City status in the United Kingdom This policy, which was not at the time made public, had the effect of stemming the number of city creations. The 1907 policy contained three criteria: However, well into the 20th century it was often assumed that the presence of a cathedral was sufficient to elevate a town to city status, and that for cathedral cities the city charters were recognising its city status rather than granting it. On this basis, the 1911 "Encyclopædia Britannica" said that Southwell and St Asaph were cities. The policy laid down by Edward VII was continued by his successor, George V, who ascended the
City status in the United Kingdom granted them city status by issuing letters patent. Some cities today are very small because they were granted city status in or before the 16th century, then were unaffected by population growth during the Industrial Revolution—notably Wells (population about 10,000) and St Davids (population about 2,000), After the 16th century, no new dioceses (and no new cities) were created until the 19th century. A long-awaited resumption of creating dioceses began in 1836 with Ripon. Ripon Town Council assumed that this had elevated the town to the rank of a city, and started referring to itself as the "City and Borough