Interesting Facts About United Kingdom

 Drink 

• London has the credit for the first hot chocolate store ever opened.
• The English drink the most tea in the world.
• It is against the law to get drunk in a pub in England.
• In Scotland, it is against the law to get drunk and possess a cow.

 Name Forms

• The conventional long form of the United Kingdom is United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Great Britain includes England, Scotland and Wales.
• Many people use just the abbreviation UK.
• The conventional short form is the United Kingdom.

 Landscape

• UK mostly has knife edge ridges and high grounds with valleys in between. Thick glaciers from the Ice age are responsible for such a terrain.
• Almost 75% of the land in the UK is taken for farming.
• The highest point is Ben Navis at 1,343 m and the lowest point is -4m at The Fens.

 Firsts

• The United Kingdom happens to be the first industrialized country in the World.
• Polo, soccer and Rugby were introduced to the world by the UK.
• The British invented the world’s earliest railways.
• John Walker invented the matches in 1827. He was British.

 Famous Architecture

• The Buckingham Palace has its own police station.
• The largest Royal home is the Windsor castle.
• Big Ben refers to the bell and not the clock.
• There are 28 world heritage sites in the UK and 4 in London. These include The west minister palace, The tower of London, Maritime Greenwich, Kew Botanical gardens. These interesting facts about United Kingdom Architecture are are really exciting.

Tube & The Underground

• In all of Western Europe, Angel tube station has the longest escalator.
• About 409 escalators are there in the subways.
• London bags the first place to have an underground subway system.
• The tube route from Leicester Square to Covent Garden can be covered quicker on foot.  However this seems to be the most popular route tourists take.
• The tube route also happens to be the costliest and unreliable.

 Artists

• Nelson Mandela called the spice girls his heroes when he met them.
• The Beatles originally called themselves the Blackjacks and then the Quarrymen.
• There is no portrait of William shakespeare painted, when he was alive.
• To make a billion dollars from writing books has been achieved by JK Rowling.
• From Canterbury to London, the bus route that Ian Flemming took inspired the 007 for James Bond.

Bridges

• According to history, the London Bridge had indeed fallen down according to the old rhyme, when the Saxons had torn it down using ropes and boats.
• The Thames has over 200 bridges and tunnels along its course.

Animals

There are some interesting facts about United Kingdom related to animals:

• In Medieval England, animals were tried for their crimes and even punished for them.
• Pygg meant clay in Olden days. People stored their coins in these clay jars which later evolved to piggy banks.
• The Mute swans are officially owned by the Queen.
• The driver of the vehicle who kills a deer cannot eat it, but the person sitting beside can do so.
• The chickens outnumber the humans in UK.

  Post

• The United Kingdom is the only union to not have its name on post.
• To paste a stamp that has the Monarch’s face upside down is considered treason.