City of Westminster

image
Region: London
Country: England

§ This page provides an overview of an officially designated city in the UK, bringing together various information to help you better understand this city.

Westminster’s modern city status was granted by royal charter on 29 October 1900 to the Metropolitan Borough of Westminster and, in 1965, was transferred to the enlarged City of Westminster created by merging Westminster, Paddington and St Marylebone. Rooted around Westminster Abbey and the Palace of Westminster, the area has long been the seat of the Crown and Parliament. Today Westminster is a London borough providing local services, while a strategic tier for the whole capital was reintroduced in 2000 through the Greater London Authority; in 1966 the city was also granted the right to appoint a Lord Mayor, reflecting its senior civic standing within Greater London.

In Greater London, only the City of London and the City of Westminster have city status—no other local authority (i.e. London borough) in the London Region does, and neither does the Greater London Authority.

City Council Status

The City of Westminster is a London borough that also holds city status; it is governed by Westminster City Council, the principal local authority for the area created in 1965 from the merger of the former metropolitan boroughs of Westminster, Paddington and St Marylebone. The council delivers most local services (housing, social care, planning, licensing, waste, local highways) and operates a leader-and-cabinet model, while strategic, London-wide responsibilities sit with the Greater London Authority and its bodies (e.g., Transport for London, policing, fire, and strategic planning). City status—originally granted to the Metropolitan Borough of Westminster in 1900 and transferred to the enlarged authority in 1965—is an honorific and does not add legal powers; the civic head is the Lord Mayor of Westminster (a ceremonial “first citizen,” distinct from the executive Mayor of London). In short, Westminster is a city-status London borough: the council styles itself Westminster City Council, provides local services within the GLA framework, and maintains civic traditions associated with the UK’s parliamentary heart without being a separate “city and county” unitary authority.

Civic Honours: Lord Mayors & Lord Provost

Westminster was granted the dignity of a Lord Mayoralty by Letters Patent on 11 March 1966.

In the UK, city status and the dignity of Lord Mayor (or Lord Provost in Scotland) are separate honours, each granted by the monarch via letters patent. Of the 76 cities, 28 have a Lord Mayoralty and 4—Scotland’s four cities—have a Lord Provost; these titles don’t automatically follow from city status. A Lord Mayoralty exists in 24 cities in England, 2 in Wales, and 2 in Northern Ireland.

Only 24 cities in England have Lord Mayors: Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Canterbury, Chester, Coventry, Exeter, Kingston-upon-Hull, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, the City of London, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Sheffield, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent, the City of Westminster, and York.

In the UK, a city is not defined by size or population but by formal status granted by the monarch, often through historical charters or, more recently, civic honours competitions. There are 76 officially recognised cities, some of which are relatively small compared to other urban areas. In contrast, local authority districts (361 in total) are administrative areas created for local government purposes and may include a mix of urban centres, suburbs, and rural communities. Within districts, there may be one or more towns, which generally refer to sizeable urban settlements but do not hold city status unless it has been formally granted. In practice, a city can exist within a district, and a district can cover multiple towns, showing the clear distinction between legal status, administrative boundaries, and everyday usage.

Cities in London