Luton

For other uses, see Luton (disambiguation).

Borough of Luton
Geography
Status:	Unitary, Borough
Region:	East of England
Ceremonial County:	Bedfordshire
Area: - Total	Ranked 311th 43.35 km²
Admin. HQ:	Luton
ONS code:	00KA
Demographics
Population: - Total (2004 est.) - Density	Ranked 78th 184,000 4,245 / km²
Ethnicity:	71.9% White 18.3% S.Asian 6.3% Afro-Carib.
Politics
Leadership:	Leader & Cabinet
Executive:	Liberal Democrats
MPs:	Kelvin Hopkins, Margaret Moran

Luton is a town and local government district in England, located 33 miles (50km) north of central London. Historically it was part of the county of Bedfordshire, but since the 1990s it has been an administratively independent unitary authority. However it remains part of Bedfordshire for ceremonial purposes. It is in the East of England region, but was formerly in South East England region, and in common usage is still often considered to be in the South East.

Luton is the home town of the Luton Town F.C. football club, whom are currently competing in The Championship division. Their nickname, "The Hatters", dates back to when Luton had a substantial hat-making industry.

London Luton Airport is situated to the south-east of the town. The main campus of the University of Luton is located in the town centre. From 1905 until 2002 the town had a Vauxhall Motors car factory, the first Vauxhall factory in the world and from where the company was founded. Dunstable is situated to the west of Luton. The M1 motorway runs between Luton and Dunstable though it does not form the border as parts of Luton are to the west of it.

Luton has a Site of Special Scientific Interest at Warden Hills on the outskirts of the town.

Luton is also host to the biggest one day carnival in the UK, which usually takes place on the late May Bank Holiday. Crowds usually top 150,000 each occasion with the event being a huge multicultural event attended by people from all over.

The town is also famous for its airport, London Luton Airport, of which is currently the fastest growing airport in the United Kingdom. The airport is renowned for being a hub for budget airlines offering cheap flights. The England football team regularly fly from the airport when playing matches abroad.

A planned £400m regeneration of the Town Centre is planned, including upgrades to the town's bus and train stations as well as general improvements to the Town Centre as a whole. It is hoped this will breathe life into the town, which has been flagging with the decades of decline of the manufacturing industry in Great Britain, of which Luton once thrived from.

Settlements have existed on the site since the paleolithic era, most notably the henge monument now called Waulud's Bank, which dates from 3000BC. The Roman settlement in the area was concentrated at Durocobrivis and Verulamium. The foundation of Luton is usually dated to the 6th century when a Saxon outpost was founded on the river Lea, Lea tun. Luton is recorded in the Domesday Book as Loitone, its population was 700. The town had a market for surrounding villages and grew steadily, if slowly. By the 14th century, the town had two fairs each year.

The agriculture base of the town changed in the 16th century with a brick making industry and in the 17th century when the hat making began. By the 18th century the hat making industry, especially straw hat manufacture, dominated the town as its only significant industry. Hats are still produced in the town on a smaller scale. Luton Hoo, a nearby large country house, was first built in 1757.

The town grew strongly in the 19th century, in 1801 the population was 3,000; by 1850 it was 10,000 and by 1901 it was almost 39,000. This rapid growth was fuelled by the arrival of the railway in 1858, which bypassed Dunstable, a nearby market town, which until then had overshadowed Luton. The town had its first town hall opened in 1847 and had a complete water and sewerage system by the late 1860s. Luton was made a borough in 1876 and the current football club was founded in 1885.

In the 20th century, the hat trade severely declined but was replaced by newer industries. Vauxhall Motors opened a car plant in the town in 1905, along with an Electrolux household appliances plant, followed by other light engineering businesses. The town had a tram system from 1908 until 1932 and the first cinema was opened in 1909. By 1914, the town's population reached had 50,000. The original town hall was burned down in 1919 during the victory celebrations at the end of the First World War; local people including many ex-servicemen, had been refused the use of a local park to hold celebratory events, and so made a bonfire of the town hall (See article on the Luton riots in External links, below). A replacement town hall was completed in 1936. Luton Airport was opened in 1938, owned and operated by the council. In World War II, the town suffered a number of air raids, although only 107 people died there was extensive damage.

Post-war, the slum clearance continued and a number of substantial estates of council housing were built, notably at Farley Hill, Stopsley, Limbury and Leagrave. The M1 passed just to the west of the town from 1959 and a substantial covered shopping centre, the Arndale Centre, was opened in 1972. The Arndale Centre has had a major refurbishment, including a new glass roof, which has transformed the area.

Flights from the airport increased substantially from the 1960s as new charter airlines (e.g. Court Line) flew from there rather than the London airports. Despite problems in the 1970s, a new terminal was added in 1985. The airport was renamed London Luton Airport in 1990, just before Ryanair took its business to Stansted. The growth of new low cost flights rejuvenated the airport and passenger numbers more than doubled from 1992 to 1998. In 1999, a new terminal was added and a new railway station, Luton Airport Parkway, was opened.

Luton enjoys good rail connections via its three stations (Luton, Luton Airport Parkway and Leagrave) to London and through to Brighton and Sutton on First Capital Connect's Thameslink line and north to Derby, Leicester, Nottingham and other cities on the Midland Mainline route provided by Midland Mainline. There are plans to re-introduce 24 hour rail services to Luton and Luton Airport Parkway [1].

Luton has one of the highest numbers of taxicabs per head of population in the United Kingdom, with companies such as Cabco, Britannia cars and Five twos competing for trade in the town.

In 2000, Vauxhall announced the end of car production in Luton; the plant closed in March 2002. At its peak it had employed around 35,000 people.

In 2004, Luton was voted as the 'crappiest' town in the U.K. in the book Crap Towns II (edited by Sam Jordison and Dan Kieran) beating previous winners in Crap Towns (eds Sam Jordison and Dan Kieran) of Kingston upon Hull. It was said to have won due to its abundance of abysmally ugly architecture, abundance of chain stores and lack of heart.

This book deeply offended some people who see the town as a place which has had a significant impact on the history of the UK. However many others who have lived or still live in the town, regard Luton's inclusion, and subsequent victory in the Crappiest Town competition as being an apt accolade.

In 2006 a local independent travel agency called Double S Travel Worldchoice became the first Luton agency to be voted a finalist in five categories of the 2006 Travel Agent Achievement Awards 2006.

Economy

This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Luton at current basic prices published (pp.240-253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.

Year	Regional Gross Value AddedTemplate:Fn	AgricultureTemplate:Fn	IndustryTemplate:Fn	ServicesTemplate:Fn
1995	2,067	1	902	1,165
2000	2,614	1	850	1,763
2003	3,090	1	811	2,278

Template:Fnb includes hunting and forestry

Template:Fnb includes energy and construction

Template:Fnb includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured

Template:Fnb Components may not sum to totals due to rounding

Famous people from Luton

• Andy Selway drummer for KMFDM and Pig
• Punk rock band UK Decay
• The poet John Hegley
• The singer Paul Young
• The composer David Arnold
• Rock guitarist Mick Abrahams of Jethro Tull and Blodwyn Pig
• Sir Alec Jeffreys
• The novelist Arthur Hailey (1920-2004)
• The BBC scriptwriter David Renwick
• The BBC announcer Vaughan Savidge
• John Gosling, former member of the pop group The Kinks
• Colin Salmon, actor, in films such as Resident Evil, AVP: Alien Vs. Predator and The World Is Not Enough.
• Singer/Actor Edward Tudor-Pole of band Tenpole Tudor
• England cricketer Monty Panesar

External links

• Luton Borough Council
• Luton - 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article
• A defense of Luton, the crappiest city in England in The Guardian
• Libcom.org/history: The Luton Riots 1919
• Luton pubs Customer ratings and reviews of pubs in Luton
• Britannia Luton
• Template:Placeopedia