Coordinates: 51°30’25”N, 0°07’39”W
Greater London
Area: 1,579 km2
Population: 7,5 million
Density: 4,761/km2
City of London:
Area: 2.6 km2
Population: 9,200
Density: 3,172/km2
- London is the world’s most popular city tourism destination attracting over 27 million overnight visitors annually.
- St Paul’s Cathedral took only 35 years to build, from 1675–1710.
- There are over 6000 restaurants in London representing 53 different styles of cuisine.
- The main bell of Big Ben rings 78 times during every twelve-hour cycle.
- The London Eye can carry 15,000 visitors a day. This is enough to fill Concorde 160 times over.
- The average visitor to London in 2003 spent £ 83 a day.
- Every tube train travels the equivalent of London to Sydney (10,500 miles) seven times every year.
- 1700 tons of steel were used in the creation of the London Eye. That is enough steel to make more than 250 double-decker buses.
- Notting hill Carnival is the second largest carnival in the world behind Rio de Janeiro.
- The Houses of Parliament has 1,000 rooms, 100 staircases, 11 courtyards, eight bars, and six restaurants – none of them open to the public. The Palace of Westminster was sited by the river so it could totally surrounded by a mob.
- The Inner and Outer dome of St Paul’s Cathedral is the second biggest dome in the world, standing at 360 ft (110 m) high, only after St Peter’s in Rome.
- Waterloo Station has the most escalators of any underground station with 25.
- The Big Ben bell weighs 13 tons.
And… - The name Big Ben is not actually the name of the clock tower but instead that of the bell inside the tower. It is named after Sir Benjamin Hall, a portly politician of the time who was also the Parliamentary Commissioner of Works.
But also…
- In 1952 a double-decker bus had to leap from one side of Tower Bridge to the other after the Bridge began to rise with the bus still on it.
- The Tower of London is home to 7 ravens and legend has it that if these ravens ever fly away the Tower will collapse and the monarchy will fall.
- The door at No. 10 Downing Street only opens from the inside.
- The Millennium Dome is one of only two man made structures (the other being the Great Wall of China) that is visible from the space.
Improve your vocabulary!
destination – cel podróży
average – przeciętny, średni
visitor – odwiedzający
behind – poza
courtyard – dziedziniec
dome – kopuła