LOST FOR WORDS: Ten million Brits don’t know Big Ben is in London

Over ten million Brits* can’t place the nation’s most iconic landmarks, according to new research – with one in seven (15%) unaware that Buckingham Palace or Big Ben are in London.

One in ten aren’t aware that Tower Bridge is in London either.

While locals were typically more savvy, three in 100 Londoners were convinced Big Ben was in Leeds and that Buckingham Palace can be found in County Durham.

Jackpotjoy, who ran the geography-themed poll with 2,000 UK adults, also discovered that more than 22,500 people ask Google where the UK’s top landmarks can be found each month – totalling a staggering 270,000 searches a year.

Nearly half (46%) of those surveyed revealed that they have no idea where Stonehenge is, despite it being one of the world’s most famous prehistoric landmarks, having been constructed around 5,000 years ago.

The landmarks that Brits were least able to place though were Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh and the royal residence of Balmoral which is in Aberdeenshire. Around two-thirds of people incorrectly placed these, with the most common ‘wrong’ locations being Cornwall and London.

Here’s how many people couldn’t identify where these famous landmarks are located:

· Big Ben, London (15%)

· Buckingham Palace, London (15%)

· Tower Bridge, London (16%)

· Sherwood Forest, Nottingham (26%)

· Lands’ End, Cornwall (33%)

· Royal Albert Dock, Liverpool (37%)

· Clifton Suspension Bridge, Bristol (41%)

· Giant’s Causeway, Northern Ireland (42%)

· Kew Gardens, Richmond (44%)

· The Eden Project, Cornwall (45%)

· Stonehenge, Wiltshire (46%)

· Angel of the North, Tyne & Wear (48%)

· Cheddar Gorge, Somerset (48%)

· The Royal Mile, Edinburgh (59%)

· Snowdon, Bets-y-coed in Wales (59%)

· National Football Museum, Manchester (61%)

· Balmoral Castle, Aberdeenshire (62%)

· Arthur’s Seat, Edinburgh (66%)

To show just how much the nation may need to brush up on its geography knowledge, Jackpotjoy re-plotted ‘on paper’ twenty of the country’s top landmarks according to their survey results – to reveal a new alternative map of the UK… and it looks pretty different!