We’ve been to London a few times now, but we were so happy to get to explore more of England and the United Kingdom this fall! England is a beautiful country and is extremely diverse.
We loved learning about the history, English culture and customs, and traveling to new places in England.
Part of those learnings included some fun facts about England! If you want to study up for your next trip to England or simply want to have some extra facts for travel trivia, here are five fun facts about the country.
England fun facts
1. Buckingham Palace may have an interesting location
It’s rumored that Buckingham Palace was built on the site of a brothel! There’s some debate about this but some historians think there was a brothel located at Mulberry Garden at S. James’s, which is now the northwest corner of the palace.
There are some texts that allude to this brother in 1649 and Buckingham Palace was built in 1702.
Talking about royal residences, Windsor Castle is the oldest royal residence in the world that’s still being used by the royal family. It was originally constructed in 1070 and rebuilt in 1170.
Also fun to know: Winchester was the first capital of England, from 827 to 1066.
2. Tea is extremely popular (no surprise)
Did you know that an Englishman drinks more tea than any person of any other nation?
English people consume more tea per capita than anybody else in the world, at 2.5 times the Japanese and 22 times Americans!
The tradition of afternoon tea dates back to 1840 when the Duchess of Bedford Anna Russell wanted an extra meal between lunch and dinner (which, girl, same). The Duchess invited her friends over and the custom took over British society.
Speaking of drinking culture, did you know it’s illegal to get drunk in a pub in England?
3. England is heavily populated
England is tiny! It’s 74 times smaller than the United States and 59 times smaller than Australia. But, it’s 2.5 times more populous than Australia!
4. French was the language in England
French was the official language of England for about 300 years, from 1066 till 1362.
English was the language of the common people, Latin was used for court documents, and French was spoken in court. How fun! Eventually they adopted English as it was the language of the people.
Speaking of France, Champagne was actually invented in England! In 1662, Christopher Merret, a scientist, presented a paper in London that discussed how adding sugar and molasses to wine would make it sparkle and fizzy. This method that was described was adopted by Dom Pérignon in the wine region of Champagne.
5. Cheese rolling is a sport
Nope, not kidding. Competitors gather at Cooper’s Hill in Gloucestershire and chase a wheel of Double Gloucester cheese down a hill.
Yup. Not going to lie, we kind of need to see this for ourselves now.
The cheese wheel is estimated to weigh about 7 lb. and the hill is quite steep, which only adds to the riskiness of the sport (and the fun, one assumes). Whoever crosses the finish line first wins the wheel of cheese (and hopefully an ice pack).
What other fun facts have you learned about England? Tell us your fun facts in the comments below!
