Fortress London: The definitive book about Levelling Up and why it matters

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He argues that London’s appeal has been created by the state which has invested disproportionately in the capital for decades. Secreted inside the foliage will be a line of steel and concrete bollards capable of stopping an eight-ton truck driving head-on at 40 miles per hour. William sent an advance party to prepare the city for his entrance, to celebrate his victory and found a castle; in the words of William's biographer, William of Poitiers, "certain fortifications were completed in the city against the restlessness of the huge and brutal populace. The White Tower, which gives the entire castle its name, was built by William the Conqueror in 1078 and was a resented symbol of oppression, inflicted upon London by the new Norman ruling class.

Its economic output per head is, for example, 30-50 per cent higher than the rest of the country and it is the epicentre of the UK Government, financial services, the performing arts, the media and the professions. With this ensues a balancing act between the place a politician represents, and their political duties in London, causing personal turmoil of family life, schooling of children, internal issues of impostor syndrome and so on. When he tried the same ploy again, this time holding secret talks with Matilda, Stephen had him arrested, forced him to cede control of his castles, and replaced him with one of his most loyal supporters.In terms of the latter, those on low incomes are being shunted into low quality and high-cost private-rented accommodation. This reverses the dynamic that many go to London to seek opportunities in politics, but to reach certain ambitions such as political office a person has to find a safe seat outside London and set up life elsewhere in the hope of getting elected.

The scaling of the ‘Red Wall’ by the Conservative Party has, he maintains, provoked an identity crisis in the Labour Party. A third ward was created during Edward I's extension to the Tower, as the narrow enclosure completely surrounded the castle. Executions were more commonly held on the notorious Tower Hill to the north of the castle, with 112 occurring there over a 400-year period. The zenith of the castle's use as a prison was the 16th and 17th centuries, when many figures who had fallen into disgrace, such as Elizabeth I before she became queen, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Elizabeth Throckmorton, were held within its walls.In the latter half of the 19th century, institutions such as the Royal Mint moved out of the castle to other locations, leaving many buildings empty. To the south, the site is edged with another seating wall—benches affixed to a thick slab of truck-impeding concrete—behind which the landscape rises in a defensive berm, a.

The dock was covered with arrowslits in case of an attack on the castle from the River; there was also a portcullis at the entrance to control who entered. As the fortified bridge into London was held by Saxon troops, he decided instead to ravage Southwark before continuing his journey around southern England.Legend has it that if the six ravens ever leave the Tower of London, the Tower and the kingdom will fall. It is striking that while London has become the richest region in Northern Europe, the UK now has six of the ten poorest regions. A key weakness in his analysis is that not enough space is given to financial deregulation and its transformative impact on the capital. He examines the media’s failure to predict Brexit and the 2019 General Election results and maintains that it stems from their intellectual and geographical ignorance.