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In the mid-11th century, King Edward the Confessor began the building of an abbey at Westminster, just the structures of which survive today. In between Learn More Here and the river he constructed a palace, thereby ensuring that the seat of Federal government would be repaired at Westminster, and inevitably drawing power and wealth west out of the old City of London.
It was not until the sixteenth century that houses started to be constructed over the adjacent fields, ultimately taking in close-by villages such as Marylebone and Kensington, and slowly developing the large Greater London that exists today. Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries eliminated the abbey at Westminster, although the former abbey church is still called Westminster Abbey.
The Westminster Court of Burgesses was formed in 1585 to govern the Westminster location, formerly under the Abbey's control. The City and Liberties of Westminster were even more defined by Letters Patent in 1604, and the court of burgesses and liberty continued out there up until 1900, and the production of the Metropolitan Borough of Westminster.
This restructuring took place under the London Federal Government Act 1963, which significantly lowered the number of regional government districts in London, leading to local authorities responsible for larger geographical areas and higher populations. The Westminster Metropolitan Borough was itself the outcome of an administrative amalgamation which took place in 1900.
In addition to the City and Liberty of Westminster, prior to 1900, the location occupied by what would become the Metropolitan Borough of Westminster had been administered by five different local bodies: the Vestry of St George Hanover Square, the Vestry of St Martin in the Fields, Strand District Board of Works, Westminster District Board of Functions and the Vestry of Westminster St James.
Demographics [modify] Population, Year, Pop.% 1801 220,188 1811 245,254 +11. 4% 1821 288,851 +17. 8% 1831 344,200 +19. 2% 1841 368,910 +7. 2% 1851 422,850 +14. 6% 1861 446,263 +5. 5% 1871 469,677 +5. 2% 1881 493,090 +5. 0% 1891 462,8376. 1% 1901 441,8574. 5% 1911 421,8654. 5% 1921 396,4066. 0% 1931 372,5666. 0% 1941 334,44810. 2% 1951 300,46110.
1% 1971 237,61411. 0% 1981 163,89331. 0% 1991 187,526 +14. 4% 2001 181,2793. 3% 2011 219,396 +21. 0%Source: Ethnic background [modify] The following table reveals the ethnic group of respondents in the 2001 and 2011 census in Westminster. Ethnic group 2001 2011 Variety of total Variety of total White: British 87,938 48. 51% 77,334 35.