Many of you are still not working, or a least not commuting, so with more time of your hands, to wile away your enforced free time CabbieBlog gives you 20 questions about London, no prizes, just the satisfaction of being as knowledgeable as a London cabbie.
If you have been paying interest to the daily trivia posted @cabbieblog you should know most of the answers.
But don’t worry you can find the answers lower down beneath, and don’t forget weekly trivia is posted every Sunday. Check it out to arm yourself with enough knowledge to try next quiz.
Good Luck!
Questions
1. Where in London is the only statue Britain has of George I?
(a) The crypt of Westminster Abbey
(b) On the lawn at Buckingham Palace
(c) At the top of St. George’s steeple in Bloomsbury
2. At the rear of what is now, the British Museum was once known as the Field of the Forty Footsteps. Why?
(a) A distressed nun is seen to walk stepping backwards and forwards on the same places
(b) A duel between two brothers over a girl which left their footprints on the grass for years afterwards
(c) The size of the field is exactly forty footsteps square (size 10 boots)
3. Doggett’s Coat and Badge are two items to be worn by which Londoners?
(a) Novice Beefeaters wear both during their first year at the Tower of London
(b) They were rescued during the Great Fire of London from a member’s of The Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors and are displayed at their livery company hall
(c) They are given to the winner of a rowing race on the Thames
4. Author of Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe unsuccessfully ran what business in Stoke Newington?
(a) A horse stabling yard
(b) Harvested eels from a nearby pond
(c) Bred civets to manufacture perfume
5. It’s 1868 and you’re at the junction of Great George Street and Bridge Street approaching Westminster Bridge. What do you see?
(a) Anthony Trollop’s new red postbox
(b) A red telephone box
(c) The world’s first set of traffic lights
6. What is unusual about 23 and 25 Leinster Gardens, Bayswater?
(a) They are just façades like a film set
(b) They are the narrowest inhabited houses in London
(c) They have a unique postcode
7. The Bevis Marks synagogue had an unusual beginning. What?
(a) Its first rabbi was a Christian convert
(b) It was built by a Quaker
(c) The site was originally to be an abattoir
8. Between 1827 and 1851 Marble Arch was located where?
(a) At the entrance of Regent’s Park
(b) It spanned the narrower Park Lane
(c) Outside Buckingham Palace
9. Who, or what was Jimmy Garlick?
(a) A laxative used in 16th century London
(b) A Victorian murderer
(c) A medieval mummy
10. While attempting to flee the country disguised as a sailor, who was caught at the Town of Ramsgate pub by Wapping Old Stairs?
(a) Oscar Wilde
(b) Lord Haw-Haw
(c) Judge Jeffreys
11. Which famous London hotel was once decreed to be Yugoslavian soil?
(a) Claridge’s
(b) The Ritz
(c) The Savoy
12. What did Phyllis Pearsall compile, which became an essential aid to Londoners?
(a) The London tube map
(b) The London A-Z
(c) The first telephone directory
13. Where was London’s first cab rank?
(a) Outside the Houses of Parliament
(b) In the Strand
(c) In Savoy Place
14. During World War II, for which purpose was the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden converted?
(a) A dancehall
(b) Storing vegetables
(c) An operational HQ
15. In 1954 in the City, a Roman temple was discovered when digging foundations. Recently opened to the public, it’s dedicated to which Roman entity?
(a) Jupiter
(b) Mithras
(c) Apollo
16. Now closed, which department store in Holborn was known as ‘The People’s Popular Emporium’?
(a) Bourne and Hollingworth’s
(b) Bon Marché
(c) Gamages
17. In 1906 bus routes were given numbers. Before then how did passengers know which route a London bus served?
(a) Conductors announced the route from the running board
(b) Buses were colour-coded
(c) Unemployed men stood at bus stops, and for a small gratuity, would tell passengers the bus’s destination
18. Far slimmer than she was when modelled, a statue of which English queen is to be found outside the west front of St. Paul’s Cathedral?
(a) Queen Elizabeth I
(b) Queen Anne
(c) Queen Victoria
19. The classic black-and-white Ealing comedy The Ladykillers had which station as its backdrop?
(a) St. Pancras
(b) King’s Cross
(c) Euston
20. In 1881, built to stage Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, the Savoy Theatre boasted which unique innovation?
(a) Toilets on all floors
(b) Individual changing rooms for the cast
(c) Electric light
Answers
1. Where in London is the only statue Britain has of George I?
(c) Designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, St. George’s has the king resplendent in Roman dress aloft the church.
2. At the rear of what is now, the British Museum was once known as the Field of the Forty Footsteps. Why?
(b) Montague Street now covers the meadow that in 1685 two brothers fought a duel over a girl in which both died. Impressions of their 20 paces away from each other were said to be visible for more than a century.
3. Doggett’s Coat and Badge are two items to be worn by which Londoners?
(c) On 1st August 1715 Dublin-born actor/manager sponsored a race for young watermen to commemorate George I accession to the Throne. The winner receives an orange-coloured coat, knee breeches, silk stockings, a cap and a 9-inch diameter silver badge. It is the world’s oldest unbroken competitive race.
4. Author of Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe unsuccessfully ran what business in Stoke Newington?
(c) When you next spray yourself perfume, consider this, civet cats produce a strong-smelling secretion still used by perfumers. For Daniel Defoe, this was the least successful of his business ventures.
5. It’s 1868 and you’re at the junction of Great George Street and Bridge Street approaching Westminster Bridge. What do you see?
(c) Operating similar to train signals, consisting of a revolving lantern with red and green lights were a set of traffic lights. Months later the gas-powered lights exploded seriously injuring the policeman operating them.
6. What is unusual about 23 and 25 Leinster Gardens, Bayswater?
(a) When the Underground was constructed in the 1860s, the trains needed open air stretches to release fumes (pre-electric), the void behind these two houses provided this venting spot.
7. The Bevis Marks synagogue had an unusual beginning. What?
(b) Joseph Avis, a Quaker, had signed a contract to build a synagogue for £2,750. When finished he refused his fee, deciding it was wrong to profit from building a house of God.
8. Between 1827 and 1851 Marble Arch was located where?
(c) If you have been watching the television drama Victoria, you would have seen it outside Buckingham Palace facing The Mall.
9. Who, or what was Jimmy Garlick?
(c) Under the chancel of St. James Garlickhythe, in 1839 workmen discovered a medieval mummy. This rare example of natural mummification was nicknamed Jimmy Garlick and displayed by the church in a glass case for many years.
10. While attempting to flee the country disguised as a sailor, who was caught at the Town of Ramsgate pub by Wapping Old Stairs?
(c) ‘Hanging Judge’ Jeffreys was attempting to follow his Catholic master, James II to France after the Glorious Revolution. Execution Dock close by was where Jeffreys would watch his sentences carried while partaking of a tipple at the Prospect of Whitby.
11. Which famous London hotel was once decreed to be Yugoslavian soil?
(a) Exiled King of Yugoslavia was living at Claridge’s during World War II. When his wife gave birth Churchill decreed the suite Yugoslavian territory ensuring the boy would have a right to the throne.
12. What did Phyllis Pearsall compile, which became an essential aid to Londoners?
(b) Phyllis Pearsall rose at five each morning to walk 18 miles through London’s street compiling notes which she kept in shoeboxes under her bed. No publisher wanted to print the guide, she published it herself delivering copies in a wheelbarrow to W. H. Smith. When she died in 1996 the A-Z had sold in its millions.
13. Where was London’s first cab rank?
(b) As early as 1634 Captain Bailey, a retired mariner placed four hackney coaches at the Maypole in the Strand. St. Mary’s Church now occupies the site.
14. During World War II, for which purpose was the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden converted?
(a) While many entertainment venues were converted for the duration of the war, Covent Garden didn’t suffer the ignominy of being a greengrocer, but a dancehall, unlike Wimbledon’s tennis courts which were used to grow vegetables.
15. In 1954 in the City, a Roman temple was discovered when digging foundations. Recently opened to the public, it’s dedicated to which Roman entity?
(b) Mithras, the bull-slayer, was a virile young god from the east, beloved of soldiers who worshipped him by the light of flaring torches in this an underground temple.
16. Now closed, which department store in Holborn was known as ‘The People’s Popular Emporium?
(c) With its maze of interconnecting rooms and buildings, Gamages claimed to undercut all its competitors on price. Closed in 1972 the site by Holborn Circus was redeveloped.
17. In 1906 bus routes were given numbers. Before then how did passengers know which route a London bus served?
(b) It took German guidebook firm Baedeker to suggest to the Vanguard bus company numbering, rather than multi-coloured buses, was the right route to take. The first was number 4 from Gospel Oak to Putney Station on 23rd April 1906.
18. Far slimmer than she was when modelled, a statue of which English queen is to be found outside the west front of St. Paul’s Cathedral?
(b) A late-nineteenth-century copy of the 1712 original marking the completion of Wren’s masterpiece. Queen Anne was partial to a tipple, wags at the time pointed out the statue was facing the local hostelries.
19. The classic black-and-white Ealing comedy The Ladykillers had which station as its backdrop?
(a) Mrs Wilberforce who thwarts the robbers led by Professor Marcus (Alec Guinness) stands in St. Pancras Station’s shadow.
20. In 1881, built to stage Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, the Savoy Theatre boasted which unique innovation?
(c) The most beautifully fitted theatre in Europe opened its doors on 10th October 1881, the Savoy Theatre became famous as the first public building in the world to be lit by incandescent electric lights.
Did you manage to answer all twenty questions? Every Sunday CabbieBlog posts eleven pieces of trivia about London. They might help you in answering the next quiz.
On 26 July 1818 to publicise the opening of the Royal Coburg Theatre, Usher the clown drove a carriage, pulled by 4 tom-cats along Waterloo Road. The theatre was later renamed the Old Vic
The Bishop of Rochester’s cook was boiled alive at Smithfield after poisoning fellow cooks. Boiling was struck off the Statute Book in 1548
The clock known by many as Big Ben completed in 1854 its original 2.5-ton hands had to be remade lighter as the mechanism couldn’t turn them
London’s 1845 International Exhibition saw the world’s first plastic using nitro-cellulose – the product failed as it tended to explode
Sadly for the UK’s richest city, London has the highest proportion of people living below the poverty line than anywhere else in the country
On New Year’s Eve 1853 a dinner was held inside the stomach of a iguanodon being constructed for Dinosaur Park at Crystal Palace
The Savoy was the first hotel with electric lifts known at the time as ascending rooms – it boasted en-suite rooms with hot and cold water
In 2014 the London Playing Fields Foundation reported that 20 per cent of London’s football pitches had been lost over 20 years
During rush hour motor vehicles average speed is 7mph while cyclists maintain 13mph – 15 per cent of Londoners spend over 2 hours commuting each day
Eurostar’s departure lounge has columns that are 3 beer barrels apart as the building was once where beer in transit was stored
Barnet Hill, the hill outside High Barnet Tube station is the one the Grand Old Duke of York marched his men up and down
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