On 12 November 1984 Chancellor Nigel Lawson in his autumn statement to Parliament declared the £1 note – popularly known as a ‘quid’ – would be phased out and replaced by coins which were introduced the previous April and which have weighed down trousers ever since. Ironically, £1 notes were greeted with public outrage when they were first put into widespread use as an emergency measure to replace gold sovereigns during World War I.

The 12 November 1974 was a red letter day for anglers for in the River Thames a salmon was caught the first since the 1840s

In his novel Moll Flanders Daniel Defoe described Newgate Prison as “that horrible place”, he should know he was imprisoned there in 1703

The circumference at the Gherkin’s widest point is 178 metres, which is only two metres less than its height of 180 metres

In 1926 suicide pits installed due to passengers throwing themselves in front of trains only Jubilee line has glass screens to deter jumpers

In Parliament in 1981 a private member’s bill (Control of Space Invaders (& other Electronic Games) Bill) tried to ban Space Invaders

The wedding in the movie Four Weddings and a Funeral was filmed at the Augustinian priory church of St. Bartholomew the Great

The first HMV store at 363 Oxford Street was opened by composer Edward Elgar in 1921. HMV stands for ‘His Master’s Voice’

Boxing legend Sir Henry Cooper trained in the gym above the Thomas a Becket pub previously at 320 Old Kent Road, Walworth

The Underground’s longest journey without change is on the Central line from West Ruislip to Epping – a total of 34.1 miles

Prostitutes around Southwark worked in the many brothels or ‘stews’ licensed by the Bishop of Winchester and were known as the Bishop’s Geese

Wildlife observed on the Tube network includes woodpeckers, deer, sparrowhawk, bats, grass snakes, great crested newts, slow worms

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 5 November 1739 the house of a master weaver on Spital Square was attacked by journeymen. The owner of the workshop had allegedly tried to get silk binding done for free as part of the price for a weaving job. Troops were called out from the Tower of London. The Riot Act was read out to the assembled crowd. At the end several solders were hurt by protesters throwing tiles and bricks from the tops of the houses.

On 5 November 1947 London Zoo’s most famous resident Guy the Gorilla arrived at the zoo on Guy Fawkes Day hence being named Guy

Until 1859 it was illegal to celebrate the arrest of Guido Fawkes on 5 November by burning a guy, and presumably asking passers-by “penny for the guy, mister?”

In 1831 London became the first city in the world to have 1 million inhabitants only overtaken in size by Tokyo 126 years later

When Guy Fawkes was executed hanging broke his neck preventing the drawing and quartering (removing his intestines, arms and legs) while alive

When entering The Houses of Parliament its Members are still banned from wearing a suit of armour under an Act made by Edward II in 1313

Lions of Trafalgar Square were sculpted from life artist Landseer used dead lions from London Zoo until neighbours complained of the smell

The London Eye can carry 800 people each rotation comparable to 11 double decker buses receives on average more visitors per year than the Taj Mahal and the Great Pyramid of Giza

After Percy Lambert was killed racing at Brooklands in 1913 he was buried at Brompton Cemetery in a coffin designed to match his racing car

Wealthy oil baron Nubar Gulbenkian had a luxurious taxi conversion. He told friends “Apparently it can turn on a sixpence, whatever that is”

St. Paul’s Cathedral at 365ft high and over 40 years to construct. It took so long to complete its builders had the reputation of being lazy

The only qualification needed to join Edmund Kean’s Wolf Club at the Coal Hole, Strand was your wife had forbidden you to sing in the bath

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.