Questions and Facts about Westminster

10 Questions about Westminster

10 "Not so hard" Questions about Westminster

The answers are below each question.

1. What is the formal name of Westminster Abbey?

a. Benedictine Abbey

b. St.Paul’s Cathedral

c. Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster

d. St Mary Abbots Church

The correct answer is: c. Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster

2. What is the official name of Big Ben?

a. The British Tower

b. May’s Tower

c. Victoria Tower

d. Elizabeth Tower

The correct answer is: d. Elizabeth Tower

3. Whose statue stands on a granite pedestal in Old Palace Yard outside the Palace of Westminster?

a. King Henry VIII

b. King Richard I the Lionheart

c. William the Conqueror

d. King Edward III

The correct answer is: b. King Richard I the Lionheart

4. What is the name of the road between Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square via Admiralty Arch?

a. Whitehall

b. Birdcage Walk

c. Horse Guards Road

d. The Mall

The correct answer is: d. The Mall

5. On which square in Westminster stands the statues of Winston Churchill and Mahatma Gandhi?

a. Parliament Square

b. Trafalgar Square

c. Golden Square

d. Leicester Square

The correct answer is: a. Parliament Square

6. Which building in Westminster was commissioned by King Edward VII in memory of his mother Queen Victoria?

a. Her Majesty’s Treasury (HM Treasury)

b. Admiralty Arch

c. St.James’s Palace

d. Clarence House

The correct answer is: b. Admiralty Arch

7. Whose figure is standing on the top of 169ft (52m) tall column, located on the Trafalgar Square?

a. Admiral Horatio Nelson

b. Winston Churchill

c. Robert Walpole

d. Oliver Cromwell

The correct answer is: a. Admiral Horatio Nelson

8. Palace of Westminster is commonly known as?

a. Westminster Abbey

b. Houses of Parliament

c. Horse Guards Parade

d. County Hall

The correct answer is: b. Houses of Parliament

9. Who was the first monarch to reside at Buckingham Palace?

a. Queen Elizabeth I

b. King George I

c. Queen Victoria

d. Queen Elizabeth II

The correct answer is: c. Queen Victoria

10. Which is the only remaining part of Whitehall Palace?

a. Foreign & Commonwealth Office

b. St Margaret’s Church

c. Central Hall Westminster

d. Banqueting House

The correct answer is: d. Banqueting House

10 Facts about Westminster

Did you know?


  • Since 1066 the coronations of English and British monarchs have been held in Westminster Abbey.


  • The clock and dials of Big Ben were designed by Augustus Pugin. The clock dials are set in an iron frame 23 feet (7.0 m) in diameter, supporting 312 pieces of opal glass


  • The Palace of Westminster is the meeting place of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It contains over 1,100 rooms


  • Buckingham Palace has 775 rooms, and the garden is the largest private garden in London. The state rooms, used for official and state entertaining, are open to the public each year for most of August and September


  • Horse Guards Parade was formerly the site of the Palace of Whitehall’s tiltyard, where tournaments (including jousting) were held in the time of Henry VIII.


  • Although no longer the principal residence of the monarch, St.James’s Palace is the ceremonial meeting place of the Accession Council and the London residence of several members of the royal family.


  • Guy Fawkes was a member of a group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. It was a failed assassination attempt against King James I of England and VI of Scotland.


  • Henry III rebuilt Westminster Abbey in honour of the Royal Saint Edward the Confessor whose relics were placed in a shrine in the sanctuary and now lie in a burial vault beneath the 1268 Cosmati mosaic pavement, in front of the High Altar.


  • In 1834, great fire ravaged the Houses of Parliament, and the only significant medieval structures to survive were Westminster Hall, the Cloisters of St Stephen’s, the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft, and the Jewel Tower.


  • There is a small protrusion the size and shape of a human nose on the inside wall of the northernmost part of the Admiralty Arch. It was placed there by artist Rick Buckley in 1997 as part of a campaign against the “Big Brother” society.

Westminster Walking Tours - London

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