please empty your brain below |
Sorry for the pedantry, I know you were channeling The Dream Academy , but Kingston upon Hull has been a city since 1897, "confirmed by Letters Patent issued under the Great Seal dated 18 March 1975" [1]
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Whereas I did not recognise the Dream Academy phrase, but I do do know that being a city does /not/ stop somewhere also being a town.
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Malcolm: "g a city does /not/ stop somewhere also being a town"
Sorry, but it DOES. That's why it is called "city status". It raises the area above being a town. http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-13841482 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_status_in_the_United_Kingdom |
Surely the answer to the town-city argument depends upon whether we're talking about law or emotions. Hull may indeed have had legal city status for quite a time but this doesn't mean that its inhabitants or visitors have to think of it as such. Few people, I would think, on being asked where their hometown is, would respond "well actually it's a city or village! " rather, they would understand the term to refer to something a little less tangible or well defined. Whilst the word "city" conjures up images of urban sprawl, grand civic buildings and regional politics, I personally feel that the "town" is more about community, shared experience and belonging. It is an altogether more homely or familiar concept, not necessarily conveying positivity, but certainly A place of a scale and nature that most people could understan. it.
Or maybe I'm just thinking about this too much! |
Talking of "town or city" Milton Keynes is still a town though many a sign talk about "city centre" and is quite often mentioned as a city. If/when it does gain "city status" would it be the first "new towns" to gain such status I wonder?
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City status, typically, raises the place above the status of a borough. If Hull were not a city, it would be a borough. As it is a city, it is not a borough.
'Town', prior to 1973, was not a legal status. It was an informal term applied to cities, boroughs and urban districts, and perhaps to some places that were legally just parishes. (Not to mention London Town, which is legally all sorts of things, and is bigger than the City of London.) Since 1973 it has been possible for a place to be legally declared a town and have a town council. However, this does not mean that the historic informal sense has ceased to exist. If it is OK to call Colchester a town, though it is legally a borough, it should also be possible to call Hull a town, though it is legally a city. |
Briantist: I don't know whether you're right or wrong, but having looked at your links, they certainly don't support your argument.
The BBC one doesn't say at all that a town stops being one once it becomes a city, except for hinting at it when it asks whether people would prefer to "wake up in a city or town". Sentences like 'More than 20 towns across the UK have applied to become a "city", a status that confers no official benefits' do not suggest the town stops being one once it gets that status. The Wikipedia article also doesn't make it clear either way but strongly implies that cities are towns (unless they were formed from entities that weren't towns to start with) e.g. "... as to which towns were entitled to be called cities". |
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