15+ Proofs That The UK Is Very Different From The Rest Of The World (Including The Brits Themselves)

The United Kingdom is full of secrets and legends that intrigue not only tourists, but also the British themselves. Do you know who Princes Harry and William played in Star Wars🇧🇷 What is the relationship between the British Queen and Count Dracula? And why are Britney Spears songs used by the British military as an effective weapon against pirates?

We, from awesome.club, we check out the most interesting and surprising facts about the UK that may shock even the English teachers at your school. Check out!

Buckingham Palace was built on the site of a former brothel. Today, the palace has more than 700 rooms, including 19 public rooms, 52 royal and guest rooms, another 188 staff rooms, 92 official offices and 78 bathrooms.

Recently, information has surfaced that there is a kinship between the British royal family and Vlad III (Vlad Drăculea, in Romanian), better known as Vlad Drakul or Count Drácula. He was a 15th-century noble whose cruel deeds gave rise to legends about vampires. It has been confirmed that Mary of Teck, Queen Elizabeth II’s grandmother, is distantly related to one of Vlad’s children.

The slave trade was abolished and banned in the 19th century, but as of April 2010 there was no law in the UK criminalizing compulsory labour. For example, Saida Khan, a woman from North London, was the first to be convicted under this law when the jury found her guilty of taking a Tanzanian woman to the UK to work as her ‘domestic servant’.

Employees of a famous film studio told that the princes participated in the recording of the film Star Wars: The Last Jediwhen they visited the film set in London in 2016. Harry and William acted as stormtroopersthe base troop warriors of the Galactic Empire.

King Henry III had a “pet” polar bear, which he received as a gift from the king in Norway. The animal was kept on a leash in the Tower of London, and was allowed to swim in the Thames to catch its own fish.

The world’s first subway opens in London. Initially, the underground tunnels were to be filled with water to transport passengers on non-mechanical ships, but eventually they decided to build an underground electric railway system as it exists today.

London’s great clock began operating in 1859. The tower with the clock and bell is actually called the Elizabeth Tower (until 2012 the name was St. Stephen’s Tower). And the bell (Big Ben) is named after Sir Benjamin Hall, a British factory steward. The tower withstood several German bombings during World War II, but in 1949, a flock of birds landed on the minute hand and moved it, which caused the clock to be 5 minutes behind.

There is an ‘unusual’ Christmas tradition in South Wales which dates back to the 1800’s. A man must wear a white robe and hold a stick to which a horse’s skull decorated with ribbons and glass eyes is attached. . Dressed in this way, the person walks around the city singing traditional songs and collecting gifts.

According to an old law, still in force in Northern Ireland, it is forbidden to go to the movies on Sundays. You can be fined up to £50 (£100) if police officers want to pick on you about it.

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is the place with the longest name in the United Kingdom and one of the longest in the world, with 58 letters, and is located in the territory of Wales. However, it does not conform to traditional Welsh naming rules and was invented only to entertain tourists. It can be translated from Welsh to something like “St Mary’s Church at the bottom of the white hazel near a swift whirlpool and the Church of St Tysilius of the red grotto”.

More and more Londoners are giving preference to foreign cuisine. Today, in the capital of the country there are more Indian restaurants than in the big cities of India, like Mumbai and New Delhi. And some of the world famous Indian dishes (such as Tikka Masala) were actually created in England itself and are not even prepared in India.

According to military reports, big hits like “Oops! I Did It Again” and Britney Spears’ “Baby One More Time” were used by British naval officers in an attempt to scare away pirates from the East African coast. The songs were chosen by a team of military experts, as they knew that Somali pirates hated western culture, and Britney Spears’ songs are just a very striking example of the values ​​of American culture. As soon as the pirates heard the singer’s voice over the speakers, they began to sail in the opposite direction.

London’s smallest sculpture is located at the entrance to a building on Philpot Lane. The work displays the image of two mice fighting over a piece of cheese. The story behind this small sculpture is, however, quite tragic. As the building was being erected, two workers got into a fight, saying that one had stolen the other’s cheese sandwich. The structure they were in could not withstand the movement due to the fight and collapsed, landing the workers in the rubble. It was later confirmed that the cheese sandwich was not stolen by either man, but by a mouse.

For £45 an hour, you can order professional actors from England to play friends of the deceased at a funeral. They usually express their “sadness” in a very emotional way.

According to an ancient legend, football was accidentally invented by Anglo-Saxon farmers who found the skull of a Danish soldier in the fields of plantations. In order to express their dislike for the Danes (and also to amuse themselves), the men began to kick the skull and called the “game” “kick the Dane in the head”.

Jenny Mamedova told in one of her videos on YouTube about some characteristics of British life that she noticed after moving to England. Among them, the blogger talks about the habit of not rinsing the dishes, but just letting them dry with detergent. After seeing how they washed the dishes, “I asked myself: why do you wash them like that? That’s a chemical, and then you’re going to eat there!” An Englishwoman replied: “My mother has always done it this way all her life, and I do it the same way. We’re still alive and healthy, there’s nothing wrong with that.”

A blogger who has a YouTube channel called “Notes of an Immigrant” shared a video in which he talks about the peculiarities of life in the United Kingdom. Including the one regarding plumbing services: “I understand that in the old days there must have been some reason to make the faucets separate. But, nowadays?! In modern houses and apartments there are still separate taps for hot and cold water, and this is very annoying! I don’t understand the reason for doing this. There is only one faucet in the kitchen for both temperatures, but in the bathroom they are separate.”

If you had the opportunity to meet Queen Elizabeth II in person, what would you say to her?