• Hidden info here
    • monarch of the road: An epithet applied to the ROUTEMASTER bus by the musical duo Flanders and Swann in their song ‘Transport of Delight’ (1960).
  • Hidden info here
    • pearly kings and queens The COSTER ‘kings’ and ‘queens’, ‘princes’ and ‘princesses’ of the districts of London are so named from their black suits studded with innumerable mother-of-pearl buttons, many of which are arranged as representational symbols.
  • Hidden info here
    • oh, my Sunday helmet: Probably the best-known catchphrase and strongest language used by Constable Archibald Berkeley-Willoughby in The Adventures of PC 49.
  • Hidden info here
    • London pride: A name applied to various flowering plants. The term is now also the proprietary name of a bitter beer produced by the CHISWICK brewer Fuller’s.
  • Hidden info here
    • Changing (of) the Guard or Guard Mounting: A complex ceremonial exchange of the Queen’s Guard in the forecourt of BUCKINGHAM PALACE, accompanied by the music of a Guards band. A similar daily handover of the Queen’s Life Guard takes place at HORSE GUARDS PARADE.
  • Hidden info here
    • elementary, my dear Watson: The most famous words that Sherlock HOLMES never uttered in the stories by Arthur Conan Doyle.
  • Hidden info here
    • apples (and pears): ‘Stairs’, in one of the oldest and most archetypal examples of COCKNEY RHYMING SLANG. It has been suggested that the coinage was inspired by the tiered arrangement of fruit on a typical London market stall.
  • Hidden info here
    • Vine Street The most obscure location on the British MONOPOLY board, branching off Swallow Street in the apex formed by PICCADILLY and REGENT STREET. Its name probably derives from the Vine public house, which existed in the 18th century.
  • Hidden info here
    • whistle (and flute): ‘Suit’ in COCKNEY RHYMING SLANG. The term has also occasionally been used to mean ‘loot’ (money) and more recently ‘toot’ (cocaine).
  • Hidden info here
    • National Maritime Museum: The nation’s naval and nautical museum, based in the Queen’s House and its flanking wings (which house the Maritime galleries), in GREENWICH.