Things you didn't know about... Holborn

Holborn Viaduct cost £2 million to build in 1869
...which would be about £30 million in today's money. (For comparison, London's Millennium Bridge cost £18 million pounds.)

The marine chronometer was invented in Holborn
At no. 120 Holborn, to be precise—the house of Thomas Earnshaw, whose invention facilitated long-distance travel.

Holborn was a herbal paradise
In around 1580, the herbalist John Gerard had a garden in Holborn—the first in the world to be catalogued. Plants included saffron, wormwood and houseleek.

Holborn was a haven for drinking and prostitution
In Charles Dickens' day there were 22 taverns in Holborn alone (he lived here for a while). It even had London's most famous gay brothel in the 18th century. The lady who ran it was sent to the stocks in 1726.

Holborn has a Chicken Run
The Royal Courts of Justice in Holborn have 1000 rooms and 3.5 miles of corridors. Intriguingly, there's even a secret corridor called The Chicken Run.

Silver and diamonds abound in Holborn
Holborn is home to the London Silver Vault, which, among other things, houses a silver armchair. Nearby Hatton Garden hosts more than 1000 jewellers.

Holborn tube station is full of cannibals looking for people to eat
At least it is in the film Death Line (1972), one of not very many movies to be set in Holborn tube station. On a less creepy note, the station did become the home for the Rosetta Stone (the world's oldest dictionary, dating from 196BC in Egypt) during World War 1, to protect it from bombing.

The pronunciation of Holborn is changing
Traditionally, "Holborn" is pronounced hoe-bun. But gradually the pronunciation is moving to hol-burn.

The Great Fire stopped at Holborn
In a street called Fetter Lane.

The Black Dvorák was born in Holborn
One of Britain's greatest composers, he's usually just called SCT, but his full name was Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (nothing to do with the poet). Although he had a Sierra Leonean father, and composed on African themes, he never visited Africa and died at the age of just 37.