London Trivia: Tornado strikes London

7 December, 2025 Gibson Square 2 Comments

On 7 December 2006 at 11 am a tornado struck Chamberlayne Road and surrounding streets in Kensal Green with heavy rain and sleet, and debris ﬂying through the air. Over 1 50 houses were damaged and six people were injured, one of them being hospitalised. Fire services sealed off the area. The clean-up operation and damage costs were in excess of £2 million.

On 7 December 1907 the National Sporting Club, 43 King Street, Covent Garden, witnessed a ﬁrst: at the Tommy Burns and Gunner Moir ﬁght, Eugene Corri became the ﬁrst referee to adjudicate ‘inside’ a boxing ring

Britain’s first ubiquitous use of speed bumps preventing exceeding the speed limit, were installed on Linver Road and Alderville Road, Fulham in 1984

Taking just 5 months to build Crystal Palace was in 1850 the biggest building on Earth, vast enough to accommodate four St Paul’s Cathedrals

In December 1952 smog killed over 12,000 windless weather and cold led to 100,000 admitted to hospital with respiratory illnesses

St. Mary Axe recalls a legend about a princess who travelled abroad with her 11,000 handmaidens; all were killed by Attila using 3 axes

The ‘local palais’ lyrics in the Kinks’ Come Dancing was the Athenaeum, Fortis Green Road replaced by a Sainsbury’s store in 1966

Cultivated for over 900 years College Garden Westminster Abbey is the oldest garden in England, its surrounding walls are dated 14th Century

The spiritual home of Sunday football at their peak in the 1960s, Hackney Marshes had 5 areas offering 120 pitches, the largest in the world

The deepest car park is under Bloomsbury Square 60ft deep and 7 storeys 450 car capacity built in 1960 and ruined Repton’s landscaping above

The Bank of England issued its first banknotes in 1725 with a £100 note an amount that could rent a furnished house in Pall Mall for 5 years

Half a million years ago the Thames flowed from the Midlands through Oxfordshire, Hertfordshire, East Anglia entering the sea at Ipswich

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: Riding Roughshod

6 December, 2025 Gibson Square 2 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.

Riding roughshod (30.10.12)

Redolent of a gentler age conjuring up images of Edwardians wearing tweed knickerbockers riding sit-up-and-beg bicycles might seem the perfect mode of transport around London.

With endorsements from our Mayor, although the sight of him precariously perched on his own bike, might give you cause to question his rationale. Seeing the personable Bradley Wiggins and the tearful Victoria Pendleton now appearing on BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing, you would think that journeying around our Capital was the perfect mode of transport undertaken by the most amenable of fellows.

All the publicity generated by City Hall would seem to endorse that notion and has encouraged an astonishing number to commute daily by bike. On a weekday evening, the Clapham Road bus lane is full of cyclists, prohibiting its use by the buses.

All well and good if the proper provision had been made for the tsunami of two wheels enveloping our streets. Alas, cyclists have become more vulnerable than ever.

A recent report by The Department of Transport has found that cyclist casualties rose by 10 per cent from 3,775 to 4,160 in the comparable first three months of this year, and cyclists incurring fatal or serious injuries rose by 13 per cent compared with the same period last year.

Accidents involving cycles and motor vehicles statistically blame seems to be split 50:50 with half of the accidents caused by cyclists, and considering how vulnerable you are now pedalling alone on London’s crowded streets only 1 in 100 bother to go on a training awareness course.

Local authorities have given scant attention to designing safe traffic-free lanes for two-wheels; usually painting the road blue seems to be the solution as if the colour was a cloak of safety, while in fact many cycle lanes are shared legally by motorists.

When the authorities have created safe cycle pathways many users ignore them. In Bloomsbury, enormous effort has been given to provide bike lanes only to be shunned by foolhardy cyclists.

Road users, it seems to me, cannot be expected to behave responsibly. All bikes should be required to be licensed and insured for 3rd party risks, with an identifying plate.

Any child on a bike or seated in one of those daft trailers should be required by law to wear a helmet.

Authorities should be mandated to provide safe bike lanes – Clapham Road for example could easily be provided with one such lane.

Fines should be imposed for motorists encroaching bike lanes, and more importantly, cyclists penalised if they refuse to use one if one is available.

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Monthly Musings

2 December, 2025 Gibson Square 5 Comments

October 2025

🐕‍🦺 Rupert

On Bonfire Night, my constant companion lost his fight against a failing heart. Only dog lovers can truly understand how much the demise of your ‘best friend’ really feels: returning to an empty house, the absence of attending to the needs of a little life, and having a creature whose only desire is to please. If Heaven existed, my little dog would be at the front of the queue.

💊 The Magic Bullet

We have eradicated smallpox and can stop a novel virus in its tracks. So why can’t the huge pharmaceutical companies stop pain? The day after our dog died, my wife learned that an old friend had taken her life to block out pain.

🩺 Fortuitous discovery

The pre-operative assessment for my inguinal hernia discovered an undetected full heart block, which could have resulted in the termination of CabbieBlog. Hopefully, my new pacemaker has given this website a few more years of uploading London trivia.

🚓 Cabology

The more observant among you might have noticed CabbieBlog’s sidebar has been updated. From next year, facts and cabbie slang will appear under the ‘Today’s Cabology’ section. Also, there is now a preview of the latest Shelter Sleuths investigation.

📺 Gogglebox

I’ve reached the age when I watch considerably more TV than I once did – or should – a luxury my mother enjoyed for free (a concession withdrawn 22 months before I was eligible). Much of the BBC’s entertainment content now seems directed at Millennials, who probably have politely declined signing up for a licence. Channel 5 appears now to be the only channel that actually makes programmes for us Baby Boomers. I’m watching a news service from our National Broadcaster, which I don’t have confidence in being accurate or impartial, as Clive Myrie smugly informs me, ‘the fight for truth is on’. Then there’s the way Auntie insists I have a vested interest by calling it ‘Our BBC’, well, despite the licence fee, it doesn’t feel much like mine.