Cab News
Yesterday ride-hailing app Uber has been granted a new London operator’s licence. Transport for London has relented and given the controversial business model a further 30 months in the forlorn hope that the company and its drivers will comply with the regulators’ stipulations.
What I’m Listening
Hazel Baker, London tour guide and CEO of London Guided Walks makes a weekly podcast about London’s history in bite-sized portions. Listening to Number 56 uploaded on 21st May 2021: London’s Black Cab Legacy.
What I’m Reading
Netgalley has allowed me to read the first chapter of Jessie Burton’s new novel The House of Fortune, its narrative continues from The Miniaturist which I loved.
What I’m Watching
The Ipcress File is loosely based on Len Deighton’s first spy novel which I read many years ago. With Putin now trying to expand Russia’s influence (and borders) this remake of the Michael Caine original is strangely prophetic.
What else
Just dispatched the manuscript of my memoir to eBook Versions to be formatted for Kindle and Print on Demand at Amazon. It’s something that is beyond my expertise. At the time of the Falklands Conflict, I was a typesetter producing the House of Lords Hansard Daily Parts, and eBook Versions’ owner was one of the sub-editors. Small world indeed.
On 27 March 2011 it was established that London’s population had risen by 12 per cent to 8.2 million, the most rapid increase in the census history
A 1839 law requires street organ-grinders to leave an area of The City of London if they annoy householders – failure to comply 40 shillings
The Savoy Hotel’s refurbishment went £120 million over budget – the most expensive in Europe – averaging £800,000 per room for its 268 rooms
On 27 March 1931 novelist Arnold Bennett died of typhoid at his Baker Street home after drinking water in a Paris hotel to prove it was safe
On 27 March 1945 Germany’s last V2 bomb to hit London’s East End fell on and demolished Hughes Mansions, Vallance Road, 130 people died
Immortalised in Keith Waterhouse’s play of the same name, the Spectator’s absentee journalist due to his epic boozing his byline said: Jeffrey Bernard is unwell
The World’s End pub in Camden Town is the site of a hostelry once run by Mother Red Cap known as the ‘old shrew of Kentish Town’
On 27 March 1966 Pickles, a dog owned by Thames lighterman Dave Corbett, found the Jules Rimet Trophy (World Cup) in bushes on Beulah Hill
On 27 March 2008 Heathrow’s T5 opened, at 4.50 the first passenger on the first outbound flight was Paul Walker, a 31-year-old ex-pat working in the flower business in Kenya
Whitechapel Bell Foundry established 1570 was Britain’s oldest manufacturer until its recent closure, making Big Ben, America’s Liberty Bell and St Petersburg bells
Stanley Green (1915-1993) famously walked London’s streets for years in his fruitless campaign preaching against . . . the eating of protein
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