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City Status
What is British City Status?
City Status is a rare honour granted by the monarch on the
advice of the Lord Chancellor by letters patent
(an open letter, NOT a charter) normally on
special royal occasions. There is no set criteria as in other countries.
Does a town need a cathedral to become a city?
NO. All UK towns (through their local council) can apply
to become a city, whether they have an Anglican cathedral or not. There are 18 cities without a cathedral and
16 towns which have an Anglican
cathedral but do not have city status. See the tables in the Cathedrals
section for the complete lists.
Henry VIII created 6 cathedral towns in the 1540's and
gave them all city status by letters patent. This created the association
between having a cathedral and city status and the other towns with
cathedrals at the time also became to be considered cities since
"time immemorial".
The government in the 1880's tried to maintain the link
when new cathedrals were founded in Liverpool, Wakefield and
Newcastle by giving all three city status soon after. This became
increasingly more difficult to do when the small village of Southwell got
a Cathedral in 1884 and big cities like Birmingham and Belfast without
cathedrals were still waiting for city status. In the end government
finally broke the link between cathedrals and cities when they decided
Belfast and Birmingham could become cities without cathedrals and
Southwell would remain a town. Both Birmingham and Belfast eventually did
get Anglican cathedrals some years after gaining city status.
Which towns in the United Kingdom have city status?
There are 66 Cities in the UK. There are 50 cities in England, 6 in Scotland,
5 in Wales and 5 in Northern
Ireland. The complete list of UK Cities in population order can be found in Table
1 below and in alphabetical order on the right side of the the home
page.
Can a Town lose its City Status?
If a city council is lost in local government re-organisation then so is that
town's city
status (unless the monarch decides to restore it on application by the former city).
Rochester lost city status in 1998 when it became part of Medway Borough with
Gillingham, and Hereford lost it in 2000 when it became Hereford Parish within the County
of Herefordshire.
Hereford re-applied in 2000 and was successful. Rochester has never
re-applied and is the only town in civic history to have lost and not recovered it's
city status.
Does every British City automatically have a Lord Mayor?
NO. The honour is not automatic and every city has to apply for it. There are
30
Lord Mayors (Lord Provosts in Scotland) but 66 cities in the UK. See the table
in the Lord Mayors section for the complete list.
Recommended Reading
City
Status in the British Isles, 1830–2002 by John Beckett
City Status Tables
Table 1 - UK Towns with City Status
Table 2 - Largest UK Towns Without City Status
Table 3 - Towns that have recently applied for City Status
