The latest pedicab overcharging incident saw Belgian tourist April Argenau charged £464 for a seven-minute ride from Oxford Street to the Royal Lancaster Hotel. Unlike some of the previous incidents, Argenau did look at the amount she was being charged before she paid, but “the driver refused to back down and was intimidating towards her, demanding immediate payment”.
Johnson’s London Dictionary: Tottenham Court Road
TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD (n.) King’s throughfare that doth once was the purveyor of electronik goods now is devoid of costermongers.
Dr. Johnson’s London Dictionary for publick consumption in the twenty-first century avail yourself on Twitter @JohnsonsLondon
Things I haven’t done in London
I have been a Londoner all my life, and as a cabbie, there aren’t many places in London that I haven’t been to or through. So I thought I’d look at those I’ve missed, either by design or I’ve just overlooked.
Cable Car
With the catchy new name IFS Cloud Cable Car, or Dangleway as diamondgeezer calls it, at £12 to go to the back of beyond and return to civilisation, while watching planes leave City Airport and fly towards you, seems to me a waste of 20 minutes of your life.
The Shard
From the toilet on the 68th floor, you can marvel at London’s landmarks as you gaze across the River Thames, but at £32 it seems a rather expensive way to spend a penny.
Sky Garden
At the top of the Walkie Talkie building, sorry the prosaically named 20 Fenchurch Street, is the Sky Garden and unlike much of London it’s free. If only I could organise my day better I could apply for free tickets, as it’s the only realistic way that you’d visit this gem in the City.
Churchill War Rooms
When the rear of Downing Street was bombed in an air raid which nearly killed Churchill’s cook, the Cabinet moved to this bunker in the basement of the nearby Treasury Building. After the war, this secret underground headquarters was left untouched, until Margaret Thatcher championed the initiative to get the war rooms opened to the public. After visiting Chartwell on numerous occasions, I really should visit.
Jack The Ripper Tours
Why should anyone want to discover more about a misogynistic person who preyed on vulnerable women? If there’s such an appetite for this I’m thinking of starting Dennis Nilsen tours, a necrophile who murdered at least twelve young men and boys in Muswell Hill.
Tour Bus
Designed to allow tourists to experience London’s weather, whilst wearing ponchos advertising the stagecoach’s operator seems, to me, something best left to gullible visitors.
Abbey Road Crossing
Do you really want to annoy London’s cabbies? This can’t be a more positive way to achieve that aim. I’m hardly going to join them.
Sights I’ve seen in London, and wish I hadn’t
Madame Tussauds
London Dungeon
London Eye
Tate Modern (the exhibits, not the building)
Oxford Street
Featured image: By Chiugoran – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0
London in Quotations: Bram Stoker
I long to go through the crowded streets of your mighty London, to be in the midst of the whirl and rush of humanity, to share its life, its change, its death, and all that makes it what it is.
Bram Stoker (1847-1912), Dracula
London Trivia: Ascending rooms
On 6 August 1889 the first luxury hotel in Britain was opened. Built by Richard D’Oyly Carte, the Savoy Hotel was approached via a cul-de-sac where vehicles travelled on the right. Taking 5 years to build the hotel was the first to have electric lifts known as ascending rooms and electric lighting. Service could be summoned by a speaking tube. César Ritz was its first manager. Later the hotel would be the first to offer en-suite bathrooms with cascading showers.
On 6 August 1966 Mohammad Ali beat Brian London at London’s Earls Court Exhibition Hall in the 3rd round of a heavyweight contention match
In 1682 Duke of Monmouth was executed at Tower Hill, his family retrieved the body had his head sewn back on and had his portrait painted
Charles Holden’s Gants Hill Station was inspired by Moscow’s Metro features Russian styled barrel-vaulted concourse is nicknamed Moscow Hall
On 6 August 1937 Barbara Windsor was born her real surname was Deeks, her stage name was inspired by the Queen’s coronation: “it sounded posher”
Belsize Park was one of eight Underground stations converted into a deep-level air raid shelter during the Second World War
Nicholl’s Antique Arcade, 142 Portobello Road was used as the location for William’s (Hugh Grant) bookshop in the movie Notting Hill
Henry VIII hosted a grand party in St. Etheldreda’s Church crypt for 5 days menu: a feast of swans-stuffed with larks-stuffed with sparrows
Lord’s is surely the only sporting venue in the world where a steward’s duties include collecting champagne corks from the field of play
First fully automatic electric traffic lights were Piccadilly Circus in 1937 called ‘Robot Traffic Lights’, the first one was known as ‘Little Eva’
William Taynton was the first person to appear on television at the attic workshop of John Logie Baird at 22 Frith Street, Soho
Glaciologists believe the ice sheet that once covered much of Britain during the last Ice Age stopped where Finchley Road Station now stands
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.
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