I love thee, London! for thy many men, / And for thy mighty deeds and scenes of glory.
Philip James Bailey (1816-1902), London, The Angel World and Other Poems
London Trivia: Jaws debut
On 19 July 1983, a huge new dinosaur skeleton was unveiled to the media at the Natural History Museum. Plumber Bill Walker found a foot-long claw belonging to the flesh-eating beast at a clay pit in Surrey. Palaeontologists reconstructed it and dated the remains at 125 million years old, nicknamed ‘Jaws’ the creature would have been as tall as a double-decker bus, and could have run up to 20 miles an hour.
On 19 July 2011 Robert Murdoch’s face was hit with a shaving foam pie thrown by a protester at a parliamentary hearing into phone hacking
In Clink Street is the prison of the same name derived from the French “clenche” meaning catch outside of the door as opposed to the inside
The height of the Monument measures the same as the distance from its base to the place where The Great Fire of London was started
Statistically for some undefined reason would-be suicides prefer to meet their maker from underground stations than from one open to the sky
House near Globe Theatre claims Catherine, Henry VIII’s first Queen sheltered on her first landing in London and Christopher Wren lived there
Senate House on Malet Street in Bloomsbury was George Orwell’s model for the Ministry of Truth in his book 1984
The Guinea Grill in Bruton Street sells over 25,000 steak and kidney pies a year in 2000 it was officially declared Steak Pie of the Century
The home of cricket, Kennington Oval’s distinctive shape was dictated by the layout of the surrounding streets rather than the other way round
In 1928 Hyde Park Corner had more through traffic than any place in the world by 1998 Vauxhall Cross was declared Europe’s busiest junction
Beneath government buildings is a secret wartime complex between Great George Street and King Charles Street are 200 underground offices
Silver Vaults London’s oldest safe deposit assures confidentiality but when flooded one held a pair of knickers labelled “My Life’s Undoing”
Trivial Matter: London in 140 characters is taken from the daily Twitter feed @cabbieblog.
A guide to the symbols used here and source material can be found on the Trivial Matter page.
Previously Posted: What’s in a name?
For those new to CabbieBlog or readers who are slightly forgetful, on Saturdays I’m republishing posts, many going back over a decade. Some will still be very relevant while others have become dated over time. Just think of this post as your weekend paper supplement.
What’s in a name? (31.05.13)
It is the Celts who probably named the Thames. It is thought by some to come from the Old English word ‘Temese’, meaning ‘to flow turbidly’. A simple name for a river full of detritus you might think, but it was probably the only waterway in the region that actually flowed, even if a little muddily.
The river’s sinuous looping remains central to the idea of London and is frequently used on graphic devices representing the capital even the BBC’s Eastenders uses it on the titles.
Today we Londoners refer to this lower stretch of England’s longest river as, well, ‘The River’ in the definite article as if it was the only river that existed, or at least the only one that mattered – which of course it is.
Ham comes from a bend in the shore, similar to ‘ham’ from the bend of the knee, a cut of meat from the thigh of the hind leg of certain animals, especially pigs. Hampton gets its name from a pig’s anatomy.
At times it has erroneously been given a male gender and nicknamed Old Father Thames a kind of post-modern quasi-tutelary deity when in reality at times it has flooded and rather than protected Londoners has taken lives.
Over time most goods that entered London came via The River, so landing places were crucial. In Old English the word for a landing place was Hythe, some locations on The River’s foreshore still bear this out: Rotherhithe or cattle harbour from which cattle may have been shipped across The River for the market at Smithfield. Greenhithe and Bablock Hythe in Oxfordshire are also locations of mediaeval docks.
Lambs were landed just west of Westminster – you could say today politicians act like a flock of sheep – but from that, we get the corruption, Lambeth.
Further, upriver Chelsea was where the chalk was landed and Putney (once Puttenhuthe, possibly where hawks were landed, but more probably named after a man who had hawk-like features).
Greenwich was first recorded in 964, its name derives from the Old English for a green trading place or harbour. At Shadwell, its name is derived from a shallow spring or stream, not a shady well as some might think of the area.
Further downriver Woolwich unsurprisingly is named after a trading place for wool, while its neighbour Thamesmead sounds as if it should be a bucolic place to enjoy a glass of mead.
Thamesmead’s name in fact was the winning entry in a newspaper competition. The area’s topography of lakes and canals relieving the starkness of the built environment was once dubbed ‘the town of the 21st century. I doubt if many of its residents today would agree with that sentiment.
London in Quotations: Doris Lessing
London has changed enormously and so have the English in the past decade. They’re more like Americans and more like Europeans, too. They’re always eating out, and when they’re at home they don’t cook the way they did ten years ago. They’re all sitting around in cafés, like the Continentals, drinking coffee and chattering and watching the world go by.
Doris Lessing (1919-2013), interview, The Progressive, June 1999
London Trivia: Guy Fawkes comes early
On 12 July 1856 five died and 300 people were injured when fireworks exploded at Mr Bennett’s factory in Westminster Road. Bennett was charged that his business was making fireworks contrary to the law, and he kept combustibles at his house for that purpose. During his absence, a fire broke out through the negligence of his employees. The court found that the deaths were caused by the negligence of his employees.
On 12 July 1962 the Rolling Stones gave their first performance at The Marquee Club on Charing Cross Road
It is illegal for anyone to possess a pack of cards ‘who lives within a mile of any arsenal or explosives store’
The theatre ticket booth in Leicester Square conceals, 3-stories below, a electricity sub-station capable of supplying the entire West End
King Charles II took so long to pass away after having a stroke he apologised to his courtiers for “being an unconscionable time a-dying”
In 1902 after an “indignation campaign” the Richmond, Ham and Petersham Open Spaces Act became the first law to protect a view
A rather dubious attraction of the 1908 Franco-British exhibition at White City was a butter sculpture of King Edward VII
The Great Room at the Grosvenor House Hotel for many years the largest public room in Europe was a skating rink before becoming ballroom
Rugby netball was dreamt up by soldiers in 1907 and has been played on Clapham Common ever since. Games take place also on Tuesday evenings, but only during the summer
Dogs travel free on London’s buses but only at the discretion of the driver and must sit upstairs, TfL don’t specify which is the doggy seat
In 1748 Yorkshireman Thomas Chippendale set up his famous furniture business at 60-62 St Martin’s Lane employing just 40 men
The oldest door in the country dating from the Anglo-Saxon period is at Westminster Abbey using dendrochronology dates it at 950 years old
Trivial Matter: London in 140 characters is taken from the daily Twitter feed @cabbieblog.
A guide to the symbols used here and source material can be found on the Trivial Matter page.
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