Chartered Surveyors Blackpool Lancashire

Approximate Population: 142,900

Blackpool has a current population of around 143,000 and is situated on the Fylde coast in the North West of England with an historic reliance on tourism. In respect of Blackpool its fame and fortune lies in the sweeping promenade stretching for some five miles, embracing the Golden Sands, its pier and naturally the world renowned Blackpool Tower.

Recent archaeological discoveries show that the Fylde area was first inhabited as far back as 11,000 years ago. Consequently in 1602 entries in the Bispham parish baptismal register mention both “Poole” and, for the first time, “blackpoole”. Its lover affair with tourism though began in 1783where there is first mention of coaches being run between Manchester and Blackpool for passengers and tourists who came to enjoy the beaches and, in those days, drink the seawater – not recommended today though!

Around 1846 the railway station was opened at Talbot Road, nowadays Blackpool North and in 1863 the pier was opened, the railway was at this time extended to Blackpool Central. The resort was scarcely prepared for the thousands of visitors from Lancashire and Yorkshire who could now reach it with comparative ease.

In 1889, an event that took place on the other side of the English Channel was to transform Blackpool’s visual identity forever. An enormous cast-iron tower was built in the centre of Paris for the International Exhibition.

Chartered Surveyors Blackpool Lancashire

Chartered Surveyors Gosport Hampshire

Approximate Population: 79,200

Gosport is sometimes claimed to be the largest town in Britain without an operational railway station [5] though definitions differ (see List of British towns with no railway station for Dudley and others), but the Gosport Ferry provides quick access to Portsmouth Harbour railway station, terminus of the Portsmouth Direct Line to London. Due to heavy traffic (see below) this ferry is very well used: it can also be used by motorcycles. Ironically, Gosport received its railway before Portsmouth, but it closed to passengers in 1953.

In 1841 a railway opened between the London and Southampton Railway at Eastleigh via Fareham to Gosport, where a terminus was built to an Italianate design of Sir William Tite. Gosport railway station was intended to serve Portsmouth across the water, but was sited at Gosport away from the harbour because the railway company was not permitted to breach either the Hilsea Lines, defences at the northern end of Portsea Island protecting Portsmouth, or the Gosport Lines protecting depots such as Royal Clarence Yard.

An extension to Royal Clarence Yard was opened in 1846, and branch lines to Stokes Bay (open from 1863 to 1915), and to Lee-on-the-Solent (open to passengers 1894 to 1931). Due to declining traffic, the connection to Fareham was closed for passenger services in 1953 and to freight traffic in 1969, although trains to the armament depot in Frater ran until the late 1970s.

The trackbed of the former Gosport–Fareham railway is now a pedestrian walkway and cycle track. Tite’s station building has been retained for its historical and architectural value but is at present inaccessible and in poor condition. Proposals now exist to convert the platforms and buildings into a small number of residential properties and offices with the main gate in Spring Garden Lane opened up for vehicle access. A development of six terraced homes is also proposed for the North Western end of the site linking with George Street.

Chartered Surveyors Gosport Hampshire

Chartered Surveyors Portsmouth Hampshire

Approximate Population: 197,700

Portsmouth has a long history of supporting the Royal Navy logistically, leading to it being important in the development of the Industrial Revolution. Marc Isambard Brunel, the father of famed Portsmouth engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, established in 1802 the world’s first mass production line at the Portsmouth Block Mills, to mass produce pulley blocks for rigging on the Royal Navy’s ships. At its height the Dockyard was the largest industrial site in the world.

Admiral Nelson left Portsmouth for the final time in 1805 to command the fleet that would defeat the larger Franco-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar.  The Royal Navy’s reliance on Portsmouth led to the city becoming the most fortified in Europe, with a network of forts (a subset of “Palmerston’s Follies”) circling the city. From 1808 the Royal Navy’s West Africa Squadron, who were tasked to stop the slave trade, operated out of Portsmouth. On December 21, 1872 a major scientific expedition, the Challenger Expedition, was launched from Portsmouth.

In 1916 the town experienced its first aerial bombardment when a Zeppelin airship bombed it during World War I.

In 1926 Portsmouth was granted city status, following a long campaign by the borough council. The application was made on the grounds that Portsmouth was the “first naval port of the kingdom”. Two years later the city received the further honour of a lord mayoralty.  In 1929 the city council added the motto “Heaven’s Light Our Guide” to the medieval coat of arms. Apart from referring to the celestial objects in the arms, the motto was that of the Star of India. This recalled that troopships bound for the colony left from the port.  Further changes were made to the arms in 1970, when the Portsmouth Museums Trust sponsored the grant of crest, supporters and heraldic badge.  The crest and supporters are based on those of the royal arms, but altered to show the city’s maritime connections: the lions and unicorn have been given fish tails, and a naval crown placed around the latter animal. Around the unicorn is wrapped a representation of “The Mighty Chain of Iron”, a Tudor defensive boom across Portsmouth Harbour.

Chartered Surveyors Portsmouth Hampshire

Chartered Surveyors Brighton East Sussex

Approximate Population: 155,919

Brighton is considered to be one of the UK’s premier night-life hotspots and is also associated with many popular music artists — for a list, see night-life and popular music of Brighton and Hove.   There are 400 pubs and many nightclubs. There are also live music venues including the Concorde 2, Brighton Centre and the Brighton Dome, where ABBA received a substantial boost to their career upon winning the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest.

The Brighton seafront has bars, restaurants, nightclubs and amusement arcades, principally between the piers. Being less than an hour from London by train has made the city a popular destination.

Since the 1978 demolition of the open-air lido at Black Rock, the most easterly part of Brighton’s seafront, the area has been developed and now features one of Europe’s largest marinas. However, the site of the pool itself remains empty except for a skate park and graffiti wall, and further development is planned including a high-rise hotel which has aroused debate, mirroring proposals for the King Alfred leisure centre in Hove.

In addition, part of the eastern side of the beach has been redeveloped into a sports complex, which has courts for anything from beach volleyball to ultimate Frisbee, and opened to the public in March 2007.

Chartered Surveyors Brighton East Sussex

Chartered Surveyors Clacton Essex

Approximate Population: 53,000

Clacton pier was the first building of the new resort of Clacton-on-Sea. It officially opened on 27 July 1871 and was 160 yards in length and 4 yards wide. The pier was originally built as a landing point for goods and passengers but soon became popular for promenading.

By the 1890s Clacton was becoming an increasingly popular destination for day trippers and in 1893 the pier was lengthened to 1180ft (360m), and entertainment facilities including a pavilion and a waiting room were added. In 1922 the pier was bought by Ernest Kingsman and remained in the ownership of the Kingsman family until 1971. E

rnest Kingsman added some major developments to the pier including; two theatres, a dance hall, a casino, an open air swimming pool and a roller coaster. From 1971 to 1985 dolphins and killer whales were kept and displayed on the pier, on the site of the former open air swimming pool.

In March 2009 the pier was purchased by the Clacton Pier Company, who installed a new focal point on the pier, a 50ft helter-skelter. The helter-skelter was originally built in 1949 and used in a travelling show. It was featured in a 2008/2009 Marks & Spencer’s television advert.

Chartered Surveyors Clacton Essex

Chartered Surveyors Manchester Greater Manchester

Approximate Population: 458,100

Much of Manchester’s history is concerned with textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution.   The great majority of cotton spinning took place in the towns of south Lancashire and north Cheshire, and Manchester was for a time the most productive centre of cotton processing, and later the world’s largest marketplace for cotton goods. Manchester was dubbed “Cottonopolis” and “Warehouse City” during the Victorian era.  In Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, the term “manchester” is used for household linen : sheets, pillow cases, towels, etc.

Manchester began expanding “at an astonishing rate” around the turn of the 19th century as part of a process of unplanned urbanisation brought on by the Industrial Revolution.  It developed a wide range of industries, so that by 1835 “Manchester was without challenge the first and greatest industrial city in the world.”  Engineering firms initially made machines for the cotton trade, but diversified into general manufacture. Similarly, the chemical industry started by producing bleaches and dyes, but expanded into other areas. Commerce was supported by financial service industries such as banking and insurance. Trade, and feeding the growing population, required a large transport and distribution infrastructure: the canal system was extended, and Manchester became one end of the world’s first intercity passenger railway—the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Competition between the various forms of transport kept costs down.  In 1878 the GPO (the forerunner of British Telecom) provided its first telephones to a firm in Manchester.

The Manchester Ship Canal was created by canalisation of the Rivers Irwell and Mersey for 56 kilometres (35 mi) from Salford to the Mersey estuary. This enabled ocean going ships to sail right into the Port of Manchester. On the canal’s banks, just outside the borough, the world’s first industrial estate was created at Trafford Park.  Large quantities of machinery, including cotton processing plant, were exported around the world.

Chartered Surveyors Manchester Greater Manchester

Bromley London Chartered Surveyors

Approximate Population: 299,700

The history of Bromley is closely connected with the See of Rochester. In AD 862 Ethelbert, the King of Kent, granted land to form the Manor of Bromley. It was held by the Bishops of Rochester until 1845, where Coles Child, a wealthy local merchant and Philanthropist, purchased Bromley Palace (now the hub of the Bromley Civic Centre) and himself became Lord of the Manor.

The Town was an important Coaching stop on the way to Hastings from London, and the now defunct Royal Bell Hotel (just off Market Square) is referred to in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. It was a quiet rural village until the arrival of the railway in 1858 in Shortlands, which led to rapid growth and construction of outlying suburban districts such as Bickley, (which later overflowed into Bromley Common) were developed to accommodate those wishing to live so conveniently close to London.

The historic heart of the town is Market Square which sits at the junction of the High Street and Church Road. The Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul stands on Church Road. It was largely destroyed by enemy action and rebuilt in the 1950s encorporating the medieval tower and reusing much of the flint and fragments of the original stone building.

The most noteworthy historic building is Bromley College, London Road. The mature and very well maintained central public open spaces are noteworthy – Queen’s Gardens, Martin’s Hill, Church House Gardens, Library Gardens and College Green.

Bromley London Chartered Surveyors

Chartered Surveyors Southampton Hampshire

Approximate Population: 228,600

Southampton used to be a County Borough within the county of Hampshire, which in the past was known as the County of Southampton or Southamptonshire.  This was officially changed to Hampshire in 1959 although the county had been commonly known as Hampshire or Hantscire for centuries. Southampton became a non-metropolitan district in 1974. However, the city became administratively independent from that county as it was made into a unitary authority in a local government reorganisation on 1 April 1997 – a result of the 1992 Local Government Act. The district remains part of the Hampshire ceremonial county.

Southampton City Council consists of 48 councillors elected by thirds.  After the 2007 local council elections on 3 May 2007, there were 18 councillors each for the Labour and the Conservative Party, each having gained two, and 12 for the Liberal Democrats. The Conservatives took control in May 2007, after a Liberal Democrat resigned from her group to become an independent and voted for the Conservative leader Alec Samuels. During the budget setting meeting on 20 February 2008, a no confidence motion was passed and Labour and the Liberal Democrats formed a coalition.

In the local elections on 1 May 2008, the Conservatives took overall control of Southampton, winning 15 of the 17 seats being contested. Both the Labour and Liberal Democrat leaders lost their seats to young Conservative challengers.

Chartered Surveyors Southampton Hampshire

Chartered Surveyors Crawley West Sussex

Approximate Population: 100,100

The area around Crawley may have been settled during the Mesolithic period: locally manufactured flints of the Horsham Culture type have been found to the southwest of the town.  Tools and burial mounds from the Neolithic period, and burial mounds and a sword from the Bronze Age, have also been discovered.  Crawley is on the western edge of the High Weald, which produced iron for more than 2,000 years from the Iron Age onwards.  Goffs Park—now a recreational area in the south of the town—was the site of two late Iron Age furnaces.  Ironworking and mineral extraction continued throughout Roman times, particularly in the Broadfield area where many furnaces were built.

In the 5th century, Saxon settlers named the area Crow’s Leah—meaning a crow-infested clearing, or Crow’s Wood — although the name changed considerably over time. The present spelling appeared by the early 14th century.  By this time, nearby settlements were more established: the Saxon church at Worth, for example, dates from between 950 and 1050 AD.

Although Crawley itself is not mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, the nearby settlements of Ifield and Worth are recorded.  The first written record of Crawley dates from 1202, when a licence was issued by King John for a weekly market on Wednesdays.  Crawley grew slowly in importance over the next few centuries, but was boosted in the 18th century by the construction of the turnpike road between London and Brighton. When this was completed in 1770, travel between the newly fashionable seaside resort and London became safer and quicker, and Crawley (located approximately halfway between the two) prospered as a coaching halt.  By 1839 it offered almost an hourly service to both destinations.  The George, a timber-framed house dating from the 15th century, expanded to become a large coaching inn, taking over adjacent buildings. Eventually an annexe had to be built in the middle of the wide High Street; this survived until the 1930s.  The original building has become the George Hotel, with conference facilities and 84 bedrooms; it retains many period features including an iron fireback.

Chartered Surveyors Crawley West Sussex

Chartered Surveyors Hove East Sussex

Approximate Population: 91,900

Hove’s seafront and beach, particularly the area starting on the west side of Brighton’s West Pier (actually the first 300 metres are in Brighton) have recently become fashionable after some years of decline during the 20th Century. The same is certainly true of the houses of the developments mentioned above, most of which now command relatively high prices, having been in some cases very run down during the 1950s and 1960s.

Hove is the home of Sussex County Cricket Club at County Cricket Ground. It is used for county, national and international matches, and has found resurgent popularity with the introduction of Twenty20.

Until 1997 Hove was home to the Brighton & Hove Albion F.C.’s Goldstone Ground. Since this time the football club has been without a permanent home ground. In September 2007, planning permission was confirmed for the club’s new ground, which will be at Falmer, still within the city limits but on the Brighton side. The new stadium is due to start development in late 2008, with the first game being held in August 2010.

There are a number of parks in Hove including Hove Park and St. Anne’s Well Gardens. The King Alfred Centre which is currently a leisure centre with swimming pool on the seafront. In March 2007 Brighton and Hove City Council gave planning permission for a £290 million pound development on the site. It has been designed by the renowned Canadian architect Frank Gehry who also designed the Guggenheim in Bilbao. This project was scrapped in January 2009 when the developer pulled out.

Chartered Surveyors Hove East Sussex