London is a city that has reinvented itself upon the remains of the past.
Leo Hollis (b.1972), London Rising: The Men Who Made Modern London
Monthly Archives: May 2022
London Trivia: Square bullets for Turks
On 15 May 1718 James Puckle patented a revolver type of firearm, it was ‘a portable gun or machine that discharges so often and so many bullets, and be so quickly loaded as renders it next to impossible to carry any ship by boarding’. The unusually clear drawings showed an early machine gun. His specifications were that round bullets be used on Christians and square ones on Turks.
On 15 May 1855 three London companies, sent a 91kg box of gold bars from London Bridge station to Paris. On arrival in Paris, the boxes only contained lead
In 1517 ‘Evil May Day’ saw riots against traders from Flanders, Italy and France led by John Lincoln he and other ringleaders were later hanged
Christopher Wren had originally wanted a stone pineapple on the dome of St Paul’s he saw them as a symbol of peace and hospitality
The first baby to be born on the underground was born at Elephant and Castle in 1924, she was named Marie Cordery
Harold Wilson lived at 5 Lord North Street, during his last term serving as Prime Minister spurning the official residence in Downing Street
With over 45 million visitors since it opened in May 2000 Tate Modern has become the most visited modern art gallery in the world
Waterstone’s Piccadilly London’s largest bookshop claims to be Europe’s biggest, 6 floors, over 8 miles of shelves, with over 200,000 titles
Henry VIII played tennis at Hampton Court in silk or velvet drawers (the first shorts) slashed with ‘cuttes’ and edges sewn with gold cord
As Princess Elizabeth, the Queen travelled on the Underground for the first time in May 1939, when she was 13 years old, with her governess Marion Crawford and Princess Margaret
One of the Crossrail tunnelling machines is named Phyllis, in honour of Phyllis Pearsall who invented London’s A to Z map
London’s Camden Square has twice returned Britain’s highest recorded temperatures May 1949 – 29.4C and in June 1957 – 35.6C
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.
Previously Posted: Let It Be
For those new to CabbieBlog or readers who are slightly forgetful, on Saturdays I’m republishing posts, many going back over a decade. Some will still be very relevant while others have become dated over time. Just think of this post as your weekend paper supplement.
Let It Be (15.05.09)
As a child of the ‘60s I have seen The Beatles in their heyday. My first sight of them was at the BBC Paris Theatre formerly in Lower Regent Street when they first came to London and nobody had heard of the Fab Four outside of Liverpool. Within weeks they had a No. 1 record and the rest as they say is history.
In 1969 The Beatles released their final album Abbey Road, with the iconic pedestrian crossing sleeve, photographed by Iain Macmillan, who had but 10 minutes for the shoot on the 8th August 1969. Apparently the man on the pavement in the background was an American tourist who only found out much later that he had been immortalised. On the left of the original picture is a VW Beetle which they had tried to have moved for the shot. The owners lived in the appartment block opposite and later the number plate was stolen as a souvenir. The car was sold at auction in 1986 for $23,000 and is on display at the VW Museum in Wolfsburg, Germany.
The genesis of this week’s blog was started by a recent fare of mine who lived next door to the studio, who told me that once she saw a Japanese man walking naked across the crossing, being photographed for posterity. Dozens of near accidents happen here, and all day vehicles are sounding their horns. At least if there is an accident, some evidence could be available as there is a 24 hours live web cam of the crossing.
Now correct me if I am wrong, but can anybody tell me why everyday scores of people, many not even born in 1969 risk injury by being photographed jaywalking across this crossing?
These same people also graffiti the wall of the studios (and their neighbour’s wall), which the clever Abbey Road people have painted white for that very purpose. The wall get so much attention that it has to be repainted white every 6-8 weeks.
Paul McCartney lives nearby and he must be as baffled as the rest of us at this behaviour, especially as most of these people have never heard the Abbey Road album. Well Paul McCartney might not have to wait much longer to sell this album to these young blades. Later this year, after many hours of work in the Abbey Road Studios (who claim incidentally to have the largest purpose built recording studio in the world), the entire back calalogue will be available on a new completely remastered set. Whether downloads, previously unobtainable from i-tunes, will be sold remains to be seen.
Well all of you, buy the CD set but just keep off that bloody crossing when I’m driving past!
As a footnote to this, the late Freddie Mercury’s Kensington house also suffers the same fate.
Protected: Taxi!
Rickshaws
Rickshaws are to be licensed to operate in London. Then someone best makes sure they are booked through a licensed rickshaw operator, otherwise they will be plying for hire in streets that are closed off to taxis. Now I know why the cycle lanes are so big and the speed limit is coming down to 15mph.
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