Ripon is a small cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England. As a historic Yorkshire city, Ripon had a population of 15,922 at the 2001 census, making it the fourth smallest city in England after Wells, Ely and the City of London (in the rest of the United Kingdom, St David's, Bangor, and Armagh are also smaller). Ripon is situated at the confluence of the streams Laver and Skell with the River Ure, which is crossed by a fine bridge of nine arches. The streets are for the most part narrow and irregular, and, although most of the houses are comparatively modern, some of them retain the picturesque gables characteristic of earlier times. Ripon is part of the Skipton and Ripon parliamentary constituency. Ripon was one of the boroughs reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, and remained a municipal borough of the West Riding of Yorkshire until 1974, when under the Local Government Act 1972 it became part of the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire. Ripon became a successor parish, with a parish council called Ripon City Council.