English Cities not Towns - Sudden Death

Yes, nowadays a city is literally just defined as "the monarch says it's a city" with no other requirements.

Manchester really had to lobby Queen Victoria to make it a city after it got a Cathedral, and it mostly got it because it was a big town. Ripon (based on Manchester's precedence) lobbied soon after and set a precedent for maybe 50 years and about 3 cities where a Cathedral gave a town city status as that was the done thing as Victoria, her son and her grandson didn't want to be bombarded with petitions from cathedral towns.

Meanwhile, during that time quite a few large towns became a city despite having no cathedral (though they do now). After the small town - close enough to London for influencial people to know it - of St Albans got city status when the Abbey got a diocesian seat, then they made explicit that Cathedral should not necessary mean City Status.

It's always been the blessing of the monarch.