Big Ben is the bell, not the clock tower. Its chime is in the key of E.
Only one house where Charles Dickens lives still stands, at 48 Doughty Street, which is now a museum. He lived there from 1837 and 1839, and it’s where he wrote Oliver Twist and The Pickwick Papers. Dickens reportedly based The Old Curiosity Shop on a shop on Portugal Street, on the LSE campus – which is now painted to commemorate its famous visitor.
There are more than 300 languages spoken in London, more than in any other city in the world.
The Great Fire of London, in 1666, destroyed the medieval city inside the old Roman walls and gutted 70,000 out of 80,000 homes in the city. The fire started in a bakery on Pudding Lane – a melted piece of pottery found there proves that the fire reached 1700°C.
Karl Marx wrote Das Kapital in the reading room at the British Museum.
The oldest church in the city, All Hallows by the Tower, near Tower Hill, was founded in 675. The undercroft has Roman pavement dating from the 2nd century A.D.
London cabbies must pass ‘the Knowledge’, a difficult London geography test required of all black-cab drivers. They have to master 320 routes, all of the 25,000 streets that are scattered within those routes, and about 20,000 landmarks and places interest within a six-mile radius of Charing Cross.
London began life as Londinium, the Roman fort at the Thames crossing. Later names included Augusta, Lundenwic, Lundenburh and Ealdwic, meaning ‘old town’ – which is where present day ‘Aldwych’, where LSE is situated, gets its name.
Soho is named after a medieval hunting cry, because until the late seventeenth century the area was open fields. It is now one of the busiest parts of the city!
The Tower of London used to be home to the Royal Menagerie, which included elephants, lions, leopards, and a polar bear that went fishing in the Thames.
10 Downing Street, the traditional residence of the British Prime Minister, has an official cat. It’s a tradition going back to the days of Henry VIII. The cat has the official title of Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office, and the post is currently held by a tabby cat called Larry.
The title of London’s Oldest Pub is hotly contested, but at LSE we favour the claim of Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, close by on Fleet Street. It was certainly one of the first built after the Great Fire of London in 1666, and still has the warren of dimly lit rooms where Charles Dickens and PG Wodehouse liked to have a pint.