the highest colouring of social class in London: yellow/gold. Westminster has shed the abject poverty with the clearance of this slum and with drainage improvement, but there is a typical Central London property distinction within the area which is very acute, epitomised by grandiose 21st-century developments, architectural high-point listed buildings and nearby social housing (mostly non-council housing) buildings of the Peabody Trust founded by philanthropist George Peabody. Wider uses of the name Given the focus on Westminster in English and British public life over centuries, the name "Westminster" is casually used as a metonym for the UK Parliament and for the political community of the United Kingdom generally. (The civil service is similarly referred to using the name of the northern sub-neighbourhood which it inhabits, "Whitehall".) "Westminster" is consequently also used in reference to the Westminster system, the parliamentary model of democratic government that has evolved in the United Kingdom and for those other nations, particularly in the Commonwealth of Nations and for other parts of the former British Empire that adopted it. The term "Westminster Village", sometimes used in the context of British politics, does not refer to a geographical area at all; employed especially in the phrase "Westminster Village gossip", it denotes a supposedly close social circle of members of parliament, political journalists, so-called spin-doctors and others connected to events in the Palace of Westminster and in Government ministries. Economy The area has a substantial residential population. By the 20th century Westminster saw rising numbers of residential apartments with wealthy inhabitants. Hotels, large Victorian homes and barracks exist near to Buckingham Palace. High Commissions Westminster hosts the High Commissions of many Commonwealth countries: Australia The Bahamas Brunei Canada Cyprus Eswatini Ghana India Lesotho Malaysia New Zealand Nigeria Pakistan Papua New Guinea Seychelles Singapore South Africa Trinidad and Tobago Uganda Education Within the area is Westminster School, a major public school which grew out of the abbey, and the University of Westminster, attended by over 20,000 students. Notable people Andy Bray (born 1981), cricketer Alice Liddell (1852–1934), inspiration for Alice In Wonderland Ava Gardner (24 December 1922 – 25 January 1990), American actress and singer Arthur Barnby (1881–1937), first-class cricketer and Royal Marines/Royal Naval Air Service officer Richard Colley (1833–1902), first-class cricketer and British Army officer Geoffrey Cooke (1897–1980), first-class cricketer and British Army officer John Fuller (1834–1893), first-class cricketer, clergyman and theologian Hady Ghandour (born 2000), footballer Tatiana