List of conurbations in the United Kingdom
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A conurbation is formed when towns expand sufficiently that their urban areas join up with each other. This process has happened many times in the United Kingdom, with London being the most famous example of this type of development.
Green Belts were introduced in the 20th century to try to stop new conurbations forming. Clear conurbations however, exist at
- South East Dorset conurbation - Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch in Dorset
- Central Lancashire - Preston, Leyland and Chorley
- Dearne Valley - Barnsley, Wombwell, Wath, Mexborough, Conisbrough
- Fylde Coast - Blackpool, Fleetwood, Cleveleys, Thornton, Poulton-le-Fylde, Lytham St Annes
- Greater Glasgow (Clydeside conurbation) - Glasgow and surrounding suburbs, towns and villages
- Leeds/Bradford in West Yorkshire
- London, Greater London Urban Area and London commuter belt
- Greater Manchester Urban Area, including the city of Manchester, City of Salford, Trafford, Stockport, Oldham, Bolton, Tameside.
- Medway towns (Chatham, Rochester, Gillingham)
- Greater Belfast conurbation, including Belfast, Lisburn, Newtownabbey, North Down (Bangor), Castlereagh and Carrickfergus
- Greater Merseyside conurbation, centred on Liverpool in Merseyside, also includes Ellesmere Port and Neston, Halton and St Helens.
- Brighton urban area (Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton) on the Sussex coast, including Littlehampton, Worthing, Lancing, Shoreham-by-Sea, Brighton & Hove
- Greater Portsmouth - including Portsmouth, Gosport, Fareham, Portchester, Havant, Waterlooville
- The Potteries Urban Area, including Stoke-on-Trent, Newcastle-under-Lyme and Kidsgrove.
- Greater Nottingham - including Arnold, Hucknall, Beeston, West Bridgford, Eastwood and Long Eaton
- Greater Sheffield - the Sheffield/Rotherham/Swinton/Mexborough/Doncaster area in South Yorkshire
- Greater Southampton - including Eastleigh, Hedge End, Totton and Eling, Netley
- Teesside - Middlesbrough and Stockton-on-Tees
- Torbay - Paignton, Torquay, Brixham
- Tyneside conurbation, including Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, South Shields, Chester-le-Street and Washington
- West Midlands conurbation, including Birmingham, Wolverhampton, the Black Country, Cannock and Solihull
In all of these, regardless of local government, towns that have become part of the conurbation have retained clear identities as separate towns. In England, some of these are recognised as metropolitan counties (Greater Manchester, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, West Midlands, West Yorkshire), alongside Greater London which has a similar status. Others have become unified local government districts (such as Torbay, Medway).
There is a spectrum that can be drawn between the conurbations that have a clear 'head' (such as Nottingham, Portsmouth, Southampton) to those that are do not - known as multi-centred conurbations (such as Bournemouth/Poole and Teesside) - via ones that are more borderline (Tyne and Wear, West Midlands). In the case of the West Midlands, for example, the 'centre' city, Birmingham did expand massively and is now considered to include areas that were formerly independent towns, such as Sutton Coldfield and Aston. However, here it stopped, with the Black Country and Wolverhampton retaining strong identities.
In various parts of the country are more borderline cases, where the areas expanded into did not necessarily have strong identities as towns. However, the areas do retain separate local government structures, and are therefore considered conurbations by the ONS, on this basis :
- Greater Bristol - Bristol, Kingswood, Longwell Green, Mangotsfield, Frenchay, Downend, Filton, Bradley Stoke, Patchway, Cribbs Causeway
- Greater Leicester, including Birstall, Syston, Oadby and Wigston, Glenfield, Braunstone
- Reading - including Reading, Woodley, Earley, Calcot, Tilehurst, Purley-on-Thames, Wokingham, Bracknell
There are also various places where whilst not actually running into each other, the amount of development in a large area is substantial. Heavily built up areas of this type include :
- South Hampshire, consisting of the Portsmouth and Southampton areas mentioned above, was considered for metropolitan county status in the 1970s
- West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire, which are both heavily built up but not entirely devoid of countryside (both are metropolitan counties)
- Cardiff/Newport, consisting of the cities of Cardiff and Newport, Cwmbran, much of the eastern South Wales Valleys with towns such as Risca, Ebbw Vale, Pontypool and Caerphilly and part of the Vale of Glamorgan including Penarth and Barry.
The entire Merseyside/Warrington/Greater Manchester area (2821sq km) is not much bigger than West Yorkshire (2029sq km) but has a population topping 4 million in comparison to the 1.5 million of West Yorkshire. There are gaps of countryside between towns on the way from Liverpool to Manchester, but not especially big ones. The area between is protected as part of a Green Belt, to stop the conurbation proceeding further.
These examples are more likely to be refered to as Metropolitan Areas at the moment, however further expansion of suburban areas could lead to seperate urban areas merging into one larger continuous urban area.
Smaller examples of conurbations also exist on a more local level. For example, Warwick runs into Leamington Spa, Luton runs into Dunstable, and Grimsby runs into Cleethorpes.
[edit] By population
According to ONS urban area figures [1]
- Greater London Urban Area - 8,278,251
- West Midlands conurbation - 2,284,093
- Greater Manchester Urban Area - 2,240,230
- West Yorkshire Urban Area - 1,499,465
- Greater Glasgow - 1,168,270
- Tyneside - 879,996
- Liverpool Urban Area - 816,216
- Nottingham City Area - 666,358
- Greater Sheffield Area - 640,720
- Greater Bristol - 551,066
- Greater Belfast - 483,418
- Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton - 461,181
- Edinburgh - 452,194
- Portsmouth Urban Area - 442,252
- Leicester Urban Area - 441,213
- Bournemouth Urban Area - 383,713
- Reading/Wokingham Urban Area - 369,804
- Teesside - 365,323
- The Potteries Urban Area - 362,403
- Coventry/Bedworth Urban Area - 336,452
- Cardiff Urban Area - 327,706
- Birkenhead Urban Area - 319,675
- Greater Southampton - 304,400
- Kingston upon Hull - 301,416
- Swansea Urban Area - 270,506
- Southend Urban Area - 269,415
- Preston Urban Area - 264,601
- Greater Blackpool - 261,088
- Plymouth - 243,795
- Aldershot Urban Area - 243,344
- Derby Urban Area - 236,738
- Luton/Dunstable Urban Area - 236,318
- Medway Towns - 231,659
- Dearne Valley - 207,726
- Northampton Urban Area - 197,199
- Norwich Urban Area - 194,839
- Milton Keynes - 184,506
