If you’re looking to exercise your brain during this cold, dark lockdown why not try my big London Quiz?!
Below you’ll find sixty questions about the capital, spread across five fiendish rounds: ‘Name that boat race’, ‘Lost London’, ‘On location’, ‘Blue blur’ and ‘Map it!’
Answers can be found at the bottom of the page.
Please feel free to share the Big London Quiz with your friends… and be sure to let me know how you get on in the comments section.
Best of luck!
‘Boat race’ in case you didn’t know is the cockney rhyming slang phrase for ‘face’!
Pictured below are 20 snippets of famous folk, all of who were born in London.
How many can of these famous boats can you identify? And if you can correctly pinpoint the area in which each individual was born, you may have a well earned bonus point.
London is ever-changing and as such has lost a number of notable buildings over the years; wether it be through fire, war or just plain old redevelopment.
Pictured below are ten such landmarks which are sadly no longer with us (although one or two have been rebuilt). How many can you name?
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Next up on the Big London Quiz is the film round!
London has featured in countless films over the years. Below you’ll find screenshots from ten movies shot on the capital’s streets.
How many of these movies can you correctly name?
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London’s iconic blue plaques, which denote properties associated with noted historical figures, are dotted all over the city.
Below are ten of these plaques with the names blurred out… going by the descriptions, can you put a name to them?
If you can name the area in which the plaque can be found, you may have a bonus point… and another if you can name the exact street!
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As part of the intensive ‘Knowledge of London‘ course which prospective cabbies must pass in order to be licensed, a map test must be passed before they can proceed to their even more gruelling verbal examinations.
The map test presents candidates with a blank map, upon which they must pinpoint various streets and points of interest.
Below are ten such teasers…how well do you know the city without navigational aids?…
1. Can you identify this mainline railway terminal?
2. Can you identify this bridge?
3. Can you identify this hospital?
4. Can you identify this park?
5. Can you identify this museum?
6. Can you identify this tube station?
7. Can you identify this street?
8. Can you identify this prison?
9. Can you identify this landmark?
10. Can you identify this roundabout?
Round 1: Name that boat race!
- David Bowie: born in Brixton, 1948
- Chris Eubank: born in Dulwich, 1966
- Queen Elizabeth II: born in Mayfair, 1926
- Boris Karloff: born in Camberwell, 1887
- Gary Oldman: born in New Cross, 1958
- Moira Stuart: born in Hampstead, 1949
- Sir Charlie Chaplin: born in Walworth, 1889
- Jerry Springer: born in Highgate, 1944 (yes, despite being a famous American chat-show host!)
- Dizzie Rascal: born in Bow, 1984
- Sanjeev Bhaskar: born in Ealing, 1963
- Kirsty MacColl: born in Croydon, 1959
- Angela Lansbury: born in Regent’s Park, 1925
- Sir Michael Caine: Born in Rotherhithe, 1933
- Zadie Smith: born in Brent, 1975
- Amy Winehouse: born in Southgate, 1983
- Elizabeth Taylor: born in the Hampstead Garden Suburb 1932
- Idris Elba: born in Hackney, 1972
- Dusty Springfield: born in West Hampstead, 1939
- Dev Patel: born in Harrow, 1990
- John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten): born in Holloway, 1956
Round 2: Lost London
- Earls Court Exhibition Centre (demolished 2014)
- The Royal Aquarium (demolished 1903)
- Mondial House (demolished 2006)
- Broad Street Station (demolished 1986)
- The Millbank Penitentiary (demolished 1890s)
- Old Euston Station (demolished 1960s)
- White City Stadium (demolished 1985)
- Old St Paul’s Cathedral (demolished after the Great Fire of 1666)
- The Panopticon, Chelsea
- The London Coal Exchange (demolished 1960s)
Round 3: On Location!
- The Ladykillers (1955)
- V for Vendetta (2005)
- A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
- Attack the Block (2011)
- The Long Good Friday (1980)
- Oliver! (1968)
- Shaun of the Dead (2004)
- The Elephant Man (1980)
- An American Werewolf in London (1981)
- Alfie (1966)
Round 4: Blue Blurs
- Alan Turing (Little Venice: Warrington Crescent)
- John Logie Baird (Soho: Frith Street)
- Violette Szabo (Stockwell: Burnley Road)
- Mahatma Gandhi (Barons Court: Barons Court Road)
- Frédéric Chopin (St James’s: St James’s Place)
- Mary Seacole (Soho: Soho Square)
- Harry Beck (Leyton: Wesley Road)
- Ira Aldridge (Upper Norwood: Hamlet Road)
- Sir Winston Churchill (Kensington: Hyde Park Gate)
- Amy Johnson (Cricklewood: Hendon Way- Vernon Court)
Round 5: Map it!
- Marylebone Station
- Lambeth Bridge
- The Royal London Hospital
- Brockwell Park
- The Imperial War Museum
- Camden Town tube station
- Greek Street
- Wormwood Scrubs
- The Mansion House
- Percy Circus
Stay well and thanks for playing the Big London Quiz!
If you enjoyed these questions why not try my previous quizzes? Click below to play.
I got close to 70%. I should have done better, and was foxed by some of the old buildings. Shamefully, I mis-identified the Royal London Hospital, and I was in the ambulance service for 22 years!
Best wishes, Pete.
Ha ha! Not bad at all though Pete! Thanks for playing.
Just used this as a Zoom quiz! Challenging but we had a good time. Thanks- please do more on different London themes!
That’s great to hear; I was hoping people would use it in such a way 😉 Glad you had fun! I will add more quizzes in the future; keep an eye out! And thanks again. Stay well.