On 31 January 1983 drivers and front seat passengers were required by law to wear seatbelts. There were be some exceptions to the new law. Taxi drivers were exempt because of the possible threat to their safety from dangerous passengers, though curiously London cabbies were required to belt up if they were plying for hire, only when they had a fare could they unbuckle. Drivers of milk floats were also exempt.

On 31 January 1606 Guy Fawkes was executed after being convicted for his role in the ‘Gunpowder Plot’ against the English Parliament and King James I

Banker Henry Fauntleroy’s public hanging for defrauding the Bank of England of £250,000 attracted the largest ever crowd with 100,000 people

At 202ft The Monument is the tallest unsupported stone column in the world and is 202ft from the seat of the Great Fire of London it depicts

London’s first gas-powered traffic lights on Parliament Square in 1868 blew up killing a policeman and caused cavalry horses to stampede

Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli speaking in Parliament, referring to taxis said of them: “The Hansom cabs are the gondolas of London”

Landseer copied the forepaws of a domestic moggie for his lions at the base of Nelson’s Column, if you look carefully they are too dainty

The world’s first jigsaw was created in 1761 by London engraver John Spilsbury by cutting them out by hand and naming them ‘dissected maps’

The University Boat Race from Putney to Mortlake has taken its crews from Oxford and Cambridge since 1829 and 30 per cent have been Old Etonians

On 31 January 1915 Warwick Avenue tube station opened, prior to its opening the proposed name for the station was Warrington Crescent

The upper class bank situated on the Strand, Coutts and Co. has handled the accounts of every British monarch since King George III

A mulberry tree in Buckingham Palace gardens is said to be the last of 4 acres planted by James I attempting to start England’s silk industry

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.

On 24 January 1907 William Whiteley was shot dead outside the office of his own store by 29-year-old Horace George Raynor, who then turned the gun on himself. Raynor, who survived, claimed to be the illegitimate son of the store’s owner by his Whiteley’s long-term mistress, former shop girl, Louie Turner. Raynor’s death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He was released in 1919 on licence.

On 24 January 1965 Winston Churchill following a stroke died at his home at Hyde Park Gate aged 90, he ordered his coffin leave London from Waterloo just to annoy General de Gaulle

Acid Bath Murderer Haigh dissolved his victims in a house now occupied by the Kentucky Fried Chicken Gloucester Road

On 24 January 1956 plans were unveiled for homes in Barbican a public inquiry considered plans to build in the area left devastated by war

During the plague of 1665 Londoners lived on huge rafts floating on the Thames in an attempt to escape the pestilence

The howitzer sculpture at Hyde Park Corner is pointed at the Somme – but if it was a real, its range would mean it would hit Crystal Palace

The Travellers Club in Pall Mall is the fictional start to Jules Verne’s story Around The World In Eighty Days

Hidden under the Ministry of Defence are Cardinal Wolsey’s wine cellars from the Whitehall Palace which burned down in 1698

The Racing Driver’s Handbook on how to behave on a racetrack is called The Blue Book the same as the Knowledge book of runs for cabbies

Only five Underground stations have ‘X’ in their names: Uxbridge, Brixton, Oxford Circus, Vauxhall and Croxley

The Bowler Hat is named after Mr Bowler who made it but Locks the Hatters call it the Coke after Mr Coke who ordered it

London cabbie George King founded the Aetherius Society to prevent the annihilation of Earth by improving cooperation with alien species

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.