London in Quotations: Hume Nisbet

Quote 11 December, 2023 Gibson Square 2 Comments

There is no river in the world to be compared for majesty and the witchery of association, to the Thames; it impresses even the unreading and unimaginative watcher with a solemnity which he cannot account for, as it rolls under his feet and swirls past the buttresses of its many bridges; he may think, as he experiences the unusual effect, that it is the multiplicity of buildings which line its banks, or the crowd of sea-craft which floats upon its surface, or its own extensive spread. In reality, he feels, although he cannot explain it, the countless memories which hang forever like a spiritual fog over its rushing current.

Hume Nisbet, Gaslit Nightmares “The Phantom Model”: Stories by Robert W. Chambers, Charles Dickens, Richard Marsh, and others

London trivia

London Trivia: Red for danger

10 December, 2023 Gibson Square 4 Comments

On 10 December 1868 the world’s first traffic lights were installed outside the Houses of Parliament. Operated by a policeman they had scarlet-red arms and red and green gas lights for use during nighttime and foggy days, looking much like a railway signal. One night gas escaping into the pillar’s hollow column ignited, killing the policeman operating the device. Traffic lights were put on the back-burner until 1929.

On 10 December 1971 Frank Zappa was hurled from the stage at the Rainbow Theatre by a fan, falling 10ft he walked with a pronounced limp for life

During World War II Diana Milford, then Lady Mosley was locked up in Holloway HMP but in a cottage in the gardens with her husband, Sir Oswald Mosley

London is the greenest city of its size in the world, green space covers almost 47 per cent of Greater London

In December 1817 Captain Bligh from Lambeth was cast adrift from The Bounty by a band of mutineers – his grave is in Lambeth’s Garden Museum

The British Museum’s reading room is where Karl Marx wrote Das Kapital between bouts of getting drunk and asking Friedrich Engels for money

Famously irritable landlord of Coach and Horses, Soho Norman Balon called his memoirs You’re Barred You Bastards: Memoirs of a Soho Publican

The department store that inspired the TV comedy Are You Being Served? was Simpsons of Piccadilly – now the huge Waterstone’s

When Spurs moved to their new ground in 1899 it was almost named Gilpin Park but gradually became known as White Hart Lane

Among the many things Londoners have left on the Tube are a samurai sword, a stuffed puffer fish, a human skull and a coffin

A profitable occupation in London was that of a Lurker who would use their ability to copy another’s handwriting usually to gain favours

Founded in 1826 as London University, University College London was the first university institution in England to be entirely secular

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

Previously Posted: Rich men’s basements

9 December, 2023 Gibson Square 3 Comments

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.

Rich men’s basements (02.11.2010)

Recently I was taking a couple home after they had been to the theatre. They were the quiet, courteous generation that grew up in the 1930s and 40s, expensively well dressed in a subdued way rather than the vulgar and scruffy apparel favoured by the rich today.

After a short conversation about their theatre visit, I was directed to their home in Belgravia. Travelling down Chester Row my customers directed me to stop just before a house shrouded in builder’s hoardings and with a large skip outside in the road.

“I see your neighbour is having some work done”, I remarked when we had stopped.

While his wife said goodbye and thanking me as she walked towards her front door, her husband approached my driver’s window to pay, upon which he metamorphosised from a genial gentleman to Victor Meldrew. “These houses weren’t built with deep foundations, they are digging under the house and we can hear their work all day, the noise is driving my wife made and I’m just waiting for my house to subside, cracks have already appeared in our walls”.

A sad fact is that a new generation is moving to Belgravia nowadays and many are doubling the size and value of their houses by burrowing underground.

Now my customer’s predictions would seem prophetic, for while adding an underground cinema and a gym to a perfectly respectable late Georgian house in Chester Row a skip has fallen into a hole in the road outside the house, spewing water out of the hole and flooding the neighbouring properties in the process.

Why would you spend the sum of a respectable semi, to live underground if not for a vast profit? Who would want to live underground we’re not moles. Already predictably there is the threat of legal action as the conversion was originally opposed by most of the road’s residents.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but a little research of Belgravia’s history might have given the developers cause for concern.

The land owned by Lord Grosvenor was originally marshy land with the River Westbourne running through it. In the 1820s Thomas Cubitt was granted the right to develop the houses that we see today. The nomenclature “Speculative Builder” given to the developer should tell you everything you need to know about Cubitt’s Belgravia. Built for a quick profit, much like today’s developers, they would not have been expected to last nearly 200 years. The lax building regulations of the day almost certainly precluded the insistence of adequate foundations, load bearing joists and cavity walls.

When building a single story kitchen extension my borough planners wanted me to dig three metre footings, enough to support St. Pauls Cathedral, so why cannot the same be applied in conservation areas?

A neighbour commenting summed it up perfectly:

This entire fiasco represents a massive collective failure for all involved in designing, approving and attempting to build overly ambitious, vulgar additions to listed buildings in a conservation area.

How much misery do residents have to endure before we learn to properly balance long term interest against reckless pursuit of short-term profit?

Thinking allowed

More cabbies needed

8 December, 2023 Gibson Square 2 Comments

I didn’t know whether to upload this on this Friday’s more prosaic post, or Thursday’s Whinge. But first: over the past decade, licence applications to undertake The Knowledge have plummeted by almost 95 per cent, and as only 30 per cent of applicants complete the intensive course, it’s hardly surprising that wheelchair accessible cabs are, at times, in very short supply.

Although demand for black cabs has seen a resurgence, the shortage of licensed drivers has put this safe and iconic mode of transport at risk.

Taxi-hailing app FREENOW aims to revitalise the black cab industry and address the declining number of licensed black cab drivers. It will fund 100 per cent of the application cost, tuition fees, exams and licensing, amounting to over £2,000 per driver over a minimum period of two years.

This will provide a unique opportunity for more than 20,000 London Public Hire Vehicle drivers on the FREENOW app to expand their careers. Through this subsidy, the company aims to encourage more individuals to pursue careers as black cab drivers, ensuring that this cherished mode of transportation remains a prevalent and convenient option for Londoners.

To make this initiative a reality, FREENOW has partnered with two renowned schools, Knowledge Point School and WizAnn, which will collaborate in hosting information sessions for interested Public Hire Vehicle drivers. These sessions will help drivers understand the requirements, benefits, and opportunities associated with obtaining a black cab licence.

Not surprisingly over 500 applications for the Knowledge of London funding subsidy after just one day.

Thinking allowed

Restore Trust

7 December, 2023 Gibson Square 4 Comments

We have held a family National Trust membership for over 40 years. We want to support and enjoy the historic and modern houses, estates, and gardens, and to help purchase land for the Neptune Coastline Campaign which has protected 780 miles of our coast to date.

The first signs we noticed of a profound change in the Trust, was whilst holidaying in Jersey, a couple told us they were asked to leave after 10 years of volunteering after refusing to wear badges promoting a liberal political view of which they disagreed.

Since then the Trust has accelerated this egregious wokery, lecturing us on the evils of the colonialism which enabled the Trust’s properties to be built, trying to make the charity more ‘inclusive’, when anyone with an interest can join, and now they’ve produced a calendar excluding Christian festivals whilst including the Hindu festival of Diwali, Islam’s Eid and Ramadan. What next, leaflets in the tearoom explaining how white middle-class it is to eat scones?