And there is London! – England’s heart and soul. / By the proud flowing of her famous Thames, / She circulates through countless lands and isles / Her greatness; gloriously she rules, / At once the awe and sceptre of the world.
Robert Montgomery (b.1972), London, Religion and Poetry: Being Selections Spiritual and Moral
On 28 June 1838 Queen Victoria was crowned at Westminster Abbey. The long ceremony was enlivened by the aged Lord Rollo living up to his name when he stumbled and rolled down some steps; further mirth ensued when the Archbishop of Canterbury put the ring designed for Victoria’s little finger on the wrong digit ensuring it would remain wedded to her during the ceremony, the whole coronation service lasted five hours.
On 28 June 1830 PC Joseph Grantham became the first British policeman to be killed on duty after intervening in a fight in Somers Town
On 28 June 1994 McDonald’s sued Greenpeace for alleged libel printed on leaflets, this became longest civil case in British legal history
Waterstone’s elegant premises in Piccadilly was the world’s first steel-framed shop built at the time for Simpsons the previous owner
50 Berkeley Square is reported to be the most haunted house in London, the attic room is haunted by a young woman who died there, and a whole range of deaths followed throughout the 19th Century
The Thames is the second oldest geographical name in the country only Kent pre-dates it. Julius Caesar called it Tamesis, no one knows why
Lilian Baylis, the manager of the Old Vic, cooked her meals backstage during the show and the aroma filled the theatre
The Great Eastern Hotel once boasted two Masonic temples, its own railway siding and weekly sea water deliveries for its natural brine baths
Old English skittles, once popular in pubs across the southeast, but now confined to a single alley at the Freemasons’ Arms in Downshire Hill, Hampstead
A taxi rate of a shilling (5p) a mile was established in an Act of 1662 by King Charles II it was not increased until 1950 nearly 300 later
St. Margaret Pattens Church in Rood Lane has a memorial to James Donaldson, a ‘City Garbler’, and a person who specialised in selecting spices
The Japanese term for a business suit is a sebiro, a simple transliteration of Savile Row a street famous for London’s finest tailors
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.
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.
Are we becoming a city of Philistines? I ask this as public art is becoming more vulnerable to deliberate damage or theft, for until recently works of art left out in public spaces only had to contend with the occasional pigeon defecation.
In the past, anyone who had good reason to despise a statue would limit their protests to something impermanent. Gladstone’s statue is a case in point. Theodore Bryant director of the Bryant & May match factory, a prominent liberal, had deducted a shilling from the wages of his staff as a contribution to the erection of Gladstone’s statue near the factory. The match girls who worked in appalling conditions for a pittance went to the unveiling, and a gruesome story is told by Annie Besant that some cut their arms and let their blood trickle on the marble, paid for, in truth, by their blood.
The Duke of York statue just off The Mall cost £25,000 to build and finance was raised by subscription – each individual in the army was required to contribute a day’s pay. Although many in the army resented this deduction the statute was never desecrated.
But recently we have had a Barbara Hepworth stolen from Dulwich Park and probably sold for scrap, the charming bronze Doctor Salter’s Daydream which once sat on a bench in Bermondsey has been stolen while the accompanying piece – the good doctor’s daughter holding a cat – has been n forced into hiding. A Banksy by that most ephemeral of artists, who expects his pieces to be painted over, has been ripped from the wall it was painted upon to end up in an American auction house and when a statue of Bomber Harris was installed outside St. Clement’s Church a spate of red paint throwing occurred protesting about the bombing of Germany in World War II.
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is proposing to sell a Henry Moore entitled ‘Draped Seated Women’ known to the locals as ‘Old Flo’ hoping to raise £20 million and another Moore ‘Knife Edge Piece’, which stood on Abingdon Green near the Houses of Parliament, has been undergoing restoration after decades of graffiti artist’s work.
Now with the death of Baroness Thatcher, a debate has arisen upon where to site a suitable monument. Its detractors argue that any representation of her in a public space will inevitably be vandalised. Hardly surprising since in 2002 at Guildhall Art Gallery a marble statue of the Iron Lady was decapitated first by a cricket bat and when that failed a metal rope.
So what is the future of public art? Will our parks be devoid of any artwork unless guarded night and day?
London is a dizzying delight, full of pomp and pedigree, a place where high culture and cutting-edge trends feed off one another.
Suzane Rowan Kelleher, Donald Olson and Darwin Porter, Frommer’s Europe by Rail
On 21 June 1675 only a few onlookers observed as Thomas Strong, a master mason, set into place the first stone of St. Paul’s that was lowered deep into the earth. The lack of fanfare could be attributed to the King fearing for his safety. He had recently implemented financial measures which were unpopular in the city and had caused great distress, there had also been considerable controversy over the plans for the Cathedral.
On 21 June 1937 the first TV broadcast of a tennis match from Wimbledon was shown of a 1st round match between Bunny Austin & George Rogers
The narrowest house in London lies next door to Tyburn Convent and was built to block a passage used by grave robbers. It is one metre wide
Holborn Viaduct was built in 1869 to overcome the steep slope on both sides of Farringdon Street and is the world’s first road flyover
On 21 June 1944 the Kinks singer Ray Davies was born in Muswell Hill, London “Well, I’m not the world’s most physical guy”
William IV was the last king ever to dismiss his government, although all subsequent monarchs have in principle been free to do so
On 21 June 1978 the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical Evita premiered at the Prince Edward Theatre, starring Elaine Page
There are 32 pods on the London Eye, one for every borough, but they’re numbered 1 to 33 – no number 13 for superstitious reasons
The 21 June 1997 saw England all out for just 77 runs their lowest score at Lords since 1888 one Aussie bowler took 8 wickets for 38 runs
Electric cabs on Victorian streets numbered a mere 19 at the time 10,361 horse drawn cabs plied for hire and continued in service until 1947
Prince Philip who first referred to the Royal Family as “The firm” also described Buckingham Palace as “not ours, it’s a tied cottage”
On 21 June 1854 the 1st VC was awarded to Charles Davis Lucas who picked up a live shell from his ship’s deck throwing it into the sea
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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