London trivia
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Maybe its because I'm a Londoner but I find I am fascinated with London and its history, some of it seemingly trivial but all of it interesting.

What's in a name?

There have been many names for the city we now call London. Some real, some romantic.

  • New Troy, or Troia Nova - is a name reported (and probably created) by Geoffrey of Monmouth in 'The History of the Kings of Britain'. In this book he traces the origins of London (and Britain) back to its foundation by Brutus, great grandson of Aeneas - the Trojan. Of course this is a romantic myth and not factual!

  • Londinium - In AD 43 the armies of the Roman Empire started to conquer Britain. They built a trading port on the Thames near present-day London Bridge. They probably chose this site because the riverbanks east of this point were too marshy for settlement. The Romans called the port Londinium.

  • Lundenwic - Saxon trading town, established by the 640s, west of the city walls in what is now the Strand and Charing Cross. Lundenwic, as the area had become known by the 670s, grew into a thriving emporium: 'a market for many peoples coming by land and sea' as Bede described it.

  • Lundenberg - the name for Alfred the Great's city (meaning a fortified town in reference to the Roman walls that encircled the city) that had grown from the ruins of the old Roman city. By the turn of the tenth century it had grew from a riverside village into a well populated town of some significance. This was one of a system of defensive burghs around the country. A South-Werk was also constructed across the river to protect the ferry crossing.

  • London - our present name for the city,

How many Cathedrals are there in London?

First the educational bit ... a Cathedral is the chief church of a diocese, in which the bishop has his throne (cathedra) and close to which is his residence.   It is the bishop's church, wherein he presides, teaches, and conducts worship for the whole Christian community. The word is derived from the Greek kathedra through the Latin cathedra, throne, elevated seat. Originally the bishop's cathedra stood in the centre of the apse, flanked on either side, though on a lower plane, by the benches of the assisting priests.

Surprisingly there are a few. The cathedrals of the main Christian denominations (excluding Greek and Russian Orthodox traditions) are:

  • St Paul's Cathedral - St Paul’s Cathedral is the cathedral of the Diocese of London. The first cathedral was founded and dedicated to St Paul in 604 by St Ethelbert, King of all Kent the first Christian King in England. Wren's masterpiece, the fifth on the site, was built after the Great Fire and completed in 1710. Miraculously St Paul's survived the 1940 German Blitz, with the worst damage sustained being a bomb that destroyed the Victorian high altar.

  • Southwark Cathedral - The original church on this site was founded by St Swithun in 860. The Cathedral Church of St Saviour and St Mary Overie (over the river)is the earliest Gothic church in London. Became the pro-Cathedral of South London in 1897, with its first Bishop enthroned in 1905. The Cathedral is the mother church of the Anglican Diocese of Southwark.

  • Westminster Cathedral - The Cathedral Church of Westminster, dedicated to the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, was commenced by Cardinal Vaughan and designed in the Early Christian Byzantine style by the Victorian architect John Francis Bentley. The foundation stone was laid in 1895 and the fabric of the building was completed eight years later. The cathedral is sited on the fromer Bulinga Fen, part of the masrh around Westminster.

  • St George's Metropolitan Cathedral, Southwark - The first chapel, dedicated to St George, on London Road was opened in 1793. AWN Pugin designed the church which stood from 1848 until 1941. The rebuilt church opened in 1958, incorporating much of the original Pugin design. St George's is the mother church of the Archdiocese of Southwark, which covers the actual Diocese of Southwark (South London, North Surrey, and Kent), and also the Dioceses of Arundel and Brighton, Portsmouth, and Plymouth

  • Westminster Abbey - The Collegiate Church of St Peter, Westminster. The popular title "Westminster Abbey" continues to be used, even though there have been no monks there since the l6th century. The most beautiful of the Gothic churches in the capital and was founded by Edward the Confessor in the 11th century.  All coronations have taken place here since William the Conqueror - except for Edward V (the boy king, one of the “Princes in the Tower”) and Edward VIII who abdicated before his coronation. And most British monarchs from Henry III to George II are buried here.  Also to be found in the cathedral is Poets Corner where many of our finest poets are buried, and the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior. But it isn't a cathedral!

Guy's and Saint Thomas' Hospital - which saints and why?

  • Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury (1118-70), known as Thomas of London, martyred by Henry II after quarrelling over the rights of the Church. The Hospital of St Thomas of the Military Order of Acre was founded in his name on the location of his birth in Cheapside. Named after Thomas's canonisation in 1173.

  • In the dissolution of 1540, St Thomas was de-canonised, and the hospital was closed. It was reopened in 1551, named after St Thomas the Apostle.

  • Sir Thomas Guy, a printer, publisher and a sheriff of London and a great benefactor of St Thomas' Hospital, founded his own hospital in St Thomas's Street that was opened in 1726.

Now, all three names grace the Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital Health Trust. Follow this link for more information on the history of St Thomas' Hospital.

What about the gates of London?

The original walls and gates of Roman London were built c. AD 200 (from the East):

  • Aldgate - Probably Roman. known as the Ealdgate (the old gate) by the Saxons. Lead out to the east and Colchester. After demolition in 1761 the 1606 gate was briefly re-erected in Bethnal Green.

  • Bishopsgate - Likely to be Roman. Named after its rebuild in the 7th Century by Eorconweald, Bishop of London. Was the starting point of Ermine Street.

  • Aldersgate - Added after the building of the wall, but is of Roman origin. The Gate of Ealdred. Linked up with Watling Street, possibly to replace the north gate of the fort.

  • Newgate - John Stow says the gate was so names as it was "latelier built than the rest", perhaps as late as 857.  Other sources refer to Newgate as one of the original 5 Roman gates.

  • Ludgate - led to one of the main burial grounds outside the city walls in the area that is now Fleet Street. By tradition built by King Lud in 66BC

See "The Roman City of London", R Merrifield, Ernest Benn Ltd. 1965 for the definitive work on Roman London.

The Medieval town added:

  • Cripplegate Was mentioned in the Laws of Ethelred and long was surmised as being of Roman origin. As established by Prof. Grimes it was originally the gate from the Roman fort. The gate was perhaps named from cripples begging there, or the Anglo-Saxon word crepel meaning underground passage, or the legend that some cripples were miraculously cured in 101 when Edmund the Martyr's body was brought through the gate.

  • Moorgate - Was a small postern in the Middle Ages and was built into a large gate in 1415 by Thomas Falconer (a mercer) and named after postern gate that led out to the fens, or Moor Fields.

  • Bridge Gate (a gate on London Bridge, itself completed in 1209)

Even though it sounds like one, Billingsgate was not a gate - it was a landing and loading point and a market for produce established in Saxon times (9th Century AD).

What are the bridges across the Thames?

There are thirty three bridges of all types across the tidal Thames up to Teddington Lock:

  • Queen Elizabeth II (Dartford) bridge
  • Tower bridge - the iconic gothic sructure built in 1894
  • Cannon Street railway bridge
  • London bridge - the sixth (or more?) bridge on this site, with the original built in around AD 46 by the Romans
  • Southwark bridge
  • Millennium bridge (pedestrian, the "wobbly" bridge)
  • Blackfriars railway bridge
  • Blackfriars bridge
  • Waterloo bridge
  • Hungerford foot bridges - sandwiching Charing Cross rail bridge
  • Westminster bridge
  • Lambeth bridge
  • Vauxhall bridge
  • Grosvenor railway bridge
  • Chelsea bridge
  • Albert bridge
  • Battersea bridge
  • Battersea railway bridge
  • Wandsworth bridge
  • Fulham railway bridge
  • Putney bridge
  • Hammersmith bridge
  • Barnes railway bridge
  • Chiswick bridge
  • Kew railway bridge
  • Kew bridge
  • Richmond lock and footbridge
  • Twickenham bridge
  • Richmond railway bridge
  • Richmond bridge
  • Teddington lock footbridge

How many castles in London?

  • The Tower of London - building commenced by William I in 1078 AD. The Tower is steeped in history and scandal. Begun by William I around 1066 and extended by a number of monarchs until Edward I, it has been a palace, prison, menagerie, place of execution and stronghold for the crown jewels. Famous occupants included Sir Francis Drake, Anne Boleyn (executed by a French swordsman), Sir Walter Raleigh and Rudolph Hess during the second world war.

  • Baynard's Castle - built on the banks of the Fleet and the Thames by Ralph Baynard a vassal of William I to protect the western edge of Norman London. Rebuilt at least twice and survived until the Great Fire when all but one turret (survived until 1720) was destroyed.

  • Mountfichet - a short-lived moated keep, erected by Ralph Baynard, overlooking Ludgate.

  • Ravengar's  - some 12th century references to a little castle that was Ravengar's in 1141

  • The Elephant and Castle - district in South East London (in)famous for a busy road junction and a hideous shopping centre. Interestingly I had reason to look into its name. The area is probably named from a pub originating in about 1760 with connections to the Worshipful Company of Cutlers whose crest includes "An Elephant Argent armed and harnessed Or bearing on its back a Castle Or " - i.e. a Silver Elephant with a Gold Castle on its back. The link is the Indian elephant ivory used for knife handles, in which the Cutlers’ Company dealt. Here is some more info on the other suggested origin of its name.

The Thames

The Thames is the oldest place name in Britain (the second oldest is Kent). It is fairly short by world standards, only 220 miles long from its beginning at Thames Head (in the Cotswold Hills) to its end at the lighthouse at Nore. The river is the combination of four rivers, the Isis, the Churn, the Coln and the Leach.

We know about the Thames, but what about London's other rivers?

Some of London's other rivers are well known, even though their names may not now be associated with water courses in most peoples' minds.

  • Fleet Street - named after the River Fleet, which stills runs from Hampstead Heath to the Thames at Blackfriars Bridge. Most of the river's length is now encased as a sewer.
  • Tyburn - now known as the site of the infamous gallows was actually a river that flowed from Hampstead to the Thames at Vauxhall.
  • River Westbourne - again rises in Hampstead, splitting and reaching the Thames near Chelsea Royal Hospital and at Grosvenor Canal dock.
  • The Walbrook - rising in Moorfields and feeding the Thames close to Cannon Street Station.

Don't forget also: the Wandle, the Effra, the Peck, Neckinger stream, Beverley Brook, Falcon Brook, and the River Lea.

Why Southwark?

The southern end of the medieval London Bridge was fortified to become the "south werk" to protect Londenberg from Viking raids by Alfred of Wessex sometime after 886 AD.

The earliest mention of Southwark is in 1023 when the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of that time tells us that the body of St. Alphege, martyr, was carried across the Thames to 'Suthgeworke' on its way to Canterbury. In the Domesday book, the name appears in the form of 'Sudwerche'.

Why is Houndsditch so named?

Well ... two of the quoted reasons are:

  • Its a road that runs along the site of the moat that bounded the city wall, and named as John Stow says  "from that in old time, when the same lay open, much filth (conveyed forth of the City) especially dead dogges were there laid or cast".
  • Or named because the City kennels were once located in the moat, wherein were kept the hounds for the city hunt.

Marble Arch - why is it located in the middle of a traffic island?

Marble Arch was designed by John Nash in 1828 as the main entrance to Buckingham Palace.

It was moved in 1851 when the Palace was extended with a new North Wing for Queen Victoria, leaving insufficient space for the Arch.

Marble Arch replaced Cumberland Gate as a new entrance to Hyde Park at the top of Park Lane. The location is on an axis of two great Roman roads (Watling Street, and the road to Silchester), a crossroads known as Tyburn. Technically, an ancient prerogative allows only senior members of the Royal Family and the Royal Horse Artillery to use the arch. Following changes to the road system, most recently, Nash's triumphal arch is now finally located on a traffic island!

2005 update: Marble Arch may be on the move again!!! Transport for London are looking at an option to move the arch away from its island to improve traffic flows at a very busy junction. If approved the arch would stand over the road at Speakers' Corner.