1) What was the original title of that most London of songs Waterloo Sunset? (1 point)
Oddly enough it was Liverpool Sunset and was planned as homage/epitaph for the Mersey Beat scene. Then Ray Davies heard Penny Lane and thought it might be better to write a song eulogising London rather than burying Liverpool and so 'Terry met Julie etc'
2) Which London bridge has suffered the indignity of being bombed three times by Irish terrorists and for a bonus which is the only bridge to have suffered a direct hit by a bomb World War Two. (2 points)
Hammersmith in the 1930s, 1996 and 2000. The fenians planned to torpedo London Bridge in the 19th century but never got around to it and blew up a paint store on Chelsea in 1971. Waterloo Bridge was the only one to suffer a direct hit but a flying bomb did bounce off Tower Bridge.
3) Where was the first game of football under Football Association rules played? (1 point)
Battersea Park. On 9 January 1864 at , between the secretary's team and a side chosen by the President of the F.A., teams which included the best-known footballers of the day. After the game the two parties, their supporters and well-wishers adjourned to the Grosvenor Hotel, Pimlico for a smoking concert. The toast of the evening was "Success to football irrespective of class or creed."
4) What is the alleged connection between the 'wickedest man in the world' and Chelsea FC? (2 points). Bonus if you know where his local pub was.
This is nothing to do with Ken Bates. Alistair Crowley, self styled great beast of the book of revelation allegedly laid out the Stamford Bridge pitch using occult powers and gave Chelsea their colours, he drank at the Plough in Museum St. Chelsea still employ an official club magician. The pub is the Plough near the British Museum.
5) Carey Street in WC2 has connections to debt and the legal profession but what links it to two of Britain's best known pop stars? (2 points)
Mick Jagger attended the London School of Economics at one end of Carey Street whilst David Bowie's first performance of Space Oddity was at Legestat Legal Photocopiers where he once worked. The fact that Bowie (in the song laughing gnome) refers to the London School of Econgnomics should not be taken as a slight on Mr Jagger.
6) Who has a plaque to him on the embankment near Northumberland Avenue that says Flumini vincula posuit and what does that mean? (2 points)
Joseph Bazzalgette responsible for the embankments and the sewage system and much else in London. The Latin inscription means he placed chains on the river.
7) Who or what made a jump for it on Tower Bridge in 1952? (1 point)
A double decker bus (number 78 heading from the south) had to jump three feet as the bascules of the bridge started to rise as the bus was making its way across.
8) John Rennie's London Bridge (or most of it) famously ended up in Arizona but where might you find bits of its predecessor Old London Bridge? (2 points)
There is an alcove in Victoria Park Hackney and another bit in Guys Hospital. A small bit of Rennie's bridge (that obviously failed to get past homeland security measures) can be found in Kew Gardens.
9) At what site has remains of the oldest London Thames crossing been found? (1 point)
Vauxhall, near where the Effra enters the Thames. Remains of a bronze age bridge were found in the 1990s pre-dating the Roman London Bridge by over 1000 years.
10) Rather oddly dolphin motifs and statues line the river Thames but even more peculiar is a link between dolphins and Oxford Street. What is that connection (1 point) and for a bonus what was saucy about it?
There was once a Dolphinarium called Pleasurama's London Dolphinarium, at 65 Oxford Street which opened its doors to the public in 1971, as an up-market striptease revue featuring dancing "aquamaids" and several dolphins In the evening there was an adults only show whereby flipper and his mates had been trained to remove the bikini tops of the ladies that swam with them.
11) Still on matters saucy found in a call box in June 2004 was a card with a flag of St George and a phone number printed on it with the slogan you'll always score with us. For 1 point what's that all about?
Another example of London's hookers being topical and entrepreneurial though I've yet to see one with an elderly lady on and the legend 'wayne's world'. Still doesn't top the one from December a few years back which just had a picture of a cracker with a phone number in it, a right christmas cracker.
12) Which bridge does Suzy Kendall symbolically (and actually cross) in Up the Junction? (1 point)
Well everyone who entered put Battersea Bridge but the research I've done says Chelsea as the route Ms Kendall takes from north to south to explore the other world of sarf london.
13) Who according to popular song 'only scores with his dealer?' and who is likely to score with your grannie? (2 points) For a bonus can anyone remember the chant that actually links these two? (I point)
Adrian Mutu, latterly of Chelsea currently of the Priory and Wayne Rooney, latterly of the people's club now a fat manc who shouldn't be allowed near a Saga Tour Bus. As far as I'm aware the only chant to bring these together was at Goodison Park in November 2003 after Mutu scored, prompting the Chelsea fans to sing: 'Chim chiminee, chim chiminee chim chim cherroo, who needs Wayne Rooney when we've got Mutu' Though I was amused that most of you thought of Robbie Fowler.
14) In 1982 Roberto Calvi was found hanging under Blackfriars Bridge. He is referred to as 'god's banker' but who might have been more deserving of that title? (1 point)
Calvi was head of the Banco Ambrosiano which handled the Vatican deposits but the man actually responsible for making those deposits was Bishop Paul Marcinkus, the American head of the Vatican bank.
15) In view of where it leads to why might painting Vauxhall Bridge burgundy be oddly appropriate? (1 point)
Vauxhall Bridge connects Vauxhall to Pimlico. In the film Passport to Pimlico, the good citizens of that area decided to declare independence from the UK and ally themselves to the Duke of Burgundy.
16) Easy one point which of the following is the true origin of Charing Cross:
Charing Cross derives from one of the twelve crosses placed by Edward I in honour of his wife (Queen Eleanor). The place selected comes from the old English word, cierran meaning to turn or bend, reflecting the bend in the river at this point.
17) The film the Third Man was made almost exclusively in Vienna but which London river is used to create the sound effects of the Vienna sewers? (1 point)
Nicholas Barton writing in the lost rivers of London cites the sound effects of the river Fleet used in the film The Third Man, even though the action and filming takes place in the sewers of Vienna.
18) Where in Central London can you find Fortress, Citadel, Rampart and Bastion? Three points if you can locate them and offer some clue as what they might be.
Well you got a point if you said underground. Fortress (Moorgate), Citadel (Faraday House), Rampart (Waterloo) and Bastion (Covent Garden) are all deep level bunkers that form part of the secret network of tunnels beneath central London and are/were to be used by government and army in the event of a major attack on London.
19) Two famous people whose coffins were transported by tube. (1 point)
Dr Bernardo of the famous charity and prime minister Gladstone.
20) Which London Bridge has a plaque to a lieutenant Wood on it and why should perhaps there be one to ladies hairdresser, Maurice Childs? (2 points)
Lieutenant Wood dived off Hammersmith Bridge to save the life of Margaret Paxton though sadly died some days later himself. Maurice Childs threw a suitcase containing a bomb from the bridge in 1939.
21) Who discovered that 75% of hauntings in Central London occur near buried rivers and what did he conclude from this information? (2 points) For a bonus name any four of the 'lost' rivers.
GW Lambert made the discovery and it rather vexed him because he wanted to prove the existence of ghosts but his scientific side realised that rather than there being a link to the supernatural and rivers attracting spectres, it was more likely that the sudden cold/damp spots people reported, along with swishing sounds and draughts were probably caused by the water.
Buried rivers in Central London include the Fleet, Tyburn, Westbourne, Effra, Walbrook and Ravenscroft. Further afield there are Stamford Brook, Wandle, Beverley Brook, Counters Creek, Deptford Creek, Parrs Ditch and the Falcon.
22) Which London Bridge do bikers rendezvous on every Friday evening and why (for a bonus).
Chelsea Bridge near the snack bar on the south side continues to host London's would be outlaws. On Oct 17 1970 Essex and Chelsea Nomads had a battle versus the (ahem) Road Rats, Nightingales, Windsor Angels and Jokers. In the ensuing battle one of the angels was killed on Chelsea Bridge and thus a tradition of meeting in honour of that was begun.
23) Why might the acronym GFDW but useful for London cab drivers and what does it stand for? (2 points) For a bonus where is tea bag corner in London.
Greek, Frith, Dean and Wardour are the four streets that that run off Shaftsbury Avenue in order from East to West. They are the principal streets of Soho which has a long standing link with prostitution so Good For Dirty Women is a handy means of reminding folk of the order the streets come in. Tea bag corner is the junction of Bond Street and Brook Street making up Brook Bond, a well known maker of tea bags. No one got this, can't think why....
24) Where was the drunken bridge? (1 point)
Over a stream that ran through Garratt Lane SW18.
25) Why are paintings of a London Bridge deemed importantly to the development of modern art. 2 points. One for the bridge and one for why.
Battersea Bridge was painted by Whistler and in his nocturnes he fused impressionistic images of the bridge with a more traditional realistic style. His take on the subject influenced later artists as they heralded the beginning of Abstract Art and from this Impressionism. So sorry to those who put Fauve (Charing Cross) and Monet.
What was the chief reason for the closure of the walkways over Tower Bridge in the Edwardian era? Bonus point is available for secondary reasons.
The main reason was to stop the working the working girls showing off their ankles to great effect on the walkways though people jumping and lack of use were also cited.
As it's that time of year the following lines are rarely from my mind.
'With a drizzling rain and skidding bus And the twilight settling over us'
Who wrote them and where are they from. (1 point) For a bonus bus point what date did the best bus route in London, the number 12, cease to be a route master and become all bendy?
November 6th 2004 was the sad day, the end of being able to hop off at Hardy's Off Licence on the Walworth Road and instead trek back from the official stop (all of 200 yards away). Ford Maddox Ford wrote Finchley Road. The whole poems goes:
Finchley Road
As we come up at Baker Street Where tubes and trains and 'buses meet There's a touch of fog and a touch of sleet; And we go on up Hampstead way Towards the closing in of day . . . You should be a queen or a duchess rather, Reigning in place of a warlike father In peaceful times o'er a tiny town Where all the roads wind up and down From your little palace - a small, old place Where every soul should know your face And bless your coming. That's what I mean, A small grand-duchess, no distant queen, Lost in a great land, sitting alone In a marble palace upon a throne. And you'd say to your shipmen: 'Now take your ease, Tomorrow is time enough for the seas.' And you'd set your bondmen a milder rule And let the children loose from the school. No wrongs to right and no sores to fester, In your small, great hall 'neath a firelit dais, You'd sit with me at your feet, your jester, Stroking your shoes where the seed pearls glisten And talking my fancies. And you as your way is, Would sometimes heed and at times not listen, But sit at your sewing and look at the brands And sometimes reach me one of your hands, Or bid me write you a little ode, Part quaint, part sad, part serious . . . But here we are in the Finchley Road With a drizzling rain and a skidding 'bus And the twilight settling down on us.