Ten stops across the British Isles, from London, Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, Tower Bridge and the London Eye to Westminster, Edinburgh, Scotland, the wider United Kingdom and Ireland.
Few corners of the world pack as much history into so small a space as the British Isles. This collection starts in London, with Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, the London Eye and the Palace of Westminster, then travels north to Edinburgh and Scotland, takes in the United Kingdom as a whole, and crosses the Irish Sea to Ireland.
London's landmarks hide plenty of surprises. Buckingham Palace has 775 rooms, its own post office and a cash machine in the basement, while the Tower of London once kept a polar bear that fished in the Thames. A London bus jumped the gap as Tower Bridge began to open in 1952, monarchs have been barred from the House of Commons since Charles I burst in to arrest five MPs, and the London Eye skips capsule number 13.
Beyond the capital the stories get even stranger. Edinburgh is built on extinct volcanoes and has a knighted penguin, Scotland's national animal is the unicorn and its shortest scheduled flight can take under a minute, and Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000-year lease for his Dublin brewery. Saint Patrick, it turns out, was born in Roman Britain.
Whether you love royal history, castles or folklore, each place below has fifteen facts waiting for you.
Every item on this page, with the one fact most people get wrong about it.
| Name | Where you'll meet it | The fact worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| London | Capital of the United Kingdom | Learning the city's streets physically changes taxi drivers' brains. |
| Buckingham Palace | London, official residence of the monarch | It has its own post office and a cash machine in the basement. |
| Tower Bridge | London, opened 1894 | A double-decker bus jumped the gap as it began to open in 1952. |
| Tower of London | London, founded after the Norman Conquest | A medieval polar bear once fished in the Thames on a leash. |
| London Eye | South Bank, London | Its 32 capsules are numbered without a 13. |
| Palace of Westminster | London, home of Parliament | The red lines on the Commons carpet are two sword-lengths apart. |
| Edinburgh | Capital of Scotland | Its castle and Arthur's Seat sit on extinct volcanoes. |
| Scotland | United Kingdom | Its national animal is the unicorn. |
| United Kingdom | England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland | Loch Ness holds more fresh water than all the lakes of England and Wales combined. |
| Ireland | The Emerald Isle | Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000-year lease for his brewery. |
Most Rooms
775
Buckingham Palace has 775 rooms, including 19 State Rooms and nearly 80 bathrooms. Buckingham Palace
Shortest Flight
47 seconds
The record time for the 1.7-mile Loganair hop between Westray and Papa Westray in Orkney. Scotland
Longest Lease
9,000 years
Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000-year lease for the St. James's Gate Brewery in 1759. Ireland
Oldest Nightly Ritual
700+ years
The Tower of London's Ceremony of the Keys has taken place every night for over seven centuries. Tower of London
Capital of the United Kingdom
The Great Stink of 1858 gave London its modern sewers, and a driverless Mail Rail carried post beneath the city until 2003. Cleopatra's Needle hides a Victorian time capsule, and Trafalgar Square once had a police box inside a lamppost. Big Ben's bell was cast in Whitechapel.
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London, official residence of the monarch
Buckingham Palace has 775 rooms and over 350 clocks wound by a full-time conservator. It survived nine bomb hits in World War II, and Michael Fagan reached the Queen's bedroom in 1982. Queen Victoria was the first monarch to live there.
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London, opened 1894
Tower Bridge was originally painted chocolate brown and is a bascule bridge, not a drawbridge. Its Gothic stonework disguises a steel frame, and ships always have right of way. Pilots have flown planes through it, and glass floors now let visitors look down on the Thames.
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London, founded after the Norman Conquest
The Tower kept a royal menagerie for six centuries and made England's coins for over 500 years. Colonel Blood tried to steal the Crown Jewels and was rewarded, the Ceremony of the Keys has run nightly for over 700 years, and its last execution was of a German spy in 1941.
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South Bank, London
The London Eye is a cantilevered observation wheel, not a Ferris wheel, and it moves so slowly that passengers board while it turns. It was built lying flat on barges and was meant to stand for only five years. Richard Branson mocked its delayed lift with a blimp.
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London, home of Parliament
No monarch has entered the House of Commons since Charles I, and free snuff is still offered at its entrance. Emily Davison hid in a broom cupboard on census night, and new Speakers are dragged to their chair. Tudor tennis balls were found in Westminster Hall's roof.
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Capital of Scotland
Edinburgh hides vaults beneath South Bridge, and a respectable councillor-burglar inspired Jekyll and Hyde. It started the world's first municipal fire brigade, Greyfriars Bobby guarded his master's grave, and Edinburgh Zoo's king penguin Sir Nils Olav has been knighted. The Fringe is the world's largest arts festival.
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United Kingdom
Scotland has about 790 islands and 282 Munros, and kings once banned golf because it distracted from archery practice. Charles Macintosh invented waterproof fabric, and an old fuel depot holds the record for the longest echo. Its shortest flight can take under a minute.
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England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
The UK is not the same as Great Britain, and London opened the world's first underground railway in 1863. Stonehenge's bluestones came from Wales, Bath's Roman spring still flows, and Wales has more than 600 castles. Afternoon tea took off in the 1840s.
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The Emerald Isle
Saint Patrick was born in Roman Britain, and Halloween grew from the festival of Samhain. Ireland has a harp as its national symbol, Saint Valentine's heart in a Dublin church and Europe's oldest pub in Athlone. An Irish architect designed the White House.
Read the full article →8 questions, every answer is somewhere above.
1. How many rooms does Buckingham Palace have?
2. What happened to a London bus on Tower Bridge in 1952?
3. Which unusual animal lived at the Tower of London in the 13th century?
4. Which capsule number is missing on the London Eye?
5. Why may the monarch not enter the House of Commons?
6. What is Scotland's national animal?
7. What honour has Sir Nils Olav of Edinburgh Zoo received?
8. Where was Saint Patrick born?
No. The United Kingdom consists of four nations: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Great Britain is the island that contains England, Scotland and Wales.
Strictly speaking, Big Ben is the roughly 13.7-tonne Great Bell inside the clock tower of the Palace of Westminster. The tower itself was renamed the Elizabeth Tower in 2012, though the nickname is widely used for the whole landmark.
Legend says the kingdom will fall if the Tower's ravens ever leave, a story traditionally linked to Charles II. At least six are kept there, looked after by a Ravenmaster.
No. Tower Bridge is the Victorian bascule bridge with two towers that opened in 1894. London Bridge is a separate crossing nearby, and its 19th-century predecessor's facing stones now stand in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.
Look at the flagpole. The Royal Standard flies when the monarch is in residence, and the Union Flag flies when they are away.
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