London Trivia: The Tower’s last prisoner

17 May, 2020 Gibson Square 5 Comments

On 17 May 1941, Rudolf Hess was interned for 4 days at the Tower of London where he signed autographs for the warders – one of which is still in the warders bar. Hitler’s deputy had parachuted into Scotland asserting that he wanted to open peace negotiations. He would be the final state prisoner to be held at the castle. Hess would only remain for a few days, he was later tried at Nuremberg and given a life sentence.

On 17 May 1993 at the cost of £345 million, the Limehouse Link opened, becoming the most expensive road per foot to be constructed in Britain

The Seamens’ and Soldiers’ False Characters Act 1906 makes it an offence to walk London’s streets in military fancy dress – fine £20

Affixed to a wall of the Charterhouse is London’s oldest surviving sundial dated 1611 marking the year Thomas Sutton established the school

Postman’s Park near the site of the old General Post Office has a memorial to those dying – many of them children – trying to save others

Incarcerated in the Tower of London King John II of France while awaiting for his ransom to be paid had his own court jester to cheer him up

Named after London’s famous comic, Joseph Grimaldi Park in Islington plays host to an annual ceremony populated by clowns

The Savoy Hotel which reopened at 10.10 on 10.10.2010 was built 1889 and was London’s first luxury hotel and the first with electric light

Abe Sapperstein, a Jewish businessman, born in Flower and Dean Street in 1900 was the founder of the Harlem Globetrotters, he was neither black nor American

The longest distance between Underground stations is the Metropolitan line from Chesham to Chalfont & Latimer: a total of only 3.89 miles

London and Westminster Gas Light and Coke Company founded the world’s first gas works in 1812 to supply gas to Westminster

Rare before, Sysimbrium irio a native plant of the Mediterranean prolificated in the City which had been devastated after the Great Fire

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

Protected: Far from The Madding Crowd

15 May, 2020 Gibson Square

Thinking allowed

Boris bridges

13 May, 2020 Gibson Square Leave a comment

The Boris Garden Bridge is consigned to oblivion. This vanity project, known by luvvies as the garden bridge has already used £37.4 million of public money and by cancelling will cost a further £9 million. The bridge, which only served to obscure London’s best view and wasn’t even open to the public all year, should never have been considered. I know it’s heresy to say these days when we all should be cycling to work, but the £46 million could have been spent on a traffic bridge at Beckton thus reducing congestion at the Blackwall crossing. he new ECO cab has been unveiled with a £60,000 price tag. Assuming you write down the cost over 10 years (private hire come off the road at 10 years); spend £2,000 on insurance; £1,000 on maintenance; it cost you £10 per day on fuel and electricity to charge its batteries; and another £1,000 on one’s licence, plating the vehicle, medicals and sundry extras you arrive at £12,4000 per year. This is probably an underestimate, then, let’s be generous, you can earn £20 per hour for every hour that you are working, and that you work 5-day-a-week for 48 weeks a year you get a back of an envelope sum thus:£12,400÷48 weeks=£310 weekly overheads which equal 15.5 hours or 2 days’ work before you have earned a bean.

Still, we can look forward to the Boris Bridge MkII, over the Irish Sea or as it will become The Bridge Over Troubled Water