Take a perfect day, add six hours of rain and fog, and you have instant London.
Anon, Dick Enberg’s Humorous Quotes for All Occasions
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London Trivia: Tower of London station closed
On 12 October 1884, the Tower of London Underground Station opened, it had only been in existence for 2 years. Opened during the construction of the Metropolitan Line, but when the Circle Line was created a larger station was required, and so Mark Lane was built as a replacement.
On 12 October 1974 the UK’s first branch of McDonalds opened in Woolwich, it was McDonalds’ 3,000th restaurant. A burger then cost 18p and a ‘Big Mac’ was then called a ‘Big Boy’.
In 1894 Martial Bourdin accidently blew himself up – his funeral sparked riots by 15,000 near the Autonomie Anarchist Club, 6 Windmill Street
The Tower of London once contained a royal residence, barracks, armoury, prison, mint, a menagerie and an observatory
It took Dr John Snow years to persuade the establishment that cholera is the water-borne disease that he proved it to be in Soho in 1854
During the Cold War the statue of St Francis of Asissi at Brompton Oratory was used as a ‘dead letter’ drop for Russian KGB agents
Fassett Square in Dalston was the model for Eastenders’ Albert Square but no pub and the garden is for residents only
Tooting Bec Lido holds 1 million gallons, taking a week to fill, at 300ft x 100ft a maximum of 1,400 swimmers can enter the water at a time
Edgar Kail scored over 400 goals for Dulwich Hamlet FC won 3 England caps and refused to turn professional, Hamlet fans still chant his name
The first deep-level tube trains had no windows, guards called out the station names to advise your location
In the early days of the London and Birmingham Railway conductors travelled outside the train, leaning in through the open windows to check tickets
It would take 7,408 Hula Hoops to reach the height of Big Ben, it’s a claim made by the manufacturers of – well Hula Hoops
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: Up in the air
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.
Up in the air (02.10.12)
Central London is starting to look as if a giant mole has been at work, with holes appearing at the most unlikely locations the largest of these is to be found beside Centre Point; and just what did happen to the iconic fountains which once stood outside?
Said to be the biggest engineering work being carried out in Europe, CrossRail is, at £15bn, certainly the most expensive. The only compensation is that Knowledge students will never have to memorise the “Dirty Dozen”, twelve road which form a shortcut through Soho from west to east, now that Great Chapel Street has been turned into a hole.
CrossRail is just the latest of the Capital’s grandiose rail schemes, which started in 1836 with the London & Greenwich train line; its name would indicate that Greenwich was not part of the Metropolis at that time.
Unlike CrossRail it was planned to run the tracks over an elevated Roman-style viaduct with its terminus modestly styled on the Acropolis. It was routed through some of the poorer parts of London, so that less compensation had to be paid when demolishing people’s houses and making them homeless, even so, it was costly and time-consuming for no fewer than 878 separate brick arches were constructed, making it at the time the world’s longest viaduct, the surviving arches and station booking office can still be seen in the Spa Road area of Bermondsey. When completed the cabbies at that time, no doubt were among those who complained about “the thundering steam engines and omnibusters”.
London in Quotations: Virginia Woolf
One might fancy that day, the London day, was just beginning. Like a woman who had slipped off her print dress and white apron to array herself in blue and pearls, the day changed, put off stuff, took gauze, changed to evening, and with the same sigh of exhilaration that a woman breathes … but London would have none of it, and rushed her bayonets into the sky, pinioned her, constrained her to partnership in her revelry.
Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), Mrs. Dalloway
London Trivia: Ladbroke Grove disaster
On 5 October 1999 a train collided with a First Great Western train from Cheltenham at Ladbroke Grove, 31 people, including the drivers of both trains involved, were killed and 227 people were admitted to hospital. It was the worst accident on the Great Western Main Line.
On 5 October 1983 Cecil Parkinson, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, admitted to an affair with his former secretary, Sara Keays
HMP Pentonville built in 1842 at a cost £84,186 12s 2d was intended to be a holding prison for convicts awaiting transportation
Cowcross Street is so named after the cows crossing on their journey to the slaughterhouses and butchers at Smithfield Market
Idol Lane, off Great Tower Street was formerly Idle Lane denoting an area of the city where loiterers would congregate
Christ Church Lambeth’s spire is decorated with stars and stripes commemorating the abolition of slavery, half the cost was borne by America
The album cover for David Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars was shot outside 23 Heddon Street
Tossing the pie which apprentice boys tossed a coin to win a pie, if the pieman won he kept the 1d and the pie, losing he gave the pie away
In the sixties gangsters ‘Mad’ Frankie Fraser & Eddie Richardson played football for the Soho Ramblers, in 1965 they played HMP Parkhurst
Transport for London Byelaw 10(2): No person shall enter through any train door until any person leaving by that door has passed through it!
Friday Street (Fridei Strete in 12th Century) was named after the Friday market of fishmongers selling fish in memory of Good Friday
Covering in total 620 sq miles London is the biggest city in Europe and with 4,699 people per sq kilometre has Britain’s highest density
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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