London trivia

London Trivia: Saved by a poet

1 Comment

On 1 October 1868 one of London’s greatest buildings was opened to little fanfare. George Gilbert Scott’s Gothic masterpiece St. Pancras. Years later it took pressure from a group led by poet laureate John Betjeman to save it from demolition. Betjeman, a founding member of the Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, on the reopening of St Pancras station in 2007, a statue of Betjeman was unveiled.

On 1 October 1985 police in riot gear closed off parts of Peckham in an effort to contain continued outbreaks of violence and vandalism as gangs of youths threw petrol bombs and set shops alight

Robert Peel’s new Metropolitan Police Force nicknamed ‘Blue Devils’ wore blue to avoid confusion with the red coats of the army

St Bartholomew’s Hospital is the oldest hospital in London having been founded in 1123 by a monk named Rahere

Covent Garden is believed to be haunted by the ghost of William Terris who met an untimely death near the station in 1897

In 1966 Russian spy George Blake escaped Wormwood Scrubs and a 42 year stretch by making use of a ladder made of knitting needles

During World War II a branch of the Piccadilly line Holborn/Aldwych was closed and British Museum treasures were stored in the empty spaces

18th century Shepherd Market Mayfair was home to courtesan Kitty Fisher who, insulted by a low value note given for services given, ate it!

West Ham’s I’m forever blowing bubbles was inspired by trialist schoolboy Billy Murray who resembled the boy used to advertise Pears soap

When Paddington Underground Station, as the western terminus of London’s first underground, opened in January 1863 it was called Bishop’s Road

Marc Isambard Brunel came up with his idea on how to dig the Thames’ Tunnel whilst in debtors’ prison watching a shipworm bore through wood

In 1792 Lady Braddock and Mrs Elphinstone duelled Braddock’s hat got shot off and Elphinstone wounded in the arm by a sword – later they had tea

CabbieBlog-cab.gifTrivial 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.

Previously Posted

Previously Posted: Join the queue

1 Comment

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.

Join the queue (07.09.2010)

Often as I’ve put the cab up on the Paddington rank, I have watched passengers as they have squabbled about their relative positions in the queue, blithely ignoring the fact that behind me are 100 taxis available for hire. Observing this I’ve just put it down to “Johnny Foreigner” who doesn’t understand the quaint English courtesy of standing in a line and waiting one’s turn.

Apparently though according to a recent survey LINK the English are becoming more impatient; 41 per cent of people refuse to queue longer than two minutes in stores, with two-thirds regularly stomping away in a huff at having to endure a wait for anything. Furthermore, half of us refuse even to enter a shop if there is the sign of a queue.

Six years ago in a previous survey we were prepared to wait patiently for a barely credible five minutes before impatience got the better of us.

I remember visiting Paris in the 50’s and finding a ticket number dispensing machine attached to bus stops, used to establish the order passenger should embark, this at a time when queuing in England was seen as enduring a mild hardship for the common good, if soldiers at Dunkirk could stand in line to board their ship, waiting one’s turn to buy a loaf of bread was what set up apart from those “one the other side of the English Channel”.

We now one company is keeping alive this tradition I discovered recently when I visited the London Eye. On arrival I noted with smug self-satisfaction, the queue stretching into infinity for the attraction. Clutching my “fast track” pre-booked confirmation I joined the queue for the ??? kiosk. After 10 minutes of waiting the assistant informed me as she ad other before me that I was in the wrong queue and directed me to the ticket office. A crowd of us joined the back of the 80ft long queue marked “Pre-booked and Group Bookings” each holding their fast-track confirmation receipts.

When reaching the desk I have to admit dear reader my stiff upper lip was sorely tested when told again that I was in the wrong queue. The sound of protestations from my fellow queuers the desk clerk reluctantly issued that precious official tick.

It then was only a matter of joining yet another 40ft long queue to enjoy the “flight”. Total time flying 40 minutes; total time queuing 40 minutes. Next time I’m going on a foggy day.

A window on My World

September’s monthly musings

2 Comments

🚓 What Cab News

If one had gained a degree or doctorate you’d have that qualification for life. No so TfL, should you allow your cab licence to lapse, having spent the best part of five years gaining your badge you’ll have to undergo this convoluted process:

A re-test will consist of an oral one-to-one examination with a Knowledge of London Examiner, with a duration of approximately 30 minutes. Drivers must demonstrate sufficient knowledge to be re-licensed, in addition to meeting all other licensing criteria. If a driver’s performance in the re-test is deemed insufficient, regardless of their score, they will be allowed to attend a further one-to-one examination within a specific timeframe determined by the examiner. This period allows for additional learning of the required information. However, if the driver’s knowledge remains inadequate following the second examination, they will be required to enter the Knowledge of London Examination system at stages 3, 4, or 5, as per the marking scheme outlined by TfL. Essentially, the driver will have to start afresh and work their way through the stages of The Knowledge once again.

🎧 What I’m Listening

I’m now up to Episode 170: Printers, Plague and Poets from Kevin Stroud’s excellent History of English Podcast. In this episode, he examined the connection between poetry and plague in the early 1590s. An outbreak of plague contributed to Shakespeare’s early career as a poet, and about an acquaintance from Shakespeare’s hometown who emerged as one of the leading printers in London and how his print shop influenced the development of English during the Elizabethan period.

📖 What I’m Reading

I’d been offered a copy of Jack Chesher’s London: A Guide for Curious Wanderers, with illustrations by Katharine Fraser. This is a beautiful book which I’ve enjoyed greatly. Thanks to the publisher Frances Lincoln for the opportunity, my review was posted last Tuesday.

📺 What I’m watching

Lev Parikian’s excellent weekly Substack – Six Things – directed me to watch the extraordinary work of Levon Biss, whose insect photographs are taken at extremely high magnification. One of the gadgets I treated myself to upon retirement was a Canon lens for macro photography to capture the most abundant animals on the planet – insects. You will never look at these invertebrates the same again.

❓ What else

For weeks they’ve been installing fibre optic cables, both above and below ground. Could this be to cope with the huge surge of data from Sadiq Khan’s ULEZ cameras sited all over our corner of rural Essex?

📆 What date?

Fifty years ago on 8th October 1973 from Gough Square just before 6 am Britain’s first legally authorised commercial radio station went on air. I’ve written all about it on Substack.

Thinking allowed

Cash Cow Cameras

2 Comments

Two TfL cameras have appeared nearby on a straight road which is one of the only means to leave our estate. Motorists often drive at over 50mph past this spot (a primary school), whilst every street branching off to the north is a cul-de-sac due to thousands of acres of arable land and forestry beyond. With no Boris Bikes, two buses both going in the same direction, the nearest train or Tube some three miles distant, no cabs passing displaying their for hire light and the Superloop bus an hour’s travel away, what is the point of the camera? It’s a rhetorical question, not being a speed camera, it can only be used to fill the coffers of TfL, the local cows around here produce more pollution.

Puppydog tails

Johnson’s London Dictionary: Albert Hall

2 Comments

ALBERT HALL (n.) Grandly named: The Central Hall of Arts and Sciences was renamed The Royal Albert Hall in honour of the Queen’s late husband, it was said upon opening to be useful for many things apart from music due to its acoustics.

Dr. Johnson’s London Dictionary for publick consumption in the twenty-first century avail yourself on Twitter @JohnsonsLondon

Taxi Talk Without Tipping