People have been floored after learning where street bollards actually come from and what they're for.
The truth has been hiding in plain sight, as historian Alice Loxton explained in a video devoted to the topic.
Taking to Instagram, the expert explained why large, historic bollards aren't always quite what you might expect.
Although the common fixtures were repurposed years ago, it turns out they were active cannons once upon a time.
The cannons were stolen from enemies during war, before the loot was returned home and repurposed.
Presenting her video from the riverbank near Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London, the expert stood before one of these repurposed cannons.
"This may appear to be an ordinary London bollard but it actually has a pretty exciting past. It's an old French cannon, probably from the late 18th century and as the story goes it was taken from ships which fought at Trafalgar in 1805," said Alice.
"The British certainly started to strip captured French ships and reuse everything of value, but the French cannons that they found were too large to be retrofitted into British ships, so they sent them back to London where some of them were some of them were used as street bollards. A neat way to flaunt the victory over the French."
She added: "Now many of them had the cannonball pushed in at the top of the barrel to fill the gap. The look worked so well on London streets that even with all the original French cannons used up, replicas were made and the design exists to this day, complete with the rounded cannon shape at the top."
The video has amassed over 50,000 likes and hundreds of comments from amazed viewers.
"I've seen that and had my pic taken next to it. I wondered what it was other than interesting. Thanks for the lesson. Wonderful," read one impressed reply. Another said: "I've seen these around London and never knew their history. Thanks for the interesting info."
"So cool, thank you!!" someone else praised. "Easter eggs everywhere," a different commenter joked.
Meanwhile, a further fan simply wrote: "Fascinating."
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