On 30 May 1593 Shakespeare’s contemporary, playwright Christopher Marlowe died at just twenty-nine in a tavern owned by the widow Eleanor Bull in Deptford in a brawl over a bar tab. After exchanging ‘malicious words’ with Ingram Frizer the two struggled over a dagger, and Marlowe was stabbed over the right eye, killing him instantly. Shakespeare born in the same year had only written 8 plays at the time.

On 30 May 1842, John Francis tried to assassinate Queen Victoria as she sat in her carriage going along Constitution Hill

Until the 1960s Marble Arch contained a fully functional police station, the arch, with views over Buckingham Palace’s garden, is open to the public

St. John’s Way N19 has adjacent Shakespearean named streets: Miranda and Prospero Roads; Lysander Grove; Cressida Road

The London Underground trains were originally steam powered, with predictable health implications. The first deep-level electric railway line opened in 1890

During World War II, Down Street station was used by Churchill and the War Cabinet before they moved to the Cabinet War Rooms in Whitehall. Churchill’s bath is still in place on one of the platforms

Cinematic horror legends Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee curiously were neighbours in Cadogan Square

Watkins Folly, London’s Eiffel Tower opened in 1894, half built, one-quarter the height, and on marshy foundations it was unstable demolished 1903

Men’s tailor, Burtons once rented out their upper floors as billiard halls as a place for customers to wait whilst their suits were adjusted

The London Underground is the third busiest metro system in Europe, every week, Underground escalators travel the equivalent distance of going twice around the world

The future President of North Vietnam worked as a cook at the Carlton Hotel in 1914, Churchill may well have eater vegetables prepared by the man who later founded the Vietnamese Communist Party

The Bank of England has so many rooms underground their combined volume is more than the whole of Tower 42 once London’s second tallest building

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.