PROTESTORS (n.) Moneyed individuals who doth indulge in obstructing costermongers purveying their goods.
Dr. Johnson’s London Dictionary for publick consumption in the twenty-first century avail yourself on Twitter @JohnsonsLondon
Monthly Archives: November 2022
Everyone Is Entitled To My Opinion
In mid-life David Styles started a journey of discovering London, embarking on a five-year journey learning The Knowledge of London and unearthing facts along the way unknown to many Londoners. Once qualified he would meet, among others, Grayson Perry dressed as Little Bo Peep and the Archbishop of York on the eve of a Royal Wedding.
Part memoir with useful tips on increasing your memory; part manual on how to pass The Knowledge enabling you to join the ranks of the world’s finest cab service; and part London tourist guide. Everyone Is Entitled To My Opinion takes you on a cabbie’s journey from working in an ancient industry facing redundancy to confronting Knowledge examiner, the feared, Mr Ormes.
He discovers how trees were planted in 1399 specifically to repair Westminster Hall’s roof some 500 years later, discloses that a Tory MP confused the Liberal Club with a public toilet, shows why maps are a work of fiction and advises that, for the sake of your health, you really shouldn’t queue outside Madame Tussauds. Where, should you wish, buy American postage stamps, finds Dick Whittington’s cat and seeks out the ancient London Stone.
Boris Johnson gets to be interviewed and the book explains why all London cabbies are obliged to carry a health certificate, at any time, not just when Boris is a passenger, and just what is behind those cabbie green shelters.
A London cabbie for over 25 years, David Styles, writing under the pseudonym Gibson Square (the first ‘Run’ on The Knowledge), has written about London on CabbieBlog.com since June 2008, and his blog has been read by over 1.4 million; he was features editor at Radio Taxis; he has contributed to Time Out, Metro, Evening Standard, Mail on Line, National Geographic; and The Spirit of London, a book presented to Her Majesty the Queen and given to all athletes competing in the London 2012 Olympics. He also appeared in the BBC documentary A Picture of London.
Everyone Is Entitled To My Opinion is his first book, available free on Kindle Unlimited or may be downloaded for £4.49, the paperback is modesty priced at £8.99 should you prefer that rather quaint method of reading.
Gavin from New Zealand writes:
I am a Kiwi and served in the London Ambulance Service from 1980-85. I used the cabs regularly. When I came back for a holiday in 2014, I got all our party to use them. Convenient, cheap and took you right to the doorstep of your destination. But the best part is the banter. If you were in David’s cab and he was giving you a commentary like in this book, I wouldn’t want to leave his cab. “The Knowledge” study and test have some intrigue and romanticism about them. David finally sets the record straight in a most enlightening and humorous manner. London is one big history book, far too big to ever be published. If David was my history teacher, I wouldn’t have given up. His explanations of maps, beehives on hotel roofs, trivia and where cabbies go to pee and eat, are all in this book. I couldn’t put this book down. Cheekily written from the heart and the brain.
London in Quotations: Virginia Woolf
“I love walking in London”, said Mrs Dalloway. “Really, it’s better than walking in the country”.
Virginia Woolf (1882-1914), Mrs Dalloway
London Trivia: Sex Pistols first gig
On 6 November 1975, the Sex Pistols gave their first public concert at a London art school but not surprisingly after only playing for ten minutes they were told to pack up and go home.
On 6 November 1963 British European Airways opened an air terminal on Cromwell Road, unfortunately it was some distance from the nearest Underground station.
It is illegal in London to have sex on a parked motorcycle, beat a carpet in a public park, or impersonate a Chelsea pensioner
The Ritz hotel in Piccadilly was built on a site previously occupied by The Old White Horse Cellar, one of the most famous coaching inns in London
The remains of a Roman teenage girl were unearthed during the construction of The Gherkin, she was reburied near where she was found
Lenin, during his time in London, enjoyed taking trips on the top decks of buses as a means of observing the proletariat
The Lanesborough Hotel had 3 original Reynolds and boasts the largest collection of 18th century paintings in the world outside any gallery
The Fox and Anchor-Smithfield and Market Porter-Borough are licensed to serve alcohol from 7am to fit in with the hours worked by market porters
Tennis legend Fred Perry is commemorated by to plaques in Ealing. His ashes are buried near his statute at Wimbledon
Just outside Temple Tube station is an original pre-Beck map in a glass case. (In other words its lines are bendy rather than straight.)
The only London-based gin distillery left today is Beefeater Gin, which is based on Kennington in the former Haywards pickle factory
The River Thames is two hundred and fifteen miles long, has 47 locks and carries some 300,000 tonnes of sediment a year
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: Blue Badge Blues
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.
Blue Badge Blues (02.10.09)
A multiple-choice question starts this post today.
Which council is so poor it cannot afford to give unrestricted free parking for the disabled?
Is it:
(a) Corby (struggling to survive without its steelworks)
(b) Doncaster (having lost much of the engineering)
(c) Merthyr Tydfil (now coal mining has ceased)
(d) Westminster (one of the wealthiest places on earth).
The answer is to be found at the bottom of this post.
You see I was reading the information booklet about using a disabled Blue Badge for parking restrictions.
Most councils waive their parking charges for the first 2 hours as a concession to the disabled. The cost in lost revenue must be minute when compared to their total revenue. But for some authorities it would appear that the financial burden is too great.
Statistics show that Westminster Council now collects more income from parked cars than from ratepayers, so they are hardly likely to reduce this income stream. They do, magnanimously, provide a number of bays for Blue Badge holders, and provide a leaflet showing where these bays are located.
The answer is: The London Boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea, the City of Westminster, the City of London and part of Camden, just hang your heads in shame.
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