On 25 January 1731 when accused by William Pulteney of being homosexual, Lord Hervey, a supporter of the first minister Sir Robert Walpole felt compelled to call a duel. Incredibly as the 1st Earl of Bath, Pulteney was, at that time, leader of His Majesty’s Opposition. Paulteney would have run Hervey through with his sword had he not slipped over at the crucial moment, enabling Hervey to be spirited away. Afterwards, Pulteney was struck off the roll of privy councillors.

On 25 January 1839 Henry Fox Talbot showed the photo he had taken of a window at his home to the Royal Institute, he had previously taken several photographic images but had never before shown them

Scotland Yard is so called as in 1829 the Metropolitan Police headquarters was on a site where Scottish kings stayed when visiting England

Liberty’s mock Tudor store is made almost entirely from oak timbers taken from two dismantled wooden ships HMS Hindustan and HMS Impregnable

The body of 18th century author Laurence Sterne was exhumed from St George’s Burial Ground, Bayswater by body snatchers

On 25 January 1981 David Owen, Shirley Williams, William Rodgers, Roy Jenkins issued the Limehouse Declaration from 78 Narrow Street

18th century audience members at Drury Lane Theatre who didn’t enjoy a ballet broke the windows of theatre manager David Garrick

Before Soho became a favourite haunt of the literati writers and artists drank at the Fitzroy Tavern in Charlotte Street

In 1770 Joseph Merlin demonstrated his new invention roller skates in Carlisle House, one of Soho’s first members’ clubs

Belsize Park Station is the only station with the letter ‘Z’ in its name and only two have a ‘J’ St James’s Park and St John’s Wood

Prostitutes working near The Globe Theatre on land owned by the Bishop of Winchester were called ‘Winchester Geese’

The rawlplug was invented for the British Museum. They wanted to fix fittings with min. damage to a wall – John Rawlings did them proud

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.