Nicknames of Places and Things

Part One

In this section you're given the nickname of something and you have to say what that nickname refers to. (Part Two has a few where you're given a description of the thing and you have to give its nickname.)

Q: Which (city, etc.) is sometimes/was once known as ... ?		A:
The Year of the Four Emperors (in ancient Rome)		AD 69
The Year of the Six Emperors (also in ancient Rome)		AD 238
The Year of Revolutions (because of a surge in political unrest and insurrection in continental Europe)		1848
The Summer of Love		1967
Bloody Sunday (Londonderry)		30 January 1972
The Year of the Three Popes (20th century)		1978
The Winter of Discontent (a period of industrial strife in the UK, leading to the downfall of a government)		1978–9
The Glorious Twelfth		12 August
The Devil's Bedpost (playing card)		4 of Clubs
The Curse of Scotland (don't ask why – nobody really knows)		9 of Diamonds
A Baker's Dozen		13
The Granite City		Aberdeen
The Green Fairy, or The Green Muse		Absinthe
The Death Card		Ace of Spades
Paddy's Milestone (an uninhabited rock in the Firth of Clyde)		Ailsa Craig
Seward's Folly (bought from Russia for $7.2m in 1867)		Alaska
The Frying Pan (London racecourse, closed in 1970)		Alexandra Park
The Venice of the North
City of Sails (due to its unique position, with distinct bodies of water on either side, and the resulting proliferation of sailing boats; Commonwealth city)		Auckland
Battle of the Three Emperors (Austria and Russia vs. France, 1805)		Austerlitz
St. Lubbock's Days (after the MP who drafted the bill that enacted them, 1871)		Bank Holidays
The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street		The Bank of England
The Cockpit of Europe (because of the number of decisive battles fought on its soil)		Belgium
Workshop of the World, City of a Thousand Trades		Birmingham
The Queen among drinks		Bloody Mary
Beantown, The Athens of America		Boston
The Great White Way (New York street – refers particularly to the Theater District, because of the proliferation of lights – newspaper headline 1902)		Broadway
The Jewel of the Cotswolds (Worcestershire village)		Broadway
The City of a Thousand Minarets (according to UNESCO)		Cairo
The Fortunate Islands		Canaries
The Mother City, or The Tavern of the Seas		Cape Town
The Spanish Main is the coastline of the		Caribbean Sea
French luxury goods company, founded in 1847: dubbed by Edward VII "the jeweller of kings and the king of jewellers"		Cartier
The Dead Heart of Africa (because of its central location and arid climate)		Chad
The Windy City		Chicago
City of the Plains; the Garden City (New Zealand)		Christchurch
Capital of the Cotswolds		Cirencester
The Square Mile		City of London
Old Ironsides (the US navy's most famous ship)		USS Constitution
The Pearl of the Antilles		Cuba (also Haiti)
The World's Oldest City (self–styled – mentioned in Genesis)		Damascus
Tin Pan Alley (London)		Denmark Street
The Mile High City		Denver, Colorado
Motor City, Motown (USA)		Detroit
The Devil's bones		Dice
Devil's darning needle		Dragonfly
Queen of the South		Dumfries
The Edinburgh of the South (New Zealand city)		Dunedin
Land of the Prince Bishops		County Durham
The Athens of the North, Auld Reekie		Edinburgh
The Ship of the Fens		Ely Cathedral
The Wingless Wonders (1966)		England
Ireland's Teardrop (said to be because it was the last Irish land seen by transatlantic emigrants)		Fastnet
Land of a Thousand Lakes (country – cf. Minnesota)		Finland
The Sweeney (Sweeney Todd – rhyming slang)		Flying Squad
Poilu (WWI)		French soldier
City of the Tribes		Galway
30 St. Mary Axe, London (formerly the Swiss Re building; built on the site of the Baltic Exchange building, bombed by the IRA in 1992)		The Gherkin
The Old Firm: the two major football clubs of		Glasgow
The Clockwork Orange is the underground railway of
Glen of weeping (the meaning of its Gallic name)		Glencoe
Lady of the stream (fish species)		Grayling
Steel City (Ontario)		Hamilton
Brown sugar		Heroin (low grade)
Mr. Balfour's Poodle (according to David Lloyd George)		The House of Lords
The Brickyard		Indianapolis Raceway
The Emerald Isle, John Bull's Other Island		Ireland
Fool's gold (mineral)		Iron pyrites
The Queen of the Hebrides		Islay
The '45 (historical event)		Jacobite rising (1745)
Thor's Hammer: the right hand of (Swedish boxer)		Ingemar Johansson
The Garden of England		Kent
The Run for the Roses (horse race)		Kentucky Derby
Sin City, City of Lights, The Gambling (or Entertainment, or Marriage) Capital of the World, Capital of Second Chances, The Silver City, America's Playground		Las Vegas
Queen of the Moorlands (Staffordshire town)		Leek
The Forbidden City		Lhasa
Paddy's Wigwam is the Roman Catholic cathedral of		Liverpool
The Great Wen (to William Cobbett)		London
The Scottish play (by actors etc., who consider it unlucky to say its proper name)		Macbeth
The George Cross Island		Malta
Cottonopolis (being the centre of Britain's cotton industry, from the Industrial Revolution onwards)		Manchester
Gate of Tears (Bridge of Tears, in Verne's Around the World in 80 Days); separates the Red Sea from the Gulf of Aden		Mandab Strait
The Red Planet		Mars
The Race that Stops a Nation (Australia's most prestigious horse race)		Melbourne Cup
City of Lakes, Mill City, or Mini Apple		Minneapolis
Land of Ten Thousand Lakes (US state – cf. Finland)		Minnesota
The Big Muddy		Missouri River
Tin Lizzie		Model 'T' Ford
The Wooden Wonder, The Timber Terror (de Havilland multi-role combat aircraft, serving durina and after WWII – a.k.a. the Mossie)		Mosquito
The Big Easy		New Orleans
The Big Apple		New York
Land of the Midnight Sun		Norway
The Sick Man of Europe (19th century)		Ottoman Empire (Turkey)
City of Dreaming Spires		Oxford
City of Light(s)		Paris
Backbone of England (mountain range)		Pennines
The Devil's picture books		Playing cards
The Black forty–seven (Ireland, 1847)		Potato famine
The Fourth Estate		The press
Showplace of the Nation (New York building, developed 1929–40)		Radio City Music Hall
Grand Old Party (US)		Republican Party
The Eternal city		Rome
The Great C Major (symphony)		Schubert's 9th
Land o' Cakes (description used by Fergusson and Burns – referring to the popularity of oatcakes)		Scotland
Disease popularly known as 'the King's Evil' in mediaeval England and France, because it was believed to be cured by a touch from the king or queen		Scrofula
The Granary of Europe (formerly)		Sicily
Catherine Cookson Country		South Tyneside
The Ladies of the Vale		Spires of Lichfield cathedral
The Drawing Room of Europe		St. Mark's Square, Venice
New York: the Big Board		Stock Exchange
Mother Carey's chicken		Stormy petrel
Lighthouse of the Mediterranean (believed to have been erupting continuously for over 2,000 years)		Stromboli
Copperopolis (a key centre of the UK's copper industry in the 19th century; cf. Cottonopolis)		Swansea
The Coathanger (iconic Australian landmark)		Sydney Harbour Bridge
The French disease (in England), the English disease (in France), the Spanish disease (in Italy), the Polish disease (in Russia), the Christian disease (in Muslim countries); etc., etc. …		Syphilis
The Roof of the World (an autonomous region of China)		Tibet
The Thunderer (from 1830)		The Times
Once known as 'the Friendly Islands', because of the congenial reception accorded to Captain James Cook on his first visit in 1773		Tonga
Billy Williams's Cabbage Patch		Twickenham Stadium
Old Glory		US national flag
Doughboy		US soldier (WWI)
The Bride of the Sea, La Serenissima		Venice
The Morning Star, the Evening Star, the Horned Planet		Venus
Denver boot (US – after the first US city to use them)		Wheel clamp
The Gun that Won the West (mainly due to 20th century fictional accounts)		Winchester '73 or '74
The Faithful City (for loyalty to the Crown in the Civil War)		Worcester
(China's) Mother River, China's Pride, China's Sorrow, the Cradle of Chinese Civilisation		Yellow River

Part Two

In this section you're given a description of the thing, or its proper name, and you have to give its nickname.

Bang Kwang prison is reputed to be one of the world's toughest, and is often known in the West as the		Bangkok Hilton
The 42cm kurze Marinekanone (short marine canon) 14 L/12, or Minenwerfer–Gerät (mine launcher device) – a siege howitzer used by the German army during World War I – one of the largest artillery pieces ever fielded		Big Bertha
The Leadenhall Building (122 Leadenhall Street, London – completed in 2014)		The Cheese Grater
Three Egyptian obelisks: one in Paris (Place de la Concorde – since 1833), one on Victoria Embankment, London (1878), one in Central Park, New York (1881)		Cleopatra's Needle
The Nationale–Nederlanden building, Prague – designed 1992 for a Dutch insurance company, completed 1996. Also previously nicknamed "Fred and Ginger"		The Dancing House
The automatic pilot on board an aircraft		George
Elizabeth I's "farewell" speech to her last parliament (30 November 1601)		Golden Speech
Bedford RLHZ Self Propelled Pump (fire appliance used by armed forces, including when providing cover during firemen's strikes, notably in 1997 and 2002)		Green Goddess
Hoa Lo prison – built by French colonists in the late 19th century, but used during the Vietnam War for American POWs, to whom it was known as the		Hanoi Hilton
Edinburgh's Old Tollbooth jail		Heart of Midlothian
Name commonly given to various clubs for high–society rakes, established in Britain and Ireland in the 18th century – notably one founded in London in 1718 by Philip, Duke of Wharton and others, and one established by Sir Francis Dashwood that met irregularly at various locations, including the George & Vulture Inn in the City of London, from around 1749 until the 1760s; also associated with Brooks's, an exclusive London club founded in 1764		Hellfire Clubs
Pirates' "skull and crossbones" flag		Jolly Roger
British Expeditionary Force (1914)		The Old Contemptibles
Popular name for the fashion and clothing market on Wentworth Street (six days a week) and Middlesex Street (Sundays only) in London's East End		Petticoat Lane
The southern part of San Francisco's Bay area, including the Santa Clara Valley and San José (home to Apple, Google, Facebook, Intel, Oracle and Yahoo, among others)		Silicon Valley
Gravelly Hill Interchange (Junction 6 on the M6)		Spaghetti Junction
Liverpool's Pier Head (Liver Building, Cunard Building, Port of Liverpool Building) – nicknamed 2001/2 (Wikipedia)		The Three Graces
Block on West 28th Street, New York, between 5th and 6th Avenues (home of music publishers and songwriters, c. 1885–1930; later referred to the surrounding area). Later applied to Denmark Street, London – home of many music shops		Tin Pan Alley
Arrangement in Grey and Black (1871 painting)		Whistler's Mother
Nickname coined by the American press for the Lockheed F–104 Starfighter, a supersonic interceptor aircraft that entered service in 1958, due to its high accident rate		The Widowmaker

© Haydn Thompson 2017–25