For those new to CabbieBlog or readers who are slightly forgetful, on Saturdays I’m republishing posts, many going back over a decade. Some will still be very relevant while others have become dated over time. Just think of this post as your weekend paper supplement.

Lost Bits of London Bridge (19.02.13)

The first London Bridge was constructed by the Romans during their occupation of London around 50 AD. After the Romans abandoned Londinium the bridge fell into disrepair as the River Thames marked the boundary between the Saxon Kingdoms of Marcia and Wessex nobody bothered to maintain the structure.

A later bridge was thought to have been destroyed by Norwegian Price Olaf in the service of Anglo-Saxon King Aethelred against the Danes. This act might have given rise to the nursery rhyme London Bridge is Falling Down.

King John replaced an older bridge which had been destroyed by fire in 1136, all traces of the bridges prior to this date have been lost. Taking 33 years to build it boasted of having 7 storeys with shops below.

When this bridge was demolished in 1831 some features were sold off. Fourteen stone alcoves originally graced the bridge and four still survive. Two stand in Victoria Park, one stands in the grounds of Guys Hospital while the fourth bizarrely ended up in the garden of a block of flats in East Sheen.

A coat of arms which was located above the bridge tollgate now can be seen above the door of the Kings Arms on Newcomen Street.

In 1896 it was estimated that the bridge was the busiest point in London, with 8,000 people crossing the bridge by foot and 900 crossing in vehicles every hour. London Bridge was widened in 1902–04 from 52 to 65 feet, in an attempt to combat London’s chronic traffic congestion. A dozen of the granite ‘pillars’ quarried and dressed for this widening, but unused, still lie near Swelltor Quarry.

This bridge even after widening lasted barely a century when in the 1960’s it was decided to replace it. Instead of demolishing it one member of the body responsible for London’s bridges proposed that the bridge be sold.

Ivan Luckin – if ever a man needed to live up to the name – thought he could find someone to take the bridge off the City’s hands. This was not some 19th-century granite monolith; this bridge was the embodiment of London’s 2,000-year history.

Robert P. McCullock was building a city on the shores of Lake Havasu from scratch. The Colorado River had been dammed but the water at one end was in danger of going stagnant, he needed to redirect it by turning the peninsular obstructing the flow into an island, hence the need for a bridge.

McCulloch’s bridge was reconstructed around a concrete frame using the 1831 London Bridge’s stones as cladding. A few corbels from the Swelltor Quarry were sent as spares to America during this construction.

Not all of the Rennie Bridge made it to America. There’s a piece of granite from it behind the Duke of Wellington statue at the Bank, commemorating his involvement with the London Bridge Approaches Act 1827. Wonder how that compared with the Battle of Waterloo?

For those new to CabbieBlog or readers who are slightly forgetful, on Saturdays I’m republishing posts, many going back over a decade. Some will still be very relevant while others have become dated over time. Just think of this post as your weekend paper supplement.

Harry Gordon Selfridge (12.02.13)

Over the years Harry Gordon Selfridge has had many imitators: Swan & Edgar, Dickens & Jones, Bourne & Hollingsworth, Marshall & Snellgrove but none have matched him for innovation and flair. If you, like me, are watching ITV’s drama Mr Selfridge and don’t want to read any plot spoilers, look away now.

Harry Selfridge was an American self-made millionaire and he did that by understanding how women shopped, he invented the phrase ‘the customer is always right’ and gave his iconic department store sex appeal when his competitors were still left in the Victorian era.

What the ITV drama, Mr Selfridge hasn’t dwelt upon, although it is loosely based on Lindy Woodhead’s biography: Shopping, Seduction & Mr Selfridge is his early life.
Harry was born in Wisconsin in 1856, but within months he moved to Jackson, Michigan where his father had acquired the town’s general store. At the outbreak of the Civil War, his father joined the Union Army rising to the rank of Major. When discharged from the army his father deserted his family when Harry was just five. Within a short time, his two older brothers died, leaving Harry and his mother to cope alone.

At 10 years old he was delivering newspapers and by 12 he was working in a local store at the same time he created a monthly boy’s magazine.

After becoming redundant at 20 as a bookkeeper at a local furniture factory his ex-employer, Leonard Field, agreed to write Selfridge a letter of introduction to Marshall Field in Chicago where he started as a stock boy. Over the next 25 years, he rose to become a partner in the company and married into a prominent Chicago family.

He invented the phrase ‘Only – Shopping Days until Christmas’ and ‘The customer is always right’. Dubbed ‘Mile-a-minute Harry’ because of his tremendous energy and fountain of ideas, he was the first person to suggest lighting shop windows at night and the first to open an in-store restaurant. He then founded his own, rival store, which he sold for a huge profit.

At the age of 50, flushed with success he determined to travel to London which, with its fusty and unwelcoming stores, was ripe for a retail revolution. On one visit to London, he had gone into a store and a snooty assistant asked what he wished to purchase. When Selfridge replied that he was ‘just looking’ the assistant dropped his posh accent and told him to ‘’op it, mate.’

Selfridge decided to invest £400,000 in building his own five-storey department store in what was then the unfashionable western end of Oxford Street. The new store opened on 15th March 1909, setting new standards for the retailing business.

Assistants were encouraged to help customers rather than patronise them, and goods were displayed so they could be handled. There were elegant restaurants with modest prices, a library, reading and writing rooms, special reception rooms for French, German, American and “Colonial” customers, a First Aid Room, and a Silence Room, with soft lights, deep chairs, and double-glazing, all intended to keep customers in the store as long as possible. Before Selfridge, cosmetics and toiletries had been hidden discreetly away at the back of the shop, considered too racy and taboo to be on display. Moving scents to the front entrance of Selfridge’s so that people entering were assailed by a cloud of sweet scents was revolutionary, and it worked like magic.

Selfridge also managed to obtain from the GPO the privilege of having the number ‘1’ as its own phone number, so anybody had to just dial 1 to be connected to Selfridge’s operators. He proposed a subway from Bond Street Station to his store that was squashed as was his idea of building a massive clock tower on the roof just like Wickhams department store on Mile End Road. His architect told him with its weight it would fall through the roof.

Selfridge was an innovator: the store sold telephones, and refrigerators and in 1925 held the first public demonstration of the television. His attention to detail was legendary: he was known as The Chief and would patrol the floors every day.

Unfortunately, his womanising would be his downfall. After installing his family at Highcliffe Castle near Christchurch in Dorset (the council and English Heritage have recently restored this magnificent building) he could pursue beautiful women. After his wife died in the influenza pandemic in 1918 along with millions of others that year his spending on women took on a whole new dimension.

He also began and maintained a busy social life with lavish entertainment at his home in Lansdowne House located at 9 Fitzmaurice Place, in Berkeley Square. Today there is a blue plaque noting that Gordon Selfridge lived there from 1921 to 1929. By 1939, exasperated with his profligacy, Selfridge’s board ousted him from the business he had created 30 years earlier. He owed £150,000 to the store and £250,000 to the Inland Revenue — around £8 million and £13 million in today’s money.

The Selfridges board removed the apostrophe when he left and cut his pension by two-thirds. He ended up in a rented flat in Putney and would often take the bus to Oxford Street to gaze at his creation. By then, his clothes were so shabby that he was once arrested as a vagrant.

In 1947, he died in straitened circumstances, at Putney, in south-west London. Selfridge was buried in St. Mark’s Churchyard at Highcliffe, next to his wife and his mother.

For those new to CabbieBlog or readers who are slightly forgetful, on Saturdays I’m republishing posts, many going back over a decade. Some will still be very relevant while others have become dated over time. Just think of this post as your weekend paper supplement.

Mary Ward House (01.02.13)

Running parallel to Euston Road, Tavistock Place is used by cabbies heading west towards Euston Station or Tottenham Court Road.

Camden Council in an effort to protect the many cyclists using the route has constructed dedicated cycle lanes. The result of which has been to narrow the road producing a perpetual traffic jam.

While sitting stationary you get to notice on the north side of Tavistock Place the stunning Grade I listed 1898 building – Mary Ward House.

But who was Mary Ward, and what was her ‘House’ for?

Mary Ward was known in her lifetime as Mrs Humphry Ward, a prolific Victorian novelist. Her novels are not much read now but were successful in their time and tackled the social subjects and issues of faith and doubt that were beloved of the Victorians.

She was also a noted philanthropist and socialist, she helped open up university education to women. She promoted the education of the working classes through the ‘settlement’ movement (which settled students in working-class areas where they worked among the poor). Curiously, she also became a leader of the anti-suffragist movement, campaigning against giving women the vote.

One of her most inspired initiatives was founding Passmore Edwards House in Tavistock Place. This building, funded by publisher and philanthropist John Passmore Edwards, was part of the University Hall Settlement.

Passmore Edwards House had the first properly equipped classrooms for children with disabilities and was also home to a centre where children could come to play in a safe, warm, bully-free environment. A hall, gym, library, and other communal rooms were provided, and there were also residential rooms for those living in the settlement.

Gustav Holst was for a while the settlement’s director of music.

The building’s young architects, Dunbar Smith and Cecil Brewer, themselves lived in the settlement, so knew the background to the settlement movement and grasped the building’s purpose and potential.

They would go on to design the Welsh National Museum in Cardiff, they proved a good choice. The style the adopted for the building was that fruitful blend of Arts and Crafts with Art Nouveau that proved successful in London buildings for education and the arts at around this time. They brought together segmental arches, a variety of window shapes, fine stone detailing, and other features to make an arresting façade. The lettering over the entrances is also delightful.

In 1921, a year after Mary Ward died; the house was renamed in her honour. There is more information about this building and its current use here.

For those new to CabbieBlog or readers who are slightly forgetful, on Saturdays I’m republishing posts, many going back over a decade. Some will still be very relevant while others have become dated over time. Just think of this post as your weekend paper supplement.

Get to the point (29.01.13)

I have to say I’m a little miffed. For the last 3 years, I have been craning my neck out of the cab window marvelling at the way construction workers assembled – and that’s the right word – assembled The Shard.

So it was late last Monday that I found out that cabbies could – for free – go up to the viewing platforms instead of paying £24.95 if you pre-booked or if you should just turn up on the day a whopping £100.

The Shard has polarised opinions, during the last year I have been authoring a feature entitled The London Grill in which the same 10 questions are asked of the guest contributor. Two questions are: ‘What is your most hated/loved building in London’.

The Shard comes up time and again. One contributor was so enthused by its construction she had photographed it through every stage of the build.

This Marmite of a building reminded me of the anecdote when after its construction the Eiffel Tower was highly controversial amongst the Parisians. One famous quote is from novelist Guy de Maupassant, who hated the tower but still went to its restaurant every day. When asked why, he said it was because it is the only place in Paris where one cannot see the structure.

Luckily for the Eiffel Tower haters, Eiffel only had a permit to keep the tower for 20 years, after that it would be demolished. However, as the tower proved valuable for telecommunication purposes, it was allowed to remain intact even after the time had expired. As time passed, more and more people started to like the building. Today, almost all Parisians love the tower.

The Shard, symbolising London’s burgeoning wealth has a 75-year specification written into its design, but will this new icon prove to be as ephemeral as the 1960s buildings which once graced London Wall or, as with the Parisians, Londoners take it to their heart?

For those new to CabbieBlog or readers who are slightly forgetful, on Saturdays I’m republishing posts, many going back over a decade. Some will still be very relevant while others have become dated over time. Just think of this post as your weekend paper supplement.

The Knowledge Alphabet (18.01.13)

Today we have a guest post from @knowledgeboy10 whose blog London Taxi Knowledge records his journey that starts with buying a scooter to hopefully receiving his Green Badge so he can work as an all-London taxi driver.

He invites you to share his highs and lows as he works his way through the 25,000 streets and learns every Point on them.

“I thought I would write about something a bit different and slightly light-hearted as I am getting very stressed about my progress so far, I’m halfway through book two and seem to have hit a brick wall with my calling over, I just can’t remember the runs, so I’m having a week off to re-charge my batteries and I thought this would be fun…”

A – Appearances. The meeting with the examiners when we find out just how much we know or don’t as the case may be, is the joy of sitting in front of someone feeling very stupid and hoping all our hard work shows through.

B – Blue Book. Our Bible, all 320 runs in a nice little book this is what our lives now revolve around.

C – Calling Over. The bane of our lives, we love being out there doing the runs and visiting the points but then we have to call over either the BB or P2P hate it really hate it lol.

D – Dedication. As Roy Castle used to sing, if you haven’t got it give up now it’s gonna take years to do, gonna take over your whole life nothing else will matter – if you’re not dedicated then may as well not start.

E – Ex. Ex-wives/girlfriends, unfortunately, many of us KoL peeps can end up losing our partners as they can’t put up with what we have to go through – I hope it doesn’t happen to you.

F – Fifty-six. The start of it the appearances, once the map test is out of the way the real fun begins.

G – Green Badge. Why we’re doing this, the Holy Grail.

H – Helmet. A KoL boy best friend for the times that you come off the bike due to Addison Lee cutting you up.

I – Impossible/Inspiration. How the KoL feels and what you need to get through it.

J – Job. Something most of us have to do to pay the bills while doing the KoL, a few lucky sods give up work but for the rest of us, we have to fit in the KoL around it.

K – Knowledge Schools. Somewhere to go to meet other KoL peeps and get help and advice, or somewhere to go to find out you know a damn sight less than you thought you did.

L – Lost. We all do it, don’t deny it is one of the pleasures of doing the KoL.

M – Maps. Second only to our Blue Book we love our maps we study them, and write on them and when I’ve finished the KoL I never want to see another map again in my life.

N – New Friends. One of the joys of the KoL is meeting new people who are doing it, they are the people we can talk to about it and they understand what we’re going through, and even when they pass out we’re pleased for them even though we are soooooo jealous.

O – Over and Over and Over. What we do when we call runs, visit points EVERYTHING OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER and eventually it sinks in (we hope).

P – Points. What we have to learn, all of them, every single bloody last one (for those of you that don’t know a point is a place of public interest, on any road within a 6-mile radius of Charing Cross. Could be a hospital, church, shop, club police station or government building or anything else, and yes there are lots and lots and lots of them).

Q – Quit. Out of every 10 people that start the KoL, only 3/4 will get the Green Badge the rest quit. You can’t fail the KoL only quit it.

R – Red-lined. What happens on appearances when you don’t get enough points, means you could go from 28’s back to 56’s happens to the very best of us.

S – Scooter. The KoL peeps best friend, what we use to take us around London in all sorts of weather and hopefully it doesn’t break down, I spend more time on my scooter than I do my missus.

T – TfL. The organisation is responsible for putting us through this. Used to be the Carriage Office now TfL.

U – Understanding. What do our Friends and family need to be while we have 3 years’ worth of mental breakdowns because we can’t remember whether it’s a right turn or a left turn.

V – Victories. We have little ones every day, we find a point we couldn’t or we finally work out how two roads link up, every one of these is personal and no one else will understand just how great it feels when you get one.

W – Weather. Out on the scooter in the freezing cold or the pouring rain or when it’s boiling hot – we take on the weather and win because we are on the KoL.

X – XXXX. Pick any swear word you like, and you’ll say it a million times when you miss a turn, miss a point, come off your scooter or call over a run wrong, in fact, if you don’t swear then you’re not doing the KoL right.

Y – Why? I ask myself this question every day and it is a great motivator, we all have our reasons for doing the KoL, and we also ask ourselves why we put ourselves through it, but it’s worth it in the end.

Z – ZZzzzzz. Sleep, What we all seem to miss out on doing the KoL, and when we do finally go to sleep we’re thinking of the best lines to call or where a certain place is. How I wish for the days when I would fall asleep and just dream of me and the spice girls and a very large bottle of vodka.

I hope you enjoyed my light-hearted look at the alphabet, until next time stay safe and be lucky.