I'm not sure you need to put a geographic bracket around that statement. I very rarely see C++ for web development.

Certainly not web dev. I do see it in jobs ads from bank after bank, broker after broker, information dealer after information dealer.

I don't really know what "popular" means in this context. There's certainly no shortage of jobs requiring C++ in London.

I don't think I've ever seen a web development job ever that explicitly asked for c++ knowledge.

Possibly not web development, but a C++ programmer in London, can get pretty good money either fulltime or contracting. Mostly in finance, but also Google, MS, Facebook actively seek C++ programmers.

it's not a popular language anywhere for web dev

Also Perl CGI :)