Down in Farringdon Street the carts, wagons, vans, cabs, omnibuses crossed and intermingled in a steaming splash-bath of mud; human beings, reduced to their due paltriness, seemed to toil in exasperation along the strips of pavement, bound on errands, which were a mockery, driven automaton-like by forces they neither understood nor could resist.
George Gissing (1857-1903), The Nether World
On 21 November 1953, the Natural History Museum announced that the Piltdown Man skull, initially thought to be one of the most important archaeological finds, was actually a hoax.
On 21 November 1989 the House of Commons proceedings were televised for the first time
In the 1940s and 1950s Metropolitan Police Officers using their own bicycles to cover police beats were paid an allowance of threepence
The New Exchange was a kind of early shopping mall which was built on the south side of the Strand in 1608 and stood there until 1737
All but one of the ravens at the Tower of London died from stress during the Blitz, fortuitously as legend has it that should they leave the Tower England will fall
London was once the capital of six countries in World War II it was safe haven for the governments of Poland, Norway, Belgium, Holland, France
Jarvis Cocker, lead singer of band Pulp, wrote a song called 59 Lyndhurst Grove after being thrown out of a party at that address in Peckham
The first London Eye was erected in Earls Court in 1894 for an Empire of India exhibition, 300ft high, as opposed to 442 for the London Eye
The foppish son and heir apparent of King George II died in Leicester House as a result of being struck in the throat with a cricket ball
Cockfosters Underground station was originally going to be called Trent Park or ‘Cock Fosters’ (an early spelling of the area’s name), the original site hoarding displayed the name as a single word
In 1981 Soho had 184 sex establishments today only Brewer Street the upstairs windows of Old Compton Street and alleys near Berwick Street belie its past
At 135ft Candover Street off Riding House Street is London’s shortest street, Rotherhithe Street the longest named street at 1.5 miles
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.
PORTCULLIS HOUSE (n.) Edifice doth pleased its arkitects whereas being London’s most expensive and least attractive much like its inhabitants
Dr. Johnson’s London Dictionary for publick consumption in the twenty-first century avail yourself on Twitter @JohnsonsLondon
Not many years ago, when driving the cab around London looking for a fare, you could tell the American tourist by the gentleman’s white gabardine raincoat, either worn or draped across his left arm.
Now climate change has made summer in the capital drier and with advanced technology, making forecasting more accurate.
Back in the day, we had countdowns for sending a rocket to the moon; listening to the pips on the talking clock, and counting down the seconds up to the New Year.
We didn’t get a countdown to the weather, just Michael Fish reassuring the viewers that the woman who phoned to say it was getting a bit breezy outside, or the BBC weather girl suggesting you bring an umbrella with you tomorrow.
No. I’m talking about American weather, this is the country that has its own dedicated television weather channel (in my opinion the most entertaining station to watch when holidaying with our colonial cousins).
Those clever people at Apple have updated their weather app. Living in a country like Britain, where the weather is a near-national obsession and changes within the course of an hour, here we would say it’s pi**ing down, but the Americans frequently use the word precipitation.
And this is where the weather app comes in. Now I know to the minute when rain – sorry, precipitation – will fall.
Beyond telling you to bring an umbrella or sunglasses the graphics include wind, UV index and barometric pressure. Alongside this, you now get full-screen weather maps, high-resolution images that animate the progress of rain and clouds, air quality, and temperature — sort of like your own personal weather assistant.
Or you could go with the tried and tested looking out of the window before leaving home.
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