The first public toilet was built outside Bank in 1855 and charged 1d? This is where the phrase ‘spend-a-penny’ comes from.
Lombard Street is the original ‘information super highway’? This is where Edward Lloyd kept his coffee shop and exchanged the first insurance policies with ship owners and eventually lead to Lloyds of London.
One of the original wooden posts from the first ever London Bridge, built almost 2,000 years ago by the Romans, is still visible? Although, you will have to book a tour if you want to find out where it is!
All Hallows by the Tower is the oldest church in London? Built in 675AD? The heart of Richard ‘The Lion Heart’ I is buried here.
The most expensive rental property of all time was let in Mayfair for £40,000 per week?
We drive on the left because the congestion was so bad on London Bridge in 1722, the Mayor had to introduce a keep left policy to help the traffic keep moving? The reason he chose left rather than right will all be revealed during the tour!
The Hilton Hotel on Park Lane was bought by the Sultan of Brunei in 1990, who then spent £100m on refitting it?
In 1932 The Dorchester was the most expensive public building ever made at a cost of £1.25m?
The British Library adds 2 miles of new books to its collection every year and now has over 10,000,000?
All distances to london are measured from the base of the stature of Charles I in Trafalgar Square?
‘Strand’ is an old Norse Viking word for ‘beach’, given to the Strand when it was nothing more than a sandy shoreline of the river we now call the Thames?
Until 1954 it was impossible to build a building taller than the width of the street it stood in? A rule imposed by Queen Victoria to maintain her perfect view of the capital from Buckingham Palace.
The Bethlehem Royal Hospital was where the phrase ‘bedlam’ was coined, after treating horrific injuries during the Blitz?
The Great Eastern Hotel has a secret train platform that was used to transport fresh sea water from the coast into the spa pools?
Pall Mall is the best place to get a cab? On average an available car goes past every 30 seconds.
Marylebone Station is where the Beatles music video for ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ was filmed?
Pudding Lane, renowned for the starting point of the Great Fire of London in 1666, did not take its name from the savoury delights sold in the baker’s shop? A ‘pudding’ was a medieval term for excrement thrown into the street!