AMAZING FACTS

20 FACTS ABOUT LONDON'S UNDERGROUND

There is only one tube station name which does not have any letters of the word "mackerel" in it - St John's Wood.

There are only two tube stations which have all five vowels in them - Mansion House and South Ealing.

Considering there are 287 tube stations, things 1 and 2 are quite surprising.

Chancery Lane has the shortest escalator on the system - 50 steps.

Travelling on the tube for 40 minutes is the equivalent of smoking two cigarettes - so save yourself a packet, all you smokers and get on the tube more often.

The shortest distance between tube stations is Leicester Square and Covent Garden on the Piccadilly line - 0.16 miles.

The most popular route for tourists is Leicester Square to Covent Garden on the Piccadilly line. It is quicker to walk this distance than travel on the tube.

The only tube station which shares the name of a well known pop group is All Saints (yeah I know it's on the Docklands Light Railway - but it's still on the tube map).

The phrase "Mind the Gap" originated on the Northern line.

The Jubilee line was originally going to be called the Fleet line.

Northfields station on the Piccadilly line was the first to use kestrels and hawks to kill pigeons and stop them setting up homes in stations.

The Central line covers the longest route - from West Ruislip to Epping you will travel 34 miles without changing.

The Waterloo and City line covers the shortest route - 2 kilometres, but considering it only covers two stations - Waterloo and Bank, it doesn't take Stephen Hawkins to work that one out.

The oldest tube line in the world is the Metropolitan line. It opened on the 10th January 1863.

Tube carriages originally had no windows and buttoned upholstery and were nicknamed "padded cells". No change there then.

Men have to sit with their legs apart when travelling on the tube. This is due to special magnetic fibres on the upholstery of the seats which interacts with testosterone to provide an antimagnetic outward force.

Julian Lloyd Webber was London Underground's first official busker - I didn't know he needed the money that badly.

More of the London Underground is open than in a tunnel. Tell yourself this fact if you suffer from claustrophobia.

Bank has more escalators than any other station on the tube - 15 plus two moving walkways - count em!

Out of the 287 stations, only 29 are south of the river Thames.

One of the female automated voice announcers is called Sonia - because her voice "gets on yer nerves".

Fish and Parcels is the slang name for the District Line. It should be Pony and Trap.

Edward Johnston designed the font for the London Underground in 1916.

The peak hour for tube suicides is 11am.

The Jubilee Line Extension was the most expensive railway line ever built. It cost USD 330 million per kilometre. Shame they didn't make the platforms and the trains bigger though.

FACTS ABOUT LONDON

There are over a million children in London’s schools.

Over 100,000 children were born in London last year.

Greater London covers an area of 656 square miles, with some areas 45 miles from the centre.

Greater London has over 600 square miles of roads, with over 50 High Streets! But traffic in Central London moves at the same average speed as it did in 1911.

London has over 11,000 restaurants, cafes and takeaways.

Over 25 million people visited London last year.

If London was a country, it would be the 8th largest country in Europe.

There are more languages spoken in London than in any other city in the world.

The name for Oz in the "Wizard of Oz" was thought up when the creator, Frank Baum, looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N, and O-Z, hence "Oz."

The name of the Vulcan's heaven is Sha Ka Ree, this is a play on the name Sean Connery who was considered for the part of Sarek, Spock's father.

The name Wendy was made up for the book "Peter Pan."

The names of the three wise monkeys are: Mizaru: See no evil, Mikazaru: Hear no evil, and Mazaru: Speak no evil.

Walt Disney named Mickey Mouse after Mickey Rooney, whose mother he dated for some time.
Walt Disney's autograph bears no resemblance to the famous Disney logo.
Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine are brother and sister.
When opossums are playing opossum, they are not "playing." They actually pass out from sheer terror.
When young and impoverished, Pablo Picasso kept warm by burning his own paintings.
While at Havard University, Edward Kennedy was suspended for cheating on a Spanish exam.
While performing her duties as queen, Cleopatra sometimes wore a fake beard.
Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan carries the designation M-1, named so because it was the first paved road anywhere.

Leaning Tower of Pisa is a bell tower at Pisa, Italy. It is famous for leaning 4.4 meters out of line when measured from the seventh story. It was built to stand vertically but began leaning soon after construction started in August 1173. It tilts because its foundation was built on unstable soil. The ground beneath the tower first started to sink after the first three stories were built. The height of the tower is 55 meters from the ground. The construction of the building began in 1173 and lasted two centuries.



The leaning tower of Pisa was commenced in 1152, and was not finished till the fourteenth century. Tho cathedral to which this belongs was erected to celebrate a triumph of the Pisans in the harbor of Palermo in 1063, when allied with the Normans to drive the Saracens out of Sicily. It is a circular building, one hundred feet in diameter and 179 feet in extreme height, and has fine mosaic pavements, elaborately carved columns, and numerous bas-reliefs. The building is of white marble. The tower is divided into eight stories, each having an outside gallery of seven feet projection, and the topmost story overhangs the base about sixteen feet, though, as the center of gravity is still ten feet within the base, the building is perfectly safe.




It has been supposed that this inclination was intentional, but the opinion that the foundation has sunk is no doubt correct. It is most likely that the defective foundation became perceptible before the tower had reached one-half its height, as at that elevation the unequal length of the columns exhibits an endeavor to restore the perpendicular, and at about the same place the walls are strengthened with iron bars.

Alaska
	More than half of the coastline of the entire United States is in Alaska.
Amazon
	The Amazon rainforest produces more than 20% the world's oxygen supply. The Amazon River pushes so much water into the Atlantic Ocean that, more than one hundred miles at sea off the mouth of the river, one can dip fresh water out of the ocean. The volume of water in the Amazon river is greater than the next eight largest rivers in the world combined and three times the flow of all rivers in the United States.
Antarctica
	Antarctica is the only land on our planet that is not owned by any country. Ninety percent of the world's ice covers Antarctica. This ice also represents seventy percent of all the fresh water in the world. As strange as it sounds, however, Antarctica is essentially a desert. The average yearly total precipitation is about two inches Although covered with ice (all but 0.4% of it, i.e.), Antarctica is the driest place on the planet, with an absolute humidity lower than the Gobi desert.
Brazil
	Brazil got its name from the nut, not the other way around.
Canada
	Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined. Canada is an Indian word meaning "Big Village."
Chicago
	Next to Warsaw, Chicago has the largest Polish population in the world.
Detroit
	Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan, carries the designation M-1, named so because it was the first paved road anywhere.
Damascus, Syria
	Damascus, Syria, was flourishing a couple of thousand years before Rome was founded in 753 BC, making it the oldest continuously inhabited city in existence.
Istanbul, Turkey
	Istanbul, Turkey, is the only city in the world located on two continents.
Kola Peninsula, Russia
	The deepest hole ever made by humans is in Kola Peninsula in Russia, was completed in 1989, creating a hole 12,262 meters (7.6 miles) deep.
Los Angeles
	Los Angeles's full name is El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula --and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size: L.A.
New York City
	The term "The Big Apple" was coined by touring jazz musicians of the 1930's who used the slang expression "apple" for any town or city. Therefore, to play New York City is to play the big time - The Big Apple. There are more Irish in New York City than in Dublin, Ireland; more Italians in New York City than in Rome, Italy; and more Jews in New York City than in Tel Aviv,  Israel.
Ohio
	There are no natural lakes in the state of Ohio, every one is manmade.
Pitcairn Island
	The smallest island with country status is Pitcairn in Polynesia, at just 1.75 sq. miles/4,53 sq. km.
Rome
	The first city to reach a population of 1 million people was Rome, Italy in 133 B.C. There is a city called Rome on every continent.
Siberia
	Siberia contains more than 25% of the world's forests. S.M.O.M.The actual smallest sovereign entity in the world is the Sovereign Military Order of Malta ( S.M.O.M.). It is located in the city of Rome, Italy, has an area of two tennis courts, and as of 2001 has a population of 80, 20 people less than the Vatican. It is a sovereign entity under international law, just as the Vatican is.
Sahara Desert
	In the Sahara Desert, there is a town named Tidikelt, which did not receive a drop of rain for ten years. Technically though, the driest place on Earth is in the valleys of the Antarctic near Ross Island. There has been no rainfall there for two million years.
Spain
	Spain literally means 'the land of rabbits'.
St. Paul, Minnesota
	St.Paul, Minnesota, was originally called Pig's Eye after a man named Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant who set up the first business there.
Roads
	Chances that a road is unpaved in the U.S.A.: 1%, in Canada: 75% The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one-mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.
United States' Waterfalls
	The water of Angel Falls (the World's highest) in Venezuela drops 3,212 feet (979 meters). They are 15 times higher than Niagara Falls.

Globally, the flavors and fragrances form a $17.8-billion industry of which the top five players are Givaudan, International Flavors & Fragrances, Firmenich, Symrise and Quest International.

These five companies have a substantial presence in the Indian market, along with competition from Indian F&F houses like SH Kelkar, Sachee Aromatics and Oriental Flavors & Fragrances. The Indian F&F market is estimated at around $225 million.

"The word 'perfume' comes from the Latin per fume 'through smoke'. One of the oldest uses of perfumes was in the form the burning of incense and aromatic herbs used in religious services, often the aromatic gums, frankincense and myrrh, gathered from trees.

The Egyptians were the first clan to use perfume followed by the ancient Chinese, Hindus, Israelites, Carthaginians, Arabs, Greeks, and Romans.

The Egyptians invented glass and perfume bottles were one of the first common uses for glass.

So which is the most expensive perfume brand available in the market? Which perfume bottle is adorned with a five-carat diamond? Read on to find out. . . (These perfumes have been ranked by www.perfumejuice.com.

1. Clive Christian's Imperial Majesty: Price $215,000
British designer Clive Christian's creation has recently been voted in the Guiness Book of World Records the most expensive perfume in the world. The 16.9-ounce perfume bottle is stuck into the 18-carat gold collar that is adorned with a five-carat diamond. Only five bottles are made annually, justifying the eye-popping price.

2. Clive Christian No. 1: Price $2,150 (2 oz.)
This perfume is an extravagant combination of Indian jasmine, mandarin and sandalwood. Its bottle is handmade from lead crystal, while the neck is 24-karat gold-plated sterling silver, set with a solitaire.

The stopper is designed after the original pattern granted by Queen Victoria.

3. Caron's Poivre: $2,000
The peppery unisex fragrance of Caron Poivre is a snip at $2,000 (for 2 oz).

This perfume is a concoction of lavender, jasmine, rose, Lily of the valley, carnation, cedar, sandalwood, Tonka and musk.

The maker of this perfume, Caron, is one of the last perfume houses to still have an in-house 'nose' (Monsieur Fraysse) -- also called a master perfumer.

4. Chanel No 5: Price $1,850
One of the world's most famous perfumes relies heavily on jasmine. It was the first fragrance from Parisian couturier, Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel.

History has it that Chanel commissioned renowned perfumer Ernest Beaux to make six perfumes. They were labelled No. 1, No. 2, etc. through No. 6. Chanel liked No. 5 the most and that became the chosen formula.

Initially, this perfume was given to some of Chanel's clients for free at her boutique.

5. Baccarats Les Larmes Sacrees de Thebe: Price $1,700
Baccarat, better known as the maker of high-quality crystal, entered the fragrance business in the late 1990s with three limited-edition fragrances of its own.

Baccarats Les Larmes Sacrees de Thebe combines frankincense and myrrh. The perfume comes in exquisite Baccarat crystal bottles.

6. Annick Goutal's Eau d'Hadrien: Price $1,500
Annick Goutal is a European perfumer, former model and prize-winning pianist. Her Eau d'Hadrien is a fresh, citrus blend of Sicilian lemons, grapefruit and cypress.

7. Hermes' 24 Faubourg: Price $1,500
This women's perfume, which comes in 1-oz bottles, is made by French fashion house Hermes International.

Hermes started its fragrance line in 1951. Over the past 57 years, the company has created several fragrances for both men and women.

8. Jean Patou's Joy: Price $800
This is quite a popular fragrance among Hollywood stars. It comes in 1-oz bottles and is a heavy floral scent, based on the most precious rose and jasmine, created by French fashion designer Jean Patou.

Other Patou perfumes are Amour Amour, Adieu Sagesse and Que Sais Je.
But 'Joy' is the most well known one.