London Trivia: Snuffed out

30 December, 2018 Gibson Square Leave a comment

On 30 December 1981 Fribourg & Treyer snuff shop closed its doors for the last time. A British snuff manufacturer and retailer it was founded by Mr Fribourg in 1720, at the sign of the Rasp and Crown. They sold cigars and snuff and cigarettes from at least as early as 1852, from their premises at 34 Haymarket. Customers included David Garrick, King George IV and Beau Brummell. The listed building and the intact facade still exists.

On 30 December 1887 a petition addressed to Queen Victoria with the signatures of over 1 million women appealing for public houses to be shut on Sundays, was handed to the Home Secretary

The City of London police is the smallest territorial police force in the world, as it only covers the Square Mile, although it has nearly 1,000 officers and special constables

The façade of Liberty’s in Regent Street is constructed from the timbers of the navy’s last two wooden warships : HMS Impregnable and HMS Hindustan

St George’s Hospital has a cowhide belonging to Blossom who gave cowpox to Sarah Nelmes in 1796 Jenner developed smallpox vaccine from virus

Playwright George Bernard Shaw served as a St Pancras councillor from 1897 to 1903, during which he worked to establish the first free ladies toilet in the borough

Novelist William Thackeray wrote Vanity Fair, Pendennis and Henry Esmond whilst living at 16 Young Street, Kensington

Henry VIII acquired Hyde Park from the monks of Westminster Abbey in 1536; he and his court were often seen there on horseback hunting deer

Leyton Football Club, claims to be London’s oldest club, Cray Wanderers if not once in Kent founded 1860, could be the earliest

On the Piccadilly line the recording of ‘Mind the GP’ is notable for being the voice of Tim Bentinck, who plays David Archer in Radio 4’s The Archers

In the 18th century a ‘Winchester Goose’ was not an animal. It was the nickname for a prostitute that plied her trade on the south bank of the river

The ‘Dirty Dozen’ is a nickname for a section of 12 Soho streets once used by cab drivers to short cut between Regent Street and Charing Cross

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.

Puppydog tails

Famous Fictional Front Doors

28 December, 2018 Gibson Square Leave a comment

[L]ONDON HAS ALWAYS been a rich seam for novelists, its diverse population from every corner of the world, 2,000 year history and a wonderful varied architecture makes for works of fiction.

Here is a CabbieBlog’s illustrated list of front doors that don’t exist:

280 Westbourne Park Road: Remember the famous blue door that belonged to Hugh Grant’s character in the 1999 romantic comedy Notting Hill? When the movie was filmed, it belonged to Notting Hill writer and director Richard Curtis, after it became such a hit (the highest grossing British film to date, in fact), Curtis cleverly sold his home at a nice profit, nice work if you can get it. The new owners became tired of all the attention their famous blue door received and auctioned it off for charity, and a nondescript black door now stands in its place.

221b Baker Street: When Conan Doyle installed his great detective at No 221 the street numbering ran no further than 85. It was renumbered in the 1930s, with former building society Abbey National landing the desirable 221. For a period, Abbey even assigned staff to answer correspondence addressed to Sherlock Holmes. In 1990, a Sherlock Holmes Museum open on the street, and despite its address being 237, Westminster Council allowed it to adopt the number 221b. All Sherlock Holmes letters, however elementary, are no handled there.

27a Wimpole Street: “I have often walked down this street before”. The masculine book lined study occupied by Professor Henry Higgins who takes a bet from Colonel Pickering that he can transform unrefined, dirty Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle into a lady in My Fair Lady are supposedly at this address, although in reality the premises are occupied by a doctors’ surgery.

110a Piccadilly: Why Dorothy L. Sayer invented a fictional address for her great character Lord Peter Wimsey she inserted an ‘a’ in the address, suggesting either an act of homage to Sherlock Holmes or a sly parody. Unfortunately as a front door it remains fictional for the Park Lane Hotel ballroom occupies the site.

A version of this post was published by CabbieBlog on 20th August 2010

Thinking allowed

Christmas Quiz 2018

25 December, 2018 Gibson Square Leave a comment

The presents have been unwrapped; you’ve had more than your fill of turkey; and the kids are ensconced in their bedrooms playing with their latest gadgets. To while away your free time CabbieBlog gives you 20 questions about London, no prizes, just the satisfaction of being as knowledgeable as a London cabbie.

If you have been paying interest to the daily trivia posted @cabbieblog you should know most of the answers.

[B]UT DON’T WORRY you can find the answers lower down beneath the mistletoe. And as a special weekly bonus I’ll be posting trivia every Sunday from next year to arm yourself with enough knowledge to try next year’s Quiz.

Good Luck!

1. Which toilets in one Victorian pub are of such historical interest they have a protection order slapped upon them?

(a) The Princes Louise, High Holborn
(b) The Red Lion, St. James’s
(c) The Flask, Hampstead

2. In Waterloo Place there stands the 124-foot tall Duke of York’s Column. Standing majestically on top is a statute of Prince Frederick, the 2nd son of George III. When it was built, why did wits say the column was so high?

(a) So onlookers would not notice his large nose
(b) So that he could escape his creditors
(c) It gave him a sense of superiority, looking down upon common folk

3. Kasper the Cat joins diners at certain times. Where can this wooden feline be found?

(a) The Savoy Hotel
(b) The Guildhall
(c) The Tower of London

4. The Museum of London has many exhibits worthy of your perusal, but which type of World War II gas mask is on display?

(a) One suitable to protect a horse from breathing noxious gases
(b) A walking stick with a mask hidden within its ferrule
(c) A Mickey Mouse gas mask for a child

5. Attending a service at St. Dunstan-in-the-West Samuel Pepys would record in his famous diary that on the 18th August 1667 he was not as attentive to the sermon as he should have been. What distracted him?

(a) He eat some oysters
(b) He was distracted by a comely woman
(c) He decided to write up his diary for the day

6. Bar Italia coffee shop in Soho is popular with local and tourists alike, but what invention was first demonstrated in a room above?

(a) The television
(b) The world’s first espresso machine
(c) A vacuum cleaner which blew instead of sucked

7. Colonel Pierpoint is celebrated for inventing what life-saving device in the 19th century?

(a) The first traffic island
(b) The first parachute
(c) The world’s first hard helmet

8. Brown’s Hotel in Dover Street bore witness to a London first which took place in a ground-floor room in 1876. What ground breaking event happened?

(a) Roller skates were first demonstrated by its inventor
(b) HP Brown Sauce was invented
(c) The first telephone call

9. In 1905 two brothers named Stratton were convicted of robbery and murder at a paint shop in Deptford High Street. What methodology was used to secure convictions?

(a) The first identikit portrait from a witness, the local milkman
(b) The first case in which fingerprints were successfully used to convict
(c) Their getaway car, which had an early number plate was identified leading to the police tracking them down

10. In the 19th century Radcliffe Highway – now just The Highway – was a dangerous part of London. Nevertheless Charles Jamrach made a living selling what from his store?

(a) Exotic animals
(b) Opium supplied by Chinese seamen
(c) Sex aids

11. What did Sir Richard Whittington (Dick of Lord Mayor fame) in the 15th century pay to have built by the Thames near to modern day Southwark Bridge?

(a) A church
(b) A memorial celebrating his benevolence
(c) A public lavatory seating dozens at a time

12. Playwright and poet Ben Jonson as one might expect is interned in Westminster Abbey’s poets’ corner. But what was unusual about his burial?

(a) He was buried standing up
(b) He was buried at 6pm on 6th June 1666 – all the sixes
(c) His burial was attended by all members of the Royal family

13. By Victoria Gate in Kensington Gardens away from preying eyes is a cemetery. But what lies entombed there in the unconsecrated ground?

(a) Suicide victims
(b) Dogs
(c) Slaves

14. On 17th October 1814 eight people met an untimely and unusual end, but what was the cause of their demise?

(a) The Great London Earthquake
(b) The Great London Fireworks Display
(c) The Great Beer Flood

15. A performance of La Traviata at Sadler’s Wells theatre in 1952 had to be abandoned, but what was the reason?

(a) Smog drifting into the theatre obscured the stage from the audience
(b) The tenor in mid-aria collapsed with a heart attack
(c) Sadler’s Well overflowed flooding the auditorium

16. At the junction of Kensington Gore and Exhibition Road is known by cabbies as ‘Hot and Cold Corner’. Why?

(a) Either you are inundated with work or there’s nothing
(b) The statutes of David Livingstone, explorer of Africa and Ernest Shackleton hero of the Antarctic is to be found there
(c) Cold air rolls off Hyde Park, while the Albert Hall shelters you from the icy blast

17. You probably see it every day, but what is Johnston Sans?

(a) The design of a street waste paper bin
(b) The typeface used on London Underground
(c) French for an Oyster card

18. In a little courtyard off St. James’s Street lays Pickering Place, it once housed an embassy, but which short lived nation-state was represented?

(a) Texas
(b) The Republic of Crimea
(c) The State of Somaliland

19. The Russian word for a railway station is also a main line terminal in London, which one?

(a) Waterloo
(b) Marylebone
(c) Vauxhall

20. London has experienced many ‘Great Storms’, but one in 1703 dislodged a well-known icon, what was it?

(a) The lantern on the roof of St. Paul’s just recently completed
(b) Oliver Cromwell’s head
(c) The plaque commemorating the beheading of King Charles on Whitehall Palace

1. Which toilets in one Victorian pub are of such historical interest they have a protection order slapped upon them?

(a) The Princes Louise, High Holborn. Once the inebriated would be surprised to find the sight of live goldfish swimming majestically around the glass cisterns in the gent’s toilets. Built in 1872, named after Queen Victoria’s fourth daughter it boasts original interior decorative tile work by the firm of W. B. Simpson of Clapham. The building (including the loos) are Grade II listed.

(b) Remembered as the ‘Grand Old Duke of York’ he of marching them up the hill and down again, was the Commander-in-Chief of the British Army. Not only upon his death was he in debt to the tune of £2 million, every soldier had 1/- (5p) deducted from his pay to pay for the monument.

3. Kasper the Cat joins diners at certain times. Where can this wooden feline be found?

(a) Superstition has it that 13 diners is unlucky. If your companions make up that unlucky number a 1920s three-foot-high black wooden cat is introduced to a 14th chair, a napkin is placed around his neck and he is served with each course by a diligent waiter.

4. The Museum of London has many exhibits worthy of your perusal, but which type of World War II gas mask is on display?

(c) Micky Mouse gas masks were manufactured in bright primary colours intended to be less distressing to wear for young children.

(b) The young woman responded to his advances by taking several pins out of her pocket and threatened to jab the old reprobate.

6. Bar Italia coffee shop in Soho is popular with local and tourists alike, but what invention was first demonstrated in a room above?

(a) In 1924 John Logie Baird rented an attic room at 22 Frith Street using it as a workshop, it was there on 26th January 1926 members of the Royal Institution made up the first television audience.

7. Colonel Pierpoint is celebrated for inventing what life-saving device in the 19th century?

(a) At his personal expense in 1864 Colonel Pierpoint had London’s first traffic island constructed in St. James’s Street opposite his club in Pall Mall. On its completion his excitement (and possible inebriation) encouraged him to dash across the road to admire his contribution to society. Alas he was knocked down and killed by a passing cab.

8. Brown’s Hotel in Dover Street bore witness to a London first which took place in a ground-floor room in 1876. What ground breaking event happened?

(c) Alexander Graham Bell visited London in 1876 to tell the Government about his latest invention. He chose to stay at Brown’s during his trip — and made the first ever telephone call from the hotel to the family home of the hotel’s owner in Ravenscourt Park.

9. In 1905 two brothers named Stratton were convicted of robbery and murder at a paint shop in Deptford High Street. What methodology was used to secure convictions?

(b) On 27th March 1905 Chapman’s Oil and Paint Shop was raided and the shopkeeper murdered. A thumb mark was left on the emptied cash box. Using a method of identification that had been in use for a couple of years, it was the first time the Crown achieved a conviction.

10. In the 19th century Radcliffe Highway – now just The Highway – was a dangerous part of London. Nevertheless Charles Jamrach made a living selling what from his store?

(a) At Tobacco Dock there is a statue of a small boy in front of a tiger. It commemorates the incident when a fully grown Bengal tiger escaped from Charles Jamrach’s shop which supplied exotic creatures for the circus. Seizing a small boy in its mouth the tiger was persuaded by the shop’s proprietor himself to release the boy unharmed.

11. What did Sir Richard Whittington (Dick of Lord Mayor fame) in the 15th century pay to have built by the Thames near to modern day Southwark Bridge?

12. Playwright and poet Ben Jonson as one might expect is interned in Westminster Abbey’s poets’ corner. But what was unusual about his burial?

(a) He told the Dean of Westminster that ‘six feet long by two feet wide is too much for me: two feet by two feet will do for all I want’. The small grave also, of course, reduced the cost of internment.

13. By Victoria Gate in Kensington Gardens away from preying eyes is a cemetery. But what lies entombed there in the unconsecrated ground?

(b) The Dogs’ Cemetery was started in 1881 by the gatekeeper at Victoria Lodge, a Mr Winbridge, who started burying dogs in the lodge’s garden. The first dog to be buried was called Cherry, a Maltese Terrier, who died of old age. Cherry’s owners used to visit the park regularly and were friends of Mr Winbridge, so when Cherry died they thought it would be a fitting tribute to be buried in Hyde Park. By the time the cemetery closed in 1903, three-hundred tiny burials dotted the grounds.

14. On 17th October 1814 eight people met an untimely and unusual end, but what was the cause of their demise?

(c) Beer was the drink of choice as water was often unsafe. The demand led to brewers constructing huge vats as an economical way of producing the beverage. One such vat burst its hoops which in turn ruptured nearby vats. Eventually more than 323,000 gallons became a tsunami drowning 8 people. The Dominion Theatre stands on the site of the ill-fated Horseshoe Brewery.

15. A performance of La Traviata at Sadler’s Wells theatre in 1952 had to be abandoned, but what was the reason?

(a) It was The Great Smog of 1952, coal fires and industrial emissions had reduced visibility in London to inches, lasting from Friday 5th December to Tuesday, 9th December in those few days over 4,000 would die.

16. At the junction of Kensington Gore and Exhibition Road is known by cabbies as ‘Hot and Cold Corner’. Why?

(b) The Royal Geographical Society building has a statute of Shackleton looking towards Exhibition Road by Charles Jagger, a sculptor best known for war memorials and Livingstone setting his sights on Kensington Gore by Thomas Bayliss Huxley-Jones.

17. You probably see it every day, but what is Johnston Sans?

(b) Edward Johnston took the popular Gill Sans and re-designed it for all signage on the Underground, apart from slight changes it has remained the same since it was first used in 1916.

18. In a little courtyard off St. James’s Street lays Pickering Place, it once housed an embassy, but which short lived nation-state was represented?

(a) Britain was one of the first nations to recognise the Republic of Texas when it broke away from Mexico in the 1830s, it would later become the twenty-eighth state of the United States.

19. The Russian word for a railway station is also a main line terminal in London, which one?

(c) One theory is that a Russian parliamentary delegation visited London to view a fabulous new invention, the railway. Their hosts from the House of Commons took them over the river to the nearest station, Vauxhall in South London. When the Russians asked what it was called, meaning the type of building, they got the reply ‘Vauxhall’. So vokzal to this day means railway station in Russian.

20. London has experienced many ‘Great Storms’, but one in 1703 dislodged a well-known icon, what was it?

(b) Upon the restoration of the Monarchy Cromwell’s body was disinterred from its tomb in Westminster Abbey, given a posthumous trial and subsequent execution. His head was then placed on a long spike upon the roof of Westminster Hall. It remained there for over 40 years before the storm dislodged the gruesome remains.

Did you manage to answer all twenty questions? From 1st January every Sunday CabbieBlog will post 11 pieces of trivia about London. They might help you in answering next year’s Christmas Quiz which will be published on 26th December.

London trivia

London Trivia: A Hansom cab

23 December, 2018 Gibson Square Leave a comment

On 23 December 1834 architect Joseph Aloysius Hansom registered the design of a ‘Patent Safety Cab’, incorporating larger wheels and a lower axle leading to fewer accidents. It’s the type most associated with Victorian horse drawn cabs, Hansom sold the patent for £10,000 but was never fully paid, only receiving £300 for his ‘time and trouble’, by the century’s end, there were more than 7,000 black cabs bearing his name in London.

On 23 December 1970 The Mousetrap had its 7,511th consecutive performance making a world record for the longest running play

Jack Ketch’s Kitchen was a room at Newgate Prison named after the bungling executioner, here parts of those hung drawn and quartered were kept

The world’s first underground public lavatory opened in 1855 under the pavement next to the Bank of England

London’s smogs came in a variety of colours: black, brown, grey, orange, dark chocolate or bottle green – hence ‘pea soupers’

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’s Communist Manifesto was first published (in German) in London’s Liverpool Street by the German printer J.E. Burghard in 1848

Next door to the George Inn, Southwark once stood The Tabard which was the pub from which Chaucer’s pilgrims started their walk to Kent in The Canterbury Tales

Between 1879-80 the man who originated the custom of sending Christmas cards, Sir Henry Cole, lived at 3 Elm Row, Hampstead

In the 1908 London Olympic Games marathon Charles Hefferon, with one-and-a-half miles remaining, accepted a victory glass of champagne, the bubbly caused him to vomit, and Hefferon was overtaken

Busking has been licensed on the Tube since 2003, Sting and Paul McCartney are both rumoured to have busked on the Underground in disguise

Established in 1902, Ealing Studios in West London are the oldest continuously working film studios in the world

The word ‘Strand’ is an old English word for ‘shore’. It makes reference to when the Thames was more shallow and more wide, and would have flowed along the side of the Strand

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.

The Grill

The London Grill: Geoffrey Riesel

21 December, 2018 Gibson Square Leave a comment

We challenge our contributor to reply to ten devilishly probing questions about their London and we don’t take “Sorry Gov” for an answer. Everyone sitting in the hot seat will face the same questions that range from their favourite way to spend a day out in the capital to their most hated building on London’s skyline to find out just what Londoners really think about their city. The questions might be the same but the answers vary wildly.

[T]ODAY WE GRILL Geoffrey Riesel ex-Chairman and CEO of Radio Taxis Group for his responses. His interests include music, reading, movies, theatre, Manchester United, Formula 1, driving, food and drinking champagne. He should know a thing or two about London for he has held a taxi licence for many years. Rather against the spirit of “The Grilling”, he claimed that it was quite nice to do, but he did have to think quite hard because he has so many favourites, so his answers must come under favourite favourites.

What’s your secret London tip?
Take the river bus from Greenwich Park to Westminster and back; London looks so magnificently different from the river.

What’s your secret London place?
The Goring Hotel, it is such a calm, old fashioned and gentile backwater.

What’s your biggest gripe about London?
It has to be the “traffic calming” bumps and street furniture along with CCTV cameras being used to “nick” cab drivers who are just going about their work.

What’s your favourite building?
The Savoy Hotel fantastically restored luxurious art deco building.

What’s your most hated building?
Centre Point. I attend the CBI London Regional Council there and even the inside is totally soul-less.

What’s the best view in London?
From the top of the London Eye.

What’s your personal London landmark?
The Gherkin is a smashing and iconic building.

What’s your favourite London film, book or documentary?
It’s a toss-up between The Lady Killers filmed at Kings Cross starring Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom and Passport to Pimlico starring Stanley Holloway.

What’s your favourite bar, pub or restaurant?
Also the Goring Hotel restaurant with crystal lights by Lord Linley and cordon bleu English food including one of the Queen Mothers’ favourite recipes.

How would you like to spend your ideal day off in London?
Taking my grandchildren to play around Primrose Hill, then lunch at Harry Morgan’s Salt Beef bar in St Johns Wood and finally taking the grandkids around the toy department at Selfridges (I’m sad to say the music department there is no more). Then finally buying some deli from Selfridge’s food store before spoiling the Grandchildren with chocolate from Selfridge’s resplendent sweet shop.