Considering what this city offers, visiting London should be on everyone’s bucket list.
A city with an incredible history, London was settled in AD 47 by the Romans, 1975 years ago, as Londinium. First comes to mind all the castles, towers, museums, and other historical tourist attractions, but also today’s elite restaurants, cool pubs, theatres, and art galleries.
Of course, we can always find a needle in a haystack, but it’s fair to say that London is a beautiful city regarding tourism.
However, there’s one issue that is unavoidable – London’s traffic jams, roadblocks, and bad drivers. Well, unavoidable may be a too harsh word since you can contact a chauffeur company like Simber and get a private chauffeur London to take care of all transportation challenges.
And while you enjoy your ride in a luxurious vehicle with a professional chauffeur from one place to another, you can also remind yourself of the following interesting facts about London.
Big Ben Actually Isn’t Called Big Ben
Big Ben is undoubtedly one of London’s most famous tourist attractions, and it’s a pity not to visit it once you are there. You’ll find it one every list of the most popular and best tourist attractions when it comes to visiting this city.
However, an interesting fact is that Big Ben isn’t its real name, so to speak. It’s actually the nickname for the Great Bell of the Great Clock of Westminster. It was originally named Clock Tower, which is the name of the tower where Big Ben is located. Nevertheless, it was renamed Elizabeth Tower to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II back in 2012.
Although no matter how many name changes have happened or will happen in the future, it will always be known as Big Ben.
London’s Public Transport Does Not Allow Alcohol
The UK capital banned drinking on public transport from June 1st, 2008, after a century of legal train drinks.
A fun fact is that there was a Circle Line Party for the last time before this ban stepped into force. This event happened on May 31st, 2008, and it was quite exciting since revellers made a trip on the Circle Line in fancy dresses.
You can buy and drink alcohol on national trains in the United Kingdom. Still, Transport for London has a policy that bans you from drinking and even carrying alcohol on public transport in the UK capital. This ban includes tubes, buses, trains, and also the Docklands Light Railway.
Be as it may, with a private driver chauffeur, you don’t need public transport anyway.
The Smallest City in the United Kingdom?
Believe it or not, this fact is true – the City of London is the smallest one by all measures and the smallest county by local authority boundary. Of course, it isn’t the smallest city in urban size and population.
Even if it comes under the jurisdiction of Greater London, it has a special status since it has a separate local government, mayor, police department, and so on.
Getting this status in a historical sense is logical because of St. Paul’s Cathedral. Still, since the criteria of 1907, any town in the United Kingdom is accepted as a city if it meets the conditions of having a local metropolitan character, a population of a minimum of 300,000 people, and a track record of efficient local governance.
It’s Extremely Linguistically Diverse
Once a study was made in London schools where 850,000 children were asked who is their first spoken language at home, and 40 languages were common in London. This fact is fascinating for one city, and some of the languages include Punjabi, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Polish, Turkish, etc.
On the other hand, considering its history, it’s not surprising that London is extremely linguistically diverse, with more than 250 spoken languages. Residents have various cultural backgrounds, making this beautiful city even more beautiful with its multiculturality.
London Was and Is A Home to Famous People
Last but not least, London was and still is home to many famous people from various parts of the world.
It’s beautiful that there are London blue plaques where these people lived, so you can enjoy visiting them by asking the professional chauffeur to drive you anywhere you desire.
Some people from the past include Winston Churchill, Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Jimi Hendrix, Freddie Mercury, Charles Dickens, Mozart, David Bowie, Amy Winehouse, Alfred Hitchcock, Charlie Chaplin, and many more.
In addition, some of today’s most famous people live in London, such as Adele, Kate Moss, David and Victoria Beckham, Robbie Williams, Rod Stewart, etc.
These are some of the most interesting facts about London, so if you want to enjoy the wonders of the UK capital, buy a plane ticket as soon as possible, hire a professional chauffeur, and experience the London attractions!