2. London is the centre of the world. Well, sort of. Specifically, Greenwich. This is where you’ll find the Royal Observatory which defines 0º longitude (i.e. the Prime Meridian) and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

3. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world. The first line was opened in January 1863.

4. London was the world’s largest city from 1831 to 1925. After that, New York City took the lead. London is now the world’s 33rd largest.

5. Did you know that London is one of the world’s greenest cities. It’s got more than 40% of green space and open water, 2,000 species of flowering plants, 120 species of fish in the Thames, 60 species of birds nestling in Central London, as well as 47 species of butterflies, 270 kinds of spiders, and 1,173 moths... It has so many trees that if falls within the UN definition of a forest!

6. Interesting fact for cultrue vultures: many of London’s museums and galleries are free! The National History Museum, The Science Museum, The V&A, Tate Modern, Tate Britain, National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, British Museum, the Imperial War Museum, and many more are all free.

7. Pubs are the best place to go to get a glimpse of local life. It’s where people go after work, where they start a night out, where they hang out on a sunny day... Many are older than the United States, e.g. The Hoop & Grapes in Aldgate dates back to the 17^th century!

8. Black Cab Drivers know every street in the city. Part of the 2-4 years of training to become a black cab driver involves memorizing every single street in London. Every. Single. Street!

9. Everyone knows when the Queen is home. If Queen Elizabeth II is chilling at home, you’ll know, because the Royal Standard will be flying. The rest of the time, you’ll see the Union flag.

10. London has more Indian restaurants than Mumbai. Fancy a curry?

2. It’s the fourth most-traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the US dollar, the euro and the Japanese yen.

3. The pound isn’t only used in the UK. As well as being used in the independent islands of Jersy, Guernsey and the Isle of Man surrounding the British Isles, the currency is used as far away as the British Antarctic Territory, Gibraltar, the Falkland Islands and a few islands in the mid and South Atlantic. 

4. The pound is divided into 100 pence. The symbol for the penny is ‘p’, that is why an amount like 50p is properly pronounced ‘fifty pence’ but it is more colloquially, quite often, pronounced ‘fifty pee’ /fɪfti: pi:/. 

5. The Pound Sterling currency is made up of several coins and notes. In common everyday use in the UK you can find 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p (the world’s first seven-sided coin), £1 and £2 coins and £5, £10, £20 and £50 notes. 

6. A portrait of Queen Elizabeth II has appeared on all Bank of England banknotes since 1960. On the opposite side of Bank of England notes are images of famous British people, i.e. Sir Winston Churchill on the back of £5 notes, Jane Austen on the back of £10 notes, JMW Turner on the back of £20 notes and Alan Turning on £50 notes. Previous famous faces on the notes are Sir Isaac Newton, the Duke of Wellington, George Stephenson, Florence Nightingale, Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, William Shakespeare and Sir Christopher Wren, among others. 

7. Before the arrival of the decimal system in 1971, the pound functioned with a complicated system of shillings and pennies. 

8. A common slang term for the pound sterling or pound is quid, which is singular and plural. It originates from the phrase Quid Pro Quo, which translates literally to ‘what for what’ and it dates back to 1661!

9. Two 1p coins weigh the same as one 2p coin, and two 5p coins weigh the same as one 10p coin!

10. Being in London, I couldn’t go without mentioning some Cockney rhyming slang to describe money. Apple core or Score means £20, Uncle Ben means £10, and if someone asks to borrow a taxi driver, they actually mean a fiver (= a £5 note).

- It’s not that rainy! London is one of the driest cities in the UK and it’s not even in the top 10 of the wettest capitals in Europe.

3. It’s raining cats and dogs: this idiom dates back to the 17^th century and it’s not really known where it comes from. One of the theories is that stray cats and dogs were often found dead floating in the flooded streets after heavy rain.

4. It’s totally unpredictable! You can easily witness five or more different types of weather in one single day. A sunny morning, a rainy afternoon and a snowy evening! 

5. There are over a 100 British words for rain.! If you don't believe me, check out this link: https://starkeycomics.com/2019/03/14/100-british-words-for-rain/