Licensed black cabbies dropping off sick and elderly patients at St. Thomas’ Hospital have been allowed THREE-MINUTES to drop-off and pick-up following a raft of fines dished out to cabbies. Penalty Charge Notices had been issued for dropping patients and hospital visitors at the London hospital. Frustrated cabbies received the fines after allowing passengers to disembark at the foot of the ramp leading into the hospital’s car park. Now 180 seconds are allowed to disembark a patient in a wheelchair.
Monthly Archives: September 2022
Johnson’s London Dictionary: Heathrow
HEATHROW (n.) The Holy grail of the Hansom driver whereas he doth convey his passenger where they may ascend into the Heavens.
Dr. Johnson’s London Dictionary for publick consumption in the twenty-first century avail yourself on Twitter @JohnsonsLondon
Royal Quiz
As a tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II this quiz is all about our longest reigning Monarch. As before the correct answer will turn green when it’s clicked upon and expanded to give more information. The incorrect answers will turn red giving the correct explanation.
1. Princess Elizabeth married Philip Mountbatten in 1947, due to rationing some of the ingredients came from an unexpected quarter. Who were the donors?
Home & Colonial Stores
WRONG The bride was one of the most famous Girl Guides in the world, it was fitting that some of the ingredients used to make her official wedding cake were donated by Australian Guides. Instead of being eaten at the wedding reception, slices of the 12 wedding cakes were sent to charities, as well as to schoolchildren and patients and staff at hospitals throughout the country.
Australian Girl Guides
CORRECT The bride was one of the most famous Girl Guides in the world, it was fitting that some of the ingredients used to make her official wedding cake were donated by Australian Guides. Instead of being eaten at the wedding reception, slices of the 12 wedding cakes were sent to charities, as well as to schoolchildren and patients and staff at hospitals throughout the country.
A grateful French nation
WRONG The bride was one of the most famous Girl Guides in the world, it was fitting that some of the ingredients used to make her official wedding cake were donated by Australian Guides. Instead of being eaten at the wedding reception, slices of the 12 wedding cakes were sent to charities, as well as to schoolchildren and patients and staff at hospitals throughout the country.
2. In which area of London was Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen, born?
Belgravia
WRONG 17 Bruton Street, Mayfair.
Mayfair
CORRECT 17 Bruton Street, Mayfair.
Kensington
WRONG 17 Bruton Street, Mayfair.
3. What offence is the Queen Elizabeth purported to have committed on 15th May 1939?
She didn’t hand in a train ticket
CORRECT Elizabeth’s first tube ride was from St James’s Park to Tottenham Court Road, with her sister Margaret. It was an eventful journey – the sisters sat in a third-class smoking carriage and were chased by a ticket inspector after forgetting to hand in their tickets.
She smoked a reefer
WRONG Elizabeth’s first tube ride was from St James’s Park to Tottenham Court Road, with her sister Margaret. It was an eventful journey – the sisters sat in a third-class smoking carriage and were chased by a ticket inspector after forgetting to hand in their tickets.
She knocked off a policeman’s helmet
WRONG Elizabeth’s first tube ride was from St James’s Park to Tottenham Court Road, with her sister Margaret. It was an eventful journey – the sisters sat in a third-class smoking carriage and were chased by a ticket inspector after forgetting to hand in their tickets.
4. In St Katharine Docks can be found a giant block of acrylic bearing a royal crown – erected to mark the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977, for what was it originally intended?
As a prop in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey
CORRECT The block was second-hand and was originally commissioned (without the crown) for the famous movie.
An exhibit at The Great Exhibition in Crystal Palace
WRONG The block was second-hand and was originally commissioned (without the crown) for the famous movie.
A prototype aircraft landing indicator
WRONG The block was second-hand and was originally commissioned (without the crown) for the famous movie.
5. According to Royal Chef Darren McGrady, what was the Queen’s favourite type of burger?
Venison and cranberry
CORRECT Venison and cranberry.
Wood pigeon and fennel
WRONG Venison and cranberry.
She NEVER eats burgers
WRONG Venison and cranberry.
6. Westminster Hall, Southwark Cathedral and the Queen’s Chapel of the Savoy all contain a similar type of memorial to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012. What form do these memorials take?
A marble statue.
WRONG A stained-glass window
Stained-glass window
CORRECT A stained-glass window.
An ornate pulpit
WRONG A stained-glass window
7. One of the most sacred parts of the Coronation is the anointing of the new monarch at Westminster Abbey by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The stored oil made from extracts of roses, oranges, musk, cinnamon and ambergris usually lasts for decades and had been used at several Coronations, so why was a new batch made?
One of the ingredients was thought to be poisonous
WRONG The new batch had to be created for The Queen, as the previous vial had been destroyed during a wartime bombing raid.
Nobody could find the old batch
WRONG The new batch had to be created for The Queen, as the previous vial had been destroyed during a wartime bombing raid.
German bombs destroyed the stored oil
CORRECT The new batch had to be created for The Queen, as the previous vial had been destroyed during a wartime bombing raid.
8. Looking for something special for the Queen’s Coronation, florist and author Constance Spry created what?
Chicken korma
WRONG Probably the most famous dish created for Elizabeth II is the one created for her coronation banquet in 1953, Constance Spry came up with a recipe for cold chicken in a curried cream sauce, served with a salad of herbed rice and green peas. Coronation Chicken has been enjoyed ever since.
A Coronation corsage
WRONG Probably the most famous dish created for Elizabeth II is the one created for her coronation banquet in 1953, Constance Spry came up with a recipe for cold chicken in a curried cream sauce, served with a salad of herbed rice and green peas. Coronation Chicken has been enjoyed ever since.
Coronation chicken
CORRECT Probably the most famous dish created for Elizabeth II is the one created for her coronation banquet in 1953, Constance Spry came up with a recipe for cold chicken in a curried cream sauce, served with a salad of herbed rice and green peas. Coronation Chicken has been enjoyed ever since.
9. The Queen created a new breed of dog, how was it known?
A dorgi, corgi x dachshund
CORRECT This is a cross between a corgi and a dachshund. One of the Queen’s beloved corgis mated with Princess Margaret’s dachshund named Pipkin, spawning the world’s first “dorgi”. Since then there have been 11 dorgis – Tinker, Pickles, Chipper, Piper, Harris, Brandy, Berry, Cider, Candy and Vulcan.
A porgi, corgi x poodle
WRONG This is a cross between a corgi and a dachshund. One of the Queen’s beloved corgis mated with Princess Margaret’s dachshund named Pipkin, spawning the world’s first “dorgi”. Since then there have been 11 dorgis – Tinker, Pickles, Chipper, Piper, Harris, Brandy, Berry, Cider, Candy and Vulcan.
A sorgi, corgi x king charles spaniel
WRONG This is a cross between a corgi and a dachshund. One of the Queen’s beloved corgis mated with Princess Margaret’s dachshund named Pipkin, spawning the world’s first “dorgi”. Since then there have been 11 dorgis – Tinker, Pickles, Chipper, Piper, Harris, Brandy, Berry, Cider, Candy and Vulcan.
10. Famously The Queen didn’t carry cash, but is this true?
Never
WRONG The Queen only carried cash in her purse on Sundays so she could donate money to her church.
She occasionally would have money
CORRECT The Queen only carried cash in her purse on Sundays so she could donate money to her church.
Always
WRONG The Queen only carried cash in her purse on Sundays so she could donate money to her church.
London in Quotations: Charles Lamb
The lighted shops of the Strand and Fleet Street; the innumerable trades, tradesmen, and customers, coaches, wagons, playhouses; all the bustle and wickedness round about Covent Garden; the very women of the town; the watchmen, drunken scenes, rattles; life awake, if you awake, at all hours of the night; . . . I often shed tears in the motley Strand from fullness of joy at so much life.
Charles Lamb (1779-1834)
London Trivia: Marlborough Diamond stolen
On 11 September 1980 the ‘Marlborough Diamond’, totalling 26-carats, was stolen by two Chicago gangsters from the Graff jewellers shop in Knightsbridge. They got away with a total of £1,429,000 worth of gems and were arrested in Chicago as they stepped off the plane. The diamond was never recovered.
On 11 September 1978 Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov died of suspected ricin poisoning, it was suspected that the poison was delivered via the point of an umbrella
The last person to be executed at the Tower of London was German soldier Josef Jakobs in 1941, shot by a military firing squad
Until 1994 there were no ‘roads’ in the City, there’s now one, Goswell Road becoming part of the Square Mile in 1994 after boundary changes
Wyndham’s theatre programme 1940. “In the interests of public health this theatre is disinfected with Jeyes Fluid”
In the Old Red Lion, Islington Thomas Paine wrote The Rights of Man and Lenin eavesdropped on conversations via the dumb waiter lift shaft
Peter Cook lived at 17 Church Row, Hampstead where he regularly entertained friends such as Peter Sellars and Willie Rushton
Due to its status as a fashion Mecca and length, Regent Street is also referred to as the ‘Mile of Style’ as distinct from Oxford Street
The London 2012 Olympics organizers wanted Keith Moon to play at Olympics ceremony. They realized later that he had been dead for 34 years
Don’t believe the signs telling you how many steps there are: at Belsize Park Station the sign says 219 steps, but there are actually 189
In 1812 Bryan Donkin and John Hall set up the world’s first canning factory in Blue Anchor Lane, Bermondsey
Margaret Thatcher went to the same Mayfair hairdresser, Evansky as Barbara Castle, while Thatcher sat in main area Castle had a private room
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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