London is like a smoky pearl set in a circle of emeralds.
William Henry Rideing (1853-1915), In the Land of Lorna Doone
London Trivia: Stop, planes crossing ahead
On 29 March 1920 Croydon Airport opened. The ‘Airport of London’ had been an amalgamation of two World War I airfields; Beddington and Waddon Aerodromes which were divided by Plough Lane. A level crossing linked the halves, with a man carrying a red flag to halt approaching traffic. The first destinations being Paris, Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Croydon was the first airport in the world to introduce air traffic control.
On 29 March 1981 at 09:00hrs in Greenwich Park 6,700 runners set out to run the first ever London Marathon
Legally children should obtain written permission from the Chief Constable before seeking to ask “A penny for the Guy, Mister?”
On 29 March 1871 the Prince of Wales opened the Albert Hall on behalf of his mother HM Queen Victoria, who was present but too overcome with emotion to speak
On 29 March 1772 mystic Emanuel Swedenborg died in Wapping. He had predicted there would be a special part in heaven reserved for the English
The owner of Tony Blair’s old house in Barnsbury has painted the front door Labour red. Blair’s house in Connaught Square, as with No 10 is black
The famous music hall song On Mother Kelly’s Doorstep is based upon a real location that can be found at Paradise Row, Bethnal Green
London’s first gastro pub the Guinea Grill, Bruton Street opened in 1952, a tavern is believed to have existed on the site since 15th century
London’s oldest golf club is The Royal Blackheath formed by Scottish courtiers visiting Greenwich Palace in 1608 in whose ground they played
In 1952 a 78 bus was on Tower Bridge when it started to rise – the driver put his foot down and jumped the widening gap, he got £10 for his bravery
Waterloo Bridge is known as the Ladies’ Bridge, because it was completed by female labourers during the Second World War
On the corner of Trafalgar Square is the official standard (in brass) for inch/foot/yard/etc it is accurate at 62 deg Fahrenheit
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: Lost Bits of London Bridge
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.
Lost Bits of London Bridge (19.02.13)
The first London Bridge was constructed by the Romans during their occupation of London around 50 AD. After the Romans abandoned Londinium the bridge fell into disrepair as the River Thames marked the boundary between the Saxon Kingdoms of Marcia and Wessex nobody bothered to maintain the structure.
A later bridge was thought to have been destroyed by Norwegian Price Olaf in the service of Anglo-Saxon King Aethelred against the Danes. This act might have given rise to the nursery rhyme London Bridge is Falling Down.
King John replaced an older bridge which had been destroyed by fire in 1136, all traces of the bridges prior to this date have been lost. Taking 33 years to build it boasted of having 7 storeys with shops below.
When this bridge was demolished in 1831 some features were sold off. Fourteen stone alcoves originally graced the bridge and four still survive. Two stand in Victoria Park, one stands in the grounds of Guys Hospital while the fourth bizarrely ended up in the garden of a block of flats in East Sheen.
A coat of arms which was located above the bridge tollgate now can be seen above the door of the Kings Arms on Newcomen Street.
In 1896 it was estimated that the bridge was the busiest point in London, with 8,000 people crossing the bridge by foot and 900 crossing in vehicles every hour. London Bridge was widened in 1902–04 from 52 to 65 feet, in an attempt to combat London’s chronic traffic congestion. A dozen of the granite ‘pillars’ quarried and dressed for this widening, but unused, still lie near Swelltor Quarry.
This bridge even after widening lasted barely a century when in the 1960’s it was decided to replace it. Instead of demolishing it one member of the body responsible for London’s bridges proposed that the bridge be sold.
Ivan Luckin – if ever a man needed to live up to the name – thought he could find someone to take the bridge off the City’s hands. This was not some 19th-century granite monolith; this bridge was the embodiment of London’s 2,000-year history.
Robert P. McCullock was building a city on the shores of Lake Havasu from scratch. The Colorado River had been dammed but the water at one end was in danger of going stagnant, he needed to redirect it by turning the peninsular obstructing the flow into an island, hence the need for a bridge.
McCulloch’s bridge was reconstructed around a concrete frame using the 1831 London Bridge’s stones as cladding. A few corbels from the Swelltor Quarry were sent as spares to America during this construction.
Not all of the Rennie Bridge made it to America. There’s a piece of granite from it behind the Duke of Wellington statue at the Bank, commemorating his involvement with the London Bridge Approaches Act 1827. Wonder how that compared with the Battle of Waterloo?
London in Quotations: John Buchan
London is like the tropical bush – if you don’t exercise constant care the jungle, in the shape of the slums, will break in.
John Buchan (1875-1940), The Three Hostages
London Trivia: The Beatles debut album
On 22 March 1963 the Beatles debut studio album, Please, Please Me was released. After discovering that the Cavern Club in Liverpool was unsuitable for live recording purposes they recorded live at EMI Studios in Abbey Road. At 10:00 am on Monday, 11 February 1963, the Beatles began working their way through their live set song by song, the number of takes varying on each, and finished at 10:45 pm – less than 13 hours later.
On 22 March 1888 the English Football League was formed at a meeting instigated by Aston Villa of 12 clubs in the Anderton Hotel, Fleet Street
The average weight of a City of London policeman in the early 20th century was twenty-two stone, we have no record of their current size
A clock tower in Market Road N7 is all that remains of the market which replaced Smithfield as London’s live cattle market in 1855
According to the burial register at St. Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch Thomas Cam died in 1588 at the ripe old age of 207
On 22 March 1963 The Secretary of State for War, John Profumo, denied any impropriety with the model, Christine Keeler
Itchycoo Park (recorded by the Small Faces) is actually Manor Park Cemetery, Sebert Road, Forest Gate and not some bucolic scene
On Tower Hill is an entrance to the 1870 Tower Subway, there you could ride under the river in a carriage pulled by cable
Harold Thornton invented table football in 1922 attempting to recreate Spurs with a box of matches, play it at Bar Kick, Shoreditch High Street
A 2011 study suggested 30 per cent of passengers take longer routes due to the out-of-scale distances on the Tube map
Vine Street, Spitalfields was where John Dolland of Dolland and Aitchison opened his optical workshop in the 1740s
On 22 March 1942 London’s Warship Week was launched in Trafalgar Square with the aim to raise £125m to fund the war, the first day it raised £27 million
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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