On 11 February 1862 Elizabeth Siddal died from an overdose. Her grief stricken husband, Dante Gabriel Rossetti touchingly placed his notebook in the coffin before internment and buried her in Highgate Cemetery. Seven years later, and presumably suffering from writers’ block he exhumed the body to retrieve his notebook. Her body was said to have no trace of decomposition, probably as a sop to poor old Dante.

On 11 February 1987 at Cynthia Payne was acquitted of 9 charges of controlling prostitutes at her home, in 1978 a police raid had found elderly men exchanging luncheon vouchers for sexual entertainment

Beneath an unmarked alleyway off Sans Walk, Clerkenwell hides the labyrinth that was the House of Detention

Holborn’s Dolphin Tavern contains an old clock with hands frozen at the time when the pub was hit during a 1915 Zeppelin raid

Covent Garden is haunted by William Terris who met an untimely death nearby in 1897 Farringdon has the Screaming Spectre a milliner

It was at The Garrick Club, 15 Garrick Street that Stephen Ward met Soviet Captain Yevgeny Ivanov implicated in the Profumo Affair

Actress and singer Dame Gracie Fields (born Stansfield in Rochdale) once lived at 72A Upper Street, Islington

The Garrick Club was founded in 1831. Many legendary actors, writers and artists have been members, from Charles Dickens to Lord Olivier

Alexandra Palace once famous for its horse racing at ‘The Frying Pan’ it was the last racecourse in London until its closure in 1970

The former poet laureate John Betjeman created Metroland series, a homage to the people and places served by the Metropolitan line in 1973

Baring Brothers, the former merchant bankers on Bishopsgate, helped William Pitt the Younger finance the Napoleonic Wars

The very first Salvation Army hostel was opened by General William Booth at 21 West India Dock Road in February 1888

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 4 February 1748 social reformer Jeremy Bentham was born at Church Lane, Houndsditch. On his death Bentham left instructions for his body to be first dissected, and then to be permanently preserved as an ‘auto-icon’, which would be his memorial. This was done and occasionally Bentham is taken into meetings of the UCL College Council and that it is recorded in the minutes that Mr Bentham is present, but not voting.

On 4 February 1962 printed at its Gray’s Inn works the Sunday Times published Britain’s first newspaper colour supplement

During World War One a baker on Chapman Street, Shadwell was jailed for three days after being caught selling fresh bread

There’s an extensive military citadel beneath the streets of Whitehall one entrance via a lift is in the telephone exchange in Craig’s Court

Patrick Fraher and William Cummins died plunging from Barrington House cutting a hole in a concrete block forgetting they were standing in the middle, they’d been due to take part in a safety course next day

In February 1894 in Greenwich Park anarchist Martial Bourdin accidentally blew himself on route to blow up the Royal Observatory

Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club on Frith Street was the site of Jimi Hendrix’s last public performance in 1970, he would die on 18 September of that year

The rhyme Pop Goes the Weasel refers to the pawning of a suit to pay for drink; ‘Up and down the City Road, in and out the Eagle’ the public house

Oscar winning movie Chariots of Fire was filmed in Hurlingham Park, Fulham, the title was inspired by the line, “Bring me my chariot of fire,” from the William Blake poem

Farringdon underground station is the only station from which passengers exited en masse on their way to a public hanging

Until 1910 you could walk across the walkway at the top of Tower Bridge it was shut because it started to become popular with prostitutes

Diarist Samuel Pepys buried his parmesan cheese and wine in his garden to protect them from the Great Fire of London in 1666

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.