Westminster

Westminster 1 Residential city (1990 pop. 78,118), Orange co., S Calif.; founded 1870 as a temperance colony for Presbyterians, inc. 1957. It has several industrial parks. Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach and Joint Forces Training Base Los Alamitos, with units of the California National Guard and the Army Reserve, are nearby. Westminster has been marked by economic growth since the 1970s along with most of southern California.

2 City (1990 pop. 74,625), Adams and Jefferson counties, N central Colo., a residential suburb of Denver ; inc. 1911. Electronic equipment, leather goods, and aerial lifts are manufactured in the city. Westminster was marked by tremendous residential growth in the late 20th cent., along with the entire Denver metropolitan area. Standley Lake there provides the city with both water and recreation.

Westminster an inner London borough which contains the Houses of Parliament and many government offices; often used in reference to the British Parliament.
Palace of Westminster the building in Westminster in which the British Parliament meets; the Houses of Parliament. The present building, designed by Sir Charles Barry, was formally opened in 1852. The original palace, a royal residence supposed to date from the 11th century until it was damaged by fire in 1512, was destroyed by a fire in 1834.
Statute of Westminster a statute of 1931 recognizing the equality of status of the dominions as autonomous communities within the British Empire, and giving their legislatures independence from British control.
Westminster Abbey the collegiate church of St Peter in Westminster, originally the abbey church of a Benedictine monastery. The present building, begun by Henry III in 1245 and altered and added to by successive rulers, replaced an earlier church built by Edward the Confessor. Nearly all the kings and queens of England have been crowned in Westminster Abbey; it is also the burial place of many of England's monarchs and of some of the nation's leading figures.
Westminster Confession a Calvinist doctrinal statement which was issued by the synod appointed to reform the English and Scottish Churches in 1643, and became widely accepted among Presbyterian Churches.

Westminster, City of Part of the London Borough of Westminster since 1965. Westminster was the site of a monastery from 785, and is where Edward the Confessor built Westminster Abbey. Parliament met in Westminster Palace until a fire (1834) led to the building of the Houses of Parliament (1840–67). Pop. (1997) 231,600.