The London Gazette

The London Gazette
A London Gazette reprint of its front page from 3–10 September 1666, reporting on the Great Fire of London
TypeDaily newspaper
FormatBroadsheet
Founded7 November 1665
LanguageEnglish
HeadquartersUnited Kingdom
Websitethegazette.co.uk

The London Gazette is one of the official journals of record or government gazettes of the Government of the United Kingdom, and the most important among such official journals in the United Kingdom, in which certain statutory notices are required to be published. The Gazette is not a conventional newspaper offering general news coverage. It does not have a large circulation.

Other official newspapers of the UK government are The Edinburgh Gazette and The Belfast Gazette, which, apart from reproducing certain materials of nationwide interest published in The London Gazette, also contain publications specific to Scotland and Northern Ireland, respectively. In turn, The London Gazette carries not only notices of UK-wide interest, but also those relating specifically to entities or people in England and Wales. However, certain notices that are only of specific interest to Scotland or Northern Ireland are also required to be published in The London Gazette.

The London, Edinburgh and Belfast Gazettes are published by TSO (The Stationery Office) on behalf of His Majesty's Stationery Office. They are subject to Crown copyright.

The London Gazette claims to be the oldest surviving English newspaper and the oldest continuously published newspaper in the UK, having been first published on 7 November 1665 as The Oxford Gazette.[1][2] The claim to being oldest is also made by the Stamford Mercury (1712) and Berrow's Worcester Journal (1690).[3][4]

  1. ^ "No. 6231". The London Gazette. 4 January 1723. p. 1.; "No. 6257". The London Gazette. 4 April 1724. p. 1.
  2. ^ "No. 1". The Oxford Gazette. 7 November 1665. p. 1.
  3. ^ "The Rutland & Stamford Mercury". Archived from the original on 20 April 2008.
  4. ^ "Berrow's Worcester Journal – History of the newspaper". Worcester News. Newsquest. Archived from the original on 7 November 2021. Retrieved 25 October 2013.