According to figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats, 72 billion litres (29,000 Olympic swimming pools) have been pumped into the river by Thames Water in under three years. Mogden near Twickenham was the worst affected site, where 17.1 billion litres of sewage was discharged into the river, closely followed by Crossness in east London, where 15.8 billion litres of sewage was dumped. Naturally these statistics weren’t divulged by Thames Water as they only havea legal obligation to publish the number of hours it’s pumping sewage into London’s river, not the actual volume of the discharges. If you paid a man to dispose of your rubbish, only to find he’d dumped it, you’d call him a crook, and yet we pay water companies to remove our sewage, only to find it dumped in the nearest river.
Monthly Archives: November 2023
Johnson’s London Dictionary: Knowledge School
KNOWLEDGE SCHOOL (n.) Seat of learning which doth imbue its students the information they thought they possessed before enrolling.
Dr. Johnson’s London Dictionary for publick consumption in the twenty-first century avail yourself on Twitter @JohnsonsLondon
November’s monthly musings
🚓 What Cab News
Tom Hutley has been working on a No Traffic Lights Challenge across London. Not counting pedestrian crossings, is it possible to get around all 22 boroughs featured on The Knowledge without using traffic lights? After many trials and changes in mapping the route he’s produced this YouTube video: Can you DRIVE across London without lights?
🎧 What I’m Listening
WizCast is a podcast by Dean Warrington, founder of WizAnn Knowledge School. Rujel and Sal completed with 12 appearances and both did it in around 2 years. From Rujel’s first appearance to his suburb appearance was 364 days. If you want to be a London cabbie, WizAnn School is a good place to start.
📖 What I’m Reading
I thought I’d check out the competition for my book, by buying second-hand, Mark Syme’s book, Knowledge Boy: How to Make a London Taxi Driver. I am trying to track down Mark to contribute to a London Grill.
📺 What I’m watching
Shakespeare: Rise of a Genius, I’ve been banging on here about the 400th anniversary of the publication in London of Shakespeare’s First Folio. The BBC has made this spellbinding drama-documentary demonstrating the Bard’s ability to relevant for us all today. It should be compulsory viewing for all year 9 school children.
❓ What else
Some typically ‘like’ nearly everything I have posted, presumably simply because they want to support my work and want me to feel good about uploading these regular missives. But when I choose the ‘like’ option, sometimes I’m really just saying, “I acknowledge and affirm your existence.” Why don’t they have a button just for that?
📆 What date?
Big Ben’s First Bong. On the 31st of December 1923, the chimes of Big Ben were broadcast on the radio for the first time by the BBC, I’ll be writing about that on my Substack platform.
London in Quotations: Anna Quindlen
The essential London scenes is a row of low identical houses set around a square.
Anna Quindlen (b.1953), Imagined London: A Tour of the World’s Greatest Fictional City
London Trivia: Gold standard
On 26 November 1983 Britain’s most successful robbery took place at Heathrow. £26 million sterling in gold, diamonds and cash was stolen from the Brink’s Matt security warehouse. The investigation lasted nearly 10 years and a large percentage of the gold bars were never recovered and few convicted. Several murders have been linked to the case, plus links established to the Hatton Garden safe deposit burglary over 30 years later in April 2015.
On 26 November 1964 The Stones described in court as not a long-haired idiots but highly intelligent university men Mick was still fined £10
In 1736 gravedigger Thomas Jenkins received 100 lashes for selling dead bodies from St Dunstan and All Saints, Stepney High Street
Underneath the MI6 building is the overflow pipe for the River Effra, it’s just big enough to launch a mini-submarine from the orifice
Nell Gywnn, orange seller and mistress to Charles II was born in the Coal Yard, now Stukeley Street off Drury Lane in 1650
After his victory over England Hitler had a plan to dismantle Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square and display it in Berlin
Only one house where Charles Dickens lived still stands 48 Doughty Street from 1837 to 1839 here he wrote Oliver Twist and The Pickwick Papers
The upper span of Tower Bridge was originally a walkway but it was closed in 1910 as it had become a haunt of prostitutes
One of the Scotland fans who invaded the pitch at Wembley in 1977 was Rod Stewart. In the commotion someone nicked his Cartier watch
In 1910 the London and North Western Railway offered its business passengers the on-board services of Miss Tarrant. (Typist)
In 2013 one ton of dust was removed from the attics at Kensington Palace, the first time since 1719 they had been cleaned
In the 1950s three members of the Attkins family were Highgate’s fishmonger, butcher and dentist – known as Fishkins, Porkins and Toothkins
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.
CabbieBlog 