Mastermind Club
Quiz 2026-2
The history of London
Set by Mel Kinsey
Answers
1/What was Londinium’s formal administrative role after the reorganization of Roman Britain in the late 3rd century?
Capital of Britannia Prima
2/Which archaeological discovery provides the strongest evidence that Londinium rapidly recovered after Boudica’s destruction in AD 60/61?
Rapid reconstruction of the forum and basilica
3/What defensive feature added around AD 200 permanently shaped the medieval boundaries of the City of London?
The Roman city wall
4/Which Roman road connected Londinium directly to Calleva Atrebatum, later influencing the route of modern Oxford Street?
Watling Street
5/What material dominated the earliest Roman quay structures found along the Thames foreshore?
Timber
6/What was the name of the 7th-century trading settlement that preceded the reoccupation of the Roman city?
Lundenwic
7/Which king oversaw the relocation of the population back within the Roman walls around AD 886?
Alfred the Great
8/What legal status did London hold within the Danelaw following the Viking occupation?
Semi-autonomous trading city
9/Which document records toll exemptions granted to London merchants in the 10th century?
Law code of Æthelred II
10/What Scandinavian administrative unit briefly applied to London during Viking control?
A wapentake
11/Which three castles were constructed immediately after 1066 to secure Norman control of London?
Tower of London (White Tower), Baynard’s Castle, Montfichet’s Castle
12/What 12th-century charter allowed London to appoint its own sheriffs annually?
Charter of Henry I
13/Which London institution evolved directly from the medieval folkmoot?
Court of Husting
14/What structure on Old London Bridge caused navigational hazards severe enough to create dangerous rapids on the Thames?
The bridge’s waterwheels and starlings
15/Which civic record, compiled in 1419, standardized London’s laws, customs, and civic procedure?
Liber Albus
16/Which London parish consistently recorded the highest mortality during the Great Plague of 1665?
St Giles-in-the-Fields
17/What building regulation proposed after the Great Fire was widely ignored, worsening future fire risks?
Mandatory use of brick and stone
18Which company gained a royal charter in 1600 from London merchants, reshaping global trade?
East India Company
19/Why were theatres like the Globe located in Southwark rather than within the City?
City jurisdiction banned theatres
20/Which mapping innovation by John Ogilby revolutionized how London’s roads were recorded in the 17th century?
Strip maps
21/Which 1829 legislation established London’s first professional police force?
Metropolitan Police Ac
22/What hidden function of the Thames Embankment was more significant than flood prevention?
Sewerage infrastructure
23/Which 19th-century engineering innovation allowed the Underground to expand through London clay?
Cut-and-cover tunneling
24/Which borough suffered the highest civilian casualties during the Blitz?
Stepney
25/Which medieval boundary still defines a unique governing entity within modern London?
The city of London