With almost a year having passed since we launched our colour in map of London placemat to go (where has that time gone?!) we thought it would be fitting to celebrate by taking a tour around the placemat and colouring in some of the famous places that feature on it! Read on as we visit London landmarks and share some of our favourite fun facts about England’s capital city!

The first stop on our London tour is…Big Ben!

One of the most recognisable clock towers in the world, you can find Big Ben at the north end of The Houses of Parliament in Westminster. It was built 165 years ago in 1859 after The Palace of Westminster was destroyed in a catastrophic fire and parliament decided to add a clock tower as part of the restoration. Standing at 96 metres (almost 315 feet) high, the tower is as tall as 21 of those iconic double decker red London buses on top of each other!

People come from far and wide to see this iconic tower - but did you know that you may have been calling it by the wrong name?  In fact, one of the most important facts about Big Ben is that this is the nickname of the main bell, not the tower itself!

It is theorized that the bell got this nickname from Sir Benjamin Hall, the civil engineer who oversaw the rebuilding of the Houses of Parliament following a fire. His name is inscribed on the ‘Great Bell’ hanging in the clock tower – hence the nickname ‘Big Ben’. This nickname then extended to refer to both the clock and the clock tower. The official name of the clock tower is actually ‘Elizabeth Tower’, named after the late Queen Elizabeth II in 2012 to commemorate her Diamond Jubilee.

Furthermore, the Great Bell is not the only bell in the clock tower; did you know there are actually five bells in total? The four smaller bells alongside Big Ben are known as ‘quarter bells’ and these all play a different musical note to make its iconic chime. You can hear the quarter bells chime by themselves every 15 minutes and there is a big bong on the hour, every hour courtesy of Big Ben!

As the largest four facing clock tower in the world, it will come as no surprise that the clock faces have to be quite big, too! Each of the clock dials are 7 metres in diameter – that’s almost twice the length of an average car! And in the most recent restoration, the framework of the clock faces was returned to its original colour - Prussian blue, not black as you may expect!

Next, we’re heading to the London Eye…

Just a stone’s throw up the Thames from Big Ben is the London Eye! This notable wheel has sat on the south bank of the river since 1999 and at over 135 meters high (443 ft), is the tallest wheel in Europe and the fourth largest in the world! With height like that it’s no wonder that on a clear day looking out from the top of the London Eye, you can see for 25 miles (40 km) all the way to Windsor castle!

Whilst the London Eye was unveiled on New Year’s Eve in 1999, Prime Minister at the time, Tony Blair, officially opened this magnificent wheel to the public in March 2000. Since then, it has seen over 70 million guests(!) – but did you know that it wasn’t supposed to still be here 24 years later? In fact, the London eye, aka. the Millenium Wheel, was intended to be a temporary attraction to celebrate the Millenium. Originally granted a 5-year lease, it was quickly given permanent attraction status in 2002, which was probably a good idea since it’s the most popular paid-for attraction in the UK bringing in more than 3.75 million visitors each year!

Finally, some more fun facts about the London eye relates to the egg-shaped pods it carries. There are 32 capsules on the wheel, however this is not random – each of these pods represents one of the 32 London Boroughs! And, did you know that each of the pods weigh a whopping 10 tonnes? Which means they have to be floated down the river for restorations. For an upgrade in 2009, each pod was floated all the way to Tilbury Docks in Essex!

Grab your fanciest hat…we’re off to Buckingham Palace!

A rather famous house, Buckingham Palace sits at the heart of London nestled between St James Park and Green Park. Built as Buckingham House in 1703, the palace was originally built as a large townhouse for Duke Buckingham, not for the monarch! The palace didn’t become property of the royals until 1761 when King George III bought the house as a private residence for Queen Charlotte.

The palace did not always look as it does today and was only transformed into the palace we recognise now when it was under the ownership of King George IV. After many changes throughout the years, the palace grounds now span 39 acres with the building having 775 rooms, 760 windows and 1,514 doors. Of these 775 rooms, there are 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices, 78 bathrooms, 52 royal and guest bedrooms, and 19 state rooms… wow! Try not to get lost!

You have probably noticed that there is usually a flag flying atop the palace, but did you know that the type of flag has different meanings? When the King’s royal standard flag is flying this means the King is in residence at Buckingham Palace but when the Union Jack flies it means he is away! Whether or not the monarch is in residence, the ceremony of The Changing of The Guard occurs at 10.45am outside the palace and lasts for 45mins, however only in June and July does this take place every day of the week. 

Lastly, have you ever heard the rumour that underneath Buckingham Palace there’s a labyrinth of secret tunnels? These secret passageways are said to connect Buckingham Palace to Clarence House and the Houses of Parliament. It is claimed that the Queen Mother and King George VI once descended underground to explore these passageways and met a man who had been living in the tunnels!

The final stop on our London tour is the Tower of London!

For our final stop on this tour, we’re going to explore the landmark that has been a fortress, palace, prison, and zoo… Believe it or not, we’re heading to the famous Tower of London!

The Tower of London sits on the north bank of the River Thames and has been in place since William the Conqueror had the White Tower built in 1066. Like many of the London landmarks, the ‘Tower of London’ is not its full name – the building’s official title is, in fact, ‘His Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London’.

Though the tower has quite the history of imprisonment and is infamous for the executions that have taken place within its walls, it was not originally intended to be used as a prison. Instead, the tower was built to showcase royal power, and was only later used to imprison people that threatened the country or the royals at the time. Some famous figures that met an unfortunate fate at the tower include Anne Boleyn, Queen Elizabeth I, and Sir Walter Raleigh - many people believe ghosts from the towers 1000-year-old gruesome history still roam and haunt the grounds to this day…

Did you know the Tower of London served as the city’s first ever zoo? The menagerie of exotic animals housed there were all creatures that had been gifted to the Royal family - this included African elephants, lions, kangaroos, ostriches, and even a polar bear! The tower served this purpose from the 1200s until 1835 when the Duke of Wellington closed the menagerie, and the animals were relocated to an area of Regent’s Park which later became London Zoo.  The only animals that still call the Tower home are the seven ravens that are famed for being guardians of the tower – the old legend is that if the ravens ever leave the Kingdom, the Tower of London will fall!

And whilst the ravens are the only non-human animals that reside in the tower, some Beefeaters and their families do live in the Tower of London. The fortress is somewhat self-sufficient with an onsite doctor, church, village green and a secret pub called The Keys!

Finally, the Tower of London remains famous as the safe home of the crown jewels. This lavish collection has been locked away at the tower since the 1600’s and contains over 20,000 gemstones valued between £2 to £4 billion!

That concludes our whistle-stop tour of London, but we couldn’t let you go without sharing some of our favourite facts about this iconic city! Did you know…

• It is illegal to feed the pigeons in Trafalgar Square…
• You can see the HMS Belfast (a decommissioned naval ship) moored at Queens Walk.
• The famous National Gallery is situated in Trafalgar Square.
• The Shard is the tallest building in London standing at 1,016 feet!
• Shakespeare chose to build The Globe in Southwark because it was outside the control of the city officials.
• Traitor’s Gate which can be found in the Tower of London was so named due to the number of prisoners, accused of treason, who have passed through it…
• To celebrate London entering the 2000s, two landmarks were built – these are the Millennium Bridge and the Millennium Dome.

Thanks for coming on this journey with us - we hope you enjoyed reading some fun facts and we hope there were some that surprised you, too! Don’t forget you can visit London and take a tour of our capital city with your very own London placemat to go. And you can head to our learning resource page to learn more about the rich history of this iconic place and its fascinating landmarks!

And don’t forget you can get in touch with us on social media by using #eatsleepdoodle – we always love to see what you’re up to! You can also tag us on Instagram (@eatsleepdoodle_), Facebook (@eatsleepdoodlehq) and Twitter (@eatsleepdoodle_).