Luton
Luton is a
town and local government
district in
England, located 32 miles (51km) north of
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, who are currently competing in The Championship division. Their nickname, "The Hatters", dates back to when Luton had a substantial
hatmaking 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, 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 £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, 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
brickmaking industry and in the
17th century when the
hatmaking began. By the
18th century the hatmaking 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 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 and 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, and 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 UK 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.
Luton participates in international
town twinning; its current partners are:
*
Bergisch Gladbach, Germany since 1956
*
Bourgoin Jallieu, France since 1956
*
Eskilstuna, Sweden since 1949
*
Spandau in Zahlen, Germany since 1959
*
Wolfsburg, Germany since 1950
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.
| Agriculture | Industry | Services |
|---|
| 1995 | 2,067 | 1 | 902 | 1,165 |
| 2000 | 2,614 | 1 | 850 | 1,763 |
| 2003 | 3,090 | 1 | 811 | 2,278 |
includes hunting and forestry
includes energy and construction
includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured
Components may not sum to totals due to rounding
*
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,
and
The World Is Not Enough.
* Singer/Actor
Edward Tudor-Pole of band
Tenpole Tudor* Actor Lee Ross who plays Owen Turner in EastEnders
* England cricketer
Monty Panesar* Martin Dimery writer and performer
* Rock guitarist Steven Munn
*
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
