London’s like a forest . . . we shall be lost in it.
Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1835-1915), Taken at the Flood
Monthly Archives: October 2025
London Trivia: Welsh Secretary meets ‘stranger’
On 26 October 1998: Welsh Secretary of State, Ron Davies was ‘robbed at knifepoint’ after meeting a stranger as he strolled on Clapham. He said he picked up a man and a woman before driving to Brixton, where the passengers turned on him and took his car, wallet and phone. He resigned as Welsh Secretary shortly afterwards.
On 26 October 1950 the first sitting was held in the rebuilt Chamber of the House of Commons; it had been destroyed by enemy action on 10 May 1941
On 26 October 1981 Kenneth Howarth, an explosives officer with the Metropolitan Police, was killed whilst attempting to defuse an IRA bomb in the basement toilet of a Wimpy restaurant on Oxford Street
The sarsen that stands outside the Guildhall in Kingston is known as the Coronation Stone, 7 Saxon kings are said to have been crowned there
The only former Prime Minister to die in 10 Downing Street was Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman saying: “This is not the end of me” – it was!
During Tony Blair’s tenure, 37 computers, 4 mobiles, 2 cameras, a mini-disc player, a video recorder, 4 printers, 2 projectors and a bicycle were stolen from 10 Downing Street
The Tabard Inn which once stood in Talbot Yard behind Guy’s Hospital was the 65-mile fictional starting point of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
Covent Garden’s Stukeley Street was formerly Coal Yard where Samuel Pepys saw pretty resident Nell Gwyn standing in a doorway
The German Gymnastic Society, now a restaurant, at King’s Cross established in London in 1861, was Britain’s first purpose-built gymnasium
A signalling box in Tottenham Court Road’s ticket hall sealed in 2013 to be opened in 2063, it contains an Oyster Card and a Baby on Board badge
The King’s cockle-strewer was employed to spread powdered cockleshells on Pall Mall so paille maille could be played in the 17th century
In November 1903 The Daily Mirror was launched from 2 Carmelite Street the paper started well until the owner Alfred Harmsworth allegedly said, “Women can’t read and don’t want to read”
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: A gaping problem
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.
A gaping problem (09.10.12)
When taking my daughter for her first job interview, we were sitting on the tube when a drunk sitting opposite awoke to the announcement “Mind the Gap”. Our slumbering passenger then started to doze off again, until that is, we reached a later stop and upon hearing the Mind the Gap announced a second time declared to the rest of the carriage “Blimy! That bloke gets around”. It was the perfect antidote to break the pre-interview nerves my daughter was feeling at the time.
The original Mind the Gap announcement which had awoken our slumbering friend was first heard in 1968 when AEG Telefunken supplied the recording of an unknown actor, unfortunately, the fellow had insisted on being paid a royalty every time his voice was heard. Unsurprisingly that recording was scrubbed and re-recorded by someone cheaper.
Sound engineer Peter Lodge then took up the baton and his sound tests proved so popular with the powers that be it was decided that his own voice should be the announcement broadcast.
The Earl of Portland was a title bestowed on the first Earl for mopping the fevered brow of King William III who at that time was struck down with smallpox. The 12th and current Earl can be heard on the Piccadilly Line, his Mind the Gap announcement earning him the princely sum of £200. He is best known as the actor who plays David Archer in Radio 4’s The Archers.
The gap problem like so much these days can be blamed on London’s bankers. When tunnelling commenced early in the last century, engineers were concerned that the excavations would undermine the City’s banks. It was decided, where possible, to tunnel beneath the roads, many of which followed their Medieval routes.
As a consequence despite billions being spent on planning, building, refurbishing and rebuilding our trains just don’t fit the stations. Passengers on the Central line at Bank are regularly reminded of this fundamental flaw in the Tube system.
This fear of being sued by powerful property owners has meant Bank Station has one of the sharpest bends on the Tube network. This sharp bend has even become represented on John Beck’s iconic Tube map where the station’s given its own unique kink. There is even some speculation the bend had to be made even sharper so the tunnel didn’t end up in the Bank of England’s vaults.
The company clearly didn’t fear the church though because it gained permission to demolish St. Mary Woolnoth. A public outcry prevented this but it still dug up all the bodies in the crypt to build lift shafts.
London in Quotations: Jack Kerouac
Paris is a woman, but London is an independent man puffing his pipe in a pub.
Jack Kerouac (1922-1969), Lonesome Traveler
London Trivia: Queen Mother on stage
On 19 October 1972 Crown Matrimonial, a play about the Abdication crisis of 1936, was first performed at the Haymarket. Amanda Reiss portrayed the Queen Mother the first portrayal of a living member of the Royal Family.
On 19 October 1739 Captain Jenkins produced his pickled ear before Parliament, claiming it was cut off by a Spaniard, on the same day Walpole declared war on Spain
Cellars at The Mason’s Arms, Upper Berkeley Street were used as cells for those to be hanged at Tyburn to which there is a connecting tunnel
St Paul’s Cathedral is the fifth built on the site of a Roman temple dedicated to Diana, the first church was constructed around 604 AD
Charliatan, Dr. Bossey entertained vast crowds in Covent Garden, but decamped when heckled by who he believed to be a dissatisfied patient, in fact it was a parrot
King Charles I was the last monarch ever to enter the Chamber of The House of Commons. Today the monarch addresses Parliament in the House of Lords
William Hogarth’s Times of Day: Night shows 18th century magistrate Thomas de Veil being soaked by urine on Charing Cross Road
Pimms was invented in 1823 at 3 Poultry at the Pimm’s Oyster Rooms as an aid to digestion serving it in a small tankard known as a No. 1 Cup
London’s oldest swimming club is the Serpentine SC, founded in 1864, unusually it didn’t adopt first and second class swims
The Rocket inventor Robert Stevenson proposed the Thames Viaduct Railway a steel structure for trains to travel along the river’s centre
The majority of workers at Mortons Jam factory were of Scottish origin, this is where the famous blue & white colours of Millwall originated
The 1,800 people a year granted The Freedom of The City of London can if they should wish herd a gaggle of geese down Cheapside
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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