On 19 July 1983, a huge new dinosaur skeleton was unveiled to the media at the Natural History Museum. Plumber Bill Walker found a foot-long claw belonging to the flesh-eating beast at a clay pit in Surrey. Palaeontologists reconstructed it and dated the remains at 125 million years old, nicknamed ‘Jaws’ the creature would have been as tall as a double-decker bus, and could have run up to 20 miles an hour.

On 19 July 2011 Robert Murdoch’s face was hit with a shaving foam pie thrown by a protester at a parliamentary hearing into phone hacking

In Clink Street is the prison of the same name derived from the French “clenche” meaning catch outside of the door as opposed to the inside

The height of the Monument measures the same as the distance from its base to the place where The Great Fire of London was started

Statistically for some undefined reason would-be suicides prefer to meet their maker from underground stations than from one open to the sky

House near Globe Theatre claims Catherine, Henry VIII’s first Queen sheltered on her first landing in London and Christopher Wren lived there

Senate House on Malet Street in Bloomsbury was George Orwell’s model for the Ministry of Truth in his book 1984

The Guinea Grill in Bruton Street sells over 25,000 steak and kidney pies a year in 2000 it was officially declared Steak Pie of the Century

The home of cricket, Kennington Oval’s distinctive shape was dictated by the layout of the surrounding streets rather than the other way round

In 1928 Hyde Park Corner had more through traffic than any place in the world by 1998 Vauxhall Cross was declared Europe’s busiest junction

Beneath government buildings is a secret wartime complex between Great George Street and King Charles Street are 200 underground offices

Silver Vaults London’s oldest safe deposit assures confidentiality but when flooded one held a pair of knickers labelled “My Life’s Undoing”

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.