History and Character
Richmond Park constituency was created in 1997 from the old Richmond & Barnes constituency (held until then by the Conservative Jeremy Hanley) and the northern half of the Kingston upon Thames constituency (held by the former Chancellor of the Exchequer Norman Lamont, also Conservative). Hanley was selected as the Conservative candidate to fight for the new seat, but he lost to Jenny Tonge (Liberal Democrat). The seat was held by the Liberal Democrats until 2010, when it was gained by Zac Goldsmith for the Conservatives.
The area is almost entirely affluent middle-class suburbia with plenty of leafy streets, and desirable late Victorian and Edwardian houses with large gardens. It has many pleasant open green spaces, including Richmond Park itself, the world famous botanic gardens at Kew, and the London Wetland Centre.
The northern parts of the constituency suffer from aircraft noise when aeroplanes are landing in a westerly direction at London Heathrow Airport.
Read more about this topic: Richmond Park (UK Parliament Constituency)
Famous quotes containing the words history and/or character:
“What you don’t understand is that it is possible to be an atheist, it is possible not to know if God exists or why He should, and yet to believe that man does not live in a state of nature but in history, and that history as we know it now began with Christ, it was founded by Him on the Gospels.”
—Boris Pasternak (1890–1960)
“For character too is a process and an unfolding ... among our valued friends is there not someone or other who is a little too self confident and disdainful; whose distinguished mind is a little spotted with commonness; who is a little pinched here and protruberent there with native prejudices; or whose better energies are liable to lapse down the wrong channel under the influence of transient solicitations?”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)