5. Quiz
1. How did the serial killer John George Haigh dispose of the body of his first victim in
his workshop at 79, Gloucester Road, SW7 in September 1944?
a. He dissolved it in a bath of acid
b. He cut it up and left it in several parcels in Gloucester Road tube station
c. He threw it into the Thames near Waterloo Bridge
2. Which of Woody Allen’s so-called London trilogy was never granted a cinema release
in the capital?
a. Match-Point
b. Cassandra’s Dream
c. Scoop
3. Where were the London headquarters of The Beatles’ Apple Corp?
a. 66 Carnaby Street
b. 221B Baker Street
c. 3 Savile Row
4. Where in London can you find a statue of Sir Henry Irving, the first actor to be
knighted?
a. Shaftesbury Avenue
b. Leicester Square
c. Charing Cross Road
5. Which member of the Royal Family was born at 17 Bruton Street in Mayfair?
a. The Duke of Edinburgh
b. The Queen
c. Prince Michael of Kent
6. Who shares with the Crown the ownership of the swans on the Thames?
a. The Honourable Artillery Company
b. The Dyers’ and Vintners’ Companies
c. The Lord Mayor of London
7. The Olde Wine Shades in Martin Lane near London Bridge is one of the only original
pubs in the area to survive what?
a. The bombs of the Blitz in 1941
b. The Great Fire of London in 1666
c. The huge redevelopment of this part of London in the 1960s
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8. Which swanky London hotel was stormed by a mob of disgruntled Eastenders in
September 1941?
a. The Savoy
b. Grosvenor House
c. The Ritz
9. Which eighteenth-century novelist died in poverty at 41 Old Bond Street?
a. Lawrence Sterne
b. Henry Fielding
c. Tobias Smollett
10. What nickname was once given to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square?
a. The National Sauce Boat
b. The National Cruet Stand
c. The National Pepperpot
11. How does Piccadilly get its name?
a. From a slang term for the prostitutes who gathered there in the sixteenth century
b. From Rupert Pickerdell, a landowner at the time of the Civil War
c. From an old word for a kind of starched collar
12. James Lock & Co. of St. James’s, hatters since 1676, invented which classic piece of
head gear?
a. The top hat
b. The trilby
c. The bowler
13. Which London church allegedly inspired a baker to create the first tiered wedding
cake?
a. St. Bride’s
b. St. Dunstan in the West
c. St. Clement Danes
14. The iconic London bus, the custom-built, open-platform, double-decker
Routemaster, was almost called what?
a. The Londoner
b. The Roadmaster
c. The Master Route
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15. The Jewish entrepreneur Joseph Moses Levy established the first what in 1855?
a. Ticketing system for London buses
b. London penny paper
c. Milk bar in London
16. Where was London’s first ferris wheel erected in 1895?
a. Earl’s Court
b. Clapham Common
c. Green Park
17. Which building now stands on the site of the old Milbank Prison, demolished in
1890?
a. Tate Britain
b. Tate Modern
c. National Portrait Gallery
18. Which area of London supposedly takes its name from that of the landlord of a pub
in the early seventeenth century?
a. Parsons Green
b. Pentonville
c. Pimlico
19. What was unusual about the burial of the poet and playwright Ben Jonson in
Westminster Abbey in 1637?
a. He was buried standing upright
b. He was buried at the stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve
c. He was buried more than three months after he had died
20. What was blown down from the roof of Westminster Hall during the so-called Great
Storm of November 1703?
a. Oliver Cromwell’s head
b. A statue of Magog, one of the giants which are said to be guardians of the city
c. A chimney shaped like one of the towers on the West front of Westminster Abbey
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