New powers have allowed Labour-run Wandsworth Council to trial £130 speeding fines – much like parking infringements, no points are applied to the miscreant’s licence – if successful they will become permanent and other boroughs are likely to follow suit. Councils can keep the imposed ‘fine’ making it another cash cow and in effect de-criminalising speeding
All posts by Gibson Square
Johnson’s London Dictionary: Oxford Street
OXFORD STREET (n.) The hinterland of failed hawkers who once populated this thoroughfare dedicated to retailing opulent chattels.
Dr. Johnson’s London Dictionary for publick consumption in the twenty-first century avail yourself on Twitter @JohnsonsLondon
Protected: London Taxis last more miles than any other car
London in Quotations: G. K. Chesterton
London is a riddle. Paris is an explanation.
G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936), All Things Considered
London Trivia: World’s first clown
On 18 December 1778, Joseph Grimaldi was born in Clare Market, an area between Strand and Drury Lane, he was to become ‘Joey the Clown’ with the white face. To this day every February, a memorial service is held for Grimaldi, the world’s first modern clown.
On 18 December 1934 infamous Lord Lucan, Richard John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan, was born in Marylebone
Jack Ketch’s Kitchen was a room at Newgate Prison named after the bungling executioner, here parts of those hung drawn and quartered were kept
The world’s first underground public lavatory opened in 1855 under the pavement next to the Bank of England
London’s smogs came in a variety of colours: black, brown, grey, orange, dark chocolate or bottle green – hence ‘pea soupers’
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’s Communist Manifesto was first published (in German) in London’s Liverpool Street by the German printer J.E. Burghard in 1848
Next door to the George Inn, Southwark once stood The Tabard which was the pub from which Chaucer’s pilgrims started their walk to Kent in The Canterbury Tales
Between 1879-80 the man who originated the custom of sending Christmas cards, Sir Henry Cole, lived at 3 Elm Row, Hampstead
In the 1908 London Olympic Games marathon Charles Hefferon, with one-and-a-half miles remaining, accepted a victory glass of champagne, the bubbly caused him to vomit, and Hefferon was overtaken
Busking has been licensed on the Tube since 2003, Sting and Paul McCartney are both rumoured to have busked on the Underground in disguise
Established in 1902, Ealing Studios in West London are the oldest continuously working film studios in the world
The word ‘Strand’ is an old English word for ‘shore’. It makes reference to when the Thames was more shallow and more wide, and would have flowed along the side of the Strand
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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