The Most Interesting Places In The UK 

In their new study, adventure tour operator Explore Worldwide has revealed the most interesting places in the UK, and around the world, according to how many times they are referenced as the primary location in over 1.2. million Wikipedia articles.  

Articles on Wikipedia that detail an event or building in a specific place, for example articles about ancient ruins, famous battle grounds or important landmarks, are all tagged with a ‘primary location’, and Explore’s data experts analysed the primary location code for 1.2 million articles on Wikipedia for this mammoth study.

An ‘Interest Weighting Score’ was applied to reduce English-language bias, with the study’s final results showing that some of the most tagged UK locations in Wikipedia articles include Birmingham, Liverpool and York; naturally London takes the top spots in the rankings.

UK Locations Tagged the Most in Wikipedia

With an enormous Interest Score of 5,329, London is marked as the primary location in over 6,200 Wikipedia articles. It comes first in the UK and second in the global rankings, behind New York. Whilst central London and the City of London are the areas with the most dense concentration of article locations, Explore’s analysis shows there are also a significant number of articles associated with Hammersmith and Kensington in particular.

The second most frequently tagged UK location in Wikipedia articles is Birmingham, with an Interest Score of 524. The city has had a major impact on world pop culture: it is the birthplace of the boardgame Cluedo; the Edgbaston Water Works inspired the two towers in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings; Reverend Wilbert Awdry wrote his Thomas the Tank Engine books in King’s Norton; it’s the home of Cadbury’s chocolate – complete with purple lampposts in its Bournville Lane, and finally, in the late 1800’s, Birmingham was the city of the notoriously famous urban street gang Peaky Blinders.  

A UNESCO City of Music, Liverpool has had an enormous impact on the world’s entertainment scene and comes out as the fourth most interesting place in the UK according to Wikipedia. People from Liverpool have had more UK number ones than people from any other UK city, with the likes of the Beatles, Elvis Costello, Sporty Spice Mel C and DJ duo Camelphat all hailing from the city.

Manchester, with an Interest Score of 371, is the UK’s seventh most interesting city. It’s said to be the founding place of vegetarianism (and is the home of the Vegetarian Society HQ), and it’s also where Emmeline Pankhurst founded a movement that later became known as the Suffragettes. It was the meeting place of Charles Rolls and Henry Royce – who later founded the luxury motor company Rolls-Royce, and is also where the world’s first professional football league (the Premier League, formally known as the Football League) was formed.

York comes in as the eight most interesting location in the UK. Said to be one of the world’s most haunted cities, York has a long history which includes Vikings, Romans and gothic cathedrals. Its charming, cobbled streets were the inspiration for Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter books, and cat-lovers can try to find the 20 cat statues hidden around the city.

Built on an extinct volcano, Edinburgh has an Interest Score of 326, making it the ninth most interesting place in the UK. Home to the famous Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the city is known for championing the arts, its protected architecture (over 4,500 of its buildings are listed!) and its ancient castle. Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin even said that the ‘Black Dinnner’ which happened at Edinburgh Castle in the 1400’s, inspired his shocking Red Wedding plot line. 

This epic Wikipedia study also revealed the most interesting places across the entire globe, with New York and London taking the top spots. The research also sheds light on lesser-known yet still hugely interesting locations, including Longyearbyen, the world’s most northernmost settlement where it’s illegal to own a cat, and Chatam-Kent, the birthplace of Hawaiian pizza.

Ben Ittensohn, the regional director for Australia and New Zealand at Explore Worldwide comments:

“Immersing yourself in a place’s history – stepping into the actual buildings and seeing the grounds where historically significant events took place, is one of the most important parts of travel for us. So, to inspire some cultural wanderlust both in the UK and further afield, we’ve turned to the internet’s biggest encyclopaedia to reveal the places in the world that have the most Wikipedia pages associated with them. 

“Whether it’s a wealth of museums or galleries, political history, sports teams, historical significance or beautiful parks and gardens, the destinations highlighted in our new study provide explorers with plenty of interesting sites and scenes to discover.”

Global Locations Tagged The Most In Wikipedia

New York leads as the globe’s most interesting city, and it’s one neighbourhood in particular that contributes to its Wikipedia Interest Score.Gramercy Park, on the east side of Manhatten, is a residential neighbourhood associated with many famous people who currently live or used to live there, including Julia Roberts, Rufus Wainwright, Karl Lagerfeld and Oscar Wilde – and it was the birthplace of Theodore Roosevelt.

Tokyo takes the crown as the third most interesting place in the world, according to Wikipedia. With the world’s first robot hotel (with robotic receptionists), vending machines that sell virtually anything you want, the most Michelin stars held by a city and the world’s busiest intersection – the capital of Japan has come a long way since its origins as a small fishing village. 

At number ten, one of the more extraordinary places on the list is Longyearbyen. The world’s northernmost settlement (with a population over 1,000), is based on the shore of Adventfjorden. After nearly being destroyed by the Kriegsmarine during WWII, mining operations have resumed but it’s more popular now with tourists and researchers. Longyearbyen has the lowest recorded average UV index for any current or previously inhabited place on Earth. Because of its remote location, it has some unique laws such as a ban on cats! This unique place is the main location in over 845 Wikipedia articles.

The full findings and further information on the world’s most interesting destinations can be found here: www.exploreworldwide.com.au/most-interesting-places-world