On 14 April 1471 the decisive battle of The Wars of the Roses was fought in Arkley, north of Barnet between Edward IV of the House of York and Henry VI who led the House of Lancaster. The battle lasted from two to three hours, most of it in thick fog. Contemporary sources say that at least 10,000 men died in the battle. The subsequent Battle of Tewkesbury would ensure the House of York was victorious.

On 14 April 1913 The Royal Geographical Society opened their new premises at Kensington Gore. Now known as ‘Hot and Cold Corner’ for the Livingstone and Shackleton statues

Magpie and Stump pub until 1868 would charge extra for drinks taken upstairs where punters could enjoy viewing the public hangings at Newgate

At 141ft, Adelaide House was the tallest office block in London when it was completed in 1925 and was the first office building in England to have electric and telephone connections on every floor

Now located in Beckenham, King’s College London Institute of Psychiatry was originaly named bedlam, meaning uproar and confusion

The future Mary II is said to have wept for a day and a half when she was told that she would have to marry William of Orange in 1677

Off Greville Street, Clerkenwell is the cobbled Bleeding Heart Yard mentioned by Charles Dickens in Little Dorrit

The world’s oldest public zoo opened in London in 1828 it was initially known as the ‘Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological Society of London’

Greyhound racing’s first superstar ‘Mick the Millar’ was so popular his stuffed body was put on display at the Natural History Museum

The Peter Lodge recording of “Mind the Gap” is still in use, but some lines use recordings by a Manchester voice artist Emma Clarke

Tesco was founded in 1924 when Jack Cohen and T. E. Stockwell sold tea in bulk opening a store in Tooting

The corgis also have hot scones every afternoon, served with butter and crumbled onto the kitchen floor by the Queen herself

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 7 April 1903 a Polish barber, George Chapman was hanged at Wandsworth Prison for the murder, by poison, of his wife. His three other wives had died under suspicious circumstances. John Abberline, who headed up the Jack the Ripper investigation, thought Chapman was also The Ripper. He had closely interviewed his first ‘wife’, Lucie Badewski, and she had told him that her husband often used to go out during the night.

On 7 April 1908 Herbert Henry Asquith’s Liberal Party won the General Election. Edward VIII was abroad, the only time the elected Prime Minister had the official ‘Kissing of the Hands’ abroad

In Oliver Twist Charles Dickens sited Fagin’s Lair in the notorious area that existed around the current Saffron Hill

In the 11th century, Brixton was known as ‘Brixistane’ meaning ‘the stone of Brihtsige’. Locals used the stones as a meeting place

Behind the stalls of Islington’s Sadlers Wells Theatre is the well containing medicinal water which Thomas Sadler found in 1684

On 7 April 1968 after previously accompanying Princess Margaret and The Queen Mother King Freddie of Buganda was found living on the dole

George Orwell used Senate House in Bloomsbury as the inspiration for The Ministry of Truth in his book 1984

Birdcage Walk was the site of the 17th century Royal Aviary. Diarist John Evelyn spotted “many curious kinds of poultry” here

In 1922 in the rafters of Westminster Hall was found a tennis ball dating from before 1520 made of leather and stuffed with dog’s hair

In between Golders Green and Hampstead the tube slows down for the ghost station “Bull and Bush”, a station which was never built

In the early 80’s comic Jo Brand worked as a psychiatric nurse at the Maudsley Hospital, Denmark Hill, a fact of her life she will often talk about

Chains from Brunel’s Hungerford Bridge, demolished in 1864, were re-used as part of the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol

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.