Central London by the statue of King Charles I at the junction of the Strand, Whitehall and Cockspur Street, just south of Trafalgar Square. The London Plan defines the "Central Activities Zone" policy area, which comprises the City of London, most of Westminster and the inner parts of Camden, Islington, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Southwark, Lambeth, Kensington & Chelsea and Wandsworth. It is described as "a unique cluster of vitally important activities including central government offices, headquarters and embassies, the largest concentration of London's financial and business services sector and the offices of trade, professional bodies, institutions, associations, communications, publishing, advertising and the
7th (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment St Martin's Hall, Long Acre, London, on 16 April 1859 that led the War Office to authorise the recruitment of Rifle Volunteer Corps (RVCs). Richards himself enlisted 1000 men to form the 'Workmen's Volunteer Brigade'. Although the unit began holding parades at the City of London's Guildhall in the autumn of 1860, the first officers' commissions were not issued until 26 April 1861, when the unit was formally adopted as the 3rd City of London RVC. The men were generally less well-off than some other London RVCs recruited from the professions and middle classes, but the unit received some financial