On 8 September 1915 the first bomb of World War I to fall on the City of London hit Fenchurch Street; the first bomb of World War II fell at the junction of Wood Street and Fore Street, and curiously on 8 September 1944 the first V2 long-range rocket fell on Chiswick killing three. Altogether 1,050 V2 rockets reached Britain, killing 2,754 and injuring 6,523. For some reason, the Germans liked 8 September to start their assaults.

On 8 September 1961 the gallows at Wandsworth Prison’s E Wing were used for the last time to hang Henryk Niemasz

In 1780 during the Gordon Riots volunteers from the Bank of England repelled rioters using bullets made by melting down their inkwells

Until the 1990s the City’s Square Mile was exactly that, then pesky boundary changes made it an annoying inexact 1.16 square miles

When Humphrey Lyttelton host of Radio 4’s I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue died, people left flowers outside Mornington Crescent Tube station

The MI6 building at Vauxhall is as deep below ground as it is tall above-its river frontage is one of the few places inaccessible to walkers

London’s first Punch and Judy show was in 1662 at Covent Garden commemorated by the Punch and Judy pub in the modern Piazza

The oldest gentleman’s club in London is White’s, St James’s Street originally opened in 1693 as a chocolate house which evolved into a club

Theobalds Road was once a track that led to the Stuart kings’ hunting grounds at Theobalds Park in Hertfordshire

Hardy (as in Nelson’s ‘kiss me ..’) refused to travel from London Bridge station in 1836 because he saw the newfangled trains as ‘too risky’

All-American Marlboro Man’s name comes from London’s Great Marlborough Street, where the cigarette manufacturer had their headquarters

They’re over 25 places in the world called London 17 in the USA, there’s even an asteroid called 8837 London discovered in 1989 by Eric Elst

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 1 September 1951 the Premier Store opened in Streatham High Street, which at the time was the longest, busiest shopping strip in South London. Arguably Britain’s first supermarket, when competitors were pulling in £100 per week, Premier racked up £1,000 as 1,500 housewives descended on the store in its first day. Jack Cohen of Tesco bought the chain in 1960 having opened their first self-service store at St. Albans in 1956.

On 1 September 1875 Lambeth’s 14-year-old swimming prodigy Agnes Beckwith swam the six miles from London Bridge to Greenwich in 69 minutes

The 16th century bawdy courts were held at St Paul’s Cathedral and dealt with cases of sexual assault and described intercourse as occupying

All Christopher Wren’s churches are replacements after The Great Fire of London except one St. James’s, Piccadilly- built 1676 on a new site

An elephant is buried under Castle Bar Hill, Ealing the animal died whilst being moved and was interned where it fell

On 1 September 1939 Big Ben’s clock faces were unlit for the first time as war with Germany was impending

When Smithfield superintendent found a gold wedding ring he said the statute of a woman there should be married and soldered to her finger

Gordon Selfridge installed a secret lift in the store so his girlfriends, twins who eventually bankrupted him, could arrive unobserved

Dash to Pope’s Road, Brixton in September to watch the Brixton Bolt, see if you can beat Usain’s 100 metre time of 9.58

On 1 September 1968 the Walthamstow-Highbury Victoria Line extensions opened, giving a considerable uplift to local house prices

Cable Street is named after the local 18th century ropes and cable industry and was originally 608ft, the same length as a nautical cable

It wasn’t until an Act of 1765 that street names were made compulsory, traditional colourful shop signs having to give way to street numbers

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.