BOUTIQUE HOTEL (n.) Pretentious rooming house catering for those that doth have wealth and are gullible.
Dr. Johnson’s London Dictionary for publick consumption in the twenty-first century avail yourself on Twitter @JohnsonsLondon
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London in Quotations: Percy Bysshe Shelley
London, that great sea, whose ebb and flow / At once is deaf and loud, and on the shore / Vomits its wrecks, and still howls on for more. / Yet in its depths what treasures!
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
London Trivia: Room 101 opens
On 21 August 1936 Senate House, the University of London’s administrative building, the tallest building in the country at the time, was officially opened. It would be where George Orwell fictionalised Room 101.
On 21 August 1996 the new Globe Theatre was opened with a production of The Two Gentlemen of Verona
More people were executed at Tower of London in the 20th century than in all other centuries combined 15thC-1; 16thC-5; 17thC-1; 18thC-3; 19thC-0; 20thC-11
According to one estimate, there are a staggering 8.3 million trees in London with 47 per cent of Greater London physically green
At 9 Curzon Place where Cass Elliot of Mamas and Papas died in 1974; Who drummer Keith Moon also died from drugs in the same flat – both aged 32
When Lenin was in London reading Marx’s work some believe they first met in the Crown Tavern, Clerkenwell Green
Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street famous sax riff was played by Raphael Ravenscroft and was reportedly paid £27.50 for the work – the cheque bounced
Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre dubbed ‘Piccadilly Circus of South London’, Europe’s first covered mall was voted London’s biggest eyesore
Plucky minnows Walthamstow Avenue FC famously held both Arsenal and Manchester United to draws in the FA Cup during the 1950s, lasting 88 years before merging into non-existence
At Whitechapel station something ludicrous happens: the London Overground passes underneath the London Underground
Before Roy Hudd went into comedy he studied art and design – one of his teachers was Harry Beck, creator of the London Tube map
In 2003 the Environmental Agency ship the Thames Guardian had dropped onto its deck a red-bellied piranha no doubt by a very stunned seagull
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: An In-Convenience Truth
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.
An In-Convenience Truth (07.08.09)
Westminster Council who aspires to become the most anti-social borough in London must be fearful that it is in danger of losing its ranking. For not content with pursuing a regime of traffic enforcement that the Taliban would like to emulate, they now have turned their attention to a more basic function than parking offences, namely toilets.
Over the past few years public conveniences have been closing at an alarming rate, so critical has it become, that London Mayor Boris has even suggested that private shops and restaurants open their doors (so to speak) to facilitate the public’s needs.
Then recently under cover of darkness, in a clandestine operation, Westminster Council filled the public conveniences at Oxford Circus with concrete. But never mind they provide a text-based service providing you with all the information you need to find a toilet in their borough (80097 TOILET at a cost of 25p if you’re interested). I was told at 9.20 in the evening that I would have to walk best part of a mile from Oxford Circus to use one of their toilets.
The more charitable among you might presume that the time was chosen so that drivers were not inconvenienced (sorry again about that) by the lorries. But I would remind you that Westminster Council now collects more income from parked cars than from taxpayers, so they are hardly car friendly.
The Council plans to provide a £5 million diagonal pedestrian crossing at this intersection modelled on the Shibuya crossing in Tokyo, ignoring the fact that, while Japanese assiduously cross a road at the designated points, in London jaywalkers are knocked down on a regular basis in Oxford Street, completely ignoring the correct crossing points.
Westminster City Council’s Cllr Danny Chalkley said while commendably keeping a straight face: “This new crossing, which will transform Oxford Circus and ensure visitors who emerge from the Tube are impressed by what greets them, is part of a whole series of improvements taking place to ensure the West End looks truly world class in time for 2012.”
The developers hope to have the new crossing ready in time for the Christmas lights switch-on in November. It is just a pity no-one will be able to have a pee.
As a footnote, in 200 years time when archaeologists are excavating these Edwardian toilets they might be surprised to find mummified corpses down there encased in concrete, caught having their last “comfort stop” before Westminster poured concrete down the staircase.
