20 things you don’t know about London

A city of passion, pride, culture and diversity, it’s no surprise that London carries such a fabled reputation throughout the world. There is more to see and do than can be squeezed into a lifetime, and every day can bring with it a myriad new findings. To demonstrate, here are 20 things you don’t already know about our wonderful Capital…

1. The average tube train travels 114,500 miles every year.

2. The name ‘Underground’ is a tad misleading, as 60% of the line is actually open air.

3. Harrods sold cocaine until 1916.

4. London buses were not always red. Before 1907, different routes had different-coloured buses.

5. Sticking with buses, you can fit 18,000 double-decker models into the O2.

6. Big Ben is actually the bell, not the clock tower. The tower itself is called The Elizabeth Tower…

7. … and the bell is named after boxing’s English Heavyweight Champion Benjamin Caunt.

8. Amongst many other things, some 80,000 umbrellas are lost annually on the London Underground.

9. There are 20 hidden rivers underneath London.

10. One in five women in 1700s London were prostitutes.

11. To become a qualified cabbie, you have to pass The Knowledge, which takes 2-4 years to complete and requires entrants to memorise every single street and landmark in London.

12. More than 1,000 bodies are buried underneath Aldgate station, in a plague pit built in 1665.

13. London’s busiest tube station is Waterloo, annually receiving 82 million visitors.

14. It is illegal to impersonate a Chelsea pensioner – the latter offence is still theoretically punishable by death.

15. The Houses of Parliament has 1,000 rooms, 100 staircases, 11 courtyards, 8 bars and 6 restaurants.

16. Covent Garden is actually a spelling mistake. It was meant to be Convent Garden, named after the market garden for the convent of Westminster Abbey.

17. London has the 3rd highest number of billionaires of anywhere in the world.

18. London was the first city to reach a population of more than one million, in 1811.

19. On average the London Eye receives more visitors per year than the Taj Mahal and the Pyramids.

20. Waterloo Bridge is nicknamed the Ladies Bridge, as mainly women built it during World War II, while many men were away fighting.

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