Portal:United Kingdom/Featured article/3

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Historically, city status was associated with the presence of a cathedral, such as York Minster.

City status in the United Kingdom is granted by the British monarch to a select group of communities. The status does not apply automatically on the basis of any particular criteria, although it was traditionally given to towns with diocesan cathedrals. This association between having a cathedral and being called a city was established in the early 1540s when Henry VIII founded dioceses (and therefore cathedrals) in six English towns and also granted them all city status by issuing Letters Patent. (more...)