London Quiz

Even the most devoted Anglophile will learn something new from these four hundred fun and wide-ranging trivia questions about London’s history, monuments, architecture, famous residents, place-names, notable events, and more. A delightful way to explore the city on foot or via armchair, this fun book is a perfect stocking stuffer, with history ranging from obscure lore to facts and fascinating, often humorous histories.

Here’s a sample:

Where is the only cross-eyed statue in London and who does it depict?
a) Next to the Royal Exchange in the City of London; George Peabody, the nineteenth-century American-born philanthropist
b) At the point where Fetter Lane and New Fetter Lane converge; John Wilkes, the eighteenth-century politician
c) Islington Green; Sir Hugh Myddleton, the seventeenth century entrepreneur

Answer: b) John Wilkes really did have a severe squint, as reproduced in the statue, but despite his looks, he was a legendary and eloquent womanizer who once said that, when meeting an attractive woman, it took him only ten minutes
“to talk away his face.”

What drowned nine people in Tottenham Court Road in October 1814?
a) A water flood from a nearby reservoir
b) A milk flood from a nearby dairy
c) A beer flood from a nearby brewery

Answer: c) A beer flood. A huge vat in the Horseshoe Brewery burst its hoops and ruptured other vats standing near it. More than a million liters of beer swept through the walls of the brewery and into the streets, carrying away a house and drowning nine unfortunates. The site of the Horseshoe Brewery is now occupied by the Dominion Theatre.

A former bookseller and Web-site editor, Travis Elborough’s books include The Bus We Loved: London’s Affair with the Routemaster and The Vinyl Countdown. Nick Rennison has worked as a writer, editor, and bookseller. He is the author of the London Blue Plaque Guide and The Book of London Lists, described by the London Evening Standard as a book that “can teach even the most die-hard Londoner something they didn’t know.” They both live in London.