As the capital city of the United Kingdom, London is a favourite topic for quizzes.
Those of us who live outside the capital probably need to know more about London than we do about our own home towns!
Bromley comes very close to having the southernmost point.
Greater London ceased to be an administrative county in 1986, but it is still a ceremonial county. In other words, it has a Lord Lieutenant
(who represents the Queen there) and (according to Wikipedia) this
means it's informally known as a "geographic county".
| Number of houses in Downing Street |
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3 (Nos. 10,11 and 12) |
| Location in St. John's Wood, given UK Heritage Listed status in 2010 |
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Abbey Road zebra crossing |
| Landmark building in London: provides road and pedestrian access between The Mall and Trafalgar Square
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Admiralty Arch |
| Grade II listed entertainment and sports venue, between Muswell Hill and Wood Green: opened in 1873,
intended as North London's counterpart to the Crystal Palace; the BBC leased part of it in 1935, and began broadcasting the world's
first regular public television service from it in 1936; continued to be used for BBC News broadcasts until 1969, and for the Open University
until 1981; its antenna is still used for local terrestrial television transmission, local commercial radio and DAB broadcasts |
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Alexandra Palace |
| London landmark: built in two stages in the 1930s and 1950s, largely unused since 1983; featured on
the cover of Pink Floyd's 1977 album Animals, with a giant inflatable pig floating above it
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Battersea Power Station |
| Traditional home of London's fish market (relocated to the Isle of Dogs in 1982) |
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Billingsgate |
| Street on the south side of St. James's Park, Westminster, named because the Royal Menagerie and
Aviary was sited there in the reign of King James I |
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Birdcage Walk |
| Famous magistrates' court, opened in 1735: dealt with Oscar Wilde, Lord Haw Haw, Dr. Crippen,
and the Kray Twins; closed in 2006 |
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Bow Street |
| Street in the East End: traditionally (since the 17th century) home to Sunday markets; now the centre
of London's Bangladeshi community, famous for its curry houses; title of a 2003 novel by Monica Ali, filmed in 2007 |
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Brick Lane |
| Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury (WC1B 3DG) is the address of the |
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British Museum |
| Former private house on Piccadilly, near Piccadilly Circus: main building now houses the Royal Academy
of the Arts, other buildings house the London Geographical Society, Linnean Society, Royal Astronomical Society, Royal Society of Chemistry,
London Society of Antiquaries |
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Burlington House |
| Named after the place of origin of tomatoes unloaded there |
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Canary Wharf |
| The"notional centre" of London, since the early 19th century, from which mileages to the
capital (on road signs around the UK) are measured |
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Charing Cross |
| Site of the original and most elaborate of the memorials to Eleanor of Castile, consort of Edward I;
it was demolished in 1647 on the orders of Parliament, but a replica was erected in 1845–6, on the forecourt of the railway station
of the same name |
| An equestrian statue of Charles I was erected there (on the site of the original cross) in 1675, facing
the site of his execution in Whitehall |
| Now a road junction, immediately south of Trafalgar Square, where six routes including The Mall,
Whitehall, Northumberland Avenue and The Strand meet |
| Popular nickname for the Leadenhall Building (122 Leadenhall Street – completed 2014) |
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The Cheese Grater |
| Brought to London in 1877, at his own expense, by the surgeon and dermatologist Sir Erasmus Wilson
(full name William James Erasmus Wilson); a razor, cigars and a portrait of Queen Victoria were buried under it |
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Cleopatra's Needle |
| Theatre on St. Martin's Lane, in the City of Westminster: home to the English National Opera |
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Coliseum |
| Indicated (since February 2003) by a road sign showing a white letter C on a red circle |
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Congestion Charge area |
| Thoroughfare that connects The Mall (just in front of Buckingham Palace) with Hyde
Park Corner; bordered by Buckingham Palace Gardens to the south and Green Park to the north |
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Constitution Hill |
| Some say it's so called because King Charles II had a habit of taking walks there |
| Traditional home of London's fruit market (moved to Nine Elms in 1974) |
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Covent Garden |
| Used as a metonym for the Royal Opera House, which is located there |
| Built in Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition, 1851, then moved to Sydenham Hill; destroyed by fire 1936 |
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Crystal Palace |
| Tin Pan Alley: official name |
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Denmark Street |
| London Underground line with the most stations |
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District |
| Name used since at least 1765 for the area of South London formerly known as Newington – after
a public house on a major road intersection, its sign depicting the arms of the Worshipful Company of Cutlers
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Elephant and Castle |
| Official name of the Clock Tower of the Palace of Westminster, which houses Big Ben, since 2012
(changed in honour of the Diamond Jubilee) |
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Elizabeth Tower |
| Official name of the original Wembley Stadium |
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Empire Stadium |
| No. 10 Downing Street is the home (according to the brass plate on its front door) of the |
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First Lord of the Treasury |
| Formerly occupied the site of the Congregational Memorial Hall, on Farringdon Street (where the
Labour Party was founded in 1900) |
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Fleet Prison |
| Popular nickname of 30 St. Mary Axe (formerly the Swiss Re building; built on the site of the Baltic
Exchange building, bombed by the IRA in 1992) |
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The Gherkin |
| Luxury hotel in Belgravia, near Buckingham Palace: opened in 1910, claiming to be the first hotel in
the world with a private bathroom and central heating in every room; the Queen Mother was a frequent guest, and Kate Middleton stayed there
before her wedding to Prince William; granted a royal warrant by the Queen in 2013 – the only hotel to receive this honour |
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The Goring |
| Event commemorated by The Monument |
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Great Fire (1666) |
| J. M. Barrie donated royalties from Peter Pan in 1925 to |
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Great Ormond St. Hospital |
| Britain's largest bell – in St. Paul's Cathedral |
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Great Paul |
| Gives its name to a tube station on Dover Street, which was known by that name until 1933 (between
Hyde Park Corner and Piccadilly Circus, on the Piccadilly Line) |
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The Green Park |
| Location of the US Embassy, from 1938 to 2017 (in two separate buildings, 1938–60 and
1960–2017) |
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Grosvenor Square |
| Private members' club at 45 Dean Street, Soho, established in the late 1980s for people who work
in publishing, entertainment, arts and the media |
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Groucho Club |
| Venue of the Lord Mayor's Banquet |
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Guild Hall |
| 790–acre open space in north–west London: includes Parliament Hill, a famous viewpoint |
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Hampstead Heath |
| London store bombed by the IRA during the Christmas shopping rush in 1983; registered address
87–135 Brompton Road, SW1 |
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Harrod's |
| Centre of London's jewellery trade, since the Middle Ages |
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Hatton Garden |
| The elevated location where, according to legend, Richard (Dick) Whittington turned back on his way
out of London, after hearing Bow Bells; a hospital on the site was named after him in 1946, and his cat is commemorated by a statue there |
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Highate Hill |
| The Guards Memorial – commemorating the First Battle of Ypres and other battles of World War I;
the Royal Naval Division War Memorial; equestrian statues of Field Marshals Roberts (1832–19) and Wolseley (1833–1913);
a Turkish cannon, made in 1524 "by Murad son of Abdullah, chief gunner" and captured in Egypt in 1801; statues of Field Marshal
Kitchener and of Admiral of the Fleet Mountbatten |
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Horse Guards Parade |
| Rotten Row, Speakers Corner, Lake Serpentine |
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Hyde Park |
| Housed since 1936 in the former Bethlem (Bedlam) psychiatric hospital on Lambeth Road, SE1 |
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Imperial War Museum |
| Area of the East End, comprising Millwall, Cubitt Town, Canary Wharf and parts of Blackwall,
Limehouse and Poplar; bounded on three sides by one of the largest meanders in the River Thames |
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Isle of Dogs |
| Britain's first cinema opened (5 August 1901) |
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Islington |
| Underground line opened in 1977, coloured grey on maps; extended in 1999 to serve the Millennium Dome |
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Jubilee |
| Statue of Peter Pan |
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Kensington Gardens |
| Street that links the Royal Albert Hall and Kensington Gardens (including the Albert Memorial); gave
its name to a formerly patented brand of theatrical blood – now used generically |
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Kensington Gore |
| Popular name for the Royal Botanic Gardens |
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Kew Gardens |
| Founded in 1759 by Princess Augusta, the Dowager Princess of Wales (mother of George III); passed to
the nation by Queen Victoria in 1840 |
| Chinese Pagoda (1762, ten storeys), Queen Charlotte's Cottage (1771), Nash Conservatory (originally
designed for Buckingham Palace, moved here in 1836), Palm House (1844–8), Waterlily House (1852), Temperate House (1859), Japanese
Gateway (1911), Minka House (built in Japan in 1900, reassembled here in 2001), Dutch House (1781), Princess of Wales Conservatory (1987),
Alpine House (2006): found in |
| Road that runs westwards from Hyde Park Corner, close to the southern boundary of Hyde Park, and
shares its name with the affluent residential and shopping district on its south side |
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Knightsbridge |
| Also has six consecutive consonants in its name! |
| Test that London taxi drivers have to pass before being granted a licence |
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The Knowledge |
| Private wing in St. Mary's Hospital, Paddington, where Princes William, Harry and George were
all born |
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Lindo Wing |
| London institution that's on Lime Street |
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Lloyd's |
| In 2001, Dawn Bottomley and Simon Stapleton became the first couple to marry at |
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The London Eye |
| Site of St. Paul's Cathedral (from 604 AD) |
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Ludgate Hill |
| Runs from Admiralty Arch to Buckingham Palace |
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The Mall |
| Official residence of the Lord Mayor of London |
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Mansion House |
| Now stands at the junction of Oxford Street and Park Lane; moved from Hyde Park (outside Buckingham
Palace) |
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Marble Arch |
| Iconic music venue: opened in 1958 on Oxford Street, where the Rolling Stones played their first gig
in 1962; most famous location was in Wardour Street, Soho, 1964–88 |
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Marquee Club |
| London hospital, founded 1851 as the Free Cancer Hospital, the world's first cancer hospital;
granted a royal charter by George V 1910, and renamed after its founder 1954 |
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Royal Marsden |
| Notorious prison in Southwark (1373–1842): known as the debtors' prison
|
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Marshalsea |
| London tavern, said to have been a haunt of Ben Johnson and Shakespeare – Keats wrote a poem
in praise of it |
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Mermaid |
| Petticoat Lane: official name |
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Middlesex Street |
| Skyscraper beside the Thames in Westminster: opened in 1963, when it surpassed the CIS Tower in
Manchester (completed 1962) as Britain's tallest building; was itself surpassed by the Post Office Tower in 1964; has been used by both
the Labour and Conservative parties, and the United Nations |
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Millbank Tower |
| Designed by Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke to act as a telescope, and to be used in experiments
with a pendulum to investigate the force of gravity (although it proved to be unsuitable for either, due to traffic disturbance) |
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The Monument |
| City Road, Islington: Europe's oldest and largest eye hospital |
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Moorfields |
| London's principal postal sorting office |
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Mount Pleasant |
| Founded in 1856; moved to its permanent home in St. Martin's Place (just off Trafalgar Square)
in 1896 |
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National Portrait Gallery |
| Stands on the site formerly occupied by Newgate Prison |
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Old Bailey |
| Millennium Dome renamed 2005 |
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The O2 |
| Tower on the South Bank of the Thames in London, known by the name of a famous food product: subject of an
award–winning refurbishment in the 1990s that included Harvey Nichols's first restaurant
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Oxo Tower |
| First street in Britain to be lit by gas; named after a game similar to croquet |
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Pall Mall |
| The Reform, Athenaeum and Travellers Clubs, and the Royal Automobile Club, are all on |
| Statues of Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Jan Smuts |
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Parliament Square |
| Runs from Hyde Park Corner to Marble Arch |
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Park Lane |
| The London Stock Exchange relocated in 2004 from Threadneedle Street to |
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Paternoster Square |
| Henry Croft (1861–1930 – a roadsweeper, who was born and died in St. Pancras Workhouse)
was the first |
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Pearly King |
| Fortnum & Mason, Burlington House and the Ritz Hotel stand on (street) |
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Piccadilly |
| The Shaftesbury Memorial (Eros, and its plinth) |
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Piccadilly Circus |
| The stretch of the River Thames immediately below London Bridge (as far as Cuckold's Point, on
the Rotherhithe peninsula – opposite Canary Wharf) |
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Pool of London |
| Street in Notting Hill, west London, famous for its Saturday antiques and second–hand clothes
market |
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Portobello Road |
| Central government records, Domesday Book: kept at |
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Public Record Office |
| The bakery of Thomas Farrinor (or Farynor), where the Great Fire of London (1666) started, was in
(street) |
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Pudding Lane |
| Type of bird that's prevented from flying away from the Tower of London by having their wings
clipped |
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Ravens |
| London Zoo |
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Regent's Park |
| Hamley's, the world–famous toy shop, is on |
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Regent Street |
| Renamed Ruston Close in 1954; demolished in the 1970s |
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Rillington Place |
| Fleet Street was named after the |
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River Fleet |
| Famous jazz club, opened in 1959 on Gerrard Street in Soho; moved in 1965 to larger premises on nearby
Frith Street |
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Ronnie Scott's |
| Home of the Chelsea Pensioners; Chelsea Flower Show is held in its grounds |
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Royal Hospital, Chelsea |
| Isle of Dogs: gets its name from the |
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Royal kennels (Charles II) |
| Neighbourhood of Fleet and King's Bench prisons, where trusted prisoners lived under specified
conditions |
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The Rules |
| 47 Frith Street |
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Ronnie Scott's |
| Famous hotel on the Strand, on the site of the former palace of the same name, opened 1889 by Richard
D'Oyly Carte; its forecourt (Savoy Court) is the only street in Britain where traffic must keep to the right |
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Savoy |
| Originally in Whitehall, near Charing Cross; 1890–1967, near Westminster Bridge; since 1967
Broadway, Westminster |
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(New) Scotland Yard |
| Landmark structure and the abiding symbol of the Festival of Britain (1951): a long steel latticework
frame, pointed at both ends and supported vertically on cables slung between three steel beams, but with no apparent means of support (like
the British economy of the time, according to a popular joke) |
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Skylon |
| Area of the City of London: site of the new Haberdashers' Hall (opened 2002), also where William
Wallace and Wat Tyler were executed; but best known for its centuries–old meat market |
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Smithfield |
| Square in Westminster: once hosted the headquarters of both the Labour and Conservative Parties
(Labour 1928–80, Tories 1958–2003; also the TUC, in the 1980s and 90s) |
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Smith Square |
| Area in the West End: originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, since the 19th
century it has been one of London's main entertainment districts; its name is often said to have originated in a hunting cry |
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Soho |
| Building on the Strand, housed the General Register Office for almost 150 years from 1837; now houses
various organizations, generally centered around the arts and education – including the Courtauld Gallery (containing the art collection
of the Courtauld Institute) |
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Somerset House |
| Hospital in Farringdon, in the City of London, founded in AD 1123 by Rahere, a favourite courtier of
King Henry I |
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St. Bartholomew's (Barts) |
| London's oldest Royal Park (laid out by James I on land bought by Henry VIII): has The Mall on
its north side, Birdcage Walk on the south |
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St. James's |
| Famous church at the north–east corner of Trafalgar Square – present building built in
the 1720s: gave its name to a chamber orchestra that gave its first performance there in 1959 |
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St. Martin–in–the–Fields |
| A museum dedicated to Florence Nightingale opened in 1989 (and re–opened after major
refurbishment in 2010, in time for the centenary of her death) in |
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St. Thomas's Hospital |
| 10, Paternoster Square: headquarters, since 2004, of (the) |
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Stock Exchange |
| Postal district that includes Wimbledon |
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SW19 |
| Somerset House, Royal Courts of Justice, Savoy Hotel and Theatre, Adelphi Theatre; runs from Charing
Cross to Fleet Street |
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The Strand |
| Picture gallery on Millbank |
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Tate |
| Europe's leading bloodstock (race horse) auctioneer: established at Hyde Park Corner in 1766;
moved to Newmarket in 1965, around which time it also dropped the apostrophe from its name; began operating in Ireland (Old Fairyhouse,
Co. Meath) in 1988 |
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Tattersalls |
| Trade whose home is in Mincing Lane |
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Tea |
| Bank of England; headquarters of the Merchant Taylors' Company |
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Threadneedle Street |
| Parliament Street, SW1, is the address of |
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The Treasury |
| From 1810 to 1968, the Royal Mint was housed in a purpose–built building on |
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Tower Hill |
| Location of the Royal Mint, until 1810; the English crown jewels have been kept since 1303 in the |
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Tower of London |
| The National Gallery stands at the northern end of |
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Trafalgar Square |
| The Fourth Plinth Project is a scheme to put noteworthy modern sculptures on prominent public display
in |
| The gate in the Tower of London that gives access to and from the River Thames – which was used
to convey many prisoners into the Tower |
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Traitors' Gate |
| The UK's second largest sports stadium, after Wembley (capacity 82,000) |
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Twickenham |
| Former village in Middlesex, at the start of the Edgware Road: associated with executions (hangings)
since at least the 12th century; London's first permanent gallows was built there in 1571; the Marble Arch now stands in its place
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Tyburn |
| Underground line that terminates at Brixton |
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Victoria |
| Popular nickname for 20 Fenchurch Street: completed in 2015, it won Building Design
magazine's Carbuncle Cup award for Britain's ugliest new building |
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The Walkie–Talkie |
| Made headlines in 2013 (while still under construction) when it was blamed for reflecting light that
melted parts of a Jaguar car parked on a nearby street |
| Soho street associated with the film industry; also the Marquee Club |
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Wardour Street |
| Tomb of the Unknown Warrior; Poets' Corner; Shrine of St. Edward the Confessor
|
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Westminster Abbey |
| Runs from Charing Cross to Parliament Square |
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Whitehall |
| Downing Street, and Horse Guards Parade (the headquarters of the British Army) are off |
| The Cenotaph is in |
| SW19: postcode of (famous sporting venue) |
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Wimbledon |
| Famous street in the City of Westminster: home of the Royal Society of Medicine and the British Dental
Association; home of the Barrett family when Elizabeth Barrett eloped with Robert Browning (1846); Paul McCartney lived there with Jane Asher,
1964–6 |
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Wimpole Street |
The RSA's plaques were a variety of colours – often terracotta; it was the London County Council that standardised on blue,
after the Second World War. The very first plaque was erected on a house in Holles Street, near Cavendish Square (just off Oxford Street,
near the junction with Regent Street), in honour of Lord Byron; unfortunately that house was demolished in 1889. A John Lewis department
store now stands on the site, and bears a Westminster City Council plaque to Lord Byron.
