London Archives - reddit

Switch to the light mode that's kinder on your eyes at day time.

Switch to the dark mode that's kinder on your eyes at night time.

3 Comments

TIL that Cass Elliot, of The Mamas & The Papas, and Keith Moon, of The Who, died four years apart in the same bedroom in London. Both were 32 years old.

by whatilearned July 1, 2022, 1:01 pm

1 Point
Upvote Downvote
1 Comment

TIL Freddy Mercury once helped dress Princess Diana in full drag(male model)to sneak her into the Royal Vauxhall Tavern in South London so she could have a good time without attention.

by whatilearned July 1, 2022, 4:52 am

1 Point
Upvote Downvote
Apparently, Someone In London Gets Stabbed Every 52 Seconds.

by cringeyjokesman June 30, 2022, 8:32 am

2 Points
Upvote Downvote
4 Comments

TIL the design of a skyscraper in London was melting cars and setting buildings on fire. It’s curvilinear shape was causing the problem: The south-facing exterior wall was covered in reflective glass, and because it’s concave, it focuses the sun’s rays onto a small area.

by whatilearned June 18, 2022, 5:07 pm

8 Points
Upvote Downvote
2 Comments

TIL of George Forster, a convicted murderer who was sentenced to death in 1803 in London. His body was subject to a Galvanism experiment by Giovanni Aldini, where a current was passed through his muscles, despite being dead his face contorted and one eye even opened.

by whatilearned June 13, 2022, 1:34 pm

10 Points
Upvote Downvote
1 Comment

TIL that the last ever prisoners to be held inside the Tower Of London prison were the Kray Twins in 1952

by whatilearned June 9, 2022, 12:36 pm

11 Points
Upvote Downvote
2 Comments

TIL that during WW2, an 2.5mi stretch of a newly tunnelled London Underground extension was converted to an electronics factory, to replace one that had been bombed in 1940

by whatilearned June 5, 2022, 10:22 pm

12 Points
Upvote Downvote
8 Comments

Today I learned that in 1973 Steve McQueen flew to the UK to discuss a film project with Oliver Reed and the two men went on a London pub crawl and got so drunk that Reed puked on McQueen.

by whatilearned June 5, 2022, 6:33 pm

12 Points
Upvote Downvote
1 Comment

TIL Henry III received a polar bear as a gift from King Haakon of Norway in 1252. The bear lived at the Tower of London and was given a long leash so it could swim in the river Thames and catch fish.

by whatilearned June 3, 2022, 10:49 pm

12 Points
Upvote Downvote
5 Comments

TIL, the London clay that the underground railway – “the tube” – locks the heat generated by the railway and has gradually been getting hotter. in the 1900s it was 14°C, today it is nearly 25°C. Most of the heat comes from the trains braking.

by whatilearned May 30, 2022, 9:41 pm

12 Points
Upvote Downvote
5 Comments

TIL about the Great Stink and Joseph Bazalgette. The summer of 1858 made London unbearable and rife with disease as the river Thames was an open sewer of human waste and industrial runoff. Civil engineer Bazalgette designed a sewer system adding over 1,000 miles of pipes that’s still in use today.

by whatilearned May 23, 2022, 3:53 pm

12 Points
Upvote Downvote
TIL in the Thames Estuary, about 40 miles east of London, is a shipwreck from WW2 containing 14,000 unexploded bombs. If they blew up, it could send a five metre tsunami up the river.

by whatilearned May 20, 2022, 12:57 am

12 Points
Upvote Downvote

Congratulations. You've reached the end of the internet.