On 23 February 1820 at 7.30 pm in Cato Street the Bow Street Runners apprehended the Cato Street Conspirators who had planned to murder all the British cabinet and the Prime Minister. The police had an informer and the plotters fell into a police trap, 13 were arrested, while one policeman was killed. Five conspirators were sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered, later the sentence was commuted to being hanged and decapitated.

On 23 February 1633 Diarist and Chief Secretary to the Admiralty Samuel Pepys was born in Salisbury Court, Fleet Street

Legendary Miss Marple actress Dame Margaret Rutherford lived at 4 Berkeley Place, Wimbledon from 1895 to 1920

Big Ben (ie the Clock Tower) tilted by over an inch when Westminster Tube station was excavated for extension of Jubilee Line in 1990s

Britain’s first fatal car crash took place on Grove Hill, Harrow.Today a plaque on the spot warns drivers to take heed!

10 Downing Street’s famous black door was, in the first decade of the 20th century, painted green, now there is more than enabling regular painting

The statue of Eros was meant to be ‘burying’ the ‘shaft’ of his arrow in Shaftesbury Avenue – but they put him up facing the wrong way

During the 1749 premiere of Handel’s Fireworks Music in Green Park, a pavilion erected for the event burned down

Fred Perry’s racket bearing the personalised monogram ‘F.J.P, from the 1934 Wimbledon Championships sold at Christie’s in June 1997 for £23,000

London’s oldest underground line was opened in 1863 between Farringdon and Paddington and is still in use today

From 1787 to 1852 Hackney was home to Loddiges’ Nursery, famous for tropical orchids, hothouses and an arboretum

The legally required turning circle of a London taxi is 25 feet. Cab owners include Prince Philip, Stephen Fry and Bez of the Happy Mondays

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 16 February 1978 after a long campaign in which ‘G. Davis Is Innocent, OK’ was daubed on every available wall in East London, mini-cab driver George Davis was cleared in the Crown Court after his wrongful conviction for an armed £47,000 robbery at the London Electricity Board offices in Ilford, for which he had been sent to prison. Two years later he was convicted of a £50,000 London bank raid at the Bank of Cyprus, Tottenham.

On 16 February 1824 John Wilson Croker established a ‘club for scientific and literary men and artists’ – the Athenaeum, he is also credited with coining the word Conservative for a political description

Cab drivers who drive too slowly can be charged with ‘loitering’, but are exempt from compulsorily wearing seat belts whilst working at whatever speed they are travelling

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

There were three assassination attempts on Queen Victoria at Constitution Hill a road under half a mile long and Princess Anne was shot at there

Josef Jakobs a German spy captured in World War II was the last person executed at the Tower of London, he was shot by firing squad

Sherlock Holmes fictional home 221b Baker Street is the Santander Building Society which has an office dealing with the detective’s fan mail

Museum of London tracing the capital’s history from Prehistoric times to the present day is the largest urban history museum in the world

Sudbury Hill’s Wood End Estate has 11 streets named after sports people: Mary Peters Drive; Lilian Board Way; Brasher Close; Bannister Close

The word ‘taxi’ originates from the name of the inventor of the taximeter in 1907, a German called Baron Von Thurn und Taxis

Vauxhall Cars take their name from its first factory on the site of Fawke’s Hall, beside the river near where Vauxhall Bridge now stands

Dr Johnson’s Memorial House in Gough Square contains a brick from the Great Wall of China donated to the museum in 1822

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 9 February 1792 German-Swiss entrepreneur Johann Jakob Schweppe arrived in London to set up his first Seltzer water factory at 141 Drury Lane. Despite an unpromising start with his Swiss partners pulling out, Johann Schweppe persevered, his Soda Water became the colloquial term for sparkling water within a decade cementing his business name in the popular lexicon and creating the worldwide brand.

On 9 February 1915 an IRA 500kg bomb in a truck explodd at South Quay, Canary Wharf at 7pm, killing two and injuring 39, causing over £100 million damage

In 1992 driving a Porsche 911 a driver clocked up 147 mph, the highest speed recorded by the police on the M25 needless to say he got banned

The oldest surviving Blue Plaque is Napoleon III staying at 1c King Street in 1848 it’s the only one installed during a candidate’s lifetime

On 9 February 1915 Only Fools and Horses actor Lennard Pearce, who played Grandad in the TV show, was born in Paddington

The Connaught Hotel was called The Coburg, but like the Royal Family changed its name during World War I to avoid anti-German sentiment

In 1851 Britain’s greatest painter J. M. W. Turner bequeathed the contents of his studio to the nation the Tate holds 39,389 pieces

In 1912 the first Royal Variety Show took place at the Palace Theatre. Queen Mary was shocked by male impersonator Vesta Tilley

Only 14 men have run each and every one of the 34 London Marathons, one is former head teacher Mike Peace his best time is 2:37.12 in 1991

Over 47 million litres water are pumped from the Underground each day, enough to fill a 25m swimming pool every quarter of an hour

The man appointed by Charles II to put out the Great Fire of London was his brother the Duke of York – after whom New York was named

The statues of Livingstone and Shackleton outside the Royal Geographical Society have given rise to cabbies calling it “Hot and Cold Corner”

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 2 February 1255 the Royal Menagerie, housed at The Tower of London received a male African elephant. It had been a diplomatic gift from King Louis IX of France to Henry III. The only elephant in England was thought to have come from the Crusades in Palestine. The keepers appear to have been too enthusiastic plying the elephant with copious bottles of red wine, consequently, it died three years later, very happy.

On 2 February 1101 the king’s tax collector and embezzler, Bishop Ranulf Flambard, the Tower’s first prisoner, became its first escapee after getting his captors drunk

The Clink a small prison whose name entered the English language as slang term for gaol it was for those who ran amok in Bankside’s brothels

Strand was the first road in London to have a numbered address Charles II’s Secretary of State residence was No 1 near Northumberland Avenue

On 2 February 1852 the first public toilets opened at 95 Fleet Street. Selfridge’s was the first shop to have ladies’ toilets

The night before the 1911 census suffragette Emily Davison hid in a cupboard in the House of Commons so she could claim that was her address

Outstanding movie The Long Good Friday with Bob Hoskins features scenes filmed at Wapping and West India Quay

Simpson’s-in-the-Strand was known as the home of chess, its serving practise-wheeling food out under silver domes-originates avoiding disturbing a game of chess

Set up in1869 the Hurlingham Club originally hosted pigeon shooting before becoming a major venue for tennis

One early name proposed for the Victoria Line was the Viking line; the Central Line used to be nicknamed as the ‘Twopenny Tube’ for its flat fare

By 1883 Fleet Street’s newspapers produced 15 morning dailies, 9 evening papers and 383 weekly publications, of which 50 were local rags

The City of London has had city status for time immemorial – i.e. no historical information exists to show that it wasn’t a city at any point in known London history

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 26 January 1927 members of the Royal Institution and a reporter from The Times saw in a laboratory at 22 Frith Street, Soho above today’s Bar Italia an invention demonstrated by Mr John Logie Baird called a televisor. It was the world’s first public demonstration of television. It was also the first demonstration of a television system that could broadcast live moving images with tone graduation and with a scan rate of 12.5 pictures per second.

On 26 January 1960 Michael Black pleaded guilty to burglary and stealing jewellery at a house in Acacia Road. Surprisingly he was a company director with assets of £30,000

Bow Street police station had a white light and not traditional blue as Queen Victoria’s Albert died in the blue room at Windsor Castle

The traditional wedding cake design is based on the spire of 17th century St. Bride’s Church designed by Sir Christopher Wren

In the central courtyard of the Victoria and Albert museum is a memorial to Jim, faithful dog of Henry Cole, the museum’s first director

David Cameron was not first Prime Minister to use Tube – Gladstone did it – except he was dead (the coffin was brought to Westminster on District Line)

Beatrix Potter lived near Brompton Cemetery where names on graves include Mr Nutkins, Jeremiah Fisher and Peter Rabbit

The early 1980s Burlington Arcade beadle tells someone off for whistling, they turn round, it’s Paul McCartney – beadle exempts him for life

The oldest surviving regular contest in the is World Doggett’s Coat and Badge Race rowing up the Thames between two Swan pubs: London Bridge to Chelsea

Embankment Station, northbound Northern Line is the only platform still playing the original ‘Mind the Gap’ by sound engineer Peter Lodge

Alexander Graham Bell first successfully demonstrated his device later called a telephone from rooms at Brown’s Hotel, Dover Street in 1876

A ‘pickadil’ was one of those big ruffed Elizabethan collars. Man who made fortune from them built Piccadilly Hall – hence the street name

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.