On 11 July 1976 Brent Cross shopping centre opened in north London. It had eighty-six shops, parking for 5,000 cars, was fully enclosed and air-conditioned and had a late policy which was novel at this time.
On 11 July 1848 the London & South Western Railway opened Waterloo Bridge station. A spur once led to the adjoining dedicated station of the London Necropolis Co., for funeral trains
The Clink England’s first prison was notorious for its brutality, received its name from the clinking of prisoners’ manacles and chains
In 1110 Queen Matilda was crossing a ford at modern Bow, falling from her horse into the river the King Henry I ordered a bow-shaped bridge
A Black Death researcher claims the lack of rat corpses in London and the speed of contagion proves that it was spread by humans killing 40,000 in London
So many refugees arrived in the 1870/80s 150 synagogues were built and over 135,000 Jews were crammed into two square miles of the East End
In 1967 Finsbury Park was the setting for Jimi Hendrix’s first foray into his signature on stage guitar pyromania
18th century Fulham’s reputation for debauchery, gambling and prostitution echoes of which are used in gambling parlance, fulham means loaded dice
Steve Galloway was a 1980s semi-pro footballer who worked in the City – as part of his training NatWest let him run up their tower every day
At Heathrow the first aircraft to take off was a converted Lancaster bomber for Buenos Aires, passengers walked along duckboards over muddy airfield
In the early 20th century Great Portland Street earned the nickname Motor Row thanks to the 33 car showrooms that spanned its length
The Bank of England stores the country’s gold reserves in a subterranean crypt known as The Vault with a floor area over seven acres
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.
I well remember all the car showrooms in the Great Portland Street area, and until I moved to Norfolk, I got my weekly supermarket shop at Brent Cross Tesco.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Never been to Brent Cross, and have no intention of visiting any time soon!
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I never went into the big shopping centre, just the supermarket opposite. 🙂
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😊
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