Major Highways of Britain: The A3 Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. The A3 starts at the junction of King William Street and Gracechurch Street in the heart of the old City of London. This is just a few yards from a very prominent Doric column that's a monument to an event in London's history. What event does it commemorate?

Answer: The Great Fire of London, 1666

The monument to the Great Fire of London, more commonly known simply as "The Monument", is a 202-feet high Doric column erected in 1677 and situated 202 feet west of the spot in Pudding Lane where the Great Fire started on 2 September 1666. It was built on the site of St Margaret, New Fish Street, the first church to be destroyed by the Great Fire. It's one of the lesser-known monuments in London, but it's perhaps better known than the Golden Boy of Pye Corner which marks the point near Smithfield where the fire was eventually stopped.

Looking at the incorrect answer options, the Gordon Riots of 1780 came about as a protest against the Papists Act of 1778, which was intended to reduce official discrimination against Catholics; it is interesting to note that the text on the east side of the Monument falsely blamed Catholics for the Great Fire. The old St Paul's Cathedral was a casualty of the Great Fire and was rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren.

2. After just a couple of miles the A3 goes through a part of London known as Elephant and Castle. This area got its name from an English corruption of the Spanish phrase "La Infanta de Castilla" referring to Queen Eleanor of Castile, who as the first wife of Edward I was Queen of England from 1274 to 1290. She owned property in the area and thus it came to be called by her name. Is this account of the derivation of this area's name true or false?

Answer: False

It's a popular and widespread story that Elephant and Castle derives its name from Queen Eleanor, but sadly it's not true. There's no record of any connection between the Queen and the area, and the first record of the use of the phrase Elephant and Castle comes from the name of a pub about 500 years later.

The Elephant and Castle motif is pretty common in Europe - for example, on the coat of arms of the city of Coventry - and it's probable that the landlord of the pub just chose the name at random.

3. At Kennington, about a mile further on from Elephant and Castle, the A3 passes one of England's greatest sporting venues. In 1872 it hosted the first FA Cup Final, and in 1880 it was the first ground in England to host international Test cricket. What's the name of this arena?

Answer: The Oval Cricket Ground

The Oval was built in 1845 as a home for Surrey County Cricket Club and also to host major sporting fixtures. The last Test match of the cricket season is traditionally played there. Aside from cricket and soccer, Rugby internationals, hockey and baseball have also been played there. Gas-powered floodlighting was installed in 1889, the first artificial lighting at a sports arena.

Looking at the incorrect answer options, London Stadium was built for the 2012 Olympic Games in east London and is now the home of West Ham United FC (The Hamsters), Twickenham is the Rugby Union stadium in south-west London and Wembley is the (mainly soccer) stadium in north-west London.

4. A couple of miles after passing that sporting venue the A3 goes through the rather nondescript suburb of Clapham, where you might perchance meet "the man on the Clapham omnibus". Who is this person?

Answer: In legal terms, a reasonable person

In legal terminology "the man on the Clapham omnibus" is an imaginary ordinary, reasonable person; they are reasonably well-informed and normally diligent. This construct is used by the courts in English law to decide whether a party in a civil action has acted as a "reasonable" person would: the "man on the omnibus" is a person against whom the defendant's conduct can be measured.

The term evolved in English law near the end of the Victorian era, and it's still an important concept in law today.

The concept is used in jurisprudence in many Commonwealth countries including Canada and Australia; in the latter there are both Sydney and Melbourne versions, "the man on the Bondi tram" and "the man on the Bourke Street tram" respectively. And in Hong Kong there is "the man on the Shau Kei Wan tram"!

5. A few miles after Clapham the A3 passes a large stretch of open Common land. If I said that Great Uncle Bulgaria Coburg, Tobermory, Bungo and Orinoco live there, can you name this area?

Answer: Wimbledon Common

Wimbledon Common is a Site of Special Scientific Interest owing to its large area of heathland habitat. And of course it's inhabited by the Wombles, as documented by Elisabeth Beresford in her books dating to the 1960s, in the subsequent TV programmes in the 1970s, and in the numerous Top Ten records written by Mike Batt.

6. After the A3 crosses the M25 it passes a 240-acre site at Wisley that is the second most visited paid entry garden in the UK after Kew Gardens. It's managed by a charitable organisation that's patronised by royalty - what is the name of this organisation?

Answer: The Royal Horticultural Society

Founded in 1804, the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) works to promote horticulture through its five major gardens and through the staging of events such as the annual Chelsea Flower Show and the Britain in Bloom competition. It also runs formal courses for professional and amateur gardeners and publishes books and journals. Wisley Garden was founded in 1878 and acquired by the Society in 1903; it's the Society's oldest garden and has a wonderful range of planting. Visitor numbers are in excess of a million a year.

7. Heading south-west from London the A3 goes through Guildford in Surrey, and then comes to a place known as the Devil's Punch Bowl. What kind of place is this?

Answer: A geological feature: a collapsed hillside

The Devil's Punch Bowl is a collapsed hillside, the result of the erosion of basal clay strata underlying a sandstone hill. The result is a steep-sided semi-circular depression in the sandstone ridge. It's a site of Special Scientific Interest as it has abundant wildlife, and because of this the A3, which used to skirt the rim of the site, has now been diverted to the Hindhead Tunnel.

The highest point of the rim is 272 metres (892 feet) above sea level, and it's said that on a clear day London can be seen from there, even though it's 38 miles away.

8. After the A3 through Petersfield it goes past the small Hampshire village of Hambledon. What event took place on Broadhalfpenny Down at Hambledon on 24 and 25 June 1772 that is considered by some authorities to be the first of its kind?

Answer: The first fully-documented first-class cricket match

Cricket flourished in the Hampshire and Surrey area as long ago as the 16th Century, and in the 18th Century Broadhalfpenny Down cricket ground was the venue for matches organised by the Hambledon Club. Anecdotal reports exist of matches played in the early 1700s, but the first fully-documented match report with an extant scorecard is of a match between a Hampshire XI and an England XI in June 1772.

The two leading online cricket archives both begin their first-class coverage with this match.

9. And so the A3 arrives at Portsmouth and its ultimate destination, the 15th Century harbour where it comes to an end at Broad Street and Portsmouth Point. The world's oldest naval ship still in commission is in the dry dock of Portsmouth Historic Dockyard - what is its name?

Answer: HMS Victory

HMS Victory was ordered in 1758, laid down in 1759, and launched in 1765. With nearly 250 years of service she's the world's oldest naval vessel still in commission. She was, of course, Admiral Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, but was eventually laid up in 1824 and then preserved in a dry dock at Portsmouth in 1922.

Looking at the incorrect answer options, HMS Warrior (launched in 1860) was the world's first armour-plated, iron-hulled warship, the Mary Rose was a warship of the Tudor navy that sank in 1545 and was salvaged in 1982, and HM Coastal Boat 4 was a First World War torpedo boat. All three vessels are in the Portsmouth Dockyard.

10. So from its northern end in the City of London to its southern end in Portsmouth, how long is the A3?

Answer: 67 miles

From London to Portsmouth is a 67 mile trip by road on the A3 - a drive of just over two hours. The fastest train takes about an hour and thirty minutes.

Source: Author Southendboy

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor stedman before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

When UK roads were classified in 1913 the six most important were numbered from A1 to A6. This quiz is about places on the A3, which starts in the City of London at the north end of London Bridge and runs through Surrey and Hampshire to Portsmouth.

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