10 Fun Facts about London

It’s one of the planet’s most diverse cities, but did you know there are more than 300 languages spoken here? That’s right, multilingualism is king in London, where you might hear conversations in everything from Polish to Portuguese and Bengali to Belarusian – quite often in the same Tube carriage! English of course remains the dominant language in London. It’s spoken by around 98% of the population, though you might be hard-pressed to recognize it as such if you encounter a particularly thick south London or Cockney accent. Cor, strike a light!

Though it might seem hard to believe when standing in Central London’s concrete jungle watching a flea-bitten pigeon peck mournfully at a discarded chip, London has in fact been designated an urban forest by the United Nations. That’s thanks to its huge proliferation of green spaces – think Hyde Park, Wimbledon Common and Hampstead Heath – with more than eight million trees. Take a trip out to Greenwich to visit one of the city’s oldest: a (sadly now fallen) hollow oak that dates back to the 12th century and where Henry VIII is said to have danced with Anne Boleyn before their relationship deteriorated and, well, Anne lost her head.

Greenwich is home to many more world-class attractions, such as the Cutty Sark, Royal Observatory and National Maritime Museum, many of which are included with The London Pass®.

Bus driver Albert Gunter got his 15 minutes of fame when, in December 1952, the double-decker he was driving over Tower Bridge began to tilt. The reason? A signalling mix up meant the bridge's bascules were opening to let river traffic pass underneath while the bus was still on it! Thinking on his feet (or, more accurately, bum), Albert dropped down the gears and hit the gas hard, taking the bus (and its grateful passengers) over the gap and safely down the other side. He was awarded £10 for his heroic act as well as, presumably, a lifetime's supply of free drinks in London’s pubs. 

Read about Tower Bridge’s glass-floored viewing platforms and other sky-high London views here.

London Bridge has existed in one form or another since Roman times, with its current incarnation – a practical but not particularly eye-catching river crossing – being completed in 1973. Its similarly conventional predecessor (1831-1967) was painstakingly dismantled, catalogued and shipped out to an American buyer – a Missouri millionaire by the name of Robert McCulloch – who had the bridge reconstructed piece by piece in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, where it stands to this day.

Bold, fearless and *very* interested in the contents of your wheelie bin, London’s urban foxes number in the thousands – possibly the tens of thousands – and it’s not unusual to spot one sauntering along the high street in search of late night snacks or frolicking foxily in the local playground. Taking this vulpine invasion to its logical conclusion, one of these brazen beasts was found living it up on the 72nd floor of The Shard during construction of the UK’s tallest building. His legacy lives on as Shard mascot ‘Romeo’, and you can take home a plushie of his likeness and other such souvenirs from the official Shard shop.

Find out how you can experience The View from The Shard with The London Pass® Plus.

Most people come to Crystal Palace Park to see the dinosaurs – crumbling Victorian models that seem positively quaint (not to mention anatomically incorrect) compared with modern standards. But those in the know are here for the headless statues. You’ll find these close to the Italianate terraces in the top half of the park, among them a scroll-clutching chap said to represent Dante, a hollow woman on the terrace balcony, and a lady having a seat by the site of the original Crystal Palace. It’s said that laying a hand on any of these cursed statues leads to terrifying visions, convulsions and even blackouts so… do so at your peril.

Did you know there’s a Whispering Gallery inside the mighty St Paul’s Cathedral? Well now you do. This acoustic marvel allows the whisperer of sweet nothings on one side of the dome to be clearly heard by their paramour (or perhaps a perfect stranger) over at the other.

Read our guide to London’s must-see churches and cathedrals here.

Good news for all you triskaidekaphobics out there: as the headline suggests, there is no number 13 capsule on the London Eye. Instead – and for reasons that are purely superstitious – the 32 capsules are numbered from 1-12 and 14-33. All of which is, of course, cold comfort to arithmophobics, for whom any one of those numbers might spell disaster.

Read our comparison of the London Eye and The Shard here.

London’s underground mail train was in operation from 1911 until 2003, shuttling letters and parcels to sorting offices across the city, from Paddington to Whitechapel. The train is now part of the quite excellent Postal Museum in Farringdon where, as well as playing Victorian dress-up and ogling the world’s only sheet of Penny Black stamps, you can cram yourself inside the mail train’s tiny carriages for a nostalgic trip into the tunnels.

Legend has it that if the Tower of London’s resident ravens do a runner, the monarchy will fall. This centuries-old superstition may go some way to explaining why the corvid crew here – currently Branwen, Edgar, Georgie, Harris, Jubilee and Poppy – are so pampered, with luxury breakfasts of raw meat and rodents and a large enclosure to keep them safe from those pesky London foxes.

Discover more about the Tower of London and its plumed protectors here.