Monthly Archives: March 2020
London in Quotations: Kano
London, London, London town / You can toughen up or get thrown around.
Kano (b.1985)
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.
Bizarre requests made of London Cabbies
Cabbies in London get to see all walks of life. In fact, you never quite know who you’ll get in the back of your cab or how they’ll behave. Some passengers ask very little of you as a taxi driver, just to be taken from A to B safely and within good time. However, there are others that are just a little more demanding or at times, outright bizarre.
Leading taxi insurance broker, insureTAXI asked 220 London cabbies to reveal the strangest requests they’ve ever got from passengers and they came up with these fantastic tales. From transporting budgies to visiting the crematorium at midnight, these taxi drivers truly went beyond the call of duty.
Can I bring my budgie?
“Had a customer ask me if she could bring her budgie, told her that she could as long as she kept hold of it. Well, she didn’t and when I broke hard for a car that pulled out in front of me the cage went flying. The door flew open and the bird was flying around my car with her daughter screaming her head off!! The customer had to climb in the back to try and catch it.” Steve (St Albans, Hertfordshire)
Have I just bought a black cab?
“On my way home but with my light still on and the early hours of the morning a guy waves me down and asks if I would take him to somewhere in deepest Kent (forget now exactly where) after 45 minutes he asks: could I in any way slow down the meter; or could I drive slower? I say to him that would make no difference to the metered fare. He was I think just happy to be getting home, after about 50 minutes or so his phone rings and it was his wife asking where he was: “Be home in about 20 minutes Luv” he says and, “Oh, by the way, take your car out of the garage, I think I’ve have just bought a black-cab”. By Colin (now in Thailand)
I need my charger . . . it’s in my car!
“Had a lad ask me to take him on a 40-mile round trip just to collect his phone charger from his car. This was a £50 fare from the bar he had been drinking at! When I explained the cost he insisted that it was important and that he didn’t mind. I’m sure he could have waited to make some other arrangement the next day” Ali (Central London)
Quick! I’m live on air in 9 minutes
“I once was asked to take an MP to a TV broadcast 9 minutes before he was live on air with Paxton on Newsnight! No pressure I thought. We made it with less than a few seconds to spare.” Anonymous (Central London)
I want a divorce!
“I once took a couple of arguing newlyweds home from their night do and the bride asked to be dropped off at her parents as she did not want to go home with her new husband and wanted a divorce.” Tahir (Croydon, East London)
Secret midnight cremation
“Back in the 80s, I was asked to take a male and a female, dressed in Gothic fashion to the local Crematorium late at Night. I said, hesitantly, “what actually inside the grounds?!” “I mean I’m sorry to ask but why do want to go there this late at night?” “Yes!” she said. Nervously, I drove into the grounds of the Crematorium, shaking, fearing I was going to face some ritualistic ceremony…it was getting darker and darker until suddenly I saw the lights of a house and breathed a great sigh of relief. The female passenger explained they’d been in a timepiece having a laugh and been invited to a friends’ party whose house happened to be inside the grounds of the crematorium. The man, whose identity is still a complete mystery, paid the fare, and wrote “thank you for a great ride, love Alf” in my notebook.” Rasheed (Chelmsford, Essex)
This is a Guest Post by Tim Crighton director of taxi insurance specialists Taxi-Insure.
A version of this post was published by CabbieBlog on 14th March 2014
Finding Nemo
Out walking the dog today and saw a 4-inch long goldfish swimming happily in the River Rom. Might sell the story to Disney Studios they could call it . . . I know Finding Nemo. Who would put their goldfish into a river? At least there are no pike in the upper reaches of the River Rom, but if he goes into the River Lea, goodbye Nemo.
CabbieBlog 