BLACK ROD (n.f.) The usher belonging to the order of the garter, unsurprisingly so-called from the black rod he carries in his hand.
Dr. Johnson’s London Dictionary for publick consumption in the twenty-first century avail yourself on Twitter @JohnsonsLondon
We challenge our contributors to reply to ten devilishly probing questions about their London and we don’t take “Sorry Gov” for an answer. Everyone sitting in the hot seat they will face the same questions ranging from their favourite way to spend a day out in the capital to their most hated building on London’s skyline to find out what Londoners think about their city. The questions are the same but the answers vary wildly.
Rob Hinchcliffe is a writer and editor who can’t stop writing about London. In the early 2000s he started a blog called The Big Smoker in his spare time and that eventually became the award-winning site, Londonist. These days Rob edits London in Bits a newsletter about the city’s news, politics, arts, food and people.
If you can walk there, then walk there. You miss so much by getting on the Tube and chances are you’ll come across something even more interesting than the place you were heading. If you have to get a cab, get a black cab. I’m not just saying that. Uber is a terrible company and a dreadful service. Cabbies know stuff. The only reason I know one of the great train robbers used to live on my road is because I got a black cab home one day.
Bit of a weird one because it’s hiding in plain sight, but a lot of people walk past Le Beaujolais because of its location right in the middle of all the tourist traps, or they peer in and see a dark cave with a load of ties hanging from the ceiling and get scared off. But it’s one of the best bars in the whole of London and you will always get to talk to someone interesting there, plus the people-watching is first class.
Right now it would be the amount of small, independent businesses that are being forced to close. Every other day another one seems to bite the dust and we don’t seem to be able to do anything to stop it.
I could happily sitting front of the British Museum all day and I’ve always been a fan of St Pancras.
Probably the MI6 building. Eugh.
Well, I live in Crystal Palace, so I have to say the view from ’the triangle’ looking back out over The City don’t I?
I proposed to my wife on Chelsea Bridge so there can be no other answer (but if there was it would probably be the Crystal Palace dinosaurs).
Film: Oh wow…Okay. Alan Moore’s From Hell is up there for the book title (but not the film!). But I just wrote a whole article about how much I love Geoff Ryman’s 253 so I have to mention that too. More recently there’s Little Scratch by Rebecca Watson, Loom by Matthew Turner and Plume by Will Wiles. Also, I loved The Parakeeting of London by Nick Hunt because we have so many in SE19.
Films: An American Werewolf in London is one of my all-time favourites, and the other film featuring monsters on the Tube: Death Line…. But what about The Elephant Man? The Long Good Friday? 10 Rillington Place? This question is evil!
Documentaries: There aren’t enough good London documentaries actually. The London Nobody Knows, obviously. The Cardinal and the Corpse is great. And Keiller’s ‘London’ has to be on the list.
Other than cheese and bread at Le Beaujolais? 🙂 If it’s a special occasion then probably Pollen Street Social, but less fancy than that I would usually go to one of the Noble Rots or Quality Wines.
I would probably walk the dog through Crystal Palace to pick up a coffee and breakfast, then I’d head off on my own and go see an exhibition somewhere like Whitechapel Gallery or the Photographer’s Gallery. Seeing a film in the afternoon on my own is one of my favourite things to do and I’m a lifetime member of the Prince Charles cinema, so I’d go there next (maybe stop off at the Coach on Greek Street for a drink or Bar Bruno for lunch). Then in the evening, dinner somewhere (see previous answer) and end up somewhere like Bradley’s or Trisha’s (depending on how much energy I have left).
In a town like London there are always plenty of not quite certifiable lunatics walking the streets, and they tend to gravitate towards bookshops, because a bookshop is one of the few places where you can hang about for a long time without spending any money.
George Orwell (1903-1950)
On 30 April 1907 for 20 days history was in the making. At the Brotherhood Church, which once stood on the corner of Southgate Road and Balmes Road, the 5th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party was held. Attendees included Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Rosa Luxembourg and Maxim Gorky. The rest is history. The site is now occupied by a mixed-use residential and business building, with the exact site of the church now a Tesco Express.
On 30 April 1980 gunmen took over the Iranian embassy at Prince’s Gate, under the full glare of the media the SAS stormed the building on 5 May killing 5 and releasing the hostages
In 1906 Messrs Spillberg, Nabian and Aaroris of Nelson Street, Stepney were convicted of smuggling saccharin which then was considered a drug
Liverpool Street’s Great Eastern Hotel (now the Andaz) opened in 1884 and was at one time the only hotel in the City
Builders working on the Builders working on the Bakerloo Line are reported to have suffered from the bends while tunnelling under the Thames
During World War II and the Nazi occupation of Holland Queen Wilhelmina moved her Dutch government into her London home at 77 Chester Square, Belgravia
The Cliff Richard musical Summer Holiday had a bus bound for ‘London to the South of France via Dover Paris’ most was shot in LT’s bus works Aldenham
Museum of London tracing the capital’s history from Prehistoric times to the present day is the largest urban history museum in the world
In 1966 actor, bodybuilder and politician Arnold Schwarzenegger lived at 335 Romford Road Ilford as a guest of bodybuilder Charles Bennett
The first section of the Underground ran between Paddington and Farringdon Street. The same section now forms part of the Circle, Hammersmith & City, and Metropolitan lines
Miles Coverdale who supervised the production of the first complete bible in English in 1535 was once Rector of St Magnus the Martyr
When the Millennium Dome was built, a Blue Peter capsule was buried containing amongst other items a spice girls cd, a tamagotchi and a Blue Peter badge!
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.
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.
What have these two men got in common? The first was a founding member of the Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, after failing his degree at Magdalen College, Oxford, he started his career as a journalist and ended it as one of the most popular British Poets Laureate to date and a much-loved figure on British television beloved by generations, the second a security guard.
Dubbed “The Most Romantic Building in London”, the Midland Grand Hotel is on the cusp of returning to its original purpose after closing its doors three quarters of a century ago. Dot com bubble is nothing new and so it was when this Victorian gothic revival building was nearing completion. It was the last of the great railway termini hotels of the Victorian era and by far the most expensive, costing 14 times as much to build as it near neighbour the Great Northern Hotel.
During its construction in an effort to cut costs a floor was shaved off the original plan and the lavish ornament cheapened, oak was substituted with cheaper deal and for the completion of its interiors, its celebrated and workaholic architect Sir George Gilbert Scott was replaced with a more malleable practice. Upon opening the Midland Grand was the epitome of luxury and one of the most spectacular gothic revival buildings in the world, boasting among other “luxuries” a Ladies’ Drawing Room which later gained notoriety as the first Ladies’ Smoking Room in London, the room was equipped with an electrophone, linking guests to the Queen’s Hall and other London halls and churches.
But within 20 years its clients were expecting what the Grand lacked, for the hotel was built before the time of en suite bathrooms, requiring an army of servants to scuttle around the 300 rooms, laden with tubs, bowls, spittoons and chamber pots.
After struggling on for a few more years the hotel finally closed in 1935, going the way of all large buildings in London and became offices for its owners the railway company, its interiors were enhanced with partitions, suspended ceilings and fluorescent lights.
In the Sixties attempts were made to demolish it with its current owners describing it as “completely obsolete and hopeless” preferring the simpler lines of its neighbour at King Cross.
At this stage in the Grand’s life our poet laureate in the shape of John Betjeman led a campaign and only stopped its demolition at the 11th hour later gaining a Grade I listing in 1967.
By 1988 the building was declared unsafe, and remained unloved and forgotten by the public as they rushed past along the Euston Road, and frozen in time the haunt of film makers and pigeons. 1995-5 saw £9 million pf public money spent on restoring its interiors, but the exterior was for all the world unloved.
Enter now the hotels most unlikely supporter a security guard employed for 30 years to protect its empty shell, Roydon Stock. So captivated was he by this building he’s now the major authority of its heritage, giving tours into its dark interior, correcting historians and even debating with England Heritage on its restoration.
Now after £200 million spent by a consortium of developers which have against all the odds converted its upper floors into 67 rooftop flats, and soon next year the Old Lady of Euston Road will reopen for business as a Marriott Renaissance Hotel.
If people like John Betjeman and Roydon Stock hadn’t fought for its survival we would probably have a modern monstrosity in its place in the shape of Marathon House further along the road.
I’ll finish with the words of Rowan Moore the Architecture Critic for the Evening Standard who has put it much better than me:
The building is also a rebuke to all those who wanted to demolish it in the name of efficiency and modernity. Fifty years ago they were many, but the idea now seems inconceivable. There are currently similar mutterings about a work of George Gilbert Scott’s grandson Giles, Battersea Power Station. Anyone who doubts the wisdom of preserving the latter should go to St Pancras and see what an awkward pile of old bricks can do.
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