On 12 May 1891 prominent member of the National Vigilance Association, an anti-vice pressure group, Captain Edmund Verney, MP, was expelled from The House of Commons. He had pleaded guilty to conspiring to procure, for corrupt and immoral purposes, a girl of nineteen and was sentenced to one year of imprisonment. It’s good to see that today not much has changed with our political leaders.

On 12 May 1906 John Bull Magazine was first published designed to bring satire and political comment to its readers

When Julian Assange was holed up at the Ecuadorian Embassy those visiting included Pamela Anderson, Lady Gaga, Eric Cantona and Nigel Farage

On Knight’s Road in Docklands, the world’s largest tin of syrup is affixed to Tate & Lyle’s factory producing the world’s oldest branded product

The finest dentures of 19th-century London contained real human teeth, some gleaned from casualties of the Battle of Waterloo

The Wiener Library, Russell Square contains 1 million items relating to the Holocaust, it is the world’s oldest library of related material

Now charmingly inaccurate, the life-sized models of dinosaurs in Crystal Palace Park, constructed in the 1850s were the first in the world

The basement at 27 Endell Street was once the animal depot for West End theatres once 2 bulls escaped liberating a menagerie on Soho streets

Mitcham Cricket Club has played on the world’s oldest cricket pitch since 1685, and today is still an active cricket club

Amersham is the second most westerly tube station, the highest at 147 metres above sea level and the second furthest Underground station from central London

Burrell & Co on Blasker Walk in Docklands once manufactured dyes, red smoke from the chimneys would tint the local pigeons rose-pink

Wartime song A nightingale sang in Berkeley Square was almost certainly a robin, the only town bird known to sing at night

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 May 1980 Britain realised it had an elite force when the SAS successfully stormed the terrorist-held Iranian Embassy in Princes Gate after one of the hostages was killed and his body thrown out of the embassy. The soldiers later faced accusations of unnecessarily killing two of the five, but an inquest into the deaths eventually cleared the SAS of any blame. The sole remaining gunman was prosecuted and served 27 years in British prisons.

On 5 May 1760 for murdering a servant serving bad oysters Earl Ferrers got the hangman’s drop breaking the neck as opposed to a slow throttle

Forty Elephants were a gang of prolific female shoplifters from the 1920s who stashed stolen goods in specially adapted bloomers

London’s railings used to be brightly coloured. On the death of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria decreed that they all be painted black

In his will Dickens stipulated that no monuments be erected to his memory, that’s why London has no statues of one of its greatest writers

The American Declaration of Independence was printed in Caslon typeface designed in Chiswell Street by William Caslon, it’s now a Tesco

In 17th century London antics in St. James’s Park were put to verse: ‘Nightly now beneath their shade/Are buggeries, rapes and incests made’

Opening in 1910 with 2,286 seats the London Palladium had its own telephone system, so patrons could talk to each other

A white strip near BBC White City marks the finish of the world’s first modern marathon in 1908 originally 25 miles extended to 26 miles 385 yards

Traffic congestion in 18th century led to a law being passed to make all traffic on London Bridge keep to the left in order to reduce collisions, it was incorporated into the Highway Act of 1835

On 5 May French couturier Coco Chanel choose today to launch her first perfume No 5, for obvious reasons

On 5 May 1930 Amy Johnson took off from Croydon, in her Gypsy Moth plane ‘Jason’. She became the first woman to fly solo to Australia, arriving on 24th May

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 28 April 1772 the world’s most travelled goat died in Mile End. Twice it circumnavigated the world, once with Captain Wallis on the Dolphin and later with Captain Cook’s Endeavour. An Admiralty document vouches for her travels and longevity. The Lords of the Admiralty had, just previous to her death, signed a warrant, admitting her to the privileges of an in-pensioner of Greenwich Hospital, a boon she did not live to enjoy

On 28 April 1994 the Tate Gallery announced the taking possession of Bankside Power Station to convert into a museum of modern art

The Marquess of Queensberry sought permission with a Act of Parliament to shoot motorists whom he thought presented a danger to himself

When renovating Queen Victoria Memorial a workman knocked off her nose, with the bright white replacement she appeared to have snorted cocaine. Alas, it’s now repaired in time for the 2012 Olympics

Playwright Ben Johnson couldn’t afford a normal burial in Westminster Abbey determined by plot size was buried upright standing for eternity

From the reigns of King Charles II to George IV Chelsea’s King’s Road was a private thoroughfare which only the royal family could use

The lions of Trafalgar Square were sculpted from life, artist Landseer used a dead lion supplied by London Zoo until the neighbours complained of the smell. A cat was the replacement

When Regent Street was built windows on its eastern side were larger than opposite to encourage Mayfair residents to cross the road

On 28 April 1923 King George V cut the first turf at the newly built Wembley Stadium,it’s not recorded whether he came back to paint the lines

The name of Blue Post public houses take their title from the markers which denoted the start of a rank for sedan chairs in Georgian London

The drop out rate for ‘The Knowledge’, the stringent test to qualify as a London cab driver is over 70 per cent

House numbers in London always have the lowest numbers starting at the end of the street closest to Charing Cross

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 21 April 1955 a strike which had paralysed Fleet Street ended, the Electricians and Engineers Union, seeking a rise of £2 per week had stopped all publications from the famous newspaper street. The only unaffected paper was the Guardian produced in Manchester. Big news events the Fleet Street papers have missed included Sir Winston Churchill’s resignation and the announcement of a general election.

On 21 April 1834 saw a meeting on Copenhagen Fields, Islington protesting against the deportation of the Tolpuddle Martyrs to Australia

One for the Road and On the Waggon derive from condemned prisoners going to Tyburn being given a drink at the Angel PH St Giles High Street

On 21 April 1933 The Rum Quay West India Docks caught fire burning for 4 days. 6,500 puncheons (3.1 million litres) of rum kept it going

On 21 April 1926 The Queen (Elizabeth II) was born at 21 Bruton Street, Mayfair, eldest daughter of George VI & Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon

The clock at Horse Guards has a black square on the dial denoting the time King Charles I was executed outside Banqueting House opposite

The location shots in the 1950s film Passport to Pimlico were shot not in affluent Pimlico but poorer Lambeth and Vauxhall in south London

On 21 April 1964 BBC2 was launched; however, a fire at Battersea Power Station caused power cuts and only brief news’ updates were shown

In 1895, an American visitor demonstrated a new type of basketball where the girls played with wastepaper baskets at both ends of the hall. This was the first game of netball to be ever played in the UK. The rules were codified in 1901

The first man ever to fly from London to Manchester did so by following the whitewashed sleepers of the London and North Western Railway

Established in 1805 Truefitt and Hill of St. James’s Street remains the world’s oldest barbershop having served nine consecutive Monarchs

Only members of the Royal Family are allowed to drive through the central arch at Horse Guards – Kate Middleton did so after her marriage

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 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.