RICS Chartered Surveyors Torbay Devon

Approximate Population: 134,200

Torbay is an east-facing bay and natural harbour, at the western most end of Lyme Bay in the south-west of England, situated roughly midway between the cities of Exeter and Plymouth. Historically part of the county of Devon, Torbay was made a unitary authority on April 1, 1998. Tourist authorities call it the English Riviera on account of its beaches and mild climate; it is a popular area with holiday makers.

There are three main towns around the bay: Torquay in the north, Paignton in the centre, and Brixham in the south, which have become connected over the years, swallowing up villages and towns such as St Marychurch, Cockington, Marldon, Churston Ferrers and Galmpton.

The County Borough of Torbay was created in 1968 by the amalgamation of the Municipal Borough of Torquay, Urban District of Paignton and Urban District of Brixham, also taking in parts of the civil parishes of Coffinswell and Kerswells from Newton Abbot Rural District and Churston Ferrers and Marldon from Totnes Rural District. The County Borough became the Borough of Torbay under local government reorganisation in 1974. In October 2005 Torbay became the first area of the South West to have an elected Mayor with Nick Bye being the successful candidate.

Famous former residents of Torbay include authors Agatha Christie (who set many of her novels in a thinly disguised version of the borough), Charles Kingsley, Edmund Gosse and Rudyard Kipling,Peter Cook comic (half of the famous pair Dudley and Cook) the great industrialist and architect of the nearby Atmospheric railway, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Prog-rock band Wishbone Ash, and supermodel Lily Cole also come from the borough. Russell Grant horoscope writer and presenter.The BBC1 actress Rebekah Gibbs who played Nina Farr in Casualty and current Pink TV (France) presenter Mark Binmore also originate from the area.

RICS Chartered Surveyors Torbay Devon

RICS Chartered Surveyors Southampton Hampshire

Approximate Population: 228,600

There are 120,305 jobs in Southampton, and 3,570 people claiming job seeker’s allowance, approximately 2.4 per cent of the city’s population, as of March 2007.  This compares with an average of 2.5 per cent for England as a whole. As of June 2006, 74.7 per cent of the city’s population are classed as economically active.

Just over a quarter of the jobs available in the city are in the health and education sector.   A further 19 per cent are property and other business and the third largest sector is wholesale and retail, which accounts for 16.2 percent.  Between 1995 and 2004, the number of jobs in Southampton has increased by 18.5 per cent. As of January 2007, the average annual salary in the city was £22,267.   This was £1,700 lower than the national average and £3,800 less than the average for the South East.

Southampton has always been a maritime centre, and the docks have long been a major employer in the city.   In particular, it is a port for cruise ships; its heyday was the first half of the 20th century, and in particular the inter-war years, when it handled almost half the passenger traffic of the UK. Today it remains home to luxury cruise ships, as well as being the largest freight port on the Channel coast and fourth largest UK port by tonnage, with several container terminals.

Unlike some other ports, such as Liverpool, London, and Bristol, where industry and docks have largely moved out of the city centres leaving room for redevelopment, Southampton retains much of its inner-city industry. Part of the docks has been redeveloped, however, as the Ocean Village development, a local marina and entertainment complex.   Southampton is home to the headquarters of both the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the Marine Accident Investigation Branch of the Department for Transport.

RICS Chartered Surveyors Southampton Hampshire

RICS Chartered Surveyors Lewisham Greater London

Approximate Population: 263,400

Lewisham is a district in south-east London, England and the principal settlement of the London Borough of Lewisham. It is most likely to have been founded by a pagan Jute, Leof, who settled (by burning his boat) near St Mary’s Church (Ladywell) where the ground was drier, in the 6th century. As to the etymology of the name, Daniel Lysons (1796) wrote:

“In the most ancient Saxon records this place is called Levesham, that is, the house among the meadows; leswe, læs, læse, or læsew, in the Saxon, signifies a meadow, and ham, a dwelling. It is now written, as well in parochial and other records as in common usage, Lewisham.”

‘Leofshema’ was an important settlement at the confluence of the rivers Quaggy (from Farnborough) and Ravensbourne (Caesar’s Well, Keston), so the village expanded north into the wetter area as drainage techniques improved.   In the mid-seventeenth century the then vicar of Lewisham, Abraham Colfe, built a grammar school, primary school and six almshouses for the inhabitants. The Earl of Dartmouth became the (hereditary) Viscount Lewisham in 1711.

Lewisham is a major transport hub, lying on the A20 road towards Dover and at the start of A21 to Hastings, with its own large bus station, railway station and the southern terminus of the Docklands Light Railway. Tube lines run into the north of the borough at New Cross and are due to be expanded south as part of the East London Line extension.

RICS Chartered Surveyors Lewisham Greater London