I’d never have written the big books in London.
Jilly Cooper (b.1937)
All posts by Gibson Square
London Trivia: Edward Heath bombed
On 22 December 1974 Conservative Leader and former Prime Minister Edward Heath’s home in Victoria was bombed by the IRA. Thrown from a Ford Cortina the 2lb. bomb damaged the exterior of the house. Two policemen and a patrol car chased the vehicle as it drove off, but the Cortina crashed a few minutes later in Chelsea and several men fled from the vehicle. Edward Heath was not at home at the time but arrived 10 minutes later.
On 22 December 2003 the London Frost Fair was revived with a 1-day festival at Bankside, it is now a regular feature in December
The London Hackney Carriages Act 1843 forbids a cabbie whose ‘For Hire’ light is on to seek trade whilst the vehicle is moving – fine £200!
Designed by Giles Gilbert Scott – who gave us the telephone box – Grade II listed Battersea Power Station is Europe’s largest brick building
Jeremy Bentham proposed eminent men be preserved and stuffed for prosperity unfortunately his head rotted and replaced with a wax replica
Horse drawn Hansom Cabs gained a renaissance in the Great War as petrol cabs slumped by 60% due to petrol shortages-1947 saw the last horse
When opened in 1928 the owners of the Piccadilly Theatre claimed that the bricks used if laid end to end would stretch from London to Paris
Peach Melba created at the Savoy for soprano Nellie Melba used her favourite ingredients to reduce the cold of ice cream on her vocal cords
On 22 December 2007 after being on the pitch 1.2 seconds Arsenal’s Nicklas Bendtner scored the fastest goal by a substitute in English Footy
North End (nicknamed Bull and Bush) Station on Northern Line between Hampstead/Golders Green closed in 1907 before seeing a single passenger
In 1901 Westminster Abbey became the first public building to be vacuumed when cleaned by a ‘Puffing Billy’ for Edward VII’s coronation
Barges rarely ply the Thames but when the Crown Jewels travel by carriage they traditionally do so in the company of the Queen’s Bargemaster
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: Staying erect
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.
Staying Erect (25.10.11)
Samuel Johnson’s friend James Boswell had an interesting experience on Westminster Bridge. He recalled: “I picked up a strong jolly young damsel and taking her under the arm I conducted her to Westminster Bridge, and there in amour complete did I engage up in this noble edifice. The whim of doing it there with the Thames rolling below us amused me much.”
Boswell might not have had trouble staying erect but for Big Ben it seems a case of erectile dysfunction. I have looked at it through one eye, aligned it with a lamppost, I’ve even tried viewing it upside down, but try as I might I just cannot see the list, but according to a report by London Underground, Big Ben is leaning to such an extent that the tilt can now be clocked with the naked eye. The 316 ft. tower on the north side of the Houses of Parliament correctly is called St. Stephen’s Tower but is known colloquially as Big Ben – the name given to the great bell that it houses, the clock is the largest four-faced chiming clock in the world and surmounts the tower which is founded on a 49 ft. square 9.8 ft. thick concrete raft sunk to a depth of 13 ft. below ground level.
You would have thought with foundations like that the tower would be stable but it is sinking unevenly into the ground, causing it to lean toward the northwest, and as a consequence, the movement has resulted in the formation of cracks in the walls and ceilings of parts of the House of Commons.
The engineers claim that if you stand on Parliament Square and look east, toward the river, you can see that the tower is not vertical. As with so many things, it’s the MPs that are to blame, the construction of their underground car park in the early 70s started it and an extension of the London Underground Jubilee Line didn’t help matters either. But what has accelerated the movement to 0.9mm per year was the digging of the deepest hole in Britain during the construction of the new Parliament Square tube station and the construction above it of Portcullis House, again building work for the benefit of our MPs.
If the tower continues its slide towards the river in about 4,000 years it will compete with the Leaning Tower of Pisa which lurches 12ft from the vertical. By then anyone who should feel the desire to follow James Boswell’s example of amorous exploits upon Westminster Bridge would be well advised to find an alternative hunting ground.
London in Quotations: Margaret Drabble
London, how could one ever be tired of it?
Margaret Drabble (b.1939)
London Trivia: Carpenter opens theatre
On 15 December 1720 John Potter, a carpenter advertised that: ‘At the New Theatre in the Haymarket, between Suffolk Street and James Street, which is now completely finished, will be acted French Comedies, as soon as the actors arrive from Paris . . .’ Musket. It was the third public theatre opened in the West End. The theatre cost £1,000 to build, with a further £500 expended on decorations, scenery and costumes.
On 15 December 1906 the Great Northern, Piccadilly & Brompton Railway, later known as the Piccadilly Line opened
Abingdon Street is named after Mary Abingdon who wrote the letter which led to uncovering the gunpowder plot to blow up Parliament in 1605
Bartholomew The Great nicknamed the ‘weeping church’ when cold/wet the stones become porous, an inscription reads unsluice your briny floods
George II was the last English king to be born abroad, the last to lead his troops into battle but died ingloriously sitting on the loo
When George IV first clapped eyes on Caroline of Brunswick, the woman he was expected to marry, he called his man to pour him a large brandy
In 1848 the group of artists known as the Pre-Raphelite Brotherhood was founded at 7 Gower Street WC2 in 1848
Opening in 1956 at Old Compton Street Soho’s 2i’s Coffee Bar was Europe’s first rock’n’roll venue it featured Cliff Richard and Tommy Steele
In 1875 the first tennis match took place at Worple Road, two years later it was renamed the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club
The world’s longest continuous railway tunnel is the Northern Line: Morden to East Finchley totalling 17.3 miles, 24 stations and 3 junctions
Maxwell Knight head of MI5 from 1931 to 1961 and the original ‘M’ lived in a London flat with a brown bear called Bessie
According to the London Wildlife Trust there are 125 types of fish to be found in the Tidal Thames (the estuary mouth to Teddington Lock)
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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