West London

In the 17th century these areas of growth would be linked by high status new developments, which formed a focal point in their own right, later becoming known as the West End of London.

The legendary origin[4] is that in the early 7th century, a local fisherman named Edric ferried a stranger in tattered foreign clothing over the Thames to Thorney Island.

It was a miraculous appearance of St Peter, a fisherman himself, coming to the island to consecrate the newly built church, which would subsequently develop into Westminster Abbey.

Every year on 29 June, St Peters day, the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers presents the Abbey with a salmon in memory of this event.

The large and prosperous extra-mural ward of Farringdon Without, extensively urbanised during the 12th century, has been described as London's First West End.

As well as the proximity of the centre of government, the West End was long favoured by the rich elite as a place of residence because it was usually upwind of the smoke drifting from the crowded City.

The term "West End of London" gained widespread currency as a proper noun, rather than just a geographical description in the 19th century.

Like other areas of the capital, West London grew rapidly in the Victorian era as a result of railway-based commuting; with the building of the termini at Paddington and Marylebone, and the lines radiating from them, having a particularly profound effect.

Five of the thirteen Metropolitan Centres in the plan are also in West London: Ealing, Hounslow, Harrow, Uxbridge and Shepherd's Bush.

Eleven of the London Plan's thirty-eight Opportunity Areas are part of West London; Kensal Canalside, Paddington, Earl's Court and West Kensington, Harrow and Wealdstone, Park Royal, Old Oak Common, Southall, Tottenham Court Road, Victoria, Wembley and White City.