British Trivia
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109 free British trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
47 free British trivia questions with answers. Britain is a country made of countries, with a flag that leaves one of them out, a clock everyone calls by the name of its bell, and a currency that ran to 240 pence in a pound until 1971. This quiz is for people who like that sort of thing. It runs 109 questions across British geography (the four nations and their capitals, the highest peaks, the longest river, the Prime Meridian), history (the Normans, Magna Carta, the Acts of Union, Culloden, the Empire, the NHS, Brexit), institutions (Parliament, the Union Jack, the Crown Dependencies) and the culture that outsiders find baffling and Britons find normal: tea, fish and chips, cheese rolling, Bonfire Night and red telephone boxes. It starts with warm-ups and works up to questions that will catch out plenty of Britons. Every answer has been checked against reference sources, shown under each question once you answer, so it works for a pub quiz, a citizenship-test warm-up or a Britain-themed party.
30 of 109 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which four countries make up the United Kingdom?
England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are the four countries of the United Kingdom; the Prime Minister's office has described the UK as 'countries within a country'.
Q 02What are the capitals of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?
Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast
Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast are the capitals of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; each hosts a devolved legislature, at Holyrood, the Senedd and Stormont respectively.
Q 03What does 'Great Britain' strictly refer to?
The island of England, Scotland and Wales
Great Britain strictly means the island shared by England, Scotland and Wales; the United Kingdom adds Northern Ireland, and 'Britain' is used loosely for either.
Q 04In what year did the Kingdoms of England and Scotland unite to form Great Britain?
1707
The crowns had been united in 1603 under James VI and I; the parliaments merged with the Acts of Union on 1 May 1707.
Q 05When did the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland come into being?
1801
1801: the Acts of Union 1800 merged Great Britain and Ireland on 1 January 1801; most of Ireland left as the Irish Free State in 1922, and the name changed to 'Great Britain and Northern Ireland' in 1927.
Q 06What happened in England in 1066?
The Norman conquest
The Norman conquest: William of Normandy defeated King Harold at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, an event depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry.
Q 07Where and when did King John seal Magna Carta?
Runnymede, 1215
Runnymede, 1215: King John sealed Magna Carta in the meadow at Runnymede beside the Thames on 15 June 1215; four original copies survive, two at the British Library and one each at Lincoln and Salisbury.
Q 08Which Stuart king was executed in 1649 after the English Civil War?
Charles I
Charles I was beheaded outside the Banqueting House in Whitehall on 30 January 1649; the Commonwealth followed, until his son Charles II was restored in 1660.
Q 09Who is considered the de facto first British prime minister?
Robert Walpole
Robert Walpole is regarded as the first prime minister: as First Lord of the Treasury from 1721 to 1742 he led the government for 21 years, and 10 Downing Street was first given to him in 1735.
Q 10Roughly what share of the world's land and population did the British Empire cover at its 1920s peak?
A quarter
About a quarter: by the early 1920s the British Empire covered roughly 24 per cent of the world's land and a similar share of its population, the largest empire in history.
Q 11What is the highest mountain in the UK and the British Isles?
Ben Nevis
Ben Nevis, at 1,345 metres, is the highest mountain in the UK and the British Isles; its summit holds the ruins of a Victorian weather observatory that ran from 1883 to 1904.
Q 12Which is the longest river in Great Britain?
The Severn
The Severn is Great Britain's longest river at about 220 miles, flowing through Shrewsbury, Worcester and Gloucester to the Bristol Channel, where its estuary has one of the world's largest tidal ranges.
Q 13What is England's highest mountain?
Scafell Pike
Scafell Pike, at 978 metres in the Lake District, is England's highest mountain; its summit was given to the National Trust in 1919 as a First World War memorial.
Q 21How many constituencies elect MPs to the House of Commons?
650
650 constituencies, each returning one MP by first-past-the-post; the number has stood at 650 since the 2010 general election, up from 646.
Q 22How many independent states besides the UK had Charles III as head of state in 2025?
14
14: the Commonwealth realms in 2025 were the UK plus 14 others, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica and Papua New Guinea; Barbados had become a republic in 2021.
Q 23What percentage of UK voters chose to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum?
51.9
51.9 per cent voted Leave on 23 June 2016, 17.4 million votes to 16.1 million; the UK formally left the EU on 31 January 2020.
Q 14Which tunnel has the longest undersea section of any tunnel in the world?
The Channel Tunnel
The Channel Tunnel's undersea section runs 23.5 miles (37.9 km) between Folkestone and Coquelles, the longest of any tunnel in the world; it opened in May 1994.
Q 15Which London site was chosen in 1884 as the defining point of the Prime Meridian?
Greenwich Observatory
Greenwich Observatory: the 1884 International Meridian Conference in Washington chose the Greenwich meridian as longitude zero, which is why Greenwich Mean Time became the world's time reference.
Q 16The Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey are what, in relation to the UK?
Crown Dependencies, not part of the UK
They are Crown Dependencies: self-governing possessions of the Crown that are not part of the UK, with the UK responsible for their defence and international representation.
Q 17What is 'Big Ben' strictly the name of?
The Great Bell of the Westminster clock
The tower itself was renamed the Elizabeth Tower in 2012; the nickname probably comes from Sir Benjamin Hall, who oversaw the bell's installation.
Q 18What was the Westminster clock tower renamed in 2012, in place of 'Clock Tower'?
Elizabeth
Elizabeth Tower: the renaming marked Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee in 2012; the tower was designed by Augustus Pugin for Charles Barry's rebuilt Palace of Westminster after the 1834 fire.
Q 19Which country is NOT represented on the Union Jack?
Wales
The Great Britain flag was designed in 1606 when Wales was legally part of the Kingdom of England.
Q 20Which three saints' crosses are combined in the Union Jack?
George, Andrew and Patrick
Red cross of St George for England, white saltire of St Andrew for Scotland, red saltire of St Patrick for Northern Ireland.
Q 24In what year was the National Health Service launched?
1948
1948: the NHS began on 5 July 1948, with the first patients received at Park Hospital in Davyhulme, near Manchester, on the principle of care free at the point of use.
Q 25Which Labour health minister founded the NHS?
Aneurin Bevan
Attlee appointed him after the 1945 election; the NHS employs about 1.6 million people.
Q 26Before Decimal Day in 1971, how many old pence were there in a pound?
240
240: a pound was twenty shillings of twelve pence each, so 240 old pence; banks closed for four days before the switch to convert every account.
Q 27On what date did Britain switch to decimal currency?
15 February 1971
15 February 1971 was Decimal Day: the pound became 100 new pence, the Republic of Ireland switched the same day, and old shilling and florin coins lived on as 5p and 10p pieces.
Q 28Where and roughly when did the first fish-and-chip shops open in Britain?
London and Lancashire, 1860s
London and Lancashire, 1860s: Joseph Malin in Bow, east London, and John Lees in Mossley, Lancashire, both claim the first shop, around 1860 and 1863; by 1910 there were some 25,000.
Q 29Which prime minister called fish and chips 'the good companions'?
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill called fish and chips 'the good companions'; the dish was never rationed during the Second World War, when the government treated it as a morale booster.
Q 30Which Dickens novel contains the earliest known use of 'chips' meaning fried potato?
A Tale of Two Cities
A Tale of Two Cities (1859) describes 'husky chips of potato, fried with some reluctant drops of oil', the earliest known use of 'chips' for fried potato; Oliver Twist had earlier mentioned a 'fried fish warehouse'.