On 14 February 1895 Oscar Wilde’s most enduring play, The Importance of Being Earnest, was premiered at the St. James’s Theatre, in King Street on a really cold St. Valentine’s Day. With already three other successful productions currently being performed in London, it would go on to be his most successful and quoted play. Lady Bracknell, she of “a handbag”, was played by the gloriously named Miss Rose Leclercq.

On 14 February 1946 the Bank of England (‘The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street’) was nationalised with the signing of a 250-page bill by King George VI

‘Do not attempt to travel by taxi while suffering from the plague’. Extract from the Public Health Act 1985. Just so you know should the need arise

The City of London the historical core of the Capital, roughly matches the boundaries the Roman city of Londinium and of medieval London

London’s first traffic lights, situated outside the Palace of Westminster, blew up injuring a policeman and causing passing cavalry horses to stampede

Upminster Bridge station has a swastika motif on the floor of the ticket hall installed before the symbol took on its sinister reputation

John Stow’s monument depicting him writing his Survey of London, he is holding a real quill pen, the quill is replaced every 5 years by the Lord Mayor

The London Eye can carry 800 people each rotation, which is comparable to 11 London red double-decker buses

In 1891 Arsenal was the first London club to turn professional, called the Royal Arsenal when the club turned professional the name changed to Woolwich Arsenal

The first parking meter was installed in Mayfair with a charge of one shilling per hour (5p) today the same fee buys you 45 seconds

The ‘porter’ style of beer was officially invented at the Bell Brewhouse in Shoreditch by Ralph Hardwood in 1722

The guns of HMS Belfast are targeted on Barnet in north London, but with a range of 30 miles could destroy Scratchwood Services on the M1

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.

On 7 February 1845 the Portland Vase, dating from the 1st century BC, was shattered into more than 80 pieces. A drunken visitor to the British Museum, William Mulcahy, threw a sculpted stone exhibit at the glass cabinet containing the treasured artifact, acquired in 1784 by the Duchess of Portland, a noted collector of antiquities and loaned the vase to the British Museum in London for permanent exhibition, where it was seemingly safe.

On 7 February 1996 Concorde left Heathrow and created a new world record between New York and London of 2 hours, 52 minutes and 59 seconds

The everlasting staircase was a giant 24-spoke paddle wheel that 40 prisoners walked for 8 hours in Brixton generating power to grind corn

Finance for building the first Westminster Bridge was raised in the 1730s via lottery with an enormous silver wine cooler as prize

J. M. Barrie donated all the royalties from Peter Pan to Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital. The copyright has only recently expired

When Queen Victoria visited The Duchess of Sutherland at Lancaster House she remarked that it was grander than Buckingham Palace

The house in which actor William Henry Pratt, aka Boris Karloff, lived is now the Sea Master fish and chip shop, Peckham Rye

Covent Garden receives over 44 million visitors a year, making it one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world

The Surbiton Club in 1891 requested members playing billiards partaking of snuff to ‘leave no nasal excreta’ on the baize

The total number of stations served on the network is 270; The District Line has the most stations at 60. The Underground’s fewest is the Waterloo and City Line with none

Smithfield Market incorporating 3 listed Victorian buildings is the largest wholesale meat market in Britain, the area also contains London’s oldest surviving church, St Bartholomew-the-Great, circa 1123

Tradition dictates the Tower must always have 6 ravens. Baldrick is number seven in the pecking order and George was sacked in 1986 for eating TV aerials

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.