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50 free London trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
London has been a major settlement for nearly 2,000 years, from the Roman trading post of Londinium to a city of more than nine million people spread across 32 boroughs and the ancient square mile of the City. It has burned down, been bombed, hosted three Olympic Games and built the world's first underground railway, and it still runs on a street plan that survived the Great Fire of 1666. These 50 questions roam the whole city: Boudica and Alfred, the plague and the fire, the Tube map and the Elizabeth line, Big Ben and Tower Bridge, the Shard and the London Eye, the Royal Parks, the museums of Albertopolis, the airports, the accents and the chocolate digestive factory in Harlesden. Easier questions cover the landmarks every visitor knows; harder ones ask which borough holds City Hall, which bank holiday hosts the Notting Hill Carnival, and which EMI engineer invented stereo sound in 1931. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss. Play it solo, or print it for a pub quiz.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Under what name did the Romans found the settlement that became London?
Londinium
It superseded Colchester as the principal city of Roman Britannia around the year 100.
Q 02Which queen led the Iceni to burn the first Roman settlement around AD 61?
Boudica
The Romans had founded the town only about 14 years earlier, just after their invasion of AD 43.
Q 03What was the Anglo-Saxon settlement that grew up just west of the old Roman walls?
Lundenwic
It was abandoned when life and trade moved back inside the Roman walls in the 880s.
Q 04Which king 'refounded' London in 886, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle?
Alfred
The revival involved moving back inside the old Roman walls after decades of Viking raids.
Q 05William the Conqueror was crowned at Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day of which year?
1066
He then built the Tower of London to intimidate the city's inhabitants.
Q 06London was the focus of which 1381 uprising?
The Peasants' Revolt
The city had lost nearly a third of its population to the Black Death a few decades earlier.
Q 07The Great Plague of 1665–66 killed roughly what share of London's population?
A fifth
Around 100,000 people died, and the Great Fire followed the very next year.
Q 08The Great Fire of 1666 started in a bakery on which street?
Pudding Lane
It broke out shortly after midnight on Sunday 2 September and burned for four days.
Q 09Which Lord Mayor's hesitation delayed the firebreaks during the Great Fire?
Sir Thomas Bloodworth
By the time demolitions were ordered, the east wind had turned the bakery blaze into a firestorm.
Q 10Which polymath supervised the decade-long rebuilding after the Great Fire?
Robert Hooke
The city was rebuilt on essentially the same medieval street plan, which survives today.
Q 11Who designed St Paul's Cathedral, completed in 1710?
Christopher Wren
Its dome dominated the skyline for centuries, and tall buildings are still restricted to protect views of it.
Q 12In which year did George III acquire Buckingham House?
1762
The house would later grow into Buckingham Palace.
Q 13What were the Bow Street Runners, established in 1750?
A police force
Crime dogged 18th-century London, and the Runners were its first professional force.
Q 14London was the world's largest city from about 1831 until roughly which year?
Q 21How many London boroughs sit alongside the City of London?
32
Together with the City of London Corporation they make 33 local authorities.
Q 22City Hall, the mayor's headquarters, is in which borough?
Newham
The authority moved east from its former riverside home in Southwark.
Q 23What is London's telephone area code?
020
It covers an area similar in size to Greater London.
Q 24How long is the M25 orbital motorway?
1925
Its density reached 132 people per acre as the Industrial Revolution drove urbanisation.
Q 15In which year did the world's first underground passenger railway open in London?
1863
The Metropolitan Railway carried 9.5 million passengers in its first year despite coal-burning locomotives.
Q 16The Great Smog of 1952 led directly to which law?
Clean Air Act
It ended the 'pea soup' fogs that had earned the city its nickname.
Q 17What nickname did London's pea-soup fogs earn the city?
The Big Smoke
Coal smoke was the culprit until 1956 legislation finally cleared the air.
Q 18In which year was the Thames Barrier completed?
1982
It sits 2 miles east of central London to protect against North Sea tidal surges.
Q 19Which body, created in 2000, restored citywide government after 14 years without one?
Greater London Authority
The Greater London Council had been abolished in 1986.
Q 20Who was elected Mayor of London in 2016?
Sadiq Khan
He won the 2016 mayoral election; the mayor has executive powers, scrutinised by the London Assembly.
117 miles
That makes it the second-longest ring-road motorway in Europe.
Q 25The nominal 'centre of London' is traditionally the site of which landmark?
Charing Cross
The original Eleanor Cross stood there, where the Strand meets Whitehall.
Q 26How many UNESCO World Heritage Sites does London have?
4
Kew Gardens, the Tower of London, the Westminster ensemble and the maritime district around the Royal Observatory.
Q 27Which London settlement's Royal Observatory defines the prime meridian?
Greenwich
It also gives its name to Greenwich Mean Time.
Q 28What is the tallest building in the UK and Western Europe, at 95 storeys?
The Shard
It stands 309.6 metres high in Southwark and was inaugurated in July 2012.
Q 29Which Italian architect sketched the UK's tallest tower on a restaurant menu in 2000?
Renzo Piano
He reportedly drew a spire rising from the Thames over lunch in Berlin with developer Irvine Sellar.
Q 30Tate Modern opened in 2000 inside which former industrial building?
Bankside Power Station
The Tate's modern collection moved there from Tate Britain on Millbank.