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Comment by ZenoArrow | Hacker News Reader

Swindon is rural England? It's the 10th biggest town in the UK, with a population that exceeds some cities. Pretty much the only reason it's not a city is the archaic rule that cities have to have a cathedral.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8705932/Britai...

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This is a common misconception that I stumbled upon a few months ago.

  -  The cathedral requirement was only to the 19th Century.

  -  Size does not matter. For example St Davids is a city with only 1,600 inhabitants

  -  A city in the UK is a place that has been granted city status by the monarch.

  -  You can loose city status for similar arbitrary reasons

  -  London is not even a fucking city in this system!

UK city definition is perhaps one of the dumbest concepts in the UK due to its disparity with the populations expectation of actual criteria.

Sources:

  -  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13841482

  -  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_status_in_the_United_Kingdom

> London is not even a city in this system!

Well, there is the City of London aka the Square Mile, as well as the City of Westminster.

Yes with populations of 9,400 and 247,600 respectively. They seem to invalidate the rest of the city from city status.

Swindon is a big town, but is arguably in a rural location.

However, cities do /not/ need a Cathedral - just a Royal Charter. Look at e.g. Cambridge.

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