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London Leasing

Did You Know?

London, the capital of England and the United Kingdom, is a 21st-century city with history stretching back to Roman times. At its centre stand the imposing Houses of Parliament, the iconic ‘Big Ben’ clock tower and Westminster Abbey, site of British monarch coronations. Across the Thames River, the London Eye observation wheel provides panoramic views of the South Bank cultural complex, and the entire city.

London is the cultural diversity. As one of the most diverse cities in the world, London houses over 8 million residents, who collectively speak over 300 languages, including Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, Cantonese, Mandarin, Hokkien and of course English.

The identity of Jack the Ripper, London’s most notorious serial killer, has never been discovered. Authorities at the time and ‘mystery solvers’ since the killings have suspected a number of different people, however, including Prince Albert, Lewis Carroll and Queen Victoria’s doctor; Sir William Gull.

Charles II’s ordered for six ravens to be placed in the Tower of London to protect it. Apparently, six ravens are still kept in the tower today and they must remain there at all times due to superstitious reasons. For extra measures, each raven has a wing clipped, they even have a spare raven handy in case one flies away.

1.265 billion people use the London Underground every year. That’s slightly more than the population of India! No wonder it’s so hard to get a seat. According to TFL, the most popular station is Waterloo, which sees 100.3 million passengers every year.

London Zoo was the home to one of the most famous animals in the world: Winnie-the-Pooh. Winnie was given to the zoo by a Canadian regiment who were called up to fight in France during the First World War. Winnie lived at ZSL Zoo from 1914 until 1934 during which author AA Milne brought his son, Christopher Robin Milne, to see Winnie. She quickly became Christopher Robin’s favourite animal at the zoo.

Perhaps the most difficult job in the world is being a black cab driver in London. All black cab drivers in London must pass the extremely difficult geography test known ominously as ‘the Knowledge’. It requires you to learn 320 basic routes, all 25,000 streets within these routes and 20,000 landmarks within a 6 mile radius of Charing Cross. It is thought to take between 2 and 4 years to learn all of this information.