Fun fact#138
London's Tube is the oldest
The Metropolitan Railway opened in 1863, making the London Underground the world's first urban underground railway.
England
The world's first underground railway, and stones dragged 250 kilometres before the wheel was common.
8 entries · 2 stories, 6 fun facts
England at a glance
The practical numbers, before the stories.
- Capital
- London
- Currency
- Pound sterling (GBP)
- Official language
- English; Cornish recognised as a minority language
- Climate
- Temperate maritime. Mild, changeable, and wetter in the west than the east.
- Best time to go
- May–September
- Time zone
- UTC±0 (UTC+1 in summer)
- Driving side
- Left
- Plugs and voltage
- Type G, 230 V
Worth knowing: England is one of the four nations of the United Kingdom, not a sovereign state in its own right.
Planning a trip to England
The decisions that determine whether the trip works, whichever country you are going to.
The Metropolitan Railway opened in 1863, making the London Underground the first urban underground railway anywhere. Some of Stonehenge's bluestones were moved roughly 250 kilometres from the Preseli Hills in Wales more than 4,000 years ago, by means nobody has fully explained.
Below: the 1.1 million litres of 46-degree water that rise through the Roman baths at Bath every day, having fallen as rain thousands of years earlier; the Cornish language that died out and was brought back; the causeway at St Michael's Mount that the sea draws for you over twenty minutes; and the fact that Big Ben is the bell, not the tower.
Entries from England
Story#139
Sunday in Bloomsbury
Every museum was free and every cafe was full. We spent four hours in one room of the British Museum, ate a sandwich on the steps, and did not see the rest of the city at all.
Fun fact#140
Big Ben is the bell
Big Ben is the nickname of the great bell inside the tower. The tower itself was renamed Elizabeth Tower in 2012.
Story#141
Low tide at St Michael's
The causeway appeared out of the sea over about twenty minutes as if someone were slowly drawing it. Everyone stood at the edge with their shoes in their hands waiting for permission from the water.
Fun fact#142
Stonehenge stones travelled far
Some of Stonehenge's bluestones were transported roughly 250 kilometres from the Preseli Hills in Wales more than 4,000 years ago.
Fun fact#144
Bath's springs never cool
Around 1.1 million litres of 46-degree water rise through Bath's Roman baths every day, heated deep underground and falling as rain thousands of years ago.
Fun fact#146
Cornwall has its own language
Cornish died out as a community language in the 18th century and has since been revived, with road signs and schools bringing it back.
Fun fact#942
The prime meridian moved
GPS uses a reference meridian about 100 metres east of the brass line at Greenwich, due to a different geodetic model.
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England is one of 36 countries in the library. Read straight through a continent, or start from the map of everywhere we have written about.