46 fantastic facts about London to inspire Guided Travel

London is one of the greenest capital cities on earth, an unusually leafy place stacked with gorgeous parks, gardens and tree-lined streets. And that means it’s a delight for exploring on foot. Where will your London Guided Travel life take you? To all sorts of amazing places, to discover all sorts of remarkable things. Here are some cool facts about London to inspire your adventures, with a focus on shanks’ pony.

London facts to inspire your capital city adventures

1. London was founded by the Romans in 43 AD, named Londinium, but humans had lived on the banks of the Thames for thousands of years before the invaders arrives
2. These days it is one of the biggest cities in Europe, home to more than 9 million of us
3. More than 300 languages are spoken in London, one of the most linguistically diverse cities on the planet
4. Under the city there are loads of ancient tributaries of the Thames, now mostly built over and forced into underground culverts. There’s the River Brent, Stamford Brook, Parrs Ditch and Counter’s Creek, River Westbourne, Tyburn Brook and the River Tyburn, the River Fleet, Lamb’s Conduit, Fagswell Brook, River Walbrook, Lorteburn, Black Ditch, Muswell Stream, Pymmes Brook, the River Lea, River Moselle, Hackney Brook, River Rom, Sudbrook and Beverley Brook, Graveney, River Wandle, Norbury Brook, Falconbrook, River Effra, River Neckinger, Earl’s Sluice, River Peck, River Quaggy, River Ravensbourne and Heathwall Ditch
5. The Thames is 215 miles long, the longest river contained entirely within England
6. The London Underground or Tube is the world’s oldest underground railway network. It opened in 1863
7. Forget the tube – walk central London to realise everything is very close together. You don’t need to dive deep into the bowels of the earth to get from Victoria Station to Covent Garden, Soho and the West End, for example. It takes no time on foot and it is a great way to discover the real London out in the fresh air
8. Big Ben is actually the name of the bell inside the clock tower. The tower itself is called the Elizabeth Tower
9. Tower Bridge – the one with the famous towers, was finished in 1894
10. The capital’s Royal Residences include Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace and the Tower of London
11. London has more than 3000 parks and open spaces
12. The London Eye is one of the tallest big wheels in the world
13. Shakespeare’s Globe is an accurate reconstruction of the original Globe Theatre, built in 1997
14. The Shard: is the UK’s tallest building at 310m
15. London has more than 170 museums and art galleries, many free to enter. Visit the British Museum, Natural History Museum and Science Museum for free
16. The West End’s longest-running show is The Mousetrap. The others are Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera, Mamma Mia!, The Lion King, Wicked, Matilda, The Book of Mormon, and The Play That Goes Wrong
17. The iconic scarlet double decker buses have been running since the 1950s, another cool way to explore London without struggling around the hot, crowded, smelly and chaotic tube system
18. London’s black taxi cab driver used to have to pass a tough test called The Knowledge to learn the city’s streets, introduced as a requirement for taxi drivers in 1865, when cabs were horse-drawn. These days there’s SatNav
19. The Gherkin at 30 St Mary Axe is a nickname for the famous building, used an an HQ by the hunters in the TV programme ‘Hunted’
20. The 1666 Great Fire of London destroyed much of the city, including 13,200 houses and 87 churches
21. The Monument to the Great Fire of London is 202-feet high, built near the place where the fire started
22. London Zoo is the world’s oldest scientific zoo, dating back to 1828
23. The British Library contains more books than any other on earth, home to over 170 million books and manuscripts
24. Who knows what the London Stone is? Nobody! It has been embedded in the wall at 111 Cannon Street city for centuries, a total mystery
25. The Metropolitan Railway, part of the tube network, is the world’s first underground railway
26. Oxford Street is one of the longest shopping streets in Europe
27. Head to Philpot Lane to see the charming statue if two mice eating cheese, the smallest public statue in town
28. The London Marathon dates back to 1981, now one of the world’s most popular marathons run by as many as 40,000 people
29. Visit the Royal Observatory, home to Greenwich Mean Time or GMT
30. The Millennium Bridge used to be called the Wobbly Bridge thanks to a curious and entirely unpredicted design fault. Now it no longer wobbles, safely connecting pedestrians between St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Tate Modern art gallery
31. The Saatchi Gallery is stuffed full of amazing modern art, some of it so strange and peculiar it’ll blow your mind
32. A brilliant Brutalist concrete masterpiece, the Barbican Centre is one of Europe’s biggest performing arts centres. It contains several theatres
33. Hyde Park is one of the biggest London parks, once a hunting ground exclusively for the dreadful sociopathic wife-killer Henry VIII
34. The Tower of London houses the Crown Jewels, over 100 objects containing over 23,000 gems, many jewels in which were stolen from the countries England decided to invade, turning them into parts of its shameful ’empire’
35. The Bank of England was founded in 1694, one of the oldest central banks on earth and nicknamed the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street
36. This is where the bizarre Lloyd’s of London building stands, The City’s original home of the insurance industry. Lloyd’s is known for covering risks nobody else will insure, including the precious body parts of celebrities and much of the world’s riskiest shipping
37. The Old Bailey, the capital’s central criminal court, has been prosecuting people since 1585
38. Paul’s Cathedral survived the 1940 Blitz even though it was heavily bombed
39. Borough Market food market dates back to the 1100s
40. Climb to the Sky Garden on top of the bizarre Walkie Talkie building to see incredible views. In 2013 sunlight reflecting off the building, at 20 Fenchurch Street, melted a parked car on the pavement outside and burned carpets. People even fried eggs in the street. Luckily the beam didn’t cause anyone serious harm even though it was so intense it could have affected people’s skin and eyes
41. King’s Cross Station is more famous than ever thanks to Harry Potter films. Platform 9¾ is a very popular attraction and a great place for photos
42. The Tate Modern is one of the most popular modern art galleries in the world
43. Visit Hyde Park’s Speakers’ Corner to hear ordinary people freely speaking their minds on all sorts of issues
44. Harrods offers more than 1 million square feet of shopping, a haven for retail therapy lovers
45. There’s a book called Quiet London, full of lovely chilled-out places to avoid the crowds
46. There are some absolutely gorgeous walks along the Thames, another way to discover this fascinating city. Try the walk between Victoria station and Docklands for a start, winding your way along the busy roads alongside posh blocks of flats, past ancient wharfs and through the districts where ordinary people live

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