On 9 October 1975 a man, thought to be the bomber died and 20 people were injured, two of them children, by a bomb planted at a bus stop close to Green Park tube station and the Ritz Hotel, Piccadilly.

On 9 October 1991 the first Sumo wrestling tournament ever staged outside Japan in the sport’s 1,500 year history took place at the Royal Albert Hall

Rudolf Hess was the last prisoner to be kept in the Tower of London, in 1941, after the plane he had been flying solo crashed in Scotland

St George the Martyr, Borough has 4 clock faces only 3 are illuminated as the 4th faces Bermondsey who refused to contribute to the funding of the building

A ‘cockney’s luxury’ is the slang term for breakfast in bed, followed by a good defecation in a chamber pot – just saying

In 1815, West Hampstead was such a quiet, rural enclave, that its residents were reported to have heard the cannon fire from the Battle of Waterloo at Brussels

Both Hampstead’s New End Theatre and Knightsbridge’s Pizza On the Park were entertainment venues converted from hospital mortuaries

Opened in 1652, Pasqua Rosee’s was the first coffee house in London. It was located on St Michael’s Alley and burned down during the Great Fire of 1666

London’s oldest surviving sports structure dates from 1534 and is the wall of a tennis court built at Whitehall Palace by Henry VIII, which now forms part of the Cabinet Office, backing onto Downing Street

Five stations on the Underground system are named after pubs: Elephant and Castle, Angel, Swiss Cottage, Royal Oak and Manor House

The first all-British plane was constructed under the viaduct on Walthamstow Marshes in 1909. Alliott Verdon Roe flew for record 280 metres

In 1994 The Stage newspaper advertised for streetwise, outgoing, ambitious girls auditioning at Dreamworks in Mayfair from 400 five became Spice Girls

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.