Basingstoke
| Basingstoke | |||
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| Coordinates | 51 ° 16 ′ N , 1 ° 6 ′ W | ||
| OS National Grid | SU637523 | ||
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| Residents | 82,913 (as of 2004) | ||
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| Post town | Basingstoke | ||
| ZIP code section | RG21, RG22, RG23, RG24 | ||
| prefix | 01256 | ||
| Part of the country | England | ||
| British Parliament | Basingstoke | ||
| Website: www.basingstoke.gov.uk | |||
Basingstoke is a city in Hampshire in southern England . The county seat of Basingstoke and Deane is a wealthy city with low unemployment. This is where the headquarters of the British Automobile Association and Sun Life Financial of Canada are located . Basingstoke is also home to pharmaceutical ( Shire Pharmaceuticals ), insurance and electronics companies.
location
Basingstoke is located in north Hampshire in the North Downs , 72 km west of London on the Loddon River.
The M3 motorway from London to Southampton passes the city to the south. The city has rail links to London, Reading , Exeter and Southampton (Southwestern Main Line). The city has a green belt in the north and northeast. As the town grew, it absorbed a number of villages in the area and became neighborhoods of Basingstoke, including Chineham, Winklebury, Kempshott and Hatch Warren.
Basingstoke is also a constituency for the British House of Commons and is currently (2017) represented there by the Conservative MP Maria Miller. Within Hampshire, Basingstoke is part of the Basingstoke and Deane District.
history
Basingstoke was already mentioned in the Domesday Book under the name Basingestoches as a market town and received the corresponding market privileges before 1203. In Old Basing , around three kilometers east of today's city center, Basing House was built in 1535 as the residence for William Paulet, the Marquess of Winchester and royal treasurer. Today only the foundation walls remain of the building. Around 1755, the May brothers founded the May Brewery in town, making Basingstoke a center of beer production. When the Salvation Army became active in the city at the end of the 19th century to preach against alcohol, there were repeated violent clashes between prohibitionists and their opponents in the city. After the Second World War , Basingstoke experienced a modernization of its cityscape through simple and functional concrete buildings, which in part met with criticism from the population.
Attractions
In the fall of 2002 Basingstoke received a new focal point with the Festival Place , which was created through the conversion of the former The Walks Shopping Center and New Market Square . Today, next to a branch of Marks and Spencer, various shops, cafés and a cinema have sprung up here. With The Mall and Top of Town there are two other malls in the city.
Old Town is home to the Willis Museum , Haymarket Theater , Marquet Square, and the city's main post office. The nightlife mostly takes place around the Festival Place. Basingstoke has a number of pubs and four night clubs.
There is a large sports center with a gym and swimming pool in Porchester Square. The Anvil , a concert hall, can also be found in the city center .
Just outside of the city center is an amusement park with an aquadrome, an ice rink and a cinema, as well as the Milestones Museum , which covers the history of Hampshire.
About 2.5 kilometers north of Basingstoke is the Tudor mansion The Vyne with its famous portico and staircase.
Sports
Basingstoke is home to Basingstoke Town FC football club , which plays in the English Southern League. The city also has a rugby club, the Basingstoke Bison ice hockey team and a swimming team, the Basingstoke Bluefins . In 1989, Basingstoke hosted the Junior Ice Hockey World Championship. There is also the Basingstoke Gymcenter , a gym with professional equipment.
education
With Queen Mary's College and Basingstoke College of Technology , the city has two universities. There are also a number of other schools.
media
Basingstoke has its own radio station: Kestrel-FM . It also publishes two daily newspapers, the Basingstoke Gazette and the Basingstoke Observer .
Twin cities
Basingstoke is twin town of
- Alençon , France
- Euskirchen , Germany
- Braine-l'Alleud , Belgium
Personalities
In the city lived or were born:
- John Arlott (1914–1991), sports journalist
- Jane Austen (1775–1817), writer (born in nearby Steventon)
- Carl Barât (* 1978), musician and actor
- Nora Stanton Blatch Barney (1883–1971), civil engineer, architect and suffragette
- Tom Cleverley (* 1989), football player
- Tom Croft (born 1985), rugby player
- Jason Dunlop (* 1970), paleontologist
- Ruth Ellis (1926-1955), the last woman in Britain hanged was
- Elizabeth Hurley (born 1965), actress and model
- Sir James Lancaster (around 1554–1618), politician and navigator of the 16th century.
- Ian McNeice (born 1950), actor
- Denis Nowell Pritt (1887–1972), Labor politician
- Mike Sparks , singer for the Canterbury rock group
- Robert Steadman , composer and conductor
- Sarah Sutton (born 1961), actress
- Tanita Tikaram (* 1969), pop singer
- Thomas Warton (1728–1790), poet, Poet Laureate of 1785
- Gabriella Wilde (* 1989), actress and model
- Bob Young (* 1945), musician, music manager and writer (including an unofficial member of the rock group Status Quo )
- Alma Deutscher (* 2005), composer, pianist, violinist
