The fret and fever of the day are o’er, / And London slumbers, but with murmurs faint, / Like Ocean, when she folds her waves to sleep: / ‘Tis the pure hour for poetry and thought; / When passions sink, and man surveys the heavens, / And feels himself immortal.
Robert Montgomery (b.1972), London, Religion and Poetry: Being Selections Spiritual and Moral
On 19 June 1960 Nan Winton, an experienced journalist, began a job reading the 6pm news and weekend bulletins on Sunday evenings. BBC audience research concluded that viewers thought that a woman reading the ‘Late News’ was ‘not acceptable’ and so she was removed in March 1961.
On 19 June 1978 Ian Botham was the first cricketer to score a century and take 8 wickets in one Test match innings against Pakistan at Lord’s
The 1839 Metropolitan Police Act, s.60, ss.3 makes it an offence to dust off your carpet outside in London after 8am punishable by £200 fine
Artillery Lane Spitalfields is named after the grounds of the Honourable Artillery Company here before moving to Moorgate
Jimi Hendrix’s last performance was at Ronnie Scott’s in Soho, on the day before he died – a jam with Eric Burdon
On 19 June 1944 a V1 or Doodlebug fell on Wellington Barracks killing Lord Edward Hay and several friends of the Royal family
Now demolished, Nicholl House on the Woodberry Down Estate, Hackney was the backdrop for the Warsaw Ghetto in the film Schindler’s List
When Peter the Great stayed in the Deptford home of John Evelyn in 1698 he trashed his garden and drank his wine
Ping-pong bar Bounce at 121 Holborn is on the site where John Jacques created and patented the game in 1901
Roding Valley is the least used station on the London Underground network – it has fewer passengers in a year than Victoria has in a day
18th century Author Dr Johnson tried making pots at the Chelsea China Works but they kept collapsing and he gave up
Prince Edward had collected so many mistresses that a special pew was reserved for them at his coronation: it was known as the ‘Loose Box’
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.
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.
On Monday 15 March 1909 Selfridges Department Store celebrated its centenary. Here is the story of its founder taken from CabbieBlog’s Hidden London.
Gordon Selfridge the American department store magnet was an interesting fellow who provides a salutary moral lesson for us all. He devoted his productive years to building Selfridges into Europe’s finest shopping emporium. During that time he led a life of stern rectitude, early bedtimes and tireless work. But in 1918 his wife died and the sudden release from marital bounds rather went to his head. He took up with a pair of Hungarian-American cuties known in music-hall circles as the Dolly Sisters, and he fell into rakish ways. With a Dolly on each arm, he dined out every night, invested foolish sums on racehorses, cars, the casinos and even bought a castle in Dorset. In ten years he had spent $8 million, lost control of his department store, his racehorses, Rolls Royces and his castle. He ended up living in a small flat in Putney and travelling everywhere by bus. He died penniless and forgotten in 1947, with a smile on his face thinking of the time he had shagged the twin sisters.
Merriam-Webster has been defining words since 1828 and is, in the main, a dictionary of American-English. Although aimed squarely at our Colonial Cousins it contains a range of words rarely heard outside Britain. I’m pleased to report that whinge, although rarely heard outside Britain is featured:
Definition – to complain fretfully: whine
Intransitive verb – British
Whinge and whine may look like simple variants, but the two words are fairly distinct, with meanings and histories that are independent. Whinge comes from an Old English word, hwinsian, meaning “to wail or moan discontentedly,” whereas whine comes from the Old English hwinan (“to make a humming or whirring sound”). Whinge, in use since the 12th century, has always had a meaning related to complaining; whine, on the other hand, did not begin to have its now-familiar meaning until the 16th century.
O it is a sweet thing ay to be whinging, and crying, and seeking about Christ’s Pantry Doors, and to hold ay an Eye upon Christ when he goes into the House of Wine, into His Fathers fair Luckie Wine-Celler where there are many Wines, and bout in at Christ’s back. — Samuel Rutherford, Christs Napkin, 1660
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