34 Fun Facts About London You Will Love

Seeking a few facts about London? London needs no introduction, we’ve visited three times over the last five years, and in this post, we share some interesting London facts. With its two thousand years of history, from a small Roman settlement to the capital city of the largest empire the world has ever seen, London oozes history from streets big and small.


Fun Facts About London


1. The City of London is ancient – and tiny

The old core of the British capital covers an area of only 1.12 square miles. It’s known locally as the Square Mile. This was London as it was settled by the Romans in the 1st century AD, and as it continued into the Middle Ages.

The City of London is now just an eensy, teensy part of the metropolis – and constitutes the smallest county in England.


2. More than 300 languages are spoken in the London area

London Three Day Itinerary Walking
This is one of those crazy facts about London! Thanks to a rich history of immigration, London is home to a diverse range of people and cultures. From Kurdish to Korean, the lingo in London is hugely varied.

3. London is the center of the world

Well, sort of. And specifically, that’s Greenwich. This historic area is where you’ll find the Royal Observatory. This defines 0° longitude (i.e., the Prime Meridian) and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

That’s what you probably know as Coordinated Universal Time or UTC, but GMT predates this term by over 300 years.


4. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world

It may be rough-around-the-edges, lack air-con and cell phone signal, but the London Underground is a pioneer of traveling by train under the ground.

In January 1863, a line between Paddington and Farringdon was opened. The carriages were wooden, gas-lit, and pulled by steam locomotives. It caught on.


5. The name “London” is ancient

You know already that London was primarily developed by the Romans. That was our first fact about London. But while they called the city “Londinium,” you have to wonder where they got that word from?

Historians have reconstructed its old Celtic name (which the Romans adapted) as something like Londonjon.


6. London wasn’t a healthy place in the 17th century

There were a lot of diseases going around London at the time – and we’re talking worse than flu.

Between 1665 and 1666, the Great Plague – a nasty case of bubonic plague – killed around 100,000 people. At the time, that was almost a quarter of London’s population.


7. The Great Fire of London started in a bakery

… on Pudding Lane, no less. It happened in 1666. Shortly after midnight on Sunday, September 2nd, the fire erupted from the bakery and quickly spread, destroying around a quarter of London’s metropolis.

This included St Paul’s Cathedral. The natural outcome was to give the city a brick-and-stone facelift.


8. London was the world’s largest city from 1831 to 1925

That’s right. This interesting London fact states that it was the largest city in the world for almost a hundred years, surpassing Beijing’s 1.1 million in the mid-1800s and boasting a population of 7,419,000 by 1914. After that, New York City took the reins. London is now the world’s 33rd largest.


9. London was bombed by the Germans during WWI and WWII

The Blitz, a bombing campaign by Nazi Germany, might be famous for destroying a lot of London and killing over 30,000 of its inhabitants, but Germany also bombed London during WWI.

For the most part, this happened from giant airships called Zeppelins, which weren’t very accurate.


10. London is one of the most diverse cities in the world

With the British Empire being a thing for a long time, there were many people from many of the colonies that wanted a slice of the so-called Commonwealth.

From the 1940s onward, immigrants from Trinidad, Jamaica, Pakistan, India, and a host of other Commonwealth countries made their way to London to seek their fortunes.


11. London currently has a record-breaking mayor

Sadiq Khan, current Mayor of London, is the first Muslim mayor of a European Union capital city. He also won with the most significant number of votes in one election of any politician in British history. The son of an immigrant bus driver, seamstress, and one of eight children, has done pretty well for himself.


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12. Number 10 Downing Street is over 300 years old

This is the White House of the UK. It’s got approximately 100 rooms, has a private residence on the third floor, and a kitchen in the basement.

Other levels contain offices where foreign dignitaries can be met. There’s also a resident mouse-catching cat called Larry.


13. London isn’t as wet and miserable as you might think

London has a reputation for being this perpetually rainy outpost where the skies are always grey. Well, get ready to have your mind blown with this fact about London: it receives less precipitation than Bordeaux, Lisbon, Naples, New York City, Rome, and Tokyo. In fact, with an average 602mm of annual rainfall, it’s actually drier than the world average. Huh.


14. London is “one of the World’s Greenest Cities”

Mashpi Lodge - Life Center - Butterflies

This is one of the best facts about London! According to the London Natural History Society, anyway. It’s got more than 40% of green space and open water, 2,000 species of flowering plants, 120 species of fish in the Thames, 60 species of birds nesting in Central London, as well as 47 species of butterfly, 270 kinds of spider, and 1,173 moths.

By EU standards, London can be defined as a forest!


15. A bunch of London’s museums and galleries are free

A budget-friendly fact about London is that, yes, many of its fortresses of culture are free.

The National History Museum, The Science Museum, The V&A, Tate Modern, Tate Britain, National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, British Museum, the Imperial War Museum, and many more – ALL FREE!


16. London’s food scene is amazing

English food has a bad reputation. Like, not good. But go to London, and you’ll be met with cuisine from all over the world served everywhere, from ramshackle eateries to high-end fine dining establishments. Literally – you want it, you got it.


17. Pubs are the best place to get to grips with local life and history

Pub culture is big news in London. It’s where people go after work, where they start a night out, and where they hang out on a sunny day. Some (read: a lot of) pubs are older than the United States. The Hoop & Grapes, for example, in Aldgate, dates back to the 17th century.


18. Herds of red and fallow deer also roam freely within much of Richmond and Bushy Park

To be fair, that’s because they used to be hunting grounds. But now you can still roam around these two sprawling city parks and feel like you’re rambling around the ancient English countryside. Awesome.


19. The London accent is amazing

You’ll probably know it from Mary Poppins or something similar. Cockney is that wide, happy-go-lucky accent associated with London, but really is only from the East of the city.

It has since spread and mixed with Caribbean and South Asian accents for an incredible mix of intonations.


20. Europe’s busiest shopping area is here

At just under one mile long, Oxford Street is the longest shopping street in the UK. Head here for the holiday season for some movie-level Christmas illuminations.


21. There’s more to Notting Hill than the rom-com

In the UK, the area of Notting Hill, London, is much more well known for its amazing Carnival than for its association with Hugh Grant.

For two days every year in August, members of London’s Caribbean community take to the streets for Notting Hill Carnival, with music, floats, food, and general merriment attracting a million people each year.


22. London is home to the oldest tennis tournament in the world

Officially dubbed The Championships, Wimbledon, and held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, southwest London, this tennis tournament started up 1877. That makes it the world’s oldest – and most prestigious, of course.


23. Black cab drivers know every street in the city 

London Three Day Itinerary Black Cab

In most countries, you only need a driving license and some sort of taxi registration to be a taxi driver. In London, however, they are another level.

It takes actual years to become the driver of one of the British capital’s famed Black Cabs. Part of the 2-4 years of training involves memorizing every single street in London. Every. Single. Street. 


24. Jack the Ripper to this day is still unknown

In 1888, notoriously grisly murders occurred in East London attributed to the never-apprehended serial killer Jack the Ripper. While over 100 suspects were named at one time or another – including royalty like Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale – no one’s ever been named as the Ripper.


25. London’s iconic red buses travel a long way

Another one of those fascinating London facts. t’s estimated that London’s fleet of buses travels 302 million miles every year. That’s 12,128 times the circumference of the earth. A remarkable fact about London, if we do say so ourselves.


26. There’s a secret mark on the entrance to Buckingham Palace

The official, ceremonial entrance, the Horse Guards, has a weird secret. The clock face above the entrance itself features a little black spot at the 2-o’-clock mark. Apparently, this marks the time when King Charles I was executed (2 pm). Weird.


27. The Houses of Parliament is actually a palace

The Palace of Westminster, no less. It’s the largest in the UK, featuring 1,000 rooms, 100 staircases, 11 courtyards, 8 bars, 6 restaurants, a shooting range, and a hair salon. There was an 11th-century palace here before this one, but it burned down in 1834.


28. It is illegal to die in the Palace of Westminster

Or in any palace. And this only applies to commoners, of course. We wish this were a quirky fact about London, but it’s a myth. Still… 


29. The Beatles played their last gig on the roof of Apple Corps at 3 Savile Row

facts about london

Yep. That was on January 30, 1969. The Apple Corps building is now an Abercrombie & Fitch store. this is one of my favorite facts about London.


30. Underneath the Cleopatra’s Needle on the Embankment, there’s a time capsule from 1878

We thought the fun thing about a time capsule is that you weren’t supposed to know what was in it till you opened it… right? However, the contents of this one are (allegedly) known. There are, apparently, copies of 10 daily newspapers, cigars, a portrait of Queen Victoria, a razor, and pictures of 12 “English beauties of the day.”


31. Everyone knows when the Queen is home

facts about london

And it’s all about the flags. Yep. If Queen Elizabeth II is chilling at home, you’ll know, because the Royal Standard will be flying.

The rest of the time, the Union Flag will be flying. As a fun side fact about London, it’s always the Union Flag, unless it’s out at sea, which is when it’s known as the Union Jack.


32. London Bridge might not be what you think it is

facts about london

London Bridge? The one with the towers and the cool road thingie that raises when ships need to pass by, right? Wrong! That’s Tower Bridge. London Bridge is much less impressive and spans the Thames upriver between the City of London and Southwark.

An Ameican, Robert P. McCulloch, purchased the 1831 version of the bridge in 1967 for $2,460,000. It was dismantled, shipped to the US, and reassembled over the Colorado River in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. It’s a fun rumor that McCulloch thought he was purchasing Tower Bridge (which he vehemently denies).


33. Cock Lane in Farringdon is a very appropriate name

London has some pretty interesting street names, but Cock Lane is a good one. Streets in the city were quite often named after the sort of shenanigans that went on in the, um, establishments that were located in said street.

Cock Lane was named for the number of brothels that operated here in medieval times.


34. Great Ormond Street Hospital owns Peter Pan

facts about london

The famous children’s hospital, Great Ormond Street, was gifted the rights to Peter Pan in 1929 by the story’s creator, J. M. Barrie. It’s fitting, and kind of heartbreaking, knowing that it’s the story of a boy who never grew up.

About Natasha Alden

Natasha is the co-founder of The World Pursuit. She is an expert in travel, budgeting, and finding unique experiences. She loves to be outside, hiking in the mountains, playing in the snow on her snowboard, and biking. She has been traveling for over 10 years, across 7 continents, experiencing unique cultures, new food, and meeting fantastic people. She strives to make travel planning and traveling easier for all. Her advice about international travel, outdoor sports, and African safari has been featured on Lonely Planet, Business Insider, and Reader’s Digest.

Learn more about Natasha Alden on The World Pursuit About Us Page.

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