Interesting Facts About London Quiz

Answer: 1811

London remained the largest city in the world until Tokyo overtook it in 1957. New York has never been the largest city in the world.

Answer: Drowning

London has been the birthplace of many superstitions. Most of which are still alive and kicking today. The best known is that if the ravens leave the Tower of London, England will fall. A great burden to be carried by some big black birds.

Answer: Five pounds

'Jacks' is rhyming slang, short for 'jacks alive'...five...do you see? Apparently this particular slang originated with London cab drivers. Other slang words for amounts of money are 'monkey' meaning £500 and 'pony' meaning £25.

Answer: Dr. Samuel Johnson

This is possibly one of the most famous quotes about London. It has been paraphrased for other cities, but let's not forget that it was, orginally, about London!

Answer: Wimbledon Common

Elizabeth Beresford's highly popular children's characters are possibly the first environmentally conscious children's characters. These creatures lived underground on Wimbledon Common collecting items that people throw away and making things with them.

Answer: It was originally on the bank, or strand, of the Thames

The Strand predated the building of the Embankment. Over the centuries the bank has been pushed back by several hundred feet and the Strand now lies nowhere near the Thames.

Answer: Pancakes

The 4th Earl of Sandwich had his servant put roast beef between two slices of bread so he could carry on his card game without pausing to eat. Salisbury steak, 'the hamburger without the bun' was pioneered by Dr. James Salisbury as part of a healthy eating plan and was a patriotic attempt to oust the German word 'hamburger' during the war.

It didn't work very well. Buck's Fizz, a mixture of champagne and orange juice, is said to have been invented by a barman at Buck's Club in London in the 1920's. Pancakes were invented by monks to use up their stocks before Lent started.

Answer: On the top of Nelson's Column

These 14 people ate their meal on the platform at the top of Nelson's Column, just before the statue of Nelson was erected. Over twenty years previously, in 1820 the Cathedral Surveyor at St Paul's Cathedral, Charles Robert Cockerell, celebrated the installation of a new cross and ball on the dome of the Cathedral with a lunch held inside the dome. Which just goes to show that Londoners will eat in the strangest places.

Answer: Handel's 'I Know That My Redeemer Liveth' from Messiah

The chimes of Big Ben were first broadcast on the radio in 1923, and on television in 1949 and are still used in news broadcasts today. The timing of the clock is maintained with old pennies, adding one to the balance results in a 2/5 of a second gain in 24 hours.

The clock has been stopped several times over the years. Several were intentional during 1916 when all public clocks were silenced for fear of the Germans homing in on them. In 1944 it stopped twice, once when a workmen left a hammer inside and once when a spring broke.

In 1945 the hammer froze and the clock couldn't strike. In 1949 the hands were stopped by swarming starlings. And the longest stoppage (13 days) was in 1977 during repairs to the clock. Big Ben is, of course, merely the name of the bell.

The bell tower that Big Ben is situated in is called St Stephen's Tower.

Answer: 1863

The first line was the Metropolitan line. The deepest station on the underground system is Hampstead at 192 feet below the surface. The tube (incase you didn't know, that is how Londoners refer to the underground system) has 273 stations. You will not find a Londoner who won't moan about travelling on the tube. Secretly we all think it's the best form of tranport in the city.

I hope that you have learnt some things about London from this quiz. And, if you don't already live here, I urge you to visit the city, accost a local and make them take you around! Every native Londoner knows stories about their city. If you can't find a local to accost, or the local in question objects to your attempts at abduction, then ask a cab driver. Cab drivers know everything. And if they don't know the answer, they'll make it up, which is just as entertaining. London is known as a busy, smelly, dirty city. This is perfectly true. But there are some beautiful places in the city. And the history of the city is fascinating. Come to London, ignore the pollution, seek out those gems of London and I guarantee, you'll be hooked.