Lost London Quiz: Can You Beat The Winners?

Hunterian as it used to be.

Last Friday, we put on a special quiz for the Hunterian Museum to mark Museums at Night weekend. Around 70 people turned out to answer questions on ‘lost’ London, from vanished rivers to forgotten place names. The winning team accumulated a staggering 56 out of 60. See if you can beat them.

(Note: we’ve left the picture round out, as it involved moving round the museum looking for visual clues. Most teams got full marks on this round, so you can award yourself six points before you even start.)

Round 1. Lost Names (by M@)

  1. Which south London area was, for much of its history, known as Hatcham?
  2. Battle Bridge was the former name of which area, now dominated by a mainline train station?
  3. Which south London conurbation got its name from an Anglo Saxon phrase meaning Crocus Valley?
  4. Improbably, the area now dominated by Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament was once an island. What name is usually given to this island, which existed until late Saxon times?
  5. Where in London would you have found the lost Palace of Placentia, birthplace of Henry VIII, Mary Tudor and Elizabeth I?
  6. What was the Roman name for London?

Round 2. Lost Rivers
This round was put together by Tom Bolton, whose book ‘London’s Lost Rivers’ comes out in June.

  1. Which buried London river flows beneath the concourse of King’s Cross Station?
  2. Name the Victorian slum neighbourhood, scene of Bill Sykes’s death in Oliver Twist, which was surrounded by the River Neckinger in Bermondsey?
  3. The first Roman settlement in the City of London was either side of the valley of which river?
  4. The River Westbourne, which flows through Kilburn and Paddington among other areas, was dammed to create which London lake?
  5. Which lost London river flows beneath Buckingham Palace?
  6. What fragrant crop, grown beside the river Wandle, was Mitcham famous for during the
  7. 19th century?

Round 3. Lost Buildings (by M@)

  1. Name the Norman fortress that once dominated the land around what is now Blackfriars Station.
  2. Where in London did the Crystal Palace building originally stand, before moving to Sydenham and subsequently burning down?
  3. Watkins Tower, started in 1891, was an attempt to rival the Eiffel Tower. It never got beyond the 50 metre mark but, had it been completed, it would have stood taller than the Shard. What famous landmark was later built on its site?
  4. London’s Roman Forum is believed to have been the largest north of the Alps. Fragments still remain beneath which existing market building?
  5. Which large structure, formerly a London landmark, can now be found in Lake Havasu City, Arizona?
  6. Name the much-loved music venue that was demolished in 2009 to make way for Crossrail development at Tottenham Court Road station.

Round 4. Lost Sport
This round was put together by journalist Peter Watts of the Great Wen blog.

  1. Which London football club once played home games at the Manor Ground, Plumstead? (Looking for the modern name of the club.)
  2. Name the French artist who watched cycling races at the since demolished Catford velodrome, making sketches he’d later work up into a cycling poster?
  3. Which lost stadium of west London appears in the closing scenes of London crime flick The Blue Lamp?
  4. The Hackney Wick Wolves, Hackney Hawks, Hackney Kestrels and London Lions all competed at the Hackney Wick Stadium. But at which sport?
  5. The original location of which famous sports ground is now covered by Dorset Square in Marylebone?
  6. The Lamb and Flag pub in Covent Garden used to be known as the Bucket of Blood, because of which sport that took place here?

Round 5. Picture Round
This round not included, but award yourself 6 points.

Round 6. Lost Property (by M@)

  1. Near which Tube station can you find the lost property office for Transport for London, whose recovered items include a lawnmower, a stuffed puffer fish, some breast implants and a phial of bull semen?
  2. Which fleeing king threw the Great Seal of the Realm into the Thames in 1688?
  3. Which famous illegal immigrant from south-America was discovered in the 1950s in a west-London station with nothing more than a suitcase, crumpled hat and duffel coat?
  4. What extremely precious lost item did a dog called Pickles discover in a South Norwood hedge in 1966?
  5. What did the Tower of London lose in 1671, later found in the possession of a gentleman known as Colonel Blood?
  6. What went missing from the Natural History Museum, according to the title and plot of a 1975 comedy film?

Round 7. Lost Victorian London
This round was put together by Lee Jackson, author of many books and websites about Victorian London.

  1. London’s Pleasure Gardens were one of the major attractions of Georgian and Victorian London. One of the most famous, closed in the early 1840s, ran along what is now King’s Cross Road. Can you name it?
  2. What Gothic market-building, built in the 1860s by philanthropist Angela Burdett Coutts was abandoned by stall holders, who preferred to sell outdoors, demolished in the 1950s, but continues to this day as an open-air market specialising in flowers?
  3. Multiple Choice: The Tower Subway ran under the Thames connecting Tower Hill with the south bank. In what year did it open? 1840, 1870, 1900
  4. What giant scientific instrument dominated Wandsworth Common in 1852?
  5. One of the world’s largest Ferris wheels, capable of carrying over 1000 passengers, opened in which area of London in 1894?
  6. The giant Victorian shopping bazaar known as the Pantheon stood on the south side of Oxford Street until 1937. It’s replacement still bears the name ‘The Pantheon’, but now contains which chain store?

8. Lost Lives (by M@)

  1. Name the 18th/19th Century philosopher whose preserved body remains on public display inside UCL’s main building.
  2. One of the most famous actresses of all time died of a drug overdose in Cadogan Lane, Chelsea in 1969. Name her.
  3. The worst train crash in London (and England’s) history occurred in which part of London on 8 October 1952?
  4. Bulgarian novelist Georgi Markov was assassinated on Waterloo Bridge in 1978. The rifle that delivered the poisoned pellet is thought to have been disguised as what?
  5. 40 people died in Regents Park on 15 January 1867. What activity were they participating in at the time?
  6. In which London park would you find the Watts Memorial, which commemorates people who lost their lives in trying to save others?


9. Lost Transport
This round was put together by Travis Elbrough, author of The Bus We Loved, and the London Quiz book. MULTIPLE CHOICE

  1. On 9 December 2005, London lost its legendary Routemaster buses, when they were withdrawn from general service. But what was this vehicle nearly called? (A) The Londoner, (B) Roadmaster, (C) Master Route.
  2. Where did the last London tram run to on 6 July 1952? (A) Woolwich, (B) New Cross, (C) Elephant and Castle.
  3. From 1854 until 1941, the Necropolis Railway carried the capital’s dead from Waterloo to which cemetery? (A) Kensal Green, (B) West Norwood, (C) Brookwood.
  4. Following a petition from Arsenal Football Club, Gillespie Road underground station in Highbury was re-named Arsenal (Highbury Hill) in 1932. But for five months in 1939 which other London sporting locale had its own dedicated tube stop? (A) Lord’s Cricket Ground, Marylebone, (B) Craven Cottage, Fulham, (C) White Hart Lane, Tottenham.
  5. What was finally banned on London buses in 1991? (A) Busking, (B) Drinking alcohol, (C) Smoking.
  6. There are over 40 ‘ghost stations’ on London’s underground network but what makes the ‘lost’ North End Station (also called Bull & Bush) between Hampstead and Golders Green especially unusual? (A) It never opened, (B) It was built for the sole use of Frank Pick, the first chief executive of London Transport, (C). It was closed after its ceiling caved in to reveal the remains of a plague pit.

10. Lost miscellanea (by M@)

  1. Shakespeare’s Globe theatre was lost to the city through fire in 1613. Name the American actor and director who successfully campaigned to have it rebuilt in the 1990s, but never lived to see it complete.
  2. Getting lost is easy in the Barbican complex, with its baffling walkways, stairwells and dead ends. If you can successfully navigate your way around, which museum would you find in the south-west corner?
  3. Ken Livingstone won the first ever election for a mayor of London in 2000, standing as an independent. Name the Labour and Tory candidates who lost.
  4. The body of which great London comedian went missing for 11 weeks, when it was illegally exhumed from a Swiss cemetery in 1978?
  5. Name the great chain of corner houses, which was synonymous with London dining from the 1920s to the 1970s and whose waitresses were known as ‘nippies’ for their speed.
  6. Which museum lost a large portion of its collection when it was hit by a high explosive bomb in May 1941?

Total: 60 points (including 6 automatic points for the picture round).

We’re always interested in partnering with other venues to run a Londonist quiz. Please contact matt@londonist.com to discuss. (Note: By tradition, Londonist pub quizzes are never in pubs.)

Update: Answers are now available in the linked Word file (has been scanned for viruses). LondonistQuizHunterianMuseum(1)

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  • Anonymous

    Excellent, but are you going to give us the answers?

  • Horatioqbirdbath


  • Anonymous

    Cheers guys. Answers are now available to download from the attached Word file at the bottom of the article. I don’t want to paste them into the article as it’ll spoil it for newcomers (and I’m too lazy).

  • Pete of London

    Blimey – that was a tough quiz, congratulations to the bloggers for getting such an amazing score. Managed 43 as a solo effort, which isn’t too bad I guess (also nice to get higher than a single point in a sports round for the first time ever).  Hopefully my team can make it along to the next one – looking forward to it.

  • Pete of London
