On 14 August 1888 an audio recording of the composer Arthur Sullivan’s The Lost Chord, one of the first recordings of music ever made, was played during a press conference introducing Thomas Edison’s phonograph cylinder in London.
On 14 August 2011 the London–Surrey Classic Cycle race took place, starting at Pall Mall and covering 50 miles through Surrey, it was a precursor to the 2012 Olympic Games
The heads of executed traitors were displayed on spikes on London Bridge is now commemorated by a giant white spike on the current crossing
Unusual street names: Ha Ha Road Greenwich; Hooker’s Road Walthamstow; Quaggy Walk Blackheath; Cyclops Mews & Uamvar Street Limehouse
St George’s, University of London was founded near Hyde Park Corner in 1733 and was the second establishment in England to formally train doctors
Stalin, Lenin, and Trotsky met at the Brotherhood Church, Islington for the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party it’s now a Tesco Metro
The Beatles played their last gig on the roof of Apple Corps at 3 Saville Row. It’s now an Abercrombie & Fitch, after 42 minutes the police asked them to turn down the volume
When war broke out in 1939, BBC TV shut down half way through Mickey Mouse cartoon. In 1945 the cartoon resumed with apology for the break
The Rom Skate Park in Hornchurch was built in 1978, and was the first skatepark in Europe to be given protected Listed status
All 22 stations on the Metropolitan Line from Amersham to Liverpool Street have an ‘R’ in their name, only Aldgate hasn’t on the whole line
The plinth supporting the South Bank Lion on the south side of Westminster Bridge has a room for security guards to have a cup of tea
You could fit either the Great Pyramid at Giza or the Statue of Liberty inside the O2 Arena, the largest structure of its kind in the world
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.
