3rd July: London

The Greater London Authority was established on this date in 2000. Here are some little known facts about one of the greatest cities in the world.

1. If London was a country it would be the eighth largest in Europe. London is the ninth largest city in the world. Or is it? The 1,583 square kilometres (611 sq mi) area we call Greater London with its population of 8,538,689 (2014) isn't technically a city, but an administrative district. The actual City of London is just a square mile with a population of 7,000.
2. London started life in AD 43, as Londinium, a settlement established on the current site of the City of London. It had a bridge over the river Thames and a fortified garrison. It was a major Roman port and commercial centre but was only about the size of Hyde Park. It changed its name several times - during the Golden Period of Roman occupation it was called Augusta; the Saxons called it Lundenwic and later it was called Lundenburh, Lundenwic and Ealdwic (old town) - which is where the present district 'Aldwych' gets its name. After that it was called London.
3. The major river in London is the Thames, as everyone probably knows, but possibly less people know that London has a number of rivers, tributaries of the Thames, which flow underground. These include: The River Fleet, the largest, for which Fleet Street is named; The Tyburn; Hackney Brook; The River Moselle; Muswell Stream; Counter's Creek; Stamford Brook; Earl's Sluice; The River Peck; and The River Effra, which travels under the Oval cricket ground.
4. As of 2014, London has the largest number of Pound Sterling billionaires in the world - 72.
5. London has thousands of statues. A simple Google enquiry doesn't easily reveal which is the largest - the search results suggest it's either Nelson's Column, The ArcelorMittal Orbit in the Olympic Park (which is classified as a sculpture), or a giant statue of Mr. Darcy that appeared in Hyde Park in 2013. London does, however, have an official smallest statue. It's near Philpot Lane, and it's a statue of two tiny Mice eating cheese, dedicated to two builders who fell during construction of The Monument after an argument over a missing sandwich. They blamed each other but it had actually been eaten by mice.
6. During World War II, London became a safe haven for displaced governments of the countries that Hitler had invaded, first with Poland’s government-in-exile taking up residence, followed by those of Norway, Belgium, Netherlands and France.
7. The exact centre of London is marked by a plaque in the Church of St Martin's-in-the-Fields overlooking Trafalgar Square. However the actual Geographical centre is in the London Borough of Lambeth, just 0.1 miles north east of Lambeth North tube station.
8. London has its share of wacky laws. It is illegal in London to have sex on a parked motorcycle, beat a carpet in a public park, or impersonate a Chelsea pensioner - the latter offence is still theoretically punishable by death. Royal Navy ships entering the Port of London are still required by law to give a barrel of rum to the Constable of the Tower; taxi drivers are legally required to carry a bale of hay. There is one stretch of road in Britain where cars are required to drive on the right and not the left as in the rest of the country. It's Savoy Court - this was originally decreed by Parliament in 1902 so that carriages could drop passengers directly outside the Savoy Theatre.
9. Given the huge numbers of things for tourists to see in London it seemed surprising that the city only has four UNESCO World Heritage Sites: the Tower of London; Kew Gardens; the site comprising the Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey, and St Margaret's Church; and the historic settlement of Greenwich (in which the Royal Observatory, Greenwich marks the Prime Meridian, 0° longitude, and GMT).
10. London was the first city to reach a population of more than one million, in 1811. It remained the largest city in the world until it was overtaken by Tokyo in 1957. More languages are spoken in London than in any other city in the world (270).