I was thinking that it would be a lot of work but he could just go through the telephone book and call everyone. But then he said chimney sweeps and I realised it was a bit earlier than I thought. He must of had to go and talk to every single person.
I thought Sean was being really clever here - because if you married the queen, your house would be Buckingham Palace… how do you make your house the most famous house in Britain? Move into the most famous house, of course!
@@saoirsedeltufo7436 I mean it's not like there are high requirements to become PM these days. If Boris can do it, anyone can. Marrying the queen is much harder, unlike the British public she might have standards.
Of course. They leave the cameras running for two hours, then edit it down to 45 minutes for the XL, then edit that down to 30 minutes for the short version. But I doubt they would edit out Alan sitting there for 2 or 3 minutes trying to think of a quip, nor do I believe that he would take anywhere that long to come up with something; he really does have one of the sharpest comedic minds in Britain. You do realize that mine was a rhetorical comment offered as a humorous aside, right? Oh, apparently not...
I've heard this story before. Everyone knew that Hook was behind it but he was never officially caught. He allegedly watched from the building opposite and then retreated to the countryside for his alibi.
This reminds me of Tom Scott's short lecture/talk on something incredibly similar in the early 2000s when a woman went viral online. Hundreds of people showed up at her house, it got on TV, and there was a riot.
I feel like it says a lot about Alan and David that the former goes for mass murder and the latter goes for suicide as the ways of promoting the fame (or rather infamy) of their houses LOL
What does it say about me? I thought the very same thing when I click on the video. And I'm not alone. But when you think about it, it makes perfect sense.
@Barney Laurence True, but he was never officially caught. He was always suspected and he basically admitted it in a book he wrote. The book is 'officially' fiction.. However, it's clearly based on his life. The character who is based on Hook himself directly admits it.
“Make a bet” I read this story when I was a kid and I still think it would be a funny thing to do today. Hook left the county with his winnings as people were very unhappy
I did something like this.This poor kid was being picked upon because of his sexually at school. Wasn't friend with the kid, and you know in those days it's guilt by association and I got my own problems...but, I don't know, one day just seeing him getting bullied got to me. Now, I weight 100lbs soaking wet and got polio, no way could I fight his battles. So I followed his tormentor home one day, and wrote down his address. Then I went to the library and subscribed him to every free gay magazines and newsletters I could find and have them sent to his house. Within 2 months I think even his parents questioned his sexuality. The kicker was I intercepted a few of those leaflets with his name and address on it and "misplaced" them all over the school cafeteria.
As a gay guy I couldn’t give a shit about the two wrongs blah. Fucking good on you for making that bastard feel small for once in his life. If he didn’t grow some empathy from the experience maybe he didn’t deserve it
54 Berner's Steet? That's next door but one to where Ilford Limited, the makers of photographic materials, used to have their head office. Sandersons were down there too, the fabric and wallpaper people. (Just thought you should know.)
No "Get elected as prime Minister" or even a mention of 10 Downing Street? I'm Aussie and even I know that one, which would surely count for that to be the "most famous house in Britain" unless one wants to get technical about the definition of "House."
Despite it being a valid form, it's rather jarring to hear Mr. Fry use "betted" as the past tense for bet, rather than the more common and pleasing to the ear "bet".
To be fair, among the summoned were the Governor of the Bank of England, the Duke of York, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Chairman of the East India Company, the Duke of Gloucester and the Lord Mayor of London. It wouldn't surprise me if it made the papers nation-wide.
The Victorian's had the craziest minds! Honestly, they bet anything and then did it. Today you'd get locked up for half the stuff they did! Imagine Mrs Tottenham had ordered a Chimney sweep so let the first one in and the chaos that ensued afterwards! I love it!
I'm pretty sure in those days there were not much workers right so they all showed up and never got a penny. There was monstrous traffic around the house wich toke hours to clear up. Rumour has it, the guy had rented the house in front of it and watched it all unfold
I think these were the kind of people who took bets that would have bought an estate and labor for 10 years to see which raindrop got to the window sill first.
Can't have been THAT famous cos we not heard of it till this. Ooh I just noticed I made a similar comment 3 month ago.. Although I don't remember it lol and no one has commented since .
It still doesn't make that account the most famous house in Britain because we are not aware of it.. Maybe in 1910 it was quite famous.. But that wasn't the question.. If you did it today would that make it anymore famous than Buckingham Palace for instance
If you did that now you would get the house burned down. Everyone within 30 miles woulf br getting delayed mail and packages because everyone has to deliver to your house. Planes would be full of your stuff making no room for other packages. Different postal companies wolod have stations backed up for probably 100s of miles before they realized it was a prank and stopped sending the items. The address would get out to the public and the house would be stormed. I would legitimately fear for the lives of anyone they found. Think if one person tried to restrict all the Black Friday crazies by themselves. Then there would be important bills, or medical diagnosis, desperately needed checks, letters from either old people or the incarcerated.
Yes, his mate paid him whatever they agreed. The street was crowded with People trying to deliver stuff. They had to get the police in. People in high positions were also tricked into going, like the mayor of London and the governor of the bank of England. It became a landmark event in History.
Yes. It was common for undergraduates who weren't from wealthy families to seek patrons who would help them fund their education; often arranged through charities. If you sent a letter to a dozen undergraduates saying "There's a lady who wants to sponsor your degree - please attend [address] at 8 'o'clock tomorrow morning to meet her."
Theyre thinking too small, you make a house out of murdered people! You build a house then cement lots of people to the outside in various poses and different states of decay! That'd make it quite well known lol
I initially thought he said "Arnside" - which would have been geographically quite appropriate. And make it "3 Arnside Road" and that actually exists...
The fact this was accomplished in 1810, long before the invention of the telephone, is quite remarkable.
The fact that he took the bet on grindr is even more remarkable.
I was thinking that it would be a lot of work but he could just go through the telephone book and call everyone. But then he said chimney sweeps and I realised it was a bit earlier than I thought. He must of had to go and talk to every single person.
@@rachelcookie321 There are still chimney sweeps wherever there are chimneys.
I thought Sean was being really clever here - because if you married the queen, your house would be Buckingham Palace… how do you make your house the most famous house in Britain? Move into the most famous house, of course!
isn't it slightly easier to just become the prime minister? Its also a rather famous house.
But surely that's making the most famous house your house, rather than making your house the most famous house.
That was my idea, too. Surely Buckingham Palace is the most famous house in London, and it remained so even after this spectacle.
Stian Andreassen I’d say that Buckingham Palace is more famous than number 10, but yes, it’s probably slightly easier to become PM
@@saoirsedeltufo7436 I mean it's not like there are high requirements to become PM these days. If Boris can do it, anyone can.
Marrying the queen is much harder, unlike the British public she might have standards.
Sean got really interested when he found out the occupant of the house was not in on the gag. He's a devil!
That look of Glee.
He does indeed have a misanthropic streak; you should watch him on 8 out of 10 cats does countdown. It's hilarious! :D
@@BertGrink "Carrot in a Box" had me dying on 8OO10CDC!
@@MisterItchy hahah yeah Sean was really devious in that segment :D
Thats because he just got a great idea for Jimmy Carr’s birthday gift
Should we be worried about how quickly Alan came up with his answer?
Worry about me. I instantly thought of that when I saw the video in my recommendations...
You do realise they heavily edit the show, right? They don't just turn a camera on and leave it running for 30 mins. :)
Of course. They leave the cameras running for two hours, then edit it down to 45 minutes for the XL, then edit that down to 30 minutes for the short version. But I doubt they would edit out Alan sitting there for 2 or 3 minutes trying to think of a quip, nor do I believe that he would take anywhere that long to come up with something; he really does have one of the sharpest comedic minds in Britain.
You do realize that mine was a rhetorical comment offered as a humorous aside, right? Oh, apparently not...
I got it when Stephen said it was a bet. Thanks to youtube, I'd heard the story before, elsewhere.
first thing I thought of too
I've heard this story before. Everyone knew that Hook was behind it but he was never officially caught. He allegedly watched from the building opposite and then retreated to the countryside for his alibi.
Worlds first DDoS attack?
Distributed Engagement of Services
"Here are your 12 pianos ma'am. Where d'you want 'em?"
By the fireplace, stacked.
When a fact stuns both Sean Lock and David Mitchell - it's a good one! Look at their faces when they learn it wasn't Hooke's house.
Sorc Erer - I thought the same thing. You can see Sean’s jaw literally drop.
@@LPKelly380 Oh yeah! I saw that too.
2:11 for that moment
This was so unsatisfying. What was the final resolution of it all? What was the disposition of it? Come on, QI, explain yourself!
Lancer525 Zepherus has a good video on the berners street hoax.
@@dtribu Thanks! Just now seeing this reply.
This reminds me of Tom Scott's short lecture/talk on something incredibly similar in the early 2000s when a woman went viral online. Hundreds of people showed up at her house, it got on TV, and there was a riot.
Sean’s reaction to Alan’s sign remark is gold.
I feel like it says a lot about Alan and David that the former goes for mass murder and the latter goes for suicide as the ways of promoting the fame (or rather infamy) of their houses LOL
thats what the media does, turns killers into celebrities
What does it say about me? I thought the very same thing when I click on the video. And I'm not alone.
But when you think about it, it makes perfect sense.
@@Jono1982 And posers into heroes.
'Hauntings' put them pretty high on the list too
@@victorymansions Those are often the result of a murder though...
My first thought from the title was 221B Baker Street
12 pianos? TWELVE? Magnificent!
"Dad, do you know the piano's on my foot?"
"You hum it, son; I'll play it."
There were also several huge wedding cakes and even a coffin.
@Barney Laurence True, but he was never officially caught. He was always suspected and he basically admitted it in a book he wrote. The book is 'officially' fiction.. However, it's clearly based on his life. The character who is based on Hook himself directly admits it.
“Make a bet” I read this story when I was a kid and I still think it would be a funny thing to do today. Hook left the county with his winnings as people were very unhappy
nowadays, the bet is to call 911 on someone else's house. Swatting even from different countries. not funny
1:36
...and a partridge in pear tree
I did something like this.This poor kid was being picked upon because of his sexually at school. Wasn't friend with the kid, and you know in those days it's guilt by association and I got my own problems...but, I don't know, one day just seeing him getting bullied got to me. Now, I weight 100lbs soaking wet and got polio, no way could I fight his battles. So I followed his tormentor home one day, and wrote down his address. Then I went to the library and subscribed him to every free gay magazines and newsletters I could find and have them sent to his house. Within 2 months I think even his parents questioned his sexuality. The kicker was I intercepted a few of those leaflets with his name and address on it and "misplaced" them all over the school cafeteria.
@Squant That could very well be true, and at the very least there's the saying that two wrongs don't make a right.
As a gay guy I couldn’t give a shit about the two wrongs blah. Fucking good on you for making that bastard feel small for once in his life. If he didn’t grow some empathy from the experience maybe he didn’t deserve it
54 Berner's Steet? That's next door but one to where Ilford Limited, the makers of photographic materials, used to have their head office. Sandersons were down there too, the fabric and wallpaper people. (Just thought you should know.)
Imagine being the homeowner 😂
> Ding dong
> No I didn't order any of your services please go away
> Ding dong
No "Get elected as prime Minister" or even a mention of 10 Downing Street? I'm Aussie and even I know that one, which would surely count for that to be the "most famous house in Britain" unless one wants to get technical about the definition of "House."
You'd also have control of the House of Commons.
Awww that poor woman, having to deal with such a commotion. :(
The OG version of twitch streamer receiving unsolicited pizza delivery or getting SWATed.
Despite it being a valid form, it's rather jarring to hear Mr. Fry use "betted" as the past tense for bet, rather than the more common and pleasing to the ear "bet".
Equivalence of “Britain” and “London”.
To be fair, among the summoned were the Governor of the Bank of England, the Duke of York, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Chairman of the East India Company, the Duke of Gloucester and the Lord Mayor of London. It wouldn't surprise me if it made the papers nation-wide.
Moron.
The photo of the people coming to the house looks like something out of a war film
Seeing as it’s a drawing, that is probably deliberate.
I love the fact that undergraduates were on the list of people being called to the house 😂
I'd be interested in knowing what Hook won for the bet, nothing mentioned here or on wiki page
The Victorian's had the craziest minds! Honestly, they bet anything and then did it. Today you'd get locked up for half the stuff they did! Imagine Mrs Tottenham had ordered a Chimney sweep so let the first one in and the chaos that ensued afterwards! I love it!
I am now convinced Steven has retired to live in the balloon house from Up.
Alan went for murder, David went for suicide. I don't know which of them worries me more.
Thay would have cost a huge amount of money, to pay everyone's time and 12 pianos!
Noone could prove it was him. The owner of the house had obviously not ordered anything and didn't pay.
Maybe they were rich and the bet won him more than he lost
I doubt he paid a dime. No way of tracking it all in the pre-Internet world.
I'm pretty sure in those days there were not much workers right so they all showed up and never got a penny. There was monstrous traffic around the house wich toke hours to clear up. Rumour has it, the guy had rented the house in front of it and watched it all unfold
I think these were the kind of people who took bets that would have bought an estate and labor for 10 years to see which raindrop got to the window sill first.
I was so sure the answer word be 'become prime minister'
I am now worried for both David and Alan, in that order....
Can't have been THAT famous cos we not heard of it till this.
Ooh I just noticed I made a similar comment 3 month ago.. Although I don't remember it lol and no one has commented since
.
Was this before or after Berners Street became famous for it's music publishing industry in it's own right? UK's Tin Pan Alley.
It still doesn't make that account the most famous house in Britain because we are not aware of it.. Maybe in 1910 it was quite famous.. But that wasn't the question.. If you did it today would that make it anymore famous than Buckingham Palace for instance
the title is different to the question as always... at least it doesn't spoil the answer this time!
Fun fact, Theodore Hook was my great great great grandfather.
I reckon combine the first two options, dismember the Queen.
**Spits tea and crumpet across the room** I say~, old bean, one is about to get out the musket.
So basically this man was a 19th century Logan Paul?
and it *wasn't even his house!* typical of the upper classes to play some stupid games at the expense of others.
@Mike W quick! someone get me a guillotine!!! :D
I was about to say that it sounds like you were describing Westminster’s immigration policy that last few decades. Lol
@Mike W Socialists are also known to invite freeloaders to other people houses, but never in their own neighborhood.
TheZapan99 sounds like you know nothing about socialism but OK
@@saoirsedeltufo7436 Sounds like you are indoctrinated, but ok.
Great, but was the prize for the bet?
So did he honour the bet? Did he pay up?
Invite the parliament and now it's a House of Parliament.
If you did that now you would get the house burned down. Everyone within 30 miles woulf br getting delayed mail and packages because everyone has to deliver to your house. Planes would be full of your stuff making no room for other packages. Different postal companies wolod have stations backed up for probably 100s of miles before they realized it was a prank and stopped sending the items. The address would get out to the public and the house would be stormed. I would legitimately fear for the lives of anyone they found. Think if one person tried to restrict all the Black Friday crazies by themselves. Then there would be important bills, or medical diagnosis, desperately needed checks, letters from either old people or the incarcerated.
"A thousand couriers of the British empire descend upon you. Our runners will blot out the sun!"
Name it P.G. Wodehouse!!
Hay! How about the rest of the story!? Leave us hanging so...
Was popcorn a thing back then?
Marry the Queen? Not as ridiculous as you might think..... She IS 'on the market'. ;-)
So did he win the bet?
Yes, his mate paid him whatever they agreed.
The street was crowded with People trying to deliver stuff. They had to get the police in. People in high positions were also tricked into going, like the mayor of London and the governor of the bank of England.
It became a landmark event in History.
There's a Wikipedia article on this subject:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berners_Street_hoax
Of course. It was a landmark event in History
Why is David sat next to a floating stripy jumper??!!! Weird..... There's even some floating glasses as if there on someone's face.......
Never heard of the place
You have now.
@@nzd3742 really? I might have watched this on mute lol
@@deanmoncaster If you'd done that, you wouldn't have known whether you'd heard of it or not. 😋
There is no Arnside Crescent in Carlisle.
Watching Stephen Fry metamorphose into Sandi Toksvig at the end of these old clips is very weird.
Was the owner besieged, or was she UNDER siege? From random people
But who paid for all that stuff?
Almost sounds like prank phone calls before there were phones.
I mean coming from Gloucester. Killing a load of people and burying them is a good way of getting your house torn down.
But yeh. Famous too.
Tv series
Surely the answer is become the Prime Minister.
Well please come on, pick something.
You could order "undergraduates"?
Yes. It was common for undergraduates who weren't from wealthy families to seek patrons who would help them fund their education; often arranged through charities. If you sent a letter to a dozen undergraduates saying "There's a lady who wants to sponsor your degree - please attend [address] at 8 'o'clock tomorrow morning to meet her."
Theyre thinking too small, you make a house out of murdered people! You build a house then cement lots of people to the outside in various poses and different states of decay! That'd make it quite well known lol
Ta.
Queen is single now...
am i the only one who read it as famous horse?
Yes. But if you want to start the debate, I would say Red Rum leads Shergar by a head.
@@rob5918 Seabiscuit?
No you'd go to prison for doing a prank like that.
Become Queen?
Service denial attack
Did anyone else Google "3 Ironside Crescent, Carlisle" ?
I initially thought he said "Arnside" - which would have been geographically quite appropriate. And make it "3 Arnside Road" and that actually exists...
@@AngletarnPikes That's a good shout, but he definitely says ironside to my ears. Probably best not to say a real address, eh?
@@ReegusReever Yeah, i heard Ironside too. There is however a street named "The Crescent" in Carlisle.
1810? Beasley and Hook? I thought Amazon was a recent invention.....
Not at all.
Go away sandy
Is this the first instance of doxing?
Stick a shark in the roof.
Set it on fire and then buy it for tuppences.
A really spectacular suicide! No wonder he is the luckiest husband in the world, the man just dares to dream big and aim for the stars!
Did he say undergraduates? hahaha why
Is it bad that my instant response to the title was "Kill Stephen Fry in it."?
Some sort of spectacular suicide?
So that was stupid.
CAPTIONS PLEASE FFS! 🤬🤬🤬
"Most famous house in London", is Britain only London?
London isn't even British.
Nowadays? Give it an Instagram account.
1st