“It is excellent that the city of Gibraltar is being officially recognised, a great recognition of its rich history and dynamism.” These are the words spoken by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson after they announced on Monday the entry of Gibraltar to the official list of British cities. The decision has been made after 180 years in which his status, granted by Queen Victoria, was overlooked due to a clerical error.
The British Overseas Territory had made a bid to become a city earlier this year as part of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. But when researchers checked the National Archives, they found that it had already been recognized as such in 1842.
Gibraltar has been a British Overseas Territory since 1713, when it was ceded to Great Britain under a peace treaty signed after the War of the Spanish Succession.
In a Jubilee competition, 39 places applied to become towns and eight of them, including Doncaster, Bangor and Dunfermline, were eventually awarded status.
According to this, Gibraltar is now one of only five places outside the UK recognized in this way, in addition to Hamilton in Bermuda, Jamestown in St Helena, Douglas in the Isle of Man and Stanley in the Falkland Islands.
City status is often associated with having a cathedral, a university, or a large population, but there are no set rules for granting it: it is granted by the monarch on the advice of ministers.
It brings few material benefits, though it can often give communities a boost by putting them on the map and is usually a source of pride for residents.
Secretary of State for the Cabinet Office, Kit Malthouse, told the BBC that "the cities on this list are incredibly rich in history and culture, and their residents are rightly very proud to see that the relevance of their cities is captured on paper".
