Unusual Things You Didn’t Know about London

posted in: City Guides, England, Europe, Travel | 15

London at Night

14 interesting facts about London that I’m sure you didn’t know:

1. The London Eye has 32 passenger pods, yet they are numbered 1 – 33, skipping 13 for good luck.

2. On average a body a week is found in the River Thames.

3. Most people mispronounce the River ‘Thames‘ as rhyming with ‘James,’ but should be ‘tems’ rhyming with ‘gems.’ It’s also one of the places you’ll find Santa in London if you are visiting over the holidays.

4. There are six ravens kept at the Tower of London for superstitious reasons: “If the Tower of London ravens are lost or fly away, the Crown will fall and Britain with it.”Tower of London

5. The Tower Bridge is often mistaken for the lyrically famous London Bridge – ‘London Bridge is Falling Down, Falling Down, Falling Down, London Bridge is Falling Down, My Fair Lady.’

Tower Bridge

6. The Palace of Westminster has eight bars: Annie’s Bar, Astor Bar, Bellamy’s Bar, Churchill Room, Lords Bar, Press Bar, Sports and Social Club and the Strangers’ bar.

Parliament Building

7. The Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens is one of London’s most ornate monuments. It has various unintentional coincidences: 61 human figures (he died in 1861), 42 women figures (he was 42 when he died), and 9 animals (he had 9 children).

Albert Memorial

8. In 2013 Greenpeace protesters climbed to the summit of the Shard, then Europe’s tallest building, protesting oil plans to drill in the Arctic.

It was constructed out of 95% recycled material and has 11,000 glass panels.

Shard

9. Some of the famous red phone booths of the city are being repurposed into free, solar-powered mobile charging stations to offer a carbon-neutral energy source for the city.

The town is painting them green and will have “solarbox” written across the top.

Iconic Phone Booth

10. William Shakespeare, one of many shareholders, owned 12.5% of the Globe Theatre as a young writer.

The Globe

11. In 2002, Yoko Ono paid 150,000 euros to have the lyrics to “Imagine” displayed in Piccadilly Circus for two months: ‘Imagine all the people living life in peace.’

Piccadilly Circus

12. Buckingham Palace, home of the monarch of the United Kingdom, has its own zip code (postcode).

Buckingham Palace

13. The remains of a teenage Roman girl were found during the construction of the Gherkin Building.

She was moved to the Museum of London while the construction carried on and reburied near the base of the building when it was completed.

Gherkin

14. Big Ben is the nickname for the Great Bell, not the clock or the tower of the Palace of Westminster. 

Located in the Elizabeth Tower, Big Ben held the title of the largest bell in the United Kingdom for twenty-three years and weighs 15.1 tons. 

Big Ben

Do you know any other interesting facts about London?

Like it? Pin it!

Unusual Things About London

 

15 Responses

  1. Chris travels

    What an interesting bunch of trivia facts about London…who’d have thought! Dang!

    • Dang Travelers

      They are quite the superstitious group over there in London, wouldn’t you say?

      • Phil Rustage

        Brits are among the least superstitious people in the world. But the London Eye is largely visited by other nationalities -notably Americans – so it is for them that the 13 is omitted.

        • Dang Travelers

          I guess we are bit of a suspicious bunch. Most of our hotels skip right over the 13th floor.

  2. Gordon

    #7 Prince Albert died in 1861, not 1961
    #12 Most large buildings have their own post code, very big buildings with multiple corporations may have more than 1. Unlike the US, UK Postcodes in residential areas only cover 17 houses on average.

    • Dang Travelers

      Thanks Gordon! Yes, it was very unusual to us Americans to hear that the zip code (that’s what we call it here) cover such a small area and that buildings sometimes have their own.

    • Dang Travelers

      Thanks Sarah. London is an incredible city with interesting history and culture. We loved exploring it!

  3. Wyn

    Yes, London Bridge and Tower Bridge are often confused. In fact, it is rumoured that when London Bridge was bought by an American (Robert P McCulloch), and transported brick by brick to Lake Havasu City in Arizona, he actually wanted Tower Bridge. He vehemently denies this, but the misunderstanding is…erm, understandable.

  4. Wilhemina Stoutgarter

    During the construction of the shard, a fox was discovered to be living on the incomplete 72nd floor – 944 feet above the ground. It had made its way up the central staircase, and was eating the lunches of the construction crews.

  5. Ashley Corn

    You describe everything so beautifully thanks for sharing such a wonderful thing with us. Thanks

  6. Beth

    I knew about the Roman girl found, but not that she was reburied there! That’s pretty neat. This is a good list!

  7. Lisa Scott

    Great list, there are few unusual things for tourist especially for Americans, like you should walk on the left side, while in America people use to walk on the right. One more thing that I have felt that people in England smoke a lot, people all over the world does it but British does it a lot

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.