The obvious, but critical, point about the capital in which the Act of Longitude was passed was its size.  It was a tiny fraction of modern London, still focused almost entirely around the City.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During the course of the 18th century, London expanded rapidly to incorporate new developments like Mayfair and Bloomsbury.  But Belgravia, Chelsea, Fulham and Hammersmith remained well outside the city limits.

 

The 18th Century was good to the growing city.   London became healthier, wealthier and considerably grander than the old wooden town that had gone up in flames in 1666.  The new St Paul's was completed in 1708; Westminster Bridge - only the city's second after London Bridge - was completed in 1750.

 

The 18th Century brought newspapers and a regular police force to London: the first daily was published in Fleet Street in 1702; the Bow Street Runners were founded in 1749 by the author Henry Fielding.   Coffee houses became popular, and began hosting stock and commodity traders and auctions, leading eventually to the formation of Christie's, Sotheby's and the London Stock Exchange. 

 

The island of Ushant lies off the westernmost tip of France, due south of Cornwall.   It is 8km by 3km in size, has around a thousand inhabitants, and today boasts one of the most powerful lighthouses in the world.   The island marks the start/finish line for global circumnavigations.  

 

The Isles of Scilly are made up of six inhabited islands and a scattering of rocky islets, 28 miles from Land’s End in Cornwall.   Today, the islands are a favourite tourist destination, enjoying warmer weather than the rest of the UK.   One of the islands, Tresco, boasts the world-famous sub-tropical Abbey Garden.

 

This little village is actually two miles south of the Humber.   The primary school has been renamed in honour of John Harrison.

 

 

 

The city of Kingston upon Hull lies on the little River Hull where it meets the much larger Humber estuary.   An old market town and fishing/whaling centre, its port grew rich on the trade of Yorkshire.   Today it is the main import point for timber into the UK.

 

An isolated volcanic island in the South Atlantic, St Helena is said to be Britain’s second oldest colony after Bermuda, having been taken by the East India Company in the mid-17 ^th century.   It was an important staging post on the voyage to South Africa, and became home to the exiled Napoleon and, later, several thousand Boer prisoners of war.  

 

  Madeira Island is the largest in a volcanic archipelago in the Atlantic, 230 miles north of the Canaries.   The islands were settled by the Portuguese from 1420, and remain under Portuguese control as an “autonomous region”.   Today Madeira is a popular tourism destination, famous for its wine and gardens, as well as the largest firework display in the world on New Year’s Eve.

 

Kingston Harbour is a vast natural haven in Jamaica.   The original commercial centre was Port Royal, located on the tip of the thin sand spit called Palisadoes that forms the breakwater for the Harbour.   It was an important base for privateers and pirates operating against Spanish and French treasure ships during the 17 ^th century, and with the resulting debauchery was called the “Sodom of the New World” – it had one tavern for every 10 residents.   In 1692, an earthquake destroyed most of the city and submerged much of it beneath the sea, an event seen by many as God’s retribution against a sinful population.   As a result, it is known as “the City that Sank”.  

After the earthquake, the refugees moved to the mainland side of the Harbour and founded Kingston, although the new town did not replace Port Royal as commercial centre until the latter was further destroyed by fire in 1703.   Following the earthquake, the capital was moved to Spanish Town, but frequent attempts were made to rebuild Port Royal, each of them frustrated by hurricanes, fire or flooding.   Another earthquake in 1907 finished off the city, and today just 2,000 people live in Port Royal, while across the water Kingston is the capital with a population of 650,000.   Port Royal features in the Pirates of the Caribbean films, as well as James Michener’s book, Caribbean.

 

 

Red Lion Square lies just north of High Holborn in London, surrounded by the Inns of Court.   It was named in 1698 after the Red Lion Inn.   It is claimed Oliver Cromwell was buried there.