On 3 March 1943 the worst loss of life during World War II in a single event took place at Bethnal Green Station when a mother carrying a child was hurrying down the steps to shelter during an air raid. She fell and an elderly man tripped on top of her. In the panic 178 people died including the baby. News of the disaster was withheld for 36 hours. It was not until 50 years after the disaster that a discreet plaque was erected at the site.

On 3 March 1982 the Queen opened the £153 million Barbican Centre, the largest arts centre in western Europe built on the site of Cripplegate, which was destroyed by Nazi bombers in World War II

In 1809 audiences at the Covent Garden Theatre rioted for 60 nights when the management increased ticket prices

Westminster Catholic Cathedral stands on the foundations of Tothill Fields Prison demolished in 1884. The prison’s foundations were re-used for the cathedral

Writer and Garrick member AA Milne left part of his estate to the club, in 2001 the club sold its interest (incuding Winnie the Pooh) to Disney

In 1972 William Whitelaw (Northern Ireland Secretary) secretly met Martin McGuiness and Gerry Adams at 96 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea

It was at The Criterion Long Bar where Dr Watson first met Sherlock Holmes (in Colan Doyle’s – A Study in Scarlet)

Author George Bernard Shaw once spent an evening dancing around Fitzroy Square after watching an Italian dancer at the Alhambra Theatre

The highest temperature recorded at the London Marathon 21.7C degrees on 22 April 2007: coldest 13 years previously in 1994 at 7.6C degrees

Approaching J15 on the M25 it has two six-lane carriageways, the widest stretch of motorway in the country, and yet it still gets jam-packed

Alexander Graham Bell made Britain’s first telephone call from Brown’s Hotel in 1876, the hotel to this day honours Bell’s legacy with the Alexander Graham Bell Room, with its antique telephone

In 1912 workmen found a chest buried on the corner of Cheapside and Friday Street, containing jewellery, gemstones, gold, rings and brooches

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 25 February 1888 Annie Millwood was admitted to Whitechapel Workhouse Infirmary with stabs to her legs and lower torso it was believed to be the first Ripper victim. Severn Klosowski was hanged on 7 April 1903 for the poisoning of his wife, his three other spouses had died under mysterious circumstances. Inspector John Abberline the policeman in charge of the Ripper case suspected Klosowski was also the Ripper.

On 25 February 1899 Edwin Sewell became the first to die in a car accident when the rear wheels collapsed testing a Daimler down Grove Hill, Harrow

In Wapping bodies of hanged pirates were left in the Thames for three tides to wash over them before being removed for burial

From 1808 to 1814 Hampstead Heath had a shutter telegraph chain conveying information by visual signals, using towers with pivoting shutters, connecting the Admiralty to naval ships in Great Yarmouth

Missionary David Livingstone laid in repose at 1 Savile Row, HQ of the Royal Geographical Society, now it’s the bespoke tailors Gieves and Hawkes

Thatcher used to stand on a chair in her Commons room to check the top of the door, “It’s the way you know if a room’s really been cleaned”

The fictitious station of Walford East, which features in the long-running soap opera Eastenders, is supposed to be on the District Line

Upper Street, nicknamed as Supper Street, has more bars and restaurants than any other street in the United Kingdom

Formed in 1886 Queen’s Park Rangers have moved 15 times and had 12 grounds, a record for any other London football club

The Seven Sisters Underground station is believed to have been named after a line of elm trees which stood nearby until the 1830s

In South Street, Mayfair there is a plaque to Catherine Walters known as ‘Skittles’ and described as London’s last Victorian Courtesan

The Museum of London has a whole drawer of codpieces that one embarrassed Victorian curator catalogued as ‘shoulder pads’

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 18 February 1478 George Duke of Clarence was drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine at the Tower of London. Convicted of treason against his brother, Edward IV, and was executed by this dubious method. It was said to have been instigated by his brother Richard Duke of Gloucester. It was Dick, the last Plantagenet who on 22 August 1485 would die on Bosworth Field, presumably more sober than his late brother did.

On 18 February 1901 Winston Churchill made his maiden speech in The House of Commons, justifying the burning of Boer farms

In the 16th century, a London law forbade wife beating after 9:00pm, but only because the noise disturbed people’s sleep

The settled road surface of Charterhouse Square, laid down in the 1860s has been given Grade II listed status by English Heritage

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

During the outbreak of World War II London Zoo killed all their venomous animals in case the zoo was bombed and the animals escaped

The Reform Club in Pall Mall is the fictional start to Jules Verne’s book Around The World In Eighty Days later made into a film

London has the oldest bicycle shop in the world (Pearsons of Sutton, established as a blacksmiths in 1860), and the second oldest cycle track in the world, Herne Hill, opened in 1891

Twickenham and Harlequins home Twickenham Stoop are a mere 700 yards apart, nowhere in London are two such high profile stadiums in such close proximity

The first crash on the Tube occurred in 1938 when two trains collided between Waterloo and Charing Cross, injuring 12 passengers

Gropecunt Lane once ran north from Cheapside so called as it was a famous haunt of prostitutes it was renamed by kllljoys in the Reformation

On 18 February 1888 the very first Salvation Army hostel was opened by General William Booth at 21 West India Dock Road

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 11 February 1862 Elizabeth Siddal died from an overdose. Her grief stricken husband, Dante Gabriel Rossetti touchingly placed his notebook in the coffin before internment and buried her in Highgate Cemetery. Seven years later, and presumably suffering from writers’ block he exhumed the body to retrieve his notebook. Her body was said to have no trace of decomposition, probably as a sop to poor old Dante.

On 11 February 1987 at Cynthia Payne was acquitted of 9 charges of controlling prostitutes at her home, in 1978 a police raid had found elderly men exchanging luncheon vouchers for sexual entertainment

Beneath an unmarked alleyway off Sans Walk, Clerkenwell hides the labyrinth that was the House of Detention

Holborn’s Dolphin Tavern contains an old clock with hands frozen at the time when the pub was hit during a 1915 Zeppelin raid

Covent Garden is haunted by William Terris who met an untimely death nearby in 1897 Farringdon has the Screaming Spectre a milliner

It was at The Garrick Club, 15 Garrick Street that Stephen Ward met Soviet Captain Yevgeny Ivanov implicated in the Profumo Affair

Actress and singer Dame Gracie Fields (born Stansfield in Rochdale) once lived at 72A Upper Street, Islington

The Garrick Club was founded in 1831. Many legendary actors, writers and artists have been members, from Charles Dickens to Lord Olivier

Alexandra Palace once famous for its horse racing at ‘The Frying Pan’ it was the last racecourse in London until its closure in 1970

The former poet laureate John Betjeman created Metroland series, a homage to the people and places served by the Metropolitan line in 1973

Baring Brothers, the former merchant bankers on Bishopsgate, helped William Pitt the Younger finance the Napoleonic Wars

The very first Salvation Army hostel was opened by General William Booth at 21 West India Dock Road in February 1888

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 4 February 1748 social reformer Jeremy Bentham was born at Church Lane, Houndsditch. On his death Bentham left instructions for his body to be first dissected, and then to be permanently preserved as an ‘auto-icon’, which would be his memorial. This was done and occasionally Bentham is taken into meetings of the UCL College Council and that it is recorded in the minutes that Mr Bentham is present, but not voting.

On 4 February 1962 printed at its Gray’s Inn works the Sunday Times published Britain’s first newspaper colour supplement

During World War One a baker on Chapman Street, Shadwell was jailed for three days after being caught selling fresh bread

There’s an extensive military citadel beneath the streets of Whitehall one entrance via a lift is in the telephone exchange in Craig’s Court

Patrick Fraher and William Cummins died plunging from Barrington House cutting a hole in a concrete block forgetting they were standing in the middle, they’d been due to take part in a safety course next day

In February 1894 in Greenwich Park anarchist Martial Bourdin accidentally blew himself on route to blow up the Royal Observatory

Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club on Frith Street was the site of Jimi Hendrix’s last public performance in 1970, he would die on 18 September of that year

The rhyme Pop Goes the Weasel refers to the pawning of a suit to pay for drink; ‘Up and down the City Road, in and out the Eagle’ the public house

Oscar winning movie Chariots of Fire was filmed in Hurlingham Park, Fulham, the title was inspired by the line, “Bring me my chariot of fire,” from the William Blake poem

Farringdon underground station is the only station from which passengers exited en masse on their way to a public hanging

Until 1910 you could walk across the walkway at the top of Tower Bridge it was shut because it started to become popular with prostitutes

Diarist Samuel Pepys buried his parmesan cheese and wine in his garden to protect them from the Great Fire of London in 1666

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.