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• London is the biggest financial centre in the world.
• During medieval times, animals could be tried and convicted in court. The
fines were payable by the animal’s owner.
• Hot chocolate originated in England by a Frenchman. The first store to sell

it opened in about 1600.
• Big Ben is not the name of the clock tower next to the Houses of
Parliament but of the bell inside it.

• In medieval times, breakfast was usually enjoyed with a beer.
• Queen Victoria had a fetish for Valentine’s Day cards and sent out well
over 2000 cards during her reign.
• England’s first telephone directory, published in 1880, had only 25 names

in it.
• The National Health Service is one of the largest employers in the world.
• More than 12 000 English people are injured every year while trying to don

their pantyhose or socks.
• England is the largest country in the United Kingdom (which also includes
Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) and over 80% of the UK population

lives in this country.
• England is only 35 kilometres from France.
• England is famous for its English breakfasts, which comprise scrambled

eggs, black pudding, sausage, bacon, mushrooms, baked beans, hash browns
and tomato.
• More than 300 different languages are spoken in England.
• England has the second-largest economy in all of Europe.

• The people in England eat double the amount of baked beans than those in
America.
• William the Conqueror, who arrived in 1066 CE (Common Era), decreed

that every English resident should be in bed by 20h00.
• About 80 000 umbrellas are left on the underground tubes, unclaimed,
every year.
• This is the only country that has not printed its name onto its postage

stamps.
• Only six people died in the Great Fire of London.
• There are more than 30 000 people called John Smith in England.

• A flock of small birds landed on the minute hand of the clock of Big Ben,
and set it back by five full minutes.

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