inside the house the staircase and some of the panelling and fireplaces in the hall and drawing room date from the 17th-century re-building. The oak staircase opens at the back of the hall through a 17th-century arch and ascends two storeys round a square well. Arthur Oswald describes it as of Jacobean type but likely to have been made by a country joiner at the time of the Commonwealth or Charles II. Pevsner & Williamson, who call it "spectacular", describe it as made in the mid-17th century but in the strapwork tradition.

Arthur Oswald thought that the entrance doorway and sash windows were probably 18th-century alterations made in Georgian times, but Pevsner and Williamson think they might be part of Lord Rothschild's alterations in 1886.

By the mid-19th century the house was very dilapidated and part was being used for storing grain. Lord Rothschild bought it in the 1880s and arranged for it to be renovated and put into repair. This work started in 1886, but there is no record of exactly what was done. It was probably after the completion of this work that the name was changed to the Manor House. In 1926 later members of the Rothschild family gave the house to the National Trust and it was then further modernised under the direction of the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Buildings. It is usually let to a tenant and some rooms can be seen by prior appointment.

Sir Peter Lely at Brook House
Several books say that Sir Peter Lely lived in Princes Risborough at Brook House and that he bought the house in 1671. This is not likely to be true. Lely was a wealthy and fashionable London painter (court painter from 1661), very busy, with a house at Covent Garden, where he had an impressive collection of pictures. Samuel Pepys, after visiting him in 1667, wrote that he was a "mighty proud man.....and full of state." It is highly improbable that such a man would have chosen or indeed would have been able to live in a small village in the Chilterns, 40 mi from London. He had more work in London than he could easily manage. His wife died in childbirth in 1674 and was buried at St Pauls, Covent Garden, where Lely himself was buried after his death in 1680. His estate comprised his house in Covent Garden and investment properties in Surrey and Lincolnshire. No biography of the painter mentions a house at Princes Risborough.

This story came from a misunderstanding of a transaction in 1671, when he was recorded as purchasing a "fee farm rent" issuing out of the Manor of Princes Risborough. This was a perpetual rentcharge or ground rent secured on the rents and profits of the manor (not the Manor House, which was then Brook House). In other words, it was like a financial instrument securing an annual income. He would have bought it as an investment and would have received the income at stated intervals. It is very unlikely that he ever went near Princes Risborough himself.

Market and Fairs
The right to hold a weekly market and two yearly fairs was granted by King Henry VIII in 1523. The market was to be held on Wednesdays and the fairs on the eve, day and morrow of the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin (8 September) and on the eve, day and morrow of St George's Day (23 April). The days were changed from time to time, the market to Saturday before 1792 and to Thursday in 1888. In 1792 there was only one fair (6 May) but the second was revived and by 1908 was held on 21 October.

The fact the town has a weekly market has come to define the parish with the words 'A Medieval Market Town since 1376', the very same year the Black Prince (the town's most notable Lord of the Manor) died.

Shops and Factories around the Parish
For the past 100 years, the parish has also been well known for its independent developments both big and small. The big factory companies located just outside the town that provided much employment to people moving out of London after the Second World War were: Molins Tobacco Machinery Company, Forest Products Research Laboratory, Risborough Furniture, Enfield Upholstery, Austin Hoy and Leo Laboratories Ltd.

More recently Princes Risborough's outskirt factory premises include Hypnos Beds, who have been granted royal warrants since 1929 were originally located in factory premises near the Railway Station they have since relocated to premises on the Longwick Road and continue to produce beds and mattresses. In 1920, Ercol Furniture set up premises in High Wycombe but after 82 years moved to Risborough in 2002 on new premises down Summerleys Road.

The smaller companies were mainly the ones based in the town and some have held the same locations since the early-20th century and continue to be a growing source of employment:

The George & Dragon Pub, was a former Coaching Inn that has existed on the same site for several hundred years. There's an old archway leading from the High Street to the back of the pub where all the old coaches, pony traps and wagons were parked. It has since been sold under new management, renovated and reopened for public enjoyment.

The Copper Urn Café was next to the archway of the George & Dragon, and was a teenage hangout back in the 20th century. It has since been a cookery shop but the company have relocated to Duke Street, a small lane leading into the High Street and the premises is now run by the Kado Gift Store who have other premises within the High Street.

W.J Hawkins used to be next to the café. The shop was a tobacconist and confectioners. By the early 21st century the shop was then divided, half was a chemist belonging to Lloyds Pharmacy and the other half was used as the town's Post Office. The whole shop is now a larger chemist assisting a much smaller chemist up the High Street. The town's Post Office moved to a small store in Horns Lane just off the High Street near the town's main traffic lights.

The Cross Keys Practice, was established at their current premises on the High Street in 1918. Before the First World War the building was a second Coaching Inn on the High Street with the name Cross Keys Hotel with stables at the back of building which have now been refurbished into the independent Cross Keys House. A small car park is also located at the back of the surgery.

Wainwright's Shoe Shop was founded by Albert Wainwright in 1919. In about 1936 the business moved to premises along the Summerleys Road by the station, before moving round the corner to a large retail unit in Station Road before the War (this retail unit has now been demolished). In 1953 they moved next to a small delicatessen which was at the time next door to the Practice but when that small shop closed it became part of the shoe shop. They expanded in retail outlets to Great Missenden in 1947 and Beaconsfield in 1960 though the Missenden shop closed in 2008. It is still a family-run business, a great place of employment and has been providing Bucks with their trade for over 100 years.

Padley and Binns, was a chemist and optician shop next door to Wainwrights that provided a lot of the patients of the Cross Keys Practice with their prescriptive medicines. To this day it is still a chemist run by Lloyds Pharmacy.

Gillingwaters was a greengrocers next to the Padley and Binns that many people of the town started their career with. The shop is now home to Cast Iron Range Cookers Ltd which provide traditional looking ovens, stoves and hobs.

Steels Bakery was a bakery store next to the Greengrocers. It was then called Speen Bakery for a while until the bakery business closed as a whole in some unknown year. The building then transformed into Top Wok Chinese Buffet and Restaurant that served the community with buffet orders and takeaways for the town in the early 21st century. Top Wok too closed and turned into Domino's Pizza soon after.

Between the old Bakery and Shaw Trust charity shop are the well-known florists The Daisy Chain who used to manage their business further up the High Street and Letsmart Property Management Ltd. Both shops are the style of original townhouses that would've belonged to families back in the 20th century.

What is now the Shaw Trust Charity Shop building originally was owned by Mr. George Ellis who had his own furniture and carpet store there. Families would pay weekly installments for products they would buy from Mr. Ellis as money was tight within the 20th century.

Granny's Pantry was a café next door to the Mr. Ellis' shop and was by far and away the people's most popular place in the town within the 20th century. Having relocated from premises in the Market Square in the mid-1960s, this small café adopted the style of the small Lyons Corner Houses which originated from war times. This small café was run by Mrs. Morris who always had a loyal staff supporting her. The building's latest incarnation is now the Cinnamon Lounge Indian Restaurant.

What is now the PR Photos shop building was a small ladies clothes shop called E & H's. As it was a very small shop every thing for sale used to be in one large drawer according to oral history. Next to this small shop is a larger house that was the solicitors, Lightfoot and Lownes. It is still the offices of the now independent Lightfoot Solicitors.

Next to this used to be a fine red brick townhouse with three chimneys on the roof. This was a similar style house to where the Daisy Chain florists is now. However, when this large house was demolished, the site was renovated into three separate shops all owned by the Co-op in the specific layout of an electrical store, groceries and chemist. Like Gillingwaters and Wainwrights it was a great source of teenage and adult employment over the years.

When all three shops closed, they were sold to different buyers and by the early 21st century, the shops had become the well-beloved The Book Shop, Henley Interiors, Alternative Tools and Art & Office. None of these four shops exist now and The Book Shop is now a WHSmith, the Henley Interiors shop is now a Costa Coffee outlet, Alternative Tools is an Oxfam Charity Shop and Art & Office is a Flame & Stone Pizza.

Modern times
The ecclesiastical parish of Princes Risborough today has approximately the same extent as the former manor and includes various hamlets scattered over the nearby Chiltern Hills. These include Alscot, Askett, Cadsden, Flowers Bottom, Loosley Row Lower North Dean, North Dean, Redland End, Speen, and Upper North Dean.

The 1841 census lists the population of the town as 926.

After the Second World War, and partly due to the employment growth, the town's housing community steadily increased. The new housing estates (known affectionately as the Trees and Fields estates) were built in the 1950s as council houses.

The town is home to Princes Risborough School. Known affectionately as the 'Top School' for its location, it is a co-educational secondary school that opened in 1957. It took over secondary education from the nearby Bell Street School (its location was down the hill, and is now retirement flats).

Since the reintroduction of the red kite to the Chiltern Hills, Princes Risborough has become an ideal place to view this bird of prey. They are often sighted above the town and surrounding areas.

Princes Risborough has been featured several times in films and television series (e.g. Jonathan Creek, Inspector Morse, Midsomer Murders and Double First).

It is popular with commuters as it has excellent rail links to London and Birmingham.

Notable people and artists

 * Edward Stone, a cleric who discovered the active ingredient of aspirin, salicylic acid was born in the town.
 * Jabez West (1810–1884), a political reformer and temperance advocate, was born and raised in the town. The drinking fountain in Southwark Park commemorates his work in London.
 * Nigel Harrison, former musician of Blondie; born in Stockport but grew up and went to school in Princes Risborough.
 * Sarah Harding, singer and actress, from Girls Aloud was a former resident, living in Cadsden.
 * Jay Kay, musician, from Jamiroquai is a resident of Horsenden.
 * Martin and Paul Kelly, musicians, from indie-pop band East Village grew up in the town and formed the band in Risborough.
 * English indie-rock band Tiger originated from Princes Risborough.
 * Lee McQueen, winner of The Apprentice series 4.
 * Nicholas Parsons, broadcaster, was a resident in Ilmer until his death.
 * Amy Johnson, a pioneering aviator and the first woman to fly from England to Australia, lived in Princes Risborough between 1937 and 1938.

Sports and recreation
Motorsport: The Kop Hill Climb is one of the oldest hill climb events in England, originally running from 1910 to 1925, when it was shut down due to safety concerns. Changes in the law allowed the event to be brought back in 2009 as a celebration of both classic and modern motorsport. The modern event attracts thousands of spectators annually, with over 26,000 visitors in 2015, and has earned over £600,000 for charity to date. Celebrity patrons have included Mary Berry, Nicholas Parsons, and Jay Kay.

Cricket: Princes Risborough Cricket Club meets at the Windsor Playing Fields, Horsenden, Nearby the Monks Risborough Cricket Club has a pitch at Whiteleaf, next to the Golf Club.

Football: Risborough Rangers F.C. has its headquarters at Windsor Playing Fields. Currently the side play in the Hellenic League (Division One East). They also have a number of teams playing at various venues within the town

Golf: There are a number of golf courses in the area: Princes Risborough Golf Club in Saunderton Lee, Whiteleaf Golf Club at Monks Risborough (9 holes) and somewhat further away the 18-hole Ellesborough Golf Club on land formerly part of the Chequers estate.

Lawn tennis and bowls: Princes Risborough Bowls Club and Princes Risborough Lawn Tennis Club have their own grounds off New Road, and Horsenden Tennis Club has courts at the Windsor Playing Fields, Horsenden.

Rugby: In 2008 Risborough Rugby Football Club was founded by local residents. The Whiteleaf Pub in the market square is used as a clubhouse for meetings and after training. They currently play in Berks/Bucks & Oxon Premiership Division.

Swimming: There is a covered pool at Risborough Springs off Stratton Road. Next to this is Wades Park, which has a children's play area and a basketball court.

Princes Risborough has a recreation ground on the left of the Aylesbury Road, known as King George's Field as a memorial to King George V.

Railways
The history of the railways at Princes Risborough is both complicated and interesting.

At the start of the Railway Age, the nearest station was Maidenhead on the main Great Western line. The service from Paddington to Maidenhead started in 1838 and reached Bristol in 1841. In 1846 the Wycombe Railway Company was incorporated and built a single track broad gauge line to connect Maidenhead to High Wycombe via Cookham and Bourne End. This opened on 1 August 1854 and the line was then continued north to Princes Risborough and Thame en route for Oxford.

From 1862 it became possible to travel from Princes Risborough to London in a train which started at Thame (later Oxford, when the line was completed) and went on to London Paddington through Princes Risborough, High Wycombe, Bourne End and Maidenhead. Although the line was built by the Wycombe Railway Company, the service was operated by the Great Western Railway. At that date the journey to London from Risborough took about 2 hours 40 minutes.

Another branch line from Princes Risborough to Aylesbury, which the Wycombe Railway Company had started to build in 1861, opened for traffic on 1 October 1863. Thereafter passengers from either Oxford or Aylesbury could reach Paddington via Princes Risborough, Wycombe and Maidenhead, but the majority of the through trains ran between Paddington and Oxford. In 1867 the Great Western Railway took over the Wycombe Railway Company. All lines were converted to standard gauge between 1868 and 1870. In 1872 a new line, built by the Watlington and Princes Risborough Railway Company, opened between Princes Risborough and Watlington. There were three trains in each direction daily. This line was taken over by the Great Western in 1883. The Metropolitan Railway opened a main line from Baker Street to Aylesbury in 1892, providing an alternative route between London and Princes Risborough via Aylesbury.

In 1899 the Great Central Railway arranged to join with the Great Western to construct a new route to London and built Marylebone station as its terminus. A new line, built by the Great Western Railway, ran from Paddington via Gerrards Cross and Beaconsfield to High Wycombe and thence to Princes Risborough. The single track line between High Wycombe and Princes Risborough was upgraded to a double track. Because of the gradient the new Up line followed a different route (with a short tunnel at Saunderton) from the existing single track, which became the Down line (with a few changes because of the gradient or for other reasons). The Great Central built a new line from Marylebone to join this railway at South Ruislip (then called Northolt Junction). These direct routes between Princes Risborough and London were working from 2 April 1906, though at first the trains still ran on to Oxford beyond Risborough. The line to Bicester followed later in 1910. The journey time to London was reduced to between an hour and an hour and a half.

For the next 40 years and more Princes Risborough was a busy junction with two large signal boxes and trains coming in from London Marylebone, London Paddington via Beaconsfield, London Paddington via Maidenhead (a few trains still used this route until 1970), Bicester and the North, Aylesbury, Oxford and Watlington. In the 1930s, 29 men were employed at the station. The railways were nationalised in 1948 and in the 1950s these lines started to close. The Watlington line, due to decline in numbers, withdrew passenger services on 1 June 1957, though the line from Princes Risborough was retained so that goods trains could serve the cement works and wood yard in Chinnor. On 20 December 1989, the final goods train travelled the line, road transport having taken over from the railway. The railway was then declared ‘non-operational’. The line through Bourne End to Maidenhead closed in 1970.

Diesel trains replaced steam locomotives on the main line in 1961. The Down platform at Princes Risborough and the passenger bridge were demolished and there was only a single track through the station from 1968 until 1998. At the same time Marylebone Station was being threatened with closure and for several years almost all trains ran to and from Paddington.

Upon privatisation in 1996 the line through Risborough was taken over by Chiltern Railways, who funded an extensive series of upgrades. In 1998 they re-built the Down platform and constructed a new footbridge at their own expense, restoring full working with a much more frequent service. On 5 September 2011 the Chiltern Mainline project went live. This was a £250 million investment and the largest privately led investment in passenger railway infrastructure since before the second world war. This has reduced the time taken by trains between London and Risborough; in the December 2011 timetable trains can take as little as 31 minutes (the majority taking 35 to 40 minutes).

Maintenance of the branch from Chinnor to the junction with the Thame branch near Princes Risborough was given to the Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway Association from January 1990. In July 1994, the Association was granted a Transport and Works Order under section 6 of the Transport and Works Act 1992. This allowed the line to be run as a heritage railway, staffed and maintained by volunteers. Following the T&W Order, the line began carrying passengers in August 1994, and was extended to start of Thame railway by 1996. In 2013, the Association began a project to restore the Princes Risborough North signal box, which had been a Grade II listed building since its closure in 1991. This culminated in August 2018 with the re-opening of Platform 4 at Princes Risborough station, connecting Princes Risborough to Chinnor with a limited service at weekends as part of the heritage railway's operations.

Bus
Princes Risborough is served primarily by the X9 Arriva Shires & Essex service which alternates between High Wycombe and Aylesbury on a quarter-hourly basis (Mondays to Saturdays) and hourly on Sundays and Bank Holidays. Other services include Redline Buses' 130 service between High Wycombe and Aylesbury which operates a quarter-hourly basis (Mondays to Saturdays) and hourly on Sundays and Bank Holidays; Red Rose Travel Run A 320 service which serves. as a rail link between Princes Risborough railway station and Chinnor during peak hours; and Z&S Transport Run The 113 which serves between Risborough and Oakley on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Princes Risborough is also served by the Risborough Area Community Bus (RACB) which serves the villages surrounding Risborough including Longwick, Monks Risborough, Speen, Bledlow, Bledlow Ridge and Little Kimble.

Local media
Television programmes and local news is provided by BBC South and ITV Meridian, received from the Oxford TV transmitter.

Local radio stations are BBC Three Counties Radio, Heart Thames Valley, Greatest Hits Radio Bucks, Beds and Herts (formerly Mix 96), Tring Radio (Bucks Herts and Beds) and Red Kite Radio that broadcast from Aylesbury.

The Bucks Free Press is the town’s weekly local newspaper.

Community
The Risborough Area Partnership (RAP) is the umbrella organisation for business local government and community groups in Princes Risborough. There are several community events organised across the year.

Books mentioned in the notes

 * Barber, Richard: Edward Prince of Wales and Aquitaine 'A biography of the Black Prince' (London 1978)
 * Domesday Book (text & translation edited by John Morris) Vol 13 Buckinghamshire (Phillimore, Chichester 1978)
 * Lipscomb, George: The History and Antiquities of the County of Buckingham (London. 1847)
 * Mawer, A. and Stenton, F.M: The Place Names of Buckinghamshire (Cambridge, 1925)
 * Register of Edward the Black Prince, preserved in the Public Record Office '4 volumes' (H.M.S.O. 1930–33)
 * VHCB = Victoria History of the County of Buckingham, ed: William Page, Volume 2 (1908), pages 260–267
 * Pevsner, Nikolaus & Elizabeth Williamson: Buckinghamshire (The Buildings of England – Penguin Books. 2nd edition. 1994)
 * RCHMB = Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England): An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Buckinghamshire, Volume 1 (1912)
 * Payne, Mike & Angela: ‘The Voices of Princes Risborough’ (The History Press, Cheltenham. 2009)

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

title: Princes Risborough


text:
Talk:English alphabet

The 25-letter English alphabet
A note in another W. article stated that a 25-letter English alphabet somehow excluded the letter "J". If this is factual, it should be added to the article; for I found no mention of a 25 word alphabet by searching for the number "25". Misty MH (talk) 15:56, 13 February 2019 (UTC)

 * What article? There might be space for more discussion, or some clarification about the history of the alphabet, but I don't know if there was a notable 25-letter English alphabet. If you read the article, it says "The letters u and j, as distinct from v and i, were introduced in the 16th century, and w assumed the status of an independent letter", so you're talking about an alphabet that included u and w but not yet j, which would be odd. I've worked with early printed English, and seen works that used used u and v, and i and j as positional variants, but not one that used u and v as modern letters but not j.--Prosfilaes (talk) 21:28, 13 February 2019 (UTC)

"Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz. Please participate in the redirect discussion if you wish to do so. Soumyabrata (talk • subpages) 09:52, 11 February 2020 (UTC)

Deletion request
Sorry folks, I did not search the archives. I just want to state (once again?) that this article is written from a very anglocentric (hence not neutral) point of view. If there is such a thing as an English Alphabet (which, according to the textbox, developed out of the Latin alphabet), why is there no, say, Dutch alphabet etc? 61.25.12.182 (talk) 06:01, 24 December 2022 (UTC)
 * If you think should be deleted then take it to WP:AFD. Leaving a message here is not going to get it deleted.
 * As for it being Anglocentric, well yes, it's an article about the alphabet used in the English language. That does not mean it is not neutral. Most modern European languages use very similar alphabets, based on the Latin alphabet. Meters (talk) 06:22, 24 December 2022 (UTC)

The apostrophe as a letter
A series of IPs (presumably the same user) are edit warring to claim that the apostrophe is sometimes considered a letter in the English language. There has been at least one range block over this, but the edits are continuing, so let's get consensus on this. Pinging all the named editors who have edited this article in the last week (when I noticed this issue, although I would not be surprised to find it has been going on for longer): user:Silikonz, user:Zzuuzz, user:Bazza 7, user:Scyrme, user:Materialscientist

Initially the claims were unsourced, and simply stated the apostrophe was a letter. This changed to the still unsourced but more subtle statement that apostrophes are usually not considered letters (implying that they sometimes are considered letters . Now a vague claim that "Recently there has been a small movement to recognize the apostrophe as a letter of the alphabet, based on its necessary role in spelling English words." has also been added . Two bare URL sources have been provided: One of the sources is a dead link (from 2018), and the other is nothing but a 13-year-old blog posting. I don't see any justification for changing the wording from "The apostrophe (ʼ) is not considered part of the English alphabet" to "The apostrophe (ʼ) is not usually considered part of the English alphabet" [emphasis added by me], or for adding the fuzzy claim about the "movement" to include the apostrophe as a letter. Anyone want to support keeping these changes? Meters (talk) 01:12, 20 February 2023 (UTC)
 * My apologies, I missed pinging one named editor from the the last week: user:SunDawn Meters (talk) 01:20, 20 February 2023 (UTC)
 * The dead link actually works, if you omit considered. It's an opinion piece and isn't entirely serious in tone. However, Pullum seems to sincerely hold this view, and is mentioned in that news article. He's also mentioned in a Times article . – Scyrme (talk) 02:43, 20 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Since The Times has a paywall, here's the relevant text for the mention: "Yet Mount is wrong to describe this as an issue of grammar. It’s instead about orthography (spelling and punctuation). In usage guides the apostrophe is invariably described as a punctuation mark. In fact, recent scholars of language take issue with this. Geoffrey Pullum, co-author of the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, says that whereas punctuation marks appear between units, the apostrophe appears within words, and is therefore an issue of spelling. He terms the apostrophe the 27th letter of the alphabet."
 * Perhaps that book, the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, might provide another source. The article doesn't list anyone besides Pullum, regarding "recent scholars"; it's not at all clear that his is not an eccentric view. Even if there are others, it's evidently a recent and marginal view. Coverage for this fringe view is undue, so I agree with reverting the addition of the apostrophe to the list of letters in the article's lead section, but fighting over the inclusion of "usually" seems counterproductive to me.
 * To be clear, I'm not supporting the addition of "usually"; I just don't see much point in fussing over it. I'm much more concerned by the letter "eng" being listed alongside letters like thorn and wynn, which is what my recent edits were about. – Scyrme (talk) 03:07, 20 February 2023 (UTC)
 * I was pinged, and my main involvement stems from the block I performed. The IP making the change to this page, which is the same user making the other changes, was plain trolling and lost any credibility they thought they had. As for the proposed change, as seen here, I appreciate the sources being supplied, but I still see problems. The apostrophe is indeed having a crisis, but anyone saying the English alphabet consists of either 27 letters, or 26 and a punctuation mark, is clearly on the fringe. It doesn't belong in the lead or other central parts of the article, and even saying "not usually" gives this fringe too much weight, IMO. Even the "Apostrophe Protection Society" calls it punctuation. Saying "Recently there has been a small movement..." also actually requires its own source, and not just what is effectively a link to a 13-year old blog post. It's listed under "Proposed reforms", but is it, really? Then the ABC article uses a grabbing headline, but doesn't actually follow it up in the article. In my opinion the apostrophe belongs consigned to the same section as that other regular part of words - the hyphen, where its status, including any peer-reviewed opinions by Pullum, can be discussed with reliable sources supporting the content. I suggest the IP join the discussion and make their case. -- zzuuzz (talk) 09:04, 20 February 2023 (UTC)
 * I'm reassured that others have recognised the antics of the IP who has now been blocked. Their inconsistent unreferenced "facts" and repeated reversions were almost as annoying as their mocking edit summaries. I am fine accepting any assertion which can be referenced properly, with the number and reliability of such references increasing with the contrariness of the assertion. Although the man on the Clapham omnibus may now work from her home, the concept is still valid and most native English speakers would likely, if asked, say there are 26 letters, and the apostrophe (whose existence I'm happy to pedantically defend) is punctuation. Absent a decent number of uncontentious references, that is how things should be reported here. Bazza (talk) 09:32, 20 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Apostrophe can be seen as a symbol that represents the sound of a missing letter or number, such as in can’t for cannot, or '20 for 2020. Apostrophe can also be seen as a symbol that represents the sound of an added syllable in the possessive case, such as in John’s for John his, or children’s for children es. Therefore, apostrophe meets the criteria of being a letter in the English alphabet.
 * Moreover, apostrophe has a historical origin that connects it to other letters. Apostrophe comes from Greek apóstrophos (prosōidía), which means "mark of turning away" . It was used to indicate when a vowel was elided or omitted in Greek words. Later, it was adopted by Latin writers to show when letters were dropped in contractions, such as n’t for not. Apostrophe was also used by Old English scribes to mark the genitive case of nouns, such as cyninges for king’s. These examples show that apostrophe has evolved from other letters and has been used to modify them for centuries.
 * Additionally, apostrophe is similar to other letters that can be silent in some words. For example, the letter k is silent in words like knife or know. The letter e is silent in words like have or name. The letter h is silent in words like hour or honor. These letters are still part of the English alphabet even though they do not always produce a sound. Likewise, apostrophe can be silent in some words, such as its or yours. This does not mean that apostrophe is not a letter, but rather that it has different functions depending on the context.
 * Furthermore, apostrophe is very different from other punctuation marks that are used to separate sentences or clauses, such as periods, commas, semicolons, colons, question marks, exclamation points, dashes, and parentheses. These punctuation marks do not represent any sounds or letters; they only indicate pauses or intonations in speech or writing. They do not affect the spelling or meaning of words; they only affect the structure and clarity of sentences. Apostrophe, on the other hand, does affect the spelling and meaning of words; it shows when letters are omitted or added to form contractions or possessives. Apostrophe is not just a separator; it is a modifier.
 * Therefore, apostrophe is not just a punctuation mark, but also a letter in the English alphabet. It has a sound value and a historical lineage that make it comparable to other letters. It is an essential part of spelling words correctly and expressing meaning clearly. 2600:1014:B030:E785:98CA:1925:BCE3:B5C7 (talk) 14:22, 24 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Apostrophe is a letter, not a dot with a tail. It makes sounds like uh-oh or hiss. It comes from old Greeks and Romans who liked to skip vowels. It helps us write words like can’t and John’s. It is like other letters that sometimes go quiet, like k in knife or e in name. It is not like other dots and lines that just make us stop or shout. Apostrophe is a cool letter that we need to spell right and talk good. 2600:1014:B030:E785:98CA:1925:BCE3:B5C7 (talk) 14:23, 24 March 2023 (UTC)
 * ,, and appear to disagree with your [unreferenced] definitions. Bazza (talk) 14:29, 24 March 2023 (UTC)
 * There is no support here for including this fringe view of the English alphabet. We've already had a range block, IP socking, and a page protection because of this. WP:DROPTHESTICK. Meters (talk) 19:59, 24 March 2023 (UTC)

Old Names of the Letters
Here are some old sources for the English names of the Latin letters.

In Stowe MS 57, ꝉ is scribal abbreviation for Latin 'vel' (or). In the same manuscript, uppercase and lowercase forms of the letters are shown as a pair, and sometimes the lowercase letters of the pairs are also part of the letters' names. What actually appears is: Aa; Bbe; Cce; Dde; Ee; Ffef; Gge; Hhah; Ii; Kka; Llel; Mmem; Nnen; Oo; Ppe; Qquu; Rrer; Sses; Tte; Vu; Xxex; Yyfix; Zzede; Ƿƿen; ð ðet; Þþorn.

Hurlebatte (talk) 02:50, 14 March 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:English alphabet


text:
Lowest common denominator

In mathematics, the lowest common denominator or least common denominator (abbreviated LCD) is the lowest common multiple of the denominators of a set of fractions. It simplifies adding, subtracting, and comparing fractions.

Description
The lowest common denominator of a set of fractions is the lowest number that is a multiple of all the denominators: their lowest common multiple. The product of the denominators is always a common denominator, as in:

 * $$\frac{1}{2}+\frac{2}{3}\;=\;\frac{3}{6}+\frac{4}{6}\;=\;\frac{7}{6}$$

but it is not always the lowest common denominator, as in:

 * $$\frac{5}{12}+\frac{11}{18}\;=\;\frac{15}{36}+\frac{22}{36}\;=\;\frac{37}{36}$$

Here, 36 is the least common multiple of 12 and 18. Their product, 216, is also a common denominator, but calculating with that denominator involves larger numbers:
 * $$\frac{5}{12}+\frac{11}{18}=\frac{90}{216}+\frac{132}{216}=\frac{222}{216}.$$

With variables rather than numbers, the same principles apply:

 * $$\frac{a}{bc}+\frac{c}{b^2 d}\;=\;\frac{abd}{b^2 cd}+\frac{c^2}{b^2 cd}\;=\;\frac{abd+c^2}{b^2 cd}$$

Some methods of calculating the LCD are at.

Role in arithmetic and algebra
The same fraction can be expressed in many different forms. As long as the ratio between numerator and denominator is the same, the fractions represent the same number. For example:

 * $$\frac{2}{3}=\frac{6}{9}=\frac{12}{18}=\frac{144}{216}=\frac{200,000}{300,000}$$

because they are all multiplied by 1 written as a fraction:
 * $$\frac{2}{3}=\frac{2}{3}\times\frac{3}{3}=\frac{2}{3}\times\frac{6}{6}=\frac{2}{3}\times\frac{72}{72}=\frac{2}{3}\times\frac{100,000}{100,000}.$$

It is usually easiest to add, subtract, or compare fractions when each is expressed with the same denominator, called a "common denominator". For example, the numerators of fractions with common denominators can simply be added, such that $$\frac{5}{12}+\frac{6}{12}=\frac{11}{12}$$ and that $$\frac{5}{12}<\frac{11}{12}$$, since each fraction has the common denominator 12. Without computing a common denominator, it is not obvious as to what $$\frac{5}{12}+\frac{11}{18}$$ equals, or whether $$\frac{5}{12}$$ is greater than or less than $$\frac{11}{18}$$. Any common denominator will do, but usually the lowest common denominator is desirable because it makes the rest of the calculation as simple as possible.

Practical uses
The LCD has many practical uses, such as determining the number of objects of two different lengths necessary to align them in a row which starts and ends at the same place, such as in brickwork, tiling, and tessellation. It is also useful in planning work schedules with employees with y days off every x days.

In musical rhythm, the LCD is used in cross-rhythms and polymeters to determine the fewest notes necessary to count time given two or more metric divisions. For example, much African music is recorded in Western notation using because each measure is divided by 4 and by 3, the LCD of which is 12.

Colloquial usage
The expression "lowest common denominator" is used to describe (usually in a disapproving manner) a rule, proposal, opinion, or media that is deliberately simplified so as to appeal to the largest possible number of people.

title: Lowest common denominator


text:
Open architecture

Open architecture is a type of computer architecture or software architecture intended to make adding, upgrading, and swapping components with other computers easy. For example, the IBM PC, Amiga 2000 and Apple IIe have an open architecture supporting plug-in cards, whereas the Apple IIc computer has a closed architecture. Open architecture systems may use a standardized system bus such as S-100, PCI or ISA or they may incorporate a proprietary bus standard such as that used on the Apple II, with up to a dozen slots that allow multiple hardware manufacturers to produce add-ons, and for the user to freely install them. By contrast, closed architectures, if they are expandable at all, have one or two "expansion ports" using a proprietary connector design that may require a license fee from the manufacturer, or enhancements may only be installable by technicians with specialized tools or training.

Computer platforms may include systems with both open and closed architectures. The Mac mini and Compact Macintosh are closed; the Macintosh II and Power Mac G5 are open. Most desktop PCs are open architecture.

Similarly, an open software architecture is one in which additional software modules can be added to the basic framework provided by the architecture. Open APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) to major software products are the way in which the basic functionality of such products can be modified or extended. The Google APIs are examples. A second type of open software architecture consists of the messages that can flow between computer systems. These messages have a standard structure that can be modified or extended per agreements between the computer systems. An example is IBM's Distributed Data Management Architecture.

Open architecture allows potential users to see inside all or parts of the architecture without any proprietary constraints. Typically, an open architecture publishes all or parts of its architecture that the developer or integrator wants to share. The open business processes involved with an open architecture may require some license agreements between entities sharing the architecture information. Open architectures have been successfully implemented in many diverse fields, including the U.S. Navy.

title: Open architecture


text:
User:Nuthatch~enwiki

I'm a new contributor to Wikipedia (November '03), but hope to make some modest contributions. My education was in science (Physics) and by profession I am a computer programmer, but my scholarly interests tend to history, music and edible plants.

Please don't bite! I'm likely to make mistakes but I respond well to constructive criticism...

-Nuthatch

title: User:Nuthatch~enwiki


text:
Saatchi

Saatchi may refer to:

 * Saatchi (name), a Turkish surname (includes a list of people with the name)
 * Saatchi Gallery, contemporary art gallery
 * Saatchi & Saatchi, advertising agency
 * M&C Saatchi, advertising agency
 * Saatchi (film), a 1983 Tamil film directed by S. A. Chandrasekhar

title: Saatchi


text:
The Limelight

The Limelight was a chain of nightclubs owned and operated by Peter Gatien. It had locations in New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, London and Hallandale, Florida.

Florida and Atlanta locations
Peter Gatien opened the first Limelight nightclub in Hallandale, Florida, in the 1970s. The club was featured in the Jerry Lewis movie Hardly Working. Following a devastating fire on the early morning of May 6, 1980, Gatien chose Atlanta for his next incarnation of the club. The Atlanta Limelight opened in February 1980. It was housed in a strip mall at the former site of the Harlequin Dinner Theatre.

The Limelight in Atlanta was a high-profile Euro-style night club designed and built in partnership with a certain Guy Larente from Montreal, Quebec who helped in the build of the Limelight series. The Limelight in Atlanta hosted many notables and celebrities over the years. A single photo taken in June 1981 skyrocketed the focus on the club, when celebrity photographer Guy D'Alema captured an image of Anita Bryant dancing the night away with evangelist Russ McGraw, known in gay communities as an activist. Several hundred newspapers and magazines ran the photo with the headline “Anita Upset Over Disco Photo”.

Peter Gatien relished the publicity. The club hosted many Interview Magazine events which brought names like Andy Warhol, Grace Jones, Debbie Harry, Burt Reynolds, Ali MacGraw, and Village People's Randy Jones, among others to the club. Other celebrity sightings included Tom Cruise, Liza Minnelli, Michael Jackson, Pia Zadora, Shannon Tweed, Gene Simmons, Rick Springfield and Mamie Van Doren, to name but a few. The club also served as a location for Hal Ashby's film The Slugger's Wife (1985), which starred Rebecca De Mornay.

In 1983, when Gatien relocated to New York to open another Limelight club, his brother Maurice managed the Atlanta club. Maurice reportedly had less talent for running a nightclub than Gatien. "Peter was the brains behind the operation," according to house photographer and publicist Guy D'Alema. "Maurice ... didn't want to spend a dime and didn't have a creative bone in his body." The Atlanta club was located next to a 24-hour Kroger grocery store, which became known widely as "Disco Kroger."

In July 2010, several former Limelight employees – including Randy Easterling, Jim Redford, Noel Aguirre, and Aron Siegel – along with a few of their regular customer dancers – including Jonathan Spanier and Bret Roberts – produced "One More Night at the Limelight", a 30th Anniversary Party, at The Buckhead Theatre, formerly The Roxy Theatre. Due to the party's success and great attendance, combined with the untimely death of one of its organizers (Spanier), the remaining team produced another party, "Limelight Revisited: Déjà vu Discotheque", on August 6, 2011, at Center Stage Atlanta in midtown Atlanta.

Chicago location
The Limelight in Chicago was housed in the former home of the Chicago Historical Society; the building itself is a historic structure. It was opened in 1985, and became Excalibur nightclub in 1989. The steps to the entrance led to a hallway lined with museum cases which housed carnival like models dancing and generally moving about. There were several levels to the club. The main dance floor had a stage for the DJ. There were several private rooms that often played host to a bevy of celebrities both in music and in sports. The alternative music scene was critical at the Limelight as it played late into the 5 a.m. hour in Chicago on Saturday nights.

London location
From 1985, the Limelight in London was located in a former Welsh Presbyterian church on Shaftesbury Avenue, just off Cambridge Circus, which dates from the 1890s. The London club's decline in popularity led to the club being sold as a going concern, eventually being taken over in 2003 by Australian pub chain The Walkabout, which converted it into a sports bar. In 2013 the Walkabout eventually ceased trading and the premises is empty and awaiting conversion to a new performing arts use by the charity Stone Nest.

Beginning
The club in New York City, situated on Sixth Avenue at West 20th Street, was the most significant and infamous of all the Limelight locations. It opened in November 1983 and was designed by Ari Bahat. The site is the former Episcopal Church of the Holy Communion. The church was a Gothic Revival brownstone building which was built in 1844-1845 and designed by architect Richard Upjohn. In the early 1970s, when the parish merged with two others, the church was deconsecrated and sold to Odyssey House, a drug rehabilitation program. Amidst financial hardship, Odyssey House sold it to Gatien in 1982.

Gatien was deeply interested in art and architecture, so he thought the church would be perfect as a club. He spent close to $5 million on renovations. The ceilings stretched four stories over the main dance floor. There were five staircases from the main chamber going to numerous lounges that hosted a different crowd in each room, cloves, VIP rooms, and the chapel area where experimental parties would be thrown to test out the popularity of such events.

The New York Limelight originally started as a disco and rock club. In the 1990s, it became a prominent place to hear techno, goth, and industrial music. The club was attractive to the people of NYC because it was inclusive. Goths, drag queens, rockers, leather boys, and socialites could all be seen partying with each other in one night. There were approximately 15,000 people showing up to the Limelight per night. During this time, Gatien was named the Club King.

Trial
In October 1995, the club was raided by the New York Police Department. They were only able to make three small arrests of marijuana dealers because Gatien had been tipped off. The Limelight was temporarily locked up for a week after Gatien paid a $30,000 fine and posted a $160,000 bond. In 1996, club kid and party promoter Michael Alig was arrested and later convicted for the killing and dismemberment of Angel Melendez, a fellow member of the Club Kids and a drug dealer who frequented the club.

The Limelight was closed by the police, and reopened several times during the 1990s. In 1998, Gatien was put on trial for selling drugs within his chain of clubs. His lawyer Ben Brafman claimed that the 80-page affidavit used to arrest Gatien contained no proof that directly linked him to drug distribution at the clubs. He argued that it was "selective prosecution", due to the fact that Gatien ran such a huge operation, he could not be held individually or personally responsible for isolated pockets of drug dealing.

End
Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Friendberg called the Limelight "a drug supermarket" where "massive amounts" of ecstasy as well as cocaine, special K, and rohypnol were used as "promotional tools to lure patrons to the club." In the end, the government agreed on not accusing Gatien of personally selling drugs or profiting from the dealers operating in his clubs. They argued that he allowed drug dealers into his venues to advertise and increase popularity, therefore pleading him not guilty.

In September 2003, it reopened under the name Avalon. It closed its doors permanently in 2007. Since May 2010, the building has been in use as the Limelight Marketplace. In 2014, it was converted into an outlet of the David Barton Gym chain. In December 2016, this location as well as all four other David Barton Gym locations in New York City abruptly closed their doors for business. In June 2017, it reopened as Limelight Fitness. In 2015, a portion of the Limelight was taken over by Jue Lan Club, a Chinese restaurant and lounge. Over the years, Jue Lan Club venue has been accused of causing disorderly conduct.

2011 documentary
In April 2011, Rakontur released Limelight at the Tribeca Film Festival. The documentary's world rights were bought by Magnolia Pictures. The documentary, which highlights the club's history during the Gatien era, was produced by Gatien's daughter, Jen, and directed by Billy Corben.

In popular culture

 * The New York location was the site of Shirley MacLaine's New Age-themed 50th pre-birthday party, and was mentioned in her book Dancing in the Light.
 * The New York location was the subject of the 1985 song "This Disco (Used to be a Cute Cathedral)" by singer Steve Taylor. The song's lyrics mentions the club's name and history. It included on On The Fritz album. A live version appears on his album,  Limelight.
 * The New York location was mentioned and depicted in the second season premiere of Miami Vice, "Prodigal Son", on September 27, 1985.
 * The club was mentioned in The Horrorist's track "One Night in New York City".
 * LIMELIGHT ... in a sixtieth of a second, a photography book by Guy D'Alema was released in April 2012, visually documents the early years of the Atlanta location.
 * "Hush Hush", a first season episode of The Carrie Diaries, takes place at the Limelight New York in 1984.
 * A parody of the club, called "Slimelight", appeared in the first issue of the comic book 22 Brides.
 * The New York city location appears in Episode 6, Season 8 of The Venture Bros. where Shore Leave escorts Hank and Dean Venture. They lament the fact that it has become a mall.
 * Basic Instinct (1992) includes a nightclub scene with Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas filmed in Burbank, on a studio set inspired by the club's New York location.
 * The novel "Christ Like" by Emanuel Xavier features a gay NYC nightclub called The Sanctuary which is actually The Limelight.

Notable performers
Roy Harter

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title: The Limelight


text:
Lower Manhattan Development Corporation

The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation was formed in November 2001, following the September 11 attacks, to plan the reconstruction of Lower Manhattan and distribute nearly $10 billion in federal funds aimed at rebuilding downtown Manhattan. It is a subsidiary of the Empire State Development Corporation, which is a New York state public-benefit corporation.

History
The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation was formed in November 2001 by then-Governor George Pataki and then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. The LMDC is a joint State-City corporation governed by a 16-member Board of Directors, half appointed by the Governor of New York and half by the Mayor of New York. As a result, Pataki and Giuliani appointees dominate the LMDC. Its original chairman was John C. Whitehead, a former Deputy Secretary of State and head of Goldman Sachs. One of its first projects was the granting of more than $40 million for parks and green space.

In February 2003, the LMDC chose Daniel Libeskind's master plan for the reconstruction of the World Trade Center complex. The organization also sponsored the international design competition for the World Trade Center Memorial, which resulted in Michael Arad and Peter Walker's Reflecting Absence being chosen as the winning design in January 2004.

Having distributed its funds, the LMDC in July 2006 announced plans to dissolve and transfer its responsibilities to other existing agencies and foundations, including the W.T.C. Memorial Foundation, and the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center. However a settlement following the fire at the Deutsche Bank Building allowed them funding for future projects including the West Thames Street pedestrian bridge.

Organization structure
LMDC does not own the World Trade Center site although it partners with the Port Authority on some elements of development.

Funding
The LMDC was funded through the disbursement of Community Development Block Grants-amounting to $2.783 billion—approved by the federal government in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and resultant destruction of much of lower Manhattan's economic and structural base. It was not listed in the New York State Authorities Budget Office's 2018 annual report, but remains in operation as of 2019 as plans for the future 5 World Trade Center continued to develop.

Criticism
Two members of the LMDC's board have asserted that up to $45 million allocated to the LMDC from a "community enhancement" fund in May 2005 has not been directly accounted for, and that up to $15 million from that stipend might have been spent in areas other than those it had been explicitly stipulated for.

Former Attorney General Democrat Eliot Spitzer became governor in 2007, rethought his condemnation, and announced a "reinvigorated LMDC" that would continue the revitalization of Lower Manhattan. Mayor Bloomberg welcomed the Governor's renewed interest at the time. However, in September 2008, Mayor Bloomberg condemned the LMDC as a contributor to a slower progress in rebuilding and he demanded dissolution of the LMDC.

title: Lower Manhattan Development Corporation