On 8 April 2013 Margaret Thatcher died at her suite in the Ritz Hotel. She may have helped invent soft-serve ice cream, after graduating from Oxford she worked as a research chemist at a Hammersmith food manufacturer J. Lyons and Company and was part of a team tasked with ‘whipping more air into ice cream’. They came up with a kind of ‘soft ice cream’ using fewer ingredients and saved money on production costs.

On 8 April 1989 the longest single movement in Western musical history was performed at the Proms, Odyssey was 96 minutes punctuated by a grandfather’s clock chimes

In 1880 it was suggested redrawing London’s borough boundaries making each one hexagonal to stop cabbies cheating on their fares

Putney Bridge is unique in that it is the only one in Britain with a church at either end (St Mary’s Putney and All Saints Fulham)

On 8 April 1943 author James Herbert was born in the East End. He later went to Columbia Road nursery and Our Lady of the Assumption School

The green cab shelters were erected by Victorian philanthropists with the stipulations that no alcohol to be consumed nor politics discussed

On 8 April 1967 Dagenham’s Sandie Shaw (Sandra Goodrich) became the first UK act to win the Eurovision Song Contest with Puppet on a String

Between 1927 and 39 London boasted no fewer than 27 greyhound tracks. Today only three tracks survive, at Wimbledon, Romford and Crayford

Between 1743 and 1939 with fourteen Islington had the highest concentration of public and private swimming baths ever recorded in Britain

London cabbies are forbidden to transport passengers suffering with a ‘notifiable disease’, bubonic plague is but one disease specified

St. Paul’s Cathedral took so long to build in 17thC London that a lazy worker at the time would be called a St Paul’s workman

The Camberwell Beauty is the colloquial term for Nymphasil antiopa, a velvety, chocolate brown butterfly rarely seen because it migrates annually to Scandanavia from London

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 1 April 1860 people throughout London received the following invitation: “Tower of London: Admit Bearer and Friend to view annual ceremony of Washing the White Lions on Sunday, April 1, 1860. Admittance only at White Gate.” By noon a large crowd had gathered, they were disappointed to find that lions hadn’t been kept in the tower for centuries. After several animals escaping they had left the Tower in 1832.

On 1 April 1980 the BBC reported that Big Ben clock would be converted to a digital in order to modernize the tower’s look. BBC Japan offered the clock hands in a contest to the first four callers

Living in Cheyne Walk Keith Richard once had his Bentley Flying Spur fitted with Turkish flags to fool the police he had diplomatic immunity

The precarious nature of Albert Bridge, known as The Trembling Lady, forced authorities to order troops to break step when marching over the structure

It was once illegal to die in The Houses of Parliament for to do so the deceased would be entitled to a costly and undeserved State funeral

After the Dissolution much of Westminster Abbey’s revenues were transferred to St Paul’s hence the phrase ‘Robbing Peter to pay Paul’

The Underground roundel was taken and adapted from one used by the London General Omnibus Company, it was modified by Edward Johnston

At Twickenham on international match days fans consumed 120,000 pints, an advanced dispensing system can pour a pint of beer in under three seconds

Saracens are the world’s first rugby union club to play competitively on an artificial surface, come the end of the season the edges are rolled back for athletics

The Jubilee Line is the only one to connect with all the other Underground Lines. The Jubilee Line was named to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee in 1977 – but the line did not open until 1979

The Great Exhibition of 1851 was the first opportunity the public got to glimpse a rugby ball, even though the manufacturer, leathermaker William Gilbert had supplied pigs’ bladders to Rugby School since 1820s

Georgian London used the farmland that became Belgravia to dump its excrement in such volume asparagus was said to have an undesirable taste

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 March 1843 the first tunnel to have been constructed successfully underneath a navigable river was opened. Started in 1825 and beset with difficulties it was the only joint venture between father and son Marc and Isambard Brunel. Originally designed for horse drawn carriages it remains part of the Overground Railway. So well constructed was it that the first refurbishment needed was 150 years later.

On 25 March 1946 Heathrow was officially opened by Lord Winster, the Minister of Aviation, the first aircraft to use the new airport was a British South American Airways Avro Lancastrian named Star Light

Dead cats were a popular missile to hurl at criminals locked in the pillory for their crimes, sadly that entertainment was abolished in 1837

London Glass: The British Museum’s Great Court has 3,312 glass panes-no two are the same; the Gherkin’s 7,429 panes are all flat save one top curved panel

Queen Victoria called Buckingham Palace “so fatiguing” with its 19 state rooms 52 royal/guest rooms 188 staff rooms 92 offices 78 bathrooms

On 25 March 1975 members the National Front, flanked by 2,000 police, marched through Islington protesting against integration with Europe

Sir Francis Galton travelled around the country to devise what he called A Beauty Map of Britain concluding the loveliest came from London

Ye Old Cheshire Cheese were famous for their pies weighing 80lbs from beef, kidneys, oysters, larks and mushrooms could be smelt in the City

On 25 March 1950 on Hampstead Heath 25 Norwegian ski-jumpers made use of a newly erected ski jump blanketed in 45 tonnes of imported snow

Lord Kitchener had his Rolls-Royce painted bright yellow in order that he would be instantly recognised when driving around London

Founded 1672 Hoares Britain’s oldest private bank’s front door only locks from the inside as a director is always available for clients

In 1815 George Wilson the ‘Blackheath Pedestrian’ attempted to walk 1,000 miles in 20 days, a nervous authority called a halt on day sixteen

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 March 1789 counterfeiter Catherine Murphy was burned at the stake outside Newgate Prison after first being strangled while tied to the stake. It was to be the last case of roasting a human being in London. She was brought out and made to stand on a foot high, 10-inch-square platform in front of the stake. In 1790 the law was changed, not for the condemned benefit, but law officers were offended by the stench of burning meat.

On 18 March 1932 Stuart Hibbard read the first BBC news bulletin from Broadcasting House in Langham Place

In the 18th century to reduce the cost of incarcerating prisoners new capital crimes where created including one that was impersonating a Chelsea Pensioner

Designed by Thomas Eddison the world’s first public electric generating station opened near Holborn Viaduct in 1882 to light the bridge lamps

On 18 March 1848 Queen Victoria gave birth to her 6th child and 4th daughter, Princess Louise, at Buckingham Palace

In 1957 after giving a speech on the importance of road safety the Duke of Edinburgh drove his Lagonda into another vehicle

Jeremy Lloyd while working in Simpsons of Piccadilly’s menswear department got the inspiration to write the comedy Are You Being Served?

When a special Buckingham Palace Brownie Pack was formed for Princess Anne one 9-year-old handpicked to join was a London cabbie’s daughter

In 1913 Arsenal moved 9.5 miles from Plumstead to Islington, further than any English club other than Wimbledon’s bizarre relocation to Milton Keynes

The London Transport Museum contains the world’s first and last spiral escalator. How it worked, no-one’s quite sure

On 18 March 1838 In the East End William Perkin, inventor of the 1st synthetic dye – mauve, later christened at St Paul’s Church Shadwell

On 18 March 1958 the ‘coming of age’ ceremony of debutants being presented to the Queen at Buckingham Palace took place for the last time

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 March 1708 a Royal prerogative was enacted for the last time when the Scottish Militia Bill, after being passed by The House of Commons, was not given Royal Assent by Queen Anne. On the day the Bill was meant to be signed, news came that the French were sailing toward Scotland, and there was suspicion that the Scottish might be disloyal to the Crown the Monarch vetoed legislation. There is always Brexit though.

On 11 March 1702 Britain’s first daily newspaper the Daily Courant was published by Elizabeth Mallet at her premises at Fleet Bridge

City butchers still can be pilloried if they sell bad meat the 600 year old law states they should smell their meat burnt under their nose

Merchant Tailors Hall still stands where it has been since 1347 what is now Threadneedle Street though much rebuilt after The Great Fire and the Blitz

The gravestone of the famous Elizabethan actor Richard Burbage in the graveyard of St Leonard’s, Shoreditch, reads simply ‘Exit Burbage’

There’s a full snuffbox by the Common’s front door. Smoking has not been allowed since the 17th century so the snuff box is there instead

When Paul McCartney dated Jane Asher he stayed in her family house in Wimpole Street where he wrote hits including Yesterday

At their peak between 1927 and 1939, London boasted no fewer than 27 greyhound tracks, the 1950s neon sign on the back of the Tote Board at the closed Walthamstow Stadium are both listed Grade II

The Arsenal Supporters Club magazine Gunflash, first issued in 1949 is considered the oldest publication of its kind in Britain

Seven London Boroughs are not served by the underground system, six of them being situated south of the River Thames

Today there are 35 Yeoman Warders at the Tower of London, the same number the men who guarded it 600 years ago

Lent gave us the full English breakfast – the Monday before it was ‘Collop Monday’, when you ate up all your perishable sausages and bacon

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.