49 Fun Facts About British Cities

Which Devon port, where Drake reputedly finished his bowls before the Armada, did the Mayflower finally leave in 1620?

Plymouth was where the Mayflower finally sailed alone, after the leaking Speedwell had forced both vessels back twice.

Which English city has been home to Cadbury's Bournville factory since 1879?

Birmingham is often said to have more miles of canal than Venice, though the Canal & River Trust notes the tally depends on where you draw the boundaries.

In which city's Eagle pub did Francis Crick announce in 1953 that he and Watson had found 'the secret of life'?

Cambridge had been a city only since 1951, and it has no cathedral, falling instead within the Diocese of Ely.

Which new town of 1967, famous for roundabouts and Concrete Cows, contains the codebreaking estate Bletchley Park?

Milton Keynes had bid for city status several times before it finally succeeded in 2022.

In which city did protesters topple a statue of slave trader Edward Colston and push it into the harbour in June 2020?

Bristol's 'Colston Four' were cleared of criminal damage in January 2022, and the statue went on display, graffiti intact, at the M Shed museum.

Which city, UK City of Culture in 2017, is the only one in Britain with its own independent telephone network company?

Hull's council ran its own phone network, and its telephone boxes are painted cream rather than red.

Wolverhampton's Princes Square saw which British first installed in 1927, commemorated today by striped poles?

Automatic traffic lights reached Princes Square 74 years before Wolverhampton finally became a city in 2001, after five failed bids.

Which seaside resort, home of the world's longest pleasure pier, became a city in 2022 in memory of MP Sir David Amess?

Southend-on-Sea's city status was a cause Amess had long campaigned for, and the Prime Minister announced the honour just days after the MP was killed.

Which Welsh city, the main coal-export port for the Rhondda valleys, was Roald Dahl's birthplace in 1916?

Cardiff's Llandaff district is where the young Roald Dahl and four friends hid a dead mouse in a sweet shop's jar, and his headmaster punished him for it.

Which UK city, birthplace of Narnia author C. S. Lewis, has a public square named in his honour?

Belfast: Lewis was born there in 1898, and after his mother died he was sent away to boarding schools.

At which city's Iffley Road track did Roger Bannister run the first sub-four-minute mile on 6 May 1954?

Oxford gave Bannister the mile record, but Australian John Landy broke it just six weeks later in Turku, Finland.

Which naval city, birthplace of Charles Dickens and Isambard Kingdom Brunel, is the UK's only island city?

Portsmouth's navy brought both fathers there: John Dickens was a Navy Pay Office clerk, and Marc Brunel was building block-making machinery.

Which Georgian spa city, known to the Romans as Aquae Sulis, joined UNESCO's Great Spa Towns of Europe listing in 2021?

Bath's Roman-era visitors left curse tablets in the sacred spring, asking the goddess Sulis to punish people who had stolen from them.

Sheffield's Crucible Theatre has hosted which sporting event since 1977, alongside its stage plays?

World Snooker Championship matches came to the Crucible after promoter Mike Watterson's wife saw a play there and suggested it as a venue.

Which bakery chain was founded, and still has its headquarters, in Newcastle upon Tyne?

Greggs was founded by John Gregg in 1939 but only opened its first shop, on Gosforth High Street, in 1951.

Which Gunpowder Plot conspirator was born and educated in York, where he attended St Peter's School?

Guy Fawkes's school, St Peter's, also taught the brothers John and Christopher Wright, who later joined him in the Gunpowder Plot.

Which novelist, brought to Winchester for medical treatment by her sister Cassandra, died there on 18 July 1817?

Jane Austen is buried in Winchester Cathedral, but her gravestone praises her character without ever mentioning her novels.

Which fighter aircraft did Supermarine design in Southampton, evolving from its Schneider Trophy seaplanes?

The Spitfire's Supermarine works at Woolston was heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe in 1940, during the Battle of Britain.

Which city, once 'the largest shipbuilding town in the world', has hosted Nissan's UK car factory since 1986?

Sunderland's last shipyard closed in 1988, just two years after the Nissan plant opened.

Which Welsh city, nicknamed Copperopolis for its copper-smelting heyday, was poet Dylan Thomas's birthplace in 1914?

Swansea: Cornish copper ore was shipped there to be smelted, because the town sat beside cheap South Wales coal and had a harbour.

Which city, home of the Canaries football club, became England's first UNESCO City of Literature in 2012?

Julian of Norwich wrote Revelations of Divine Love, the earliest surviving book in English known to have been written by a woman.

In which Yorkshire city did Louis Le Prince shoot the earliest known moving pictures, Roundhay Garden Scene, in 1888?

Leeds held Le Prince's workshop, but in September 1890, just before a planned New York demonstration, he boarded a train from Dijon to Paris and was never seen again.

Which Yorkshire wool city, birthplace of painter David Hockney, became the world's first UNESCO City of Film in 2009?

Bradford's wool trade drew so many German merchants that their warehouse quarter became known as Little Germany.

Which city, founded in 995 by monks carrying St Cuthbert's relics from the Vikings, was later ruled by prince bishops?

Durham's shrine of St Cuthbert drew pilgrims for centuries until Henry VIII ordered its destruction in 1538.

Which Scottish city, home of DC Thomson's Beano and Dandy comics, became the UK's first UNESCO City of Design in 2014?

Dundee also built RRS Discovery, which carried Captain Scott to Antarctica and is berthed there today at Discovery Point.

Which city, the most northerly in the United Kingdom, was granted city status in 2000 as a 'Millennium City'?

Inverness applied for city status in 1897 but was refused, partly because a grant would have exposed that existing cities had no formal charter.

Which city, whose Peace Bridge footbridge opened in 2011, was the inaugural UK City of Culture two years later?

Derry's Peace Bridge was built as a symbol of reconciliation, linking the Cityside and Waterside banks of the River Foyle.

Which club, formed in 1862, is recognised as the world's oldest professional football league club?

Notts County predates the Football League by 26 years and was one of its 12 founding members in 1888.

Gloucester Cathedral, burial place of Edward II, was a filming location for which screen adaptation?

Harry Potter scenes were shot in the church where nine-year-old Henry III was crowned in 1216 without the royal crown.

Armagh, the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland, has two cathedrals that are both named after which saint?

Patrick's name went to two cathedrals because the Church of Ireland kept the medieval one at the Reformation, and Catholics built their own in the 19th century.

Pope Callixtus II ruled that two pilgrimages to St Davids in Pembrokeshire were worth one pilgrimage to which city?

Rome's equivalence made the tiny Welsh cathedral city a major destination for medieval pilgrims.

Salisbury Cathedral, whose 123-metre spire is Britain's tallest, holds the best-preserved copy of which medieval document?

Magna Carta failed at first: neither King John nor the rebel barons kept to it, and it was soon annulled, leading to civil war.

Which compiler of the first authoritative English dictionary was born in Lichfield, his 'city of philosophers'?

Samuel Johnson set out for London in 1737 with his former pupil David Garrick, who soon found fame on the stage.

Which composer, born in 1857, grew up in Worcester and settled in nearby Malvern?

Edward Elgar soon left a job in a local solicitor's office to pursue music, and as a composer he was self-taught.

Lisburn, a historic linen centre near the Lagan, was made a city in 2002 alongside Newry to mark which royal occasion?

Golden Jubilee city status came to a town rebuilt after an accidental fire razed it in 1707, which gave Lisburn its motto 'Out of the fire I shall arise'.

Wakefield styles itself the capital of which growing area, famous for its early forced crop?

The Rhubarb Triangle's forced rhubarb grows in dark, heated sheds, where it is traditionally picked by candlelight.

Which Potteries city was created in 1910 by federating six towns, including Burslem, Tunstall and Longton?

Stoke-on-Trent's Josiah Wedgwood cut the first sod of the Trent and Mersey Canal in July 1766, backing the waterway to get his pottery to market.

In which city did William Foster & Co design and build the first ever tanks during the First World War?

Lincoln's Foster works built the first tanks under the cover story that they were 'water carriers for Mesopotamia', which is how tanks got their name.

Which Essex city, granted city status in 2012, had the world's first radio factory, opened by Guglielmo Marconi?

Chelmsford's Marconi works staged Britain's first publicised sound broadcast in June 1920, when soprano Dame Nellie Melba sang live on air.

Which Somerset city, England's smallest outside the City of London, played Sandford in Edgar Wright's film Hot Fuzz?

Wells Cathedral's scissor arches were added in the 14th century after the heightened central tower cracked and its piers began to sink.

Which Scottish club, managed by Alex Ferguson, beat Real Madrid 2–1 in 1983 to win the European Cup Winners' Cup?

Aberdeen's extra-time winner came from John Hewitt, who had come on as a substitute for the side's first scorer, Eric Black.

Preston North End's 1888–89 side achieved which feat that no English club has matched since?

Unbeaten in league and FA Cup, Preston's 'Invincibles' were the first league champions and first Double winners, lifting the Cup without conceding a goal.

Ely Cathedral, whose towers dominate the low-lying wetlands for miles around, carries which nickname?

The Ship of the Fens owes its famous octagon to a disaster: the cathedral's Norman central tower collapsed in February 1322.

Newcastle upon Tyne took its name from a castle built in 1080 by which son of William the Conqueror?

Robert Curthose built the castle after his father sent him north in 1080 to defend the kingdom against the Scots.

Lancaster Castle staged the August 1612 trials of which accused group?

The Pendle witches were convicted largely on the word of nine-year-old Jennet Device, who stood on a table in court to denounce her own mother.

Peterborough Cathedral buried Catherine of Aragon in 1536 and which other royal in 1587?

Mary, Queen of Scots lay at Peterborough until her son James moved her to Westminster Abbey in 1612, but Catherine of Aragon is still buried there.

Which city's Roodee is recognised by Guinness World Records as the oldest racecourse still in operation?

Chester's Roodee sits on an old harbour that silted up, and at just over a mile round it is also thought to be England's smallest significant racecourse.

Which city, mentioned by Pliny the Elder, claims to be Britain's oldest recorded town and sits on Camulodunum?

Colchester was once the capital of Roman Britain, but after Boudica's rebels burned it, the Romans moved the capital to London.

Which Elizabethan playwright, born in Canterbury, gives his name to the city's main theatre?

Christopher Marlowe went to Canterbury's King's School, which is considered the world's oldest continuously operating school.