100 Interesting Facts About UK

The United Kingdom (UK) is one of the most popular study, work and travel destinations in the world and is renowned for its rich history, culture and diversity. Located in the European continent, the UK has emerged as the most desired location to pursue higher education abroad. So, if you are one of those who wish to study in the UK, then before you pack your bags and travel to the UK go through this list to make sure you know everything there is to know about the place. Want to know some fun and mind-boggling facts about UK? Here we bring you a countdown of 100 interesting facts about UK that you might not know! Cheerio!

• No matter where you are in the UK, you won’t ever be more than 115 km away from the sea. 
• The first-ever postage stamp was created in the UK in May 1840 and it featured an image of Queen Victoria.
• Stonehenge, one of the world’s oldest monuments exists in the UK.
• Golf, the national sport of Scotland, was first played in Scotland itself and at one time it was so popular that James II had to ban it to ensure that army practices continue without any distractions. 
• The UK consists of four countries: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
• In 2015, Queen Elizabeth became the longest-reigning queen in the world. 
• Windsor Castle in the UK is the oldest royal residence and the British Royal family still resides there. 
• As British passports are issued in the name of the queen, she doesn’t need to own one. 
• There is actually an underwater tunnel called the Channel Tunnel linking Southern England and Northern France. 
• The UK is the home to world-renowned scientists like Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton, Alan Turing and Stephen Hawking. 

• The list of 100 interesting facts in UK would be incomplete without this one! Do you know that there are supposedly more chickens in England than people!
• The Anglo-Zanzibar war between the United Kingdom and the Zanzibar Sultanate is believed to be the shortest war that ever happened, lasting a mere 38 minutes. 
• The infamous serial killer Jack the ripper was active in London in the year 1888. Strangely enough, he never got caught and his identity still remains a mystery to the world. 
• It’s rumoured that Buckingham Palace was built on the site of a former gay brothel. 
• The great plague which lasted in London from 1665 to 1666 killed almost a quarter of London’s population. 
• There actually exists a superstitious belief in London that states that “the Tower of London ravens are lost or fly away, the Crown will fall and Britain with it.”. And as a result of this, at least six captive ravens are resident at the Tower of London. 
• In 1647, the Puritan Government put a ban on Christmas Celebrations on the grounds that it promotes gambling, promiscuity and other forms of excesses. The ban was lifted in 1660 after the restoration of the Monarchy. 
• The Great Fire of London of 1666 destroyed the houses of 70,000 inhabitants of the city but there were merely six verified deaths. 
• During the reign of William the Conqueror, criminals were not given a death sentence but were instead blinded and castrated. 
• Since 1642, when Charles I stormed out of the house of commons, an event which eventually led to the civil war, no reigning Monarch is allowed to enter the House of Commons till now.

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• The “unparliamentary language” prohibited to be used in the parliament includes words like ass, blackguard, coward, git, guttersnipe, hooligan, hypocrite, idiot ignoramus, pipsqueak, rat, slimy, sod,  squirt,  stoolpigeon,  swine, tart, traitor and wart. 
• Chicken tikka is considered as Britain’s national food owing to the popularity it has gained in the country. 
• The UK doesn’t have a written constitution. 
• The UK is home to the rock band The Beatles, considered to be the most influential band of all time.
• The world-famous characters Sherlock Holmes, Mr Bean and Harry Potter are in originated from Britain. 
• The inventor of the World Wide Web, Timothy John Berners-Lee was from England. 
• The British author J.K. Rowling is the first writer to ever become a billionaire through her writings. 
• The BBC domestic television channels do not broadcast advertisements; as they are funded by TV viewers who are required to pay an annual television license fee. 
• Llanfairpwllgwyngyll-gogerychwyrndrobwlllllandysiliogogogoch is the name of a town in Wales and it is believed to be the longest name of any city in the world.
• There are more Indian restaurants in London than there are in both Delhi and Mumbai combined. 
• Royal weddings in the UK are public holidays. 

• Before the London Eye was constructed, there was another Ferris Wheel in London called The Gigantic Wheel but it was demolished in 1907. 
• Even though it’s illegal for children below the age of 18 to buy alcohol in the UK, it’s legal for them to consume alcohol within their home or other private premises. 
• The US, India, Pakistan, Nigeria and the Philippines have more English speakers than the UK. 
• After the Victoria Station bombing of 1991 where the bomb was hidden in a dustbin, there are still very few dustbins in the London Underground. 
• Margaret Thatcher was the first female British prime minister. 
• Football is the most famous sport in the United Kingdom. 
• English was not always the national language of the UK. In 1066, William the Conqueror established French as the national language of the UK and it remained so till 1362.
• The British Library is the largest library in the world with a collection of 170-200 million reading material. 
• Until 1877, the professors of Oxford University were not allowed to get married.

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• The world-famous British playwright Shakespeare added more than 1,700 new words and phrases to the English language.
• Swan is regarded as a protected species in the UK and therefore killing them could lead to a fine of £5,000. 
• The first speeding ticket was issued in the UK in the year 1896. 
• The only venomous snake which exits in the UK is Adder.  
• There was a time when suicide was considered illegal in the UK and those who survived such attempts were strangely enough hanged as a punishment. Suicide was decriminalised in the year 1961.
• All English residents are automatically entitled to free public health care through the National Health Service. 
• From 1912-1948, art was considered to be a valid category in the Olympic games. 
• There are in total of 32 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the United Kingdom and the British Overseas Territories.
• Tea is the most popular drink in the UK and therefore was named as the national drink of the UK.
• The Shard is the tallest building in the UK and it has 11,000 glass panels.
• There are almost 40 different dialects of English in the UK.

• In a survey conducted by BBC, it was found that 39% of the UK’s population were atheists. 
• Ben Nevis is the highest mountain point in the UK and it is measured to be 1345m tall. 
• There are no active volcanoes in the UK.
• There are over 250 registered art institutions in London. 
• Fordwich in Kent is the smallest town in the UK. 
• The UK is the fifth biggest exporter of goods in the world. 
• London Heathrow Airport is the busiest airport in the UK. It witnessed 48.2 million passengers from January to August 2013.
• In the UK, you need to have a horse passport to keep horses, donkeys and asses. It’s meant for easy identification and transportation of horses. 
• In the London Underground exists a genetically distinct subspecies of mosquito.

Keep scrolling and find some more interesting facts about UK! Also, check out IELTS & GMAT Scores for UK!

• The national anthem of the UK is titled “God save the Queen”. 
• In a survey it was proven that almost two in every five people in the UK love eggs for breakfast, making them the UK’s most popular breakfast food.
• The most popular city in London was once known by names like Londinium and Ludenberg. 
• The world’s first subway system was built in London, UK.
• On some selected British food products you will see a royal stamp and it means that the product has been bought by the Royal Family for at least five years. 
• The UK shares a land border with only one country and that is Ireland. 
• The UK has the third-longest coastline in Europe after Norway and Denmark.
• Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland is known for its castle and the Royal mile. Its International Fringe Festival attracts more than 2,500,00 visitors every year. 
• In Scottish folklore, there is a monster called Nessie which supposedly inhabits Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands.
• Out of the UK’s total population, 83% live in urban areas and only 17% live in rural areas. 
• The UK cities of Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow have more than 1 million inhabitants.

• The UK has more than 130 universities. Amongst them, the most prestigious are Cambridge and Oxford University. 
• The first nursing school, Nightingale school of nurses was established in Florence in the year 1860.
• The UK is the world’s sixth-largest economy after the USA, China, Japan, Germany and India.
• Almost half of the foodstuff consumed in the UK is actually imported and not produced within the territory. 
• River Thames which flows through London has more than 20 tunnels and 200 bridges.
• There is a strange law in the UK which states that all men over the age of 14 years have to carry two hours of longbow practice every week. Though it’s not followed today, it was never actually abolished. 
• John Smith is the most common name in Britain, so much so that over 30,000 people named John Smith are supposed to be residing in Britain. 
• London is considered as the most culturally diverse land of the world with 25% of its entire population born outside of England. 
• The London Eye is the highest observation wheel in the world and it takes almost thirty minutes to complete one round of the wheel.

Don’t forget to explore 50 Interesting Facts about USA!

• Till the 18th century, animals were held to the same legal standards as humans. There are instances where like humans, animals were put in jail and hanged.
• According to some glitch in declarations of war, Berwick-upon-Tweed, a town in England is supposedly still in war with Russia. 
• London’s tube system is considered to be the longest underground system of the world but this underground system is considered as the most high-priced and reliable system. 
• Barengaria of Navaree, the queen to King Richard of England is the only English queen who has never set foot in the country.
• If you turn 100 in the UK, you receive a personalised birthday card from the queen. 
• In Gravesend, England, there is a strategically built fake town used by police to imitate dangerous situations and formulas defence mechanisms against them. 
• The queen is officially appointed as the swan keeper of England. It means that the queen owns all the swans in England. 
• The Alnwick Garden in the UK is also known as Poison Garden has more than 100 varieties of toxic and intoxicating plants. 
• There is actually a cheese rolling festival celebrated in Coopers Hill, Gloucestershire where everyone aims to catch the cheese and the winner is rewarded with the cheese itself. 
• In the pubs and bars of England, it’s legal to drink but illegal to get drunk. 
• British Secret service agents during the First World War apparently used semen as invisible ink.
• In 1535, King Henry VIII of England introduced a tax on beards and the tax amount depends on the person’s social position. 
• During the Victorian period, sausages were also known as “little bags of mystery”. 
• London experienced a ‘Great Horse Manure Crisis’ in late 1894. During this period, the London streets were always buried in nine-foot of horse manure. 
• In the 1700s, the UK witnessed the ‘Gin Craze’ during which per person consumption of gin went up to 10 litres per year. 
• There is an accident called London’s Beer Flood which occurred in London in 1814. What happened was that a 22-foot tall wooden vat of fermenting beer brust, killing 8 people and injuring several others. 
• During the 1800s, the name Mary was so popular that nearly half of the female population was named Mary. 
• The diversity of London’s population is such that more than 300 languages are spoken there.
• London’s Big Ben is actually not the name of the tower but the name of the bell inside the tower. Its actual name is “the clock tower”. 
• Feeding pigeons is actually banned in  Trafalgar Square, London. 

Intrigued by these interesting facts about UK? You must also explore February Intake Universities in UK!

Thus, these are the unique 100 interesting facts about UK! Want to study in UK? Get in touch with our Leverage Edu experts and we will help you find the best university and course and further assist you through the admission procedure to ensure that you send a winning application! Sign up for a free session with us today!