Many pub signs tell stories from British history. This pub sign shows King Charles I (right) and Cromwell (left) in an oak tree. Charles hid in the tree to avoid being captured by Cromwell, but he was found and beheaded.

Street names can tell you what kind of shops used to be there.

Small round blue signs on the front of buildings in London tell you which famous person used to live there.

Names of buildings can give you an idea of what a place used to look like. This is a church in the centre of London called Saint Martin-in- the-Fields. It is now on Trafalgar Square, but when it was built in 1726 it was in the middle of fields, outside the old City of London.

These benches beside the River Thames are decorated with camels. They are near an old Egyptian monument called Cleopatra‘s Needle. The needle was given to Queen Victoria by Khedive Ishmael of Egypt. It was brought to London in 1847.

If you want to post a letter in Britain, there are over 100,000 letter boxes. The first pillar boxes appeared in You can tell that this pillar box was made when Queen Victoria was on the throne (1837 – 1901). The letters VR stand for Victoria Regina (Latin for Queen Victoria).