On 30 October 1957, the Government unveiled plans to reform the House of Lords which included admitting women for the first time. Under the scheme, male and female life peerages were created ensuring ‘a balanced representation of the different political parties’.

On 30 October 1959 Ronnie Scott’s jazz club opened at 39 Gerrard Street, Soho

During the 1860s, London’s most notorious prison, Newgate, became a kind of theatre, visitors could tour the prison being briefly locked in a windowless cell was one of the highlights

On Blackfriars Bridge the side facing out to sea is decorated with marine birds, the inland side is adorned with freshwater birds

Poet Edmund Spenser’s Westminster Abbey tomb may contain unpublished work by Shakespeare who threw manuscripts into his grave to honour him

The City of London has never been under the authority of the monarch. The Queen may only enter the Square Mile of the City if she is given permission by the Lord Mayor

The bronze statue of Peter Pan was erected in Kensington Gardens in 1912. It marks the spot where J M Barrie first met Jack Llewellyn Davies, the boy who was the inspiration for Peter

By 1870 there were 20,000 public houses and beer shops in London, today according to the Campaign for Real Ale at least 10 are closing every week

The Oval held a particular attraction for the United States billionaire philanthropist, J. Paul Getty II, who built a replica of the ground at his estate at Wormsley Park in Buckinghamshire

London Heathrow Airport is the world’s busiest airports by international passenger traffic, and the third for total traffic

Over 800 members of staff are based at Buckingham Palace, some of the more unusual jobs include fendersmith, clockmaker and flagman

South Kensington is still sometimes referred to as ‘Little Paris’ the area is not only known for its Francophile bookshops but also its French doctors and dentists

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 23 October 1843 fourteen stonemasons who had worked on Nelson’s Column ate a celebratory meal atop the platform before the statue of the famous admiral was placed aloft.

On 23 October 1731 a fire broke out at Ashburnham House, Little Dean’s Yard destroying or damaging 114 books bequeathed to the nation

There are five prisons in London and four of them were built by the Victorians (Wormwood Scrubs, Wandsworth, Pentonville and Brixton). Brixton is the oldest prison in London still in use

It was Lord Byron’s valet – James Brown – who established Brown’s Hotel in 1837. Agatha Christie’s At Bertram’s Hotel is based on Brown’s Hotel

Mayfair’s most eccentric dentist was Martin von Butchell, when his wife, Mary, died in 1775 he had her embalmed and turned her into a visitor attraction to drum up more business

‘So hour by hour, be thou my guide, that by thy power, no step may slide.’ The words to Big Ben’s chimes known as the Westminster Quarters and is the most common clock chime melody

A blue plaque commemorates the site of the Tabard Inn, immortalised in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, in Talbot Yard, Southwark

The George Inn is a National Trust-owned, medieval pub in Southwark and one of the few Grade I listed public houses in England

For the London 1908 Olympics there was the first purpose-built Olympic swimming pool, at the Paris Olympics of 1900 the competitors had to race through sewage in the River Seine

A spiral escalator was installed in 1907 at Holloway Road station, but linear escalators were favoured for the rest of the network. A small section of the spiral escalator is in the Acton depot

In 1809 as part of a hoax a resident of 54 Berners Street was visited by hundreds of maids requesting jobs and tradesmen delivering goods

Medieval London’s streets moral impurity was underlined by their names: Codpiece Lane, Sluts’ Hole, Cuckold Court, Whores’ Nest, Maiden Lane

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 October 1987 hurricane winds of up to 100mph hit Britain. In the Borough of Ealing alone, 600 calls came from people whose homes and cars had been struck by falling trees and debris.

On 16 October 1958 the first episode of the children’s TV show Blue Peter was broadcast from Broadcasting House

During the 1860s, London’s most notorious prison, Newgate, became a kind of theatre, visitors could tour the prison being briefly locked in a windowless cell was one of the highlights

On Blackfriars Bridge the side facing out to sea is decorated with marine birds, the inland side is adorned with freshwater birds

St Thomas Hospital once had 7 buildings for each day of the week so staff knew which day patients had been admitted – only 2 remain

The City of London has never been under the authority of the monarch. The Queen may only enter the Square Mile of the City if she is given permission by the Lord Mayor

The bronze statue of Peter Pan was erected in Kensington Gardens in 1912. It marks the spot where J M Barrie first met Jack Llewellyn Davies, the boy who was the inspiration for Peter

By 1870 there were 20,000 public houses and beer shops in London, today according to the Campaign for Real Ale at least 10 are closing every week

The Oval held a particular attraction for the United States billionaire philanthropist, J. Paul Getty II, who built a replica of the ground at his estate at Wormsley Park in Buckinghamshire

London Heathrow Airport is the world’s busiest airports by international passenger traffic, and the third for total traffic

Over 800 members of staff are based at Buckingham Palace, some of the more unusual jobs include fendersmith, clockmaker and flagman

South Kensington is still sometimes referred to as ‘Little Paris’ the area is not only known for its Francophile bookshops but also its French doctors and dentists

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 October 1975 a man, thought to be the bomber died and 20 people were injured, two of them children, by a bomb planted at a bus stop close to Green Park tube station and the Ritz Hotel, Piccadilly.

On 9 October 1991 the first Sumo wrestling tournament ever staged outside Japan in the sport’s 1,500 year history took place at the Royal Albert Hall

Rudolf Hess was the last prisoner to be kept in the Tower of London, in 1941, after the plane he had been flying solo crashed in Scotland

St George the Martyr, Borough has 4 clock faces only 3 are illuminated as the 4th faces Bermondsey who refused to contribute to the funding of the building

A ‘cockney’s luxury’ is the slang term for breakfast in bed, followed by a good defecation in a chamber pot – just saying

In 1815, West Hampstead was such a quiet, rural enclave, that its residents were reported to have heard the cannon fire from the Battle of Waterloo at Brussels

Both Hampstead’s New End Theatre and Knightsbridge’s Pizza On the Park were entertainment venues converted from hospital mortuaries

Opened in 1652, Pasqua Rosee’s was the first coffee house in London. It was located on St Michael’s Alley and burned down during the Great Fire of 1666

London’s oldest surviving sports structure dates from 1534 and is the wall of a tennis court built at Whitehall Palace by Henry VIII, which now forms part of the Cabinet Office, backing onto Downing Street

Five stations on the Underground system are named after pubs: Elephant and Castle, Angel, Swiss Cottage, Royal Oak and Manor House

The first all-British plane was constructed under the viaduct on Walthamstow Marshes in 1909. Alliott Verdon Roe flew for record 280 metres

In 1994 The Stage newspaper advertised for streetwise, outgoing, ambitious girls auditioning at Dreamworks in Mayfair from 400 five became Spice Girls

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 October 1909, the first match was held at Twickenham Rugby Ground between Richmond and Harlequins. Twickenham is affectionately known as the ‘cabbage patch’ because the grounds were originally used to grow cabbages.

On 2 October 1899 the first two motorised double-decker buses ran from Victoria to Kennington Park, they were red!

There are five prisons in London and four of them were built by the Victorians (Wormwood Scrubs, Wandsworth, Pentonville and Brixton). Brixton is the oldest prison in London still in use

It was Lord Byron’s valet – James Brown – who established Brown’s Hotel in 1837. Agatha Christie’s At Bertram’s Hotel is based on Brown’s Hotel

Mayfair’s most eccentric dentist was Martin von Butchell, when his wife, Mary, died in 1775 he had her embalmed and turned her into a visitor attraction to drum up more business

‘So hour by hour, be thou my guide, that by thy power, no step may slide.’ The words to Big Ben’s chimes known as the Westminster Quarters and is the most common clock chime melody

A blue plaque commemorates the site of the Tabard Inn, immortalised in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, in Talbot Yard, Southwark

The George Inn is a National Trust-owned, medieval pub in Southwark and one of the few Grade I listed public houses in England

For the London 1908 Olympics there was the first purpose-built Olympic swimming pool, at the Paris Olympics of 1900 the competitors had to race through sewage in the River Seine

A spiral escalator was installed in 1907 at Holloway Road station, but linear escalators were favoured for the rest of the network. A small section of the spiral escalator is in the Acton depot

In 1809 as part of a hoax a resident of 54 Berners Street was visited by hundreds of maids requesting jobs and tradesmen delivering goods

Medieval London’s streets moral impurity was underlined by their names: Codpiece Lane, Sluts’ Hole, Cuckold Court, Whores’ Nest, Maiden Lane

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.