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London has not always been called London. T has also been known as Londinium, Ludenwic, and Ludenburg.
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London is home to Big Ben, the bell in the famous clock tower. The Tower is actually called the Elizabeth Tower.
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London has some strange street names including Quaggy Walk, Cyclops Mews, Uamvar Street, Hooker's Road, and Ha Ha Road.
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The house in London where Charles Dickens lived still exists, located at 48 Doughty Street. It is now a museum.
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A London hospital owns the rights to Peter Pan. The author J.M. Barrie had no children and left the Peter Pan rights to Great Ormond Street Hospital in 1929.
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Famous former residents of London include Vincent Van Gogh, Mahatma Gandhi, Ho Chi Minh, Sigmund Freud, and Edgar Allen Poe. They all resided in the city at one point in their lives.
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When the plague hit London in the 1650s a pit was built to place the bodies of those who died. The pit under Aldgate Station is believed to hold 1000 bodies.
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Prior to 1907 London's buses were not all red like they are today. They were once different colors to correspond to different routes.
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Harrods in London sold cocaine until 1916.
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The O2 Arena, also known as the Millennium Dome, could fit the Statue of Liberty inside because it is so large.
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Henry VIII's wine cellar is located under the Ministry of Defence's main building in Whitehall.
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The first traffic light in the world was placed at the House of Commons in London in 1868. It blew up the next year.
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All four of The Beatles lived together near Hyde Park, at 57 Green Street in London in 1963.
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There is a traffic island at Edgeware Road and Marble Arch. It used to be London's public gallows. Approximately 50,000 people were hanged there in the past.
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London is often referred to as being a very rainy city but other cities such as Sydney, Rome, Naples, and Toulouse receive more rain each year.
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London is a popular tourist destination, drawing more than 16 million people each year.
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The London Underground is the oldest rapid transit system in the world.
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London is a popular film and television setting. It has always been a popular place for writers and musicians and others in the arts to live and work.
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