Q 01/05

Which insect got its Underground name by biting Londoners sheltering in Tube stations in the Blitz?

A) Mosquito

B) Bed bug

C) Flea

D) Cockroach

Answer · why

A) Mosquito

The London Underground mosquito, a form of Culex pipiens, bit shelterers during the Blitz and became a textbook example of rapid evolution. Its Tube o...

Q 02/05

At which station did an old 'Mind the gap' recording return in 2013 so the announcer's widow could hear his voice?

A) Waterloo

B) Embankment

C) Bank

D) Piccadilly Circus

Answer · why

B) Embankment

Embankment was the last station still playing actor Oswald Laurence's warning, and his widow, Margaret McCollum, would sit on the platform to hear it;...

Q 03/05

What was cut from the Tube map in 2009, then put back three months later after a public outcry?

A) The London Overground

B) The River Thames

C) The DLR

D) Tramlink

Answer · why

B) The River Thames

The River Thames vanished from the September 2009 map, its first absence since a 1926 pocket map, and Mayor Boris Johnson joined the chorus of disappr...

Q 04/05

Which Chelsea station has the River Westbourne flowing over its platforms in a large iron pipe?

A) South Kensington

B) Gloucester Road

C) Knightsbridge

D) Sloane Square

Answer · why

D) Sloane Square

Sloane Square was built where the Westbourne, one of London's lost rivers, crossed the line, so engineers slung the river above the tracks in an iron ...

Q 05/05

Which station beside Lord's cricket ground is the only one sharing no letters with the word 'mackerel'?

A) St John's Wood

B) Swiss Cottage

C) Great Portland Street

D) Kilburn Park

Answer · why

A) St John's Wood

St John's Wood contains none of the letters A, C, E, K, L, M or R. The puzzle nearly never existed: Tube maps printed just before it opened in 1939 sh...