48 Fun Facts About London

Under what name did the Romans found the settlement that became London?

Londinium began while Camulodunum (Colchester) was Roman Britain's capital, but it had probably taken over that role by the 2nd century.

Which Iceni queen led the rebels who burned London around AD 61?

Boudica rose against Rome after it seized her late husband's kingdom and, Tacitus says, had her flogged.

Legend says disaster will befall Britain if which birds ever leave the Tower of London?

Ravens at the Tower are enlisted almost like soldiers, and a bird can be dismissed for bad behaviour, as several have been.

Which king took control of London from the Vikings in 886?

Alfred then began calling himself King of the Anglo-Saxons, as the English not under Danish rule submitted to him.

Where was William the Conqueror crowned on Christmas Day 1066?

Westminster Abbey rang with cheers at his coronation, which Norman guards outside mistook for a riot, so they set nearby houses on fire.

London was the focus of which 1381 uprising?

The Peasants' Revolt collapsed after London's mayor, William Walworth, struck down rebel leader Wat Tyler at Smithfield before the young Richard II.

During London's Great Plague of 1665, what marked the doors of infected houses?

A red cross, with the words 'Lord have mercy upon us', meant the house was locked with a watchman outside, shutting healthy relatives in with the sick.

The Great Fire of 1666 started in a bakery on which street?

Pudding Lane's fire spread fast on a strong east wind, and it was finally checked when gunpowder was used to blast gaps between houses.

Which diarist buried his Parmesan cheese in a pit to save it from the Great Fire of London?

Samuel Pepys also hurried to tell Charles II that only pulling down houses could stop the fire, and the king sent him to order the Lord Mayor to do it.

Who helped design London's Monument to the Great Fire so that its central shaft could serve as a telescope?

Robert Hooke's telescope plan failed, because vibrations from traffic below made the column unsuitable for experiments.

Who designed St Paul's Cathedral, rebuilt after the Great Fire of London?

Christopher Wren also drew a grand new street plan for the burned city, but it was rejected and London was rebuilt on its medieval layout.

Which monarch was the first to make Buckingham Palace their official London residence?

Queen Victoria moved in soon after taking the throne and banished her mother to a remote apartment there, often refusing to see her.

What were London's 18th-century Bow Street Runners?

A police force of poorly paid constables based at Bow Street, the Runners were eventually absorbed into the Metropolitan Police.

What caused London's 'Great Stink' in the summer of 1858?

Sewage in the Thames smelled so foul that it pushed Parliament into passing a law that same year, letting Joseph Bazalgette build a new network of sewers.

During London's deadly smog of December 1952, which public transport kept running?

The Underground kept going while nearly all of London's buses were out of action, as the smog made driving at times impossible.

The Great Smog of 1952 led directly to which law?

The Clean Air Act forced town households and factories onto cleaner fuels, yet it could not prevent another severe London fog in 1962.

What nickname did London's pea-soup fogs earn the city?

The Big Smoke's worst smog, in December 1952, was blamed for at least 4,000 deaths within weeks, and later estimates run far higher.

Which 1953 disaster, which killed 307 people in England, prompted calls for the Thames Barrier?

The North Sea flood came when a severe windstorm struck at a high spring tide, piling the sea onto the coasts of England and the Netherlands.

Which body, created in 2000, restored London-wide government after 14 years without one?

The Greater London Authority filled the gap left when Margaret Thatcher's government abolished the Greater London Council, then led by Ken Livingstone.

Who was elected Mayor of London in 2016?

Sadiq Khan went on to push the ultra-low emission zone out across the whole capital in 2023, then won a historic third term in 2024.

What is the City of London's famous nickname?

The Square Mile's citizens kept their rights under a 1067 charter from William the Conqueror, a rare case of the English keeping some power.

Why did London's City Hall leave its glass building beside Tower Bridge?

To save on rent, London's government swapped its leased riverside offices for the Crystal, a building it already owned in Newham.

What is the famously tough test that London black-cab drivers must pass called?

The Knowledge leaves a mark: scans showed cabbies who passed it have a larger posterior hippocampus, and it grows with years on the job.

Road distances from London are traditionally measured from which spot?

Charing Cross is where Edward I raised the grandest of the crosses marking each resting place of Queen Eleanor's funeral procession.

Which London gardens are a UNESCO World Heritage Site?

Kew Gardens lost hundreds of mature trees in a single night of storms in 1987.

Which London settlement's Royal Observatory defines the prime meridian?

Greenwich time became known as railway time when the railways adopted it in 1847, but it only became Britain's legal time in 1880.

What is the UK's tallest building as of 2025, at 95 storeys?

The Shard took its name from opponents' jibe that it would be a 'shard of glass' through historic London, as English Heritage fought it at a 2003 inquiry.

Which London skyscraper's curved glass face reflected sunlight hot enough to melt parts of a parked car in 2013?

The Walkie-Talkie's beam was so fierce that a reporter fried an egg in it, and the tower was nicknamed the 'Walkie-Scorchie'.

Tate Modern opened in 2000 inside which former industrial building?

Bankside Power Station was fiercely opposed when planned, with objectors citing its dirt, grit and huge bulk directly opposite St Paul's Cathedral.

Which of London's great museums was established first, in Bloomsbury in 1753?

The British Museum grew from physician Hans Sloane's collection of 71,000 objects, which the nation acquired after his death.

The National Gallery overlooks which famous public space?

Trafalgar Square's fourth plinth, meant for a statue of William IV, stood empty for lack of funds and now shows changing artworks.

Which London district was nicknamed 'Albertopolis' after Prince Albert's plans for museums there?

South Kensington's museums and colleges were built on land bought with profits from the Great Exhibition of 1851, as Prince Albert had urged.

Which author wrote The Mousetrap, which opened in London's West End in 1952?

Agatha Christie first wrote the story as a 1947 radio play for the royal family, called Three Blind Mice.

Which orange-seller at London's Drury Lane theatre became an actress and a mistress of Charles II?

Nell Gwyn bore Charles II two sons, whom he raised to the nobility, and the elder became the first Duke of St Albans.

The Notting Hill Carnival takes place on which bank holiday weekend?

The Late August carnival grew from events staged for racial unity after the 1958 Notting Hill riots, including Claudia Jones's indoor carnival in 1959.

London Zoo, the world's oldest scientific zoo, is in which of the Royal Parks?

Regent's Park: London Zoo opened there in 1828 as a collection for scientific study, and the general public was let in only from 1847.

Which is the largest of London's eight Royal Parks?

Richmond Park began after Charles I moved his court to nearby Richmond Palace to escape plague in London and turned the land into a deer-hunting park.

Crystal Palace Park is known for life-sized Victorian models of what?

The dinosaurs were modelled on 1850s science, so some got misplaced horns and spikes, and four-legged bodies for animals now known to walk on two legs.

Which London airport began as aircraft maker Richard Fairey's private test airfield, the Great West Aerodrome?

Heathrow takes its name from the hamlet of Heath Row, which was demolished in 1944 to make way for the airport.

Which London airport needs pilots and aircraft specially certified for its unusually steep approach?

London City once sent all-business-class British Airways jets to New York, but they had to stop and refuel at Shannon on the way out.

Who designed London's diagrammatic Tube map, first issued in 1933?

Harry Beck's map was at first rejected as too revolutionary, yet it proved an instant hit with passengers.

Which Gunpowder Plot conspirator was caught in 1605 guarding gunpowder in a cellar beneath the House of Lords?

Guy Fawkes gave his name as John Johnson when caught, with the gunpowder hidden under a pile of firewood.

In 1952, what had to leap a widening gap when Tower Bridge began to open beneath it?

A double-decker driven by Albert Gunter sped up as the road rose and cleared the gap with 20 passengers aboard, earning him a reward for quick thinking.

Strictly speaking, Big Ben is not the tower but the nickname of what?

The Great Bell cracked soon after it first rang in 1859, and it still carries that crack today.

Big Ben's clock is fine-tuned by adding or removing what on its pendulum?

Old pennies sit on a shoulder of the pendulum, and adding just one makes the clock gain about two-fifths of a second a day.

What was the London Eye originally called?

The Millennium Wheel had planning permission for only five years, but in 2002 its operators won approval to keep it turning for decades.

Which duo recorded 'Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)' in a makeshift studio in north London's Chalk Farm?

Eurythmics made it on cheap second-hand gear bought with a £5,000 bank loan, and the song went on to top the US chart.

On the Beatles' Abbey Road cover, shot on a London zebra crossing, which member walked barefoot?

Paul McCartney's bare feet fed the 'Paul is dead' rumour, as fans read the cover as a funeral procession with him as the corpse.