All posts by Gibson Square

A Licensed Black London Cab Driver I share my London with you . . . The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Copyright conundrum

10 October, 2023 Gibson Square 14 Comments

First an apology to all those subscribers who received multiple emails on the first Monday in October.

Occasionally at certain times when I don’t have a suitable image actually taken by me, I make use of pictures hosted on a site published under a Creative Commons Licence.

CabbieBlog is committed to respecting copyright law and other intellectual property rights. To support this approach CabbieBlog takes every reasonable effort to ensure rights holders are contacted for permission before reproduction of their work on the pages of this website, on the comment sections and for all other uses.

Unfortunately, not all webmasters have been so meticulous regarding copyright ownership. As the publisher, I am held to be liable, even when the photo supplier has made the omission.

Since this blog started much has changed in the cyberverse and today we now have Copyright Trolls who scan the internet for infringements, and according to the excellent IanVisits website, they can charge the site owner £400 per incident.

Back to the apology

To ensure that CabbieBlog doesn’t infringe on the hard work of other creatives, post pictures that I cannot ascertain their origins are now password protected.

All is not lost

Many of CabbieBlog’s ‘best bits’ are reposted (without illustrations) every Saturday under the Previously Posted banner. But should you have an overwhelming desire to read any other old missives, some stretching back 15 years, please contact me and I’ll check out the post for copyright infringement and then send you a unique password enabling you to view that article.

The small print

CabbieBlog is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Any omissions or errors are inadvertent and will be corrected for future publication on written notification by the rights holder or their representative.

London in Quotations

London in Quotations: Jonathan Barnes

Quote 9 October, 2023 Gibson Square 1 Comment

The city defeated him. It refused to be bent into shape; it stayed a willful, sprawling, sinful place. It even told him as much. When he walked through the gutted wreck of old Saint Paul’s, he tripped and fell over a piece of rubble — a tombstone. When he got to his feet and dusted himself down he saw that it read, in Latin, ‘Resurgam’ — ‘I Will Rise Again.

Jonathan Barnes (b.1979), The Somnambulist (Domino Men)

London trivia

London Trivia: Midnight express

8 October, 2023 Gibson Square 1 Comment

On 8 October 1952 at 8.18 am the Perth to Euston sleeper express overshot signals at Harrow and ploughed into a stationary local train waiting at the station. A northbound train then ran into the wreckage, 112 died and 150 were injured, it remains the worst peacetime rail crash in the United Kingdom. The accident accelerated the introduction of Automatic Warning System informing drivers they had passed an adverse signal.

On 8 October 1965 Britain got its tallest building when the Post Office Tower (renamed BT) topped out at 580ft plus 70ft for the radio mast

Shad Thames was known as Jacob’s Island a notoriously dangerous place, featured in Oliver Twist where Bill Sikes meets his end hanging by a rope above Folly Ditch’s mud

The 1.8km long Limehouse Link tunnel cost £293 million to build in 1993, around £163,000 per metre, making it Britain’s most expensive road scheme

Cock Lane opposite Bart’s is where John Bunyan, author of The Pilgrim’s Progress, died of a fever in 1688

Catholic monarch Mary Tudor watched Protestant martyrs burn at the stake at Smithfield from the gatehouse of St Bartholomew-the-Great

In An American Werewolf in London (1981) its lycanthropic protagonist, David meets his timely end in Winchester Walk, Borough

The Savoy Hotel’s Chef Escoffier created the dish Peach Melba for opera singer Dame Nellie Melba who was a regular guest

Oldest surviving regular contest in the World Doggett’s Coat and Badge Race rowing up the Thames between two Swan pubs: London Bridge to Chelsea

The London taxi must have a turning circle no more than 25 foot to enable it to U-turn from a cab rank and to complete a single turn outside the Savoy Hotel

The toothbrush was invented in Newgate prison by William Addis in 1770. Inspired by a broom, he inserted bristles into an animal bone

Petticoat Lane is not on any London map as it was renamed Middlesex Street in 1830, though known to Londoners it doesn’t officially exist

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: Fire Brand

7 October, 2023 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.

Fire Brand (10.09.2010)

The word curfew derives from the Norman French Couvre le Feu – meaning put out your fire, and not as is commonly thought to tell citizens that they must not leave their homes, but since it is bedtime a bell would ring to remind them to extinguish all their fires, something a baker from Pudding Lane in 1666 clearly ignored.

First ordered by William the Conqueror this long lasting tradition is still maintained at Gray’s Inn with a curfew bell rung each evening in South Square, itself the centre of the legal profession since 1370.

Fire, that fear of nay mediaeval city, with its timber framed buildings by the end of the 12th century London’s houses were required to be made of stone on the lower parts and roofs had to be tiled.

Each ward was required to provide poles, hooks, chains and ropes for the demolition of a burning house. Later as homeowners could insure their houses, the insurance companies employed their own firemen to protect those insured properties.

Fire-marks denoting which building was insured with which company were affixed to the front of a building.

These fire-marks can still be found in Goodwins Court, and probably accounts for this little gem remaining intact, which made its first appearance in the rate books in 1690, being described then as a row of tailors.

Approached from St. Martin’s Lane (opposite the Salisbury Buffet public house) through a doorway up a couple of steps this intimate little alley seems positive Dickensian with a row of eight narrow late 18th century shop fronts working gas lamps and an attractive clock face over an archway giving on to Bedfordbury. Take Samuel Johnson’s advice to his companion Boswell when just arriving in London “to survey its innumerable little lane and courts”.

Puppydog tails

Test Your Knowledge: October 2023

6 October, 2023 Gibson Square 2 Comments

If you’ve only taken a passing interest in CabbieBlog you’d have noticed that Monday’s post is about London Quotes. For the month’s quiz, I’ve given a short line from a quotation and three possible speakers. As before the correct answer will turn green when it’s clicked upon and expanded to give more information. The incorrect answers will turn red giving the correct explanation.

1. “Why, Sir, you find no man,”

Samuel Pepys

WRONG “Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.” Boswell and Johnson were discussing whether or not Boswell’s affection for London would wear thin should he choose to live there, as opposed to his occasional visits from Scotland. This discussion happened on 20th September 1777.

Samuel Johnson

CORRECT “Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.” Boswell and Johnson were discussing whether or not Boswell’s affection for London would wear thin should he choose to live there, as opposed to his occasional visits from Scotland. This discussion happened on 20th September 1777.

Samuel Foote

2. “Goodness me, but isn’t London big?”

Peter Ackroyd

WRONG “Goodness me, but isn’t London big? It seems to start about twenty minutes after you leave Dover and just goes on and on, mile after mile of endless grey suburbs…”. Bill Bryson – Notes from a Small Island.

Bill Bryson

CORRECT “Goodness me, but isn’t London big? It seems to start about twenty minutes after you leave Dover and just goes on and on, mile after mile of endless grey suburbs…”. Bill Bryson – Notes from a Small Island.

Will Self

3. “When it’s three o’clock in New York,”

Bette Midler

CORRECT “When it’s three o’clock in New York, it’s still 1938 in London.” Bette Midler, American comic.

Joan Rivers

WRONG “When it’s three o’clock in New York, it’s still 1938 in London.” Bette Midler, American comic.

Whoopi Goldberg

WRONG “When it’s three o’clock in New York, it’s still 1938 in London.” Bette Midler, American comic.

4. “Oh, I love London Society!”

Oscar Wilde

CORRECT “Oh, I love London Society! It is entirely composed now of beautiful idiots and brilliant lunatics. Just what Society should be.” Oscar Wilde – First Act, An Ideal Husband.

George Bernard Shaw

WRONG “Oh, I love London Society! It is entirely composed now of beautiful idiots and brilliant lunatics. Just what Society should be.” Oscar Wilde – First Act, An Ideal Husband.

John Galsworthy

WRONG “Oh, I love London Society! It is entirely composed now of beautiful idiots and brilliant lunatics. Just what Society should be.” Oscar Wilde – First Act, An Ideal Husband.

5. “…the gondolas of London”.

Benjamin Disraeli

CORRECT Cabs were once described in Parliament by Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli as “Hansom cabs are the gondolas of London”.

William Gladstone

WRONG Cabs were once described in Parliament by Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli as “Hansom cabs are the gondolas of London”.

Lord Palmerston

WRONG Cabs were once described in Parliament by Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli as “Hansom cabs are the gondolas of London”.

6. “I landed in London on a wintry autumn evening. It was dark and raining, and I saw more fog and mud in a minute than I had seen in a year.”

Thomas Carlyle

WRONG “I landed in London on a wintry autumn evening. It was dark and raining, and I saw more fog and mud in a minute than I had seen in a year. I walked from the Custom House to the Monument before I found a coach; and although the very house-fronts, looking on the swollen gutters, were like old friends to me, I could not but admit that they were very dingy friends.” Charles Dickens – David Copperfield, Chapter 59, Return.

Charles Dickens

CORRECT “I landed in London on a wintry autumn evening. It was dark and raining, and I saw more fog and mud in a minute than I had seen in a year. I walked from the Custom House to the Monument before I found a coach; and although the very house-fronts, looking on the swollen gutters, were like old friends to me, I could not but admit that they were very dingy friends.” Charles Dickens – David Copperfield, Chapter 59, Return.

Wilkie Collins

7. “In this city 300 languages are spoken and the people that speak them live side by side in harmony.”

Boris Johnson

WRONG “In this city, 300 languages are spoken and the people that speak them live side by side in harmony. This city typifies what I believe is the future of the human race and a future where we grow together and we share and we learn from each other.” – Ken Livingstone, London Mayor.

Sadiq Khan

Ken Livingstone

CORRECT “In this city, 300 languages are spoken and the people that speak them live side by side in harmony. This city typifies what I believe is the future of the human race and a future where we grow together and we share and we learn from each other.” – Ken Livingstone, London Mayor.

8. “The streets of London have their map, but our passions are uncharted”

Doris Lessing

WRONG “The streets of London have their map, but our passions are uncharted. What are you going to meet if you turn this corner.” Virginia Woolf – Jacob’s Room.

Beatrix Potter

WRONG “The streets of London have their map, but our passions are uncharted. What are you going to meet if you turn this corner.” Virginia Woolf – Jacob’s Room.

Virginia Woolf

CORRECT “The streets of London have their map, but our passions are uncharted. What are you going to meet if you turn this corner.” Virginia Woolf – Jacob’s Room.

9. “I’m leaving because the weather is too good.”

Groucho Marks

CORRECT “I’m leaving because the weather is too good. I hate London when it’s not raining.” Groucho Marks.

Robin Williams

WRONG “I’m leaving because the weather is too good. I hate London when it’s not raining.” Groucho Marks.

Richard Pryor

WRONG “I’m leaving because the weather is too good. I hate London when it’s not raining.” Groucho Marks.

10. “My Dad says that being a Londoner has nothing to do with where you’re born.”

Julian Fellowes

WRONG “My Dad says that being a Londoner has nothing to do with where you’re born. He says that there are people who get off a jumbo jet at Heathrow, go through immigration waving any kind of passport, hop on the tube and by the time the train’s pulled into Piccadilly Circus they’ve become a Londoner.” Ben Aaronovitch – Moon Over Soho.

Ben Aaronovitch

CORRECT “My Dad says that being a Londoner has nothing to do with where you’re born. He says that there are people who get off a jumbo jet at Heathrow, go through immigration waving any kind of passport, hop on the tube and by the time the train’s pulled into Piccadilly Circus they’ve become a Londoner.” Ben Aaronovitch – Moon Over Soho.

Christopher Fowler