10 Surprising Facts About London

1. Did you know that Big Ben is not actually the name of the famous tower in London? It's a common mistake! The tower is actually called The Elizabeth Tower, but the huge bell inside the tower is called Big Ben.

2. London is a city full of culture and history. It has 170 museums, including the British Museum, the National Gallery, the Imperial War Museum, and the British Library.

The British Museum is an iconic institution that houses a vast collection of over 8 million objects and artefacts from different cultures around the world. Its impressive architecture and galleries attract millions of visitors annually. The museum's extensive collections range from ancient Egypt to contemporary art, including world-famous treasures such as the Rosetta Stone and Parthenon sculptures. Besides admiring its beautiful collections, visitors can attend lectures, workshops or temporary exhibitions to gain insight into different cultures and historical events. Despite debate surrounding some items' rightful ownership in the museum, there is much to learn and appreciate about human history through this internationally-renowned institution.

3. Even though London is a big city, it's actually the smallest city in England. The City of London covers only 1.2 square miles and has a population of around 7500 residents. However, Greater London is an English region that encompasses surrounding towns covering 606 square miles and having a population of over 8.7 million residents.

4. Did you know that during the Great Fire of London in 1666, only six people died? Even though around thousands of homes of Londoners were completely wiped out from the fire, there were only six verified deaths from this terrible event.

A small fire started in a bakery and quickly spread throughout the city because all the buildings were made out of wood and packed super close together. It burned for four days straight and destroyed thousands of homes. There are a lot of legends about who caused the fire – some people blame Catholics or foreigners – but most historians agree that it was just a really unfortunate accident. Afterward, the city had to be completely rebuilt using brick and stone instead of wood so that something like this would never happen again. So basically, if you're ever in London and you see lots of beautiful old brick buildings, you can thank the Great Fire for them!

5. Greenwich is a historic area in London where you'll find the Royal Observatory. This defines not only zero degrees longitude but also Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). GMT predates Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) by over 300 years.

6. London is technically a forest! The capital of England has so many green spaces that the density of trees it has per square mile qualifies the city as a forest. The city even has its own official forestry conservator.

7. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world. It may be rough around the edges with black air con and no cell phone signal, but it's a pioneer of traveling by train under the ground. In January 1863, a line between Paddington and Farringdon was opened. The carriages were wooden, gas-lit, and pulled by steam locomotives.

8. It is estimated that there are more indian restaurants in london than in indian biggest urban centres like mumbai or New Delhi.

9. London was selected as the host city of the Olympics on 6 july 2005 during the 117th ioc session in Singapore defeating bids from Moscow, New York city, Madrid and Paris. London became the first city to host the modern olympics three times having previously hosted the summer games in 1908 and in 1948.

10. During World War II, displaced governments of the countries already conquered by Germany took refuge in London, making the capital of the UK also the capital of Poland, Norway, Holland, Belgium, and France. It must have been a bitter pill to take for the French.

London is a fascinating city with a rich history and many interesting facts to discover!