ABSTRACT
In essence the West End is everything the City, as a mono-cultural trading area, is not. Here one not only finds Monarch, Parliament and houses of government, but also places of shopping and entertainment that have their roots in character of 18th-century London. While overseas trade was centred in the City, the West End developed as terraced suburb focused upon the importance of the monarch, the royal court, land ownership in the hands of few great estates, aristocrats coming up from country, provided for by massive population of servants and crafts people, surrounded by market gardens and brick kilns. It has not changed that much central London is still controlled by great estates: Grosvenor, Cadogan, Howard de Walden, Portman and Bedford, with the Crown Estate and City of London as additional major stakeholders. A complex of corporate buildings, witness to a time when the BBC was expanding its accommodation. The master planning and architecture is by Allies and Morrison (A&M).
