I’m always afraid someone’s going to tap me on the shoulder one day and say, ‘Back to North London’.
Alan Parker (1944-2020)
All posts by Gibson Square
London Trivia: Miscarriage of justice
On 9 March 1950 Timothy Evans (25) was hanged at Pentonville Prison for the murder of his wife, Beryl at 10 Rillington Place. Mentally sub-normal he had, under duress, admitted to the killing, when in fact John Christie had murdered her along with many others. Evans was granted a posthumous pardon in 1966 and Christie was hanged for the crimes on 15 July 1953 by the same executioner who had previously hanged Evans.
On 9 March 1721 English Chancellor Exchequer John Aislabie confined in London Tower for ‘most notorious, dangerous and infamous corruption’ relating to the South Sea Bubble scandal
On 9 March 1966, Ronnie Kray walked into the Blind Beggar public house on Whitechapel Road and shot rival gangster George Cornell through the head
Queen Square, Bloomsbury takes its name from the statute at its centre but no-one knows the sculptor or which queen it is meant to represent
With no flowers Green Park is so named because it was once the burial ground for the leper’s hospital on the site of St. James’s Palace
Jewry Street was originally called Poor Jewry to distinguish the local Jewish community from the richer one round the corner at Old Jewry
Berkeley Square resident The Rt Hon John Theodore Cuthbert Moore-Brabazon was Britain’s first owner of a car painted with metallic paint
The 4th Earl of Sandwich is credited with inventing the snack bearing his name to assist him staying at the gambling tables of White’s Club
Dating from 1879 Fulham Football Club is the oldest professional football club in London, starting out as Fulham St. Andrew’s Church Sunday School F.C.
In 1952 the Reliant Regal the forerunner to Del Boy’s Robin, was banned from the Motor Show as with three wheels it wasn’t regarded as a car
At the end of the 19th century there were 250-300,000 working horses in the capital each producing between 3 and 4 tons of dung a year
Several eminent Victorian engineers favoured a scheme to dam the Thames at Woolwich, thereby producing a vast inner city freshwater lake
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: Bush House pruned
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.
Bush House pruned (20.03.12)
To many of us, Bush House in Aldwych is just an obstruction on our journey from Kingsway to Waterloo Bridge forcing us to take a detour around a rather large traffic island. But for many, particularly in Asia, Bush House is synonymous with the voice of the BBC, so much so that I’ve even had tourists wanting to visit the building like any other London attraction to have a mandatory photograph taken in front of the discreet brass plaque at its entrance.
Adjacent to the Australian House and the Indian High Commission, Bush House built in 1923 was originally constructed for an Anglo-American organisation headed by Irving T. Bush from whom it takes its name.
When it opened in July 1925, costing £2 million, it was considered the world’s most expensive building. The inscription above the portico inserted before the arrival of the broadcaster couldn’t be more apt for the BBC: ‘Dedicated to the friendship of English-speaking peoples’.
For almost 70 years Bush House has been the home of the BBC World Service broadcasting many of the world’s events to far-flung countries. In January 1941, former director of the BBC’s Belgian French Service, Victor de Lavelee, suggested that Belgians use a ‘V’ or Victory’ sign as a rallying emblem, Churchill would later use this idea in his ‘V for Victory’ speech of 19th July 1941. De Gaulle’s broadcasts to the Free French and some of Churchill’s famous speeches were transmitted from this building.
First called the BBC Empire Service and broadcasting in 45 languages, covering events that have changed the world, while giving unbiased news coverage to countries whose only means of information were largely governed by perspectives of their state, Bush House became a beacon for free speech. By 1941 more than 1,400 staff worked on international broadcasts, now they now only broadcast in 27 languages, one could extrapolate from those people speaking the 18 languages dropped can now trust their own internal media services.
The BBC has now terminated its lease with the Japanese owners of Bush House and has moved its reduced World Service to Broadcasting House.
The building inspired George Orwell to base the canteen featured in his Ministry of Truth in his book 1984 on the one at Bush House. When Orwell worked there he was involved in lengthy meetings and his infamous Room 101 is thought to relate to a room in Bush House.
In 1978, Bulgarian Service journalist Georgi Markov while standing on Waterloo Bridge felt pain in his thigh, and turning round saw a man picking up an umbrella, he returned to Bush House relating this rather odd incident. Three days later he died, it was assumed he was assassinated by a poisoned umbrella.
Bush House was so familiar with those beyond our borders that some among the 150 listeners worldwide would address their letters: ‘BBC Bush House, London’, it was all that was required to ensure their correspondence arrived. Unlike the Media Centre, Salford Bush House remains for many the building which most represents the BBC and captured the imagination of the world.
London in Quotations: Peter Ackroyd
As a Londoner I was able to see how the world of power and money cast its shadow on those who failed.
Peter Ackroyd (b.1949)
London Trivia: A Hard Day’s Night
On Monday 2 March 1964 The Beatles joined Equity, the actors’ union, this was done only minutes before they began shooting their first film, the as-yet untitled A Hard Day’s Night. The Fab Four and the film crew met at Paddington Station, where their train left at 8.30am from platform five bound for Minehead in Somerset. No filming took place at the station, but George Harrison met Pattie Boyd, his future wife.
On 2 March 1952 Ronnie and Reggie Kray were drafted up for National Service, it was fighting authority here they became master-exponents of extreme violence and gangland thuggery
Lady Justice is usually depicted wearing a blindfold, but not the one on top of the Old Bailey, impartiality is shown by her ‘maidenly’ form
One brick on top of Canary Wharf is 10mm higher than the rest deliberately laid so brickie could say he’d laid the highest brick in Europe
Winston Churchill decreed that his coffin should leave London by Waterloo (not the natural station for Oxfordshire) just to annoy de Gaulle
The Prime Minister’s chair is the only one around the Cabinet table that has arms, it’s accompanied by 23 carved, solid Victorian mahogany chairs
Dickens modelled The Six Jolly Fellowship Porters pub in Our Mutual Friend on the Bunch of Grapes in Narrow Street
The first outside broadcast was that of the internment of The Unknown Soldier a Westminster Abbey in 1918
The 1948 London Olympics were the first to use starting blocks. Before that runners pushed off from a hole in the track, dug with a trowel
The old London Routemaster bus could lean further from the vertical without falling over than a human can
The oldest business ratepayer in London is Twinings Tea. Their shop at 216 the Strand has been in continuous use since 1706
Enfield Town has the unusual claim to fame of having hosted the world’s first cash machine in 1967, it was inaugurated by English comedy actor Reg Varney
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.
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