On 26 May 1906 Vauxhall Bridge was opened by The Prince of Wales. Finished 5-years behind schedule it has decorated on its arches eight allegorical figures: agriculture; architecture; engineering; pottery; education; fine arts sciences; and bizarrely local government. Architecture features a model of St. Paul’s, but you have to lean over the parapet to see it. It was the first bridge to incorporate tram lines.

On 26 May 1868 Fenian Michael Barrett, found guilty of blowing up the Clerkenwell House of Detention was the last man to be hanged publicly

Under the 1752 Murder Act: The Company of Surgeons, Barts and St Thomas Hospitals were each entitled to 10 hanged corpses a year

The glazed-iron roof of Royal Albert Hall measures 20,000 sq.ft. and was at the time of building the largest unsupported glass dome in the world

In Westminster Bridge Road is the entrance to an old station from where passengers took their last journey to Brookwood Cemetery

Within 2 years from the start of World War II twenty-six per cent of London’s pets were destroyed, a quarter of a mile queue formed outside a Wood Green vets

The leather for Lady Penelope’s Thunderbirds limousine came from Bridge Weir Leather, the same company that upholsters Parliament’s benches

The short Holywell Street was the centre for the Victorian gay porn trade, with an estimated 57 pornography shops in as many yards

The museum at Lord’s Long Room has a perfume jar containing the original Ashes, and a stuffed sparrow bowled out in 1936 by Jehangir Khan

On 26 May 1950 the Government ended petrol rationing, the motoring organisations dubbed it VP (Victory for Petrol) Day

South Bank’s Anchor Brewery, once the largest brewery in the world, all that remains is the old brewery tap the Anchor Tavern on Park Street

Dukes Hotel, once part of St. James’s Palace, has knee height locks on doors because the staff used to have to enter and exit whilst bowing

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 19 May 2004, just weeks after a £600,000 security screen was installed at the public gallery of the House of Commons protesters threw condoms full of purple flour hitting Tony Blair during Prime Minister’s Questions. It was realised that the front three rows of the public viewing gallery, normally reserved for ambassadors was not behind the screen. It was the most serious attack since CS gas was thrown into the chamber 30 years previously.

On 19 May 1649 the Rump Parliament passed an Act to turn England into a Republic, it lasted 11 years before we regained our senses

In 1678 the body of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey was found on Greenberry Hill later three were hanged for the murder their names Green, Berry, Hill

The 19 May is St Dunstan’s Day celebrating the Benedictine Bishop of London who granted a charter authorising the building of Westminster Abbey

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

On 19 May 1536 Anne Boleyn, second wife oe Henry VIII, was beheaded at the Tower of London for alleged adultery

Douglas Adams based characters of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe on Islington where he lived, Hotblack Desiato was an estate agent

The Apollo 11 crew’s first alcoholic drink back on Earth was the Moonwalk, invented by Joe Gilmore of London’s Savoy hotel

On 19 May 2007 The new Wembley Stadium ‘officially’ opened for the FA Cup Final between Chelsea and Manchester United (1-0)

Demonstrating a new crossing in Camden aimed at reducing pedestrian road deaths Transport Minister Hore-Belisha was nearly knocked down

Many of the streets in the city were named after the particular trade which practiced there, for example Threadneedle Street was the tailor’s district

When John Noakes climbed Nelson’s Column (removing pigeon poo) for TV’s Blue Peter a sound engineer didn’t record the stunt, Noakes had to reclimb all over again

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 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.