When you are a tourist in the UK you will end up hearing – it’s the size of <insert random number> double decker buses or this is <insert random number> higher than the Nelson Column.

Even if you have lived here for the whole of your life or a good part of it. You might not spend a lot of time near either, therefore you really don’t have a reference to the size they really are. Other than a big red thing and a tall long thing with a wee man on top.

Even reading the wiki pages regarding their sizes, it just looks like numbers:

Double Decker/Routemaster: Length – 27 ft 6 in (8.38 m) to 30 ft 0 in (9.14 m), Width – 8 ft (2.44 m), Height – 14 ft 4 1⁄2 in (4.38 m), Curb weight – 7.35 long tons (7.47 t; 8.23 short tons).

Nelson’s Column: The whole monument is 169 ft 3 in (51.6 m) tall from the bottom of the pedestal to the top of Nelson’s hat.

Just after a quick scan/read of the wiki pages I have learned: that the Column was 14″/4.4m shorter than previously supposed, and that there are many version of the Routemaster and various double decker’s.

So therefore your miles may vary, the next time you’re on a guided tour and the guide points at something and says it is as big as …