On 7 February 1845 the Portland Vase, dating from the 1st century BC, was shattered into more than 80 pieces. A drunken visitor to the British Museum, William Mulcahy, threw a sculpted stone exhibit at the glass cabinet containing the treasured artifact, acquired in 1784 by the Duchess of Portland, a noted collector of antiquities and loaned the vase to the British Museum in London for permanent exhibition, where it was seemingly safe.
On 7 February 1996 Concorde left Heathrow and created a new world record between New York and London of 2 hours, 52 minutes and 59 seconds
The everlasting staircase was a giant 24-spoke paddle wheel that 40 prisoners walked for 8 hours in Brixton generating power to grind corn
Finance for building the first Westminster Bridge was raised in the 1730s via lottery with an enormous silver wine cooler as prize
J. M. Barrie donated all the royalties from Peter Pan to Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital. The copyright has only recently expired
When Queen Victoria visited The Duchess of Sutherland at Lancaster House she remarked that it was grander than Buckingham Palace
The house in which actor William Henry Pratt, aka Boris Karloff, lived is now the Sea Master fish and chip shop, Peckham Rye
Covent Garden receives over 44 million visitors a year, making it one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world
The Surbiton Club in 1891 requested members playing billiards partaking of snuff to ‘leave no nasal excreta’ on the baize
The total number of stations served on the network is 270; The District Line has the most stations at 60. The Underground’s fewest is the Waterloo and City Line with none
Smithfield Market incorporating 3 listed Victorian buildings is the largest wholesale meat market in Britain, the area also contains London’s oldest surviving church, St Bartholomew-the-Great, circa 1123
Tradition dictates the Tower must always have 6 ravens. Baldrick is number seven in the pecking order and George was sacked in 1986 for eating TV aerials
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.
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