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.

On 29 October 1986 the first ring road around a British city was finally opened by Margaret Thatcher as the last section – London Colney to South Mimms – was completed. Not long afterwards at 11.16 am the first breakdown occurred on the completed orbital road, the start of a fine London tradition. The tradition of being the biggest car park in England continues, severe weather in 2010 caused the Red Cross to provide blankets and tea for motorists stranded in their cars for 17 hours.

On 29 October 1618 Sir Walter Raleigh was executed at The Tower of London – his discovery of tobacco has been killing people since that time

Found a shed on Tottenham Court Road were the remains of 100 corpses victims of body snatching deposited there before being sold to surgeons

Tottenham Court Road stands on land leased to Queen Elizabeth I that came to be known as Tottenham Court because of its royal connections

The coffin of Dr. Thomas Barnardo was carried in funeral cortege on an underground train in 1905, one of only two occasions this is known to have happened

United States President Theodore Roosevelt got married in London, at St. George’s, Hanover Square. His wife’s middle name was Kermit

The historic Anchor Tavern on Bankside was the location for a scene for Mission Impossible starring Tom Cruise

Holy Trinity Church in Beechwood Road, Dalston is home to the annual Clowns Service attended by clowns in full makeup

Born in 1775 the inventor of the boxer’s uppercut, ‘Dutch Sam’ Elias, from Whitechapel trained on gin and lost just 2 of his 100 boxing fights

The last manually operated doors on Tube trains (pneumatic sliding doors were introduced on tube trains in 1919) were phased out in 1929

In the 18th Century John Harris, head waiter of Shakespeare’s Head, Covent Garden annually produced a Who’s Who of Whores

The 28-inch Greenwich refracting telescope is the largest of its kind in Britain and the seventh largest in the world

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.