Previously Posted: Max Miller’s Goodbye

19 February, 2022 Gibson Square 2 Comments

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.

Max Miller’s Goodbye (21.07.09)

It’s hard to believe now but once, and I’m afraid you will have to take my word for this, once Leicester Square was a rather splendid public space. But in 1936 town planners decided to steal a march on Hitler and start destroying London first.

The old Alhambra Theatre was a prime site for ‘redevelopment’.

Max Miller who at the time was probably the most famous entertainer in England, heard it was being demolished he went along for the last look at the building he’d performed on many occasions.

When he arrived at lunchtime on hearing that the famous stage was about to be taken down he climbed on the boards and gave the workmen a hilarious one-hour performance. Ten minutes after he’d finished, the stage was gone for ever.

Near the end of his life he confessed that his proudest professional moment was as he put it “closing the old Alhambra”.

Puppydog tails

Protected: The day the clocks went forward

18 February, 2022 Gibson Square

Thinking allowed

Abbreviations

17 February, 2022 Gibson Square 9 Comments

When did it become necessary for us to abbreviate everything in our lives? I’ve been pondering the situation since undertaking a series of medical tests: MRI, A&E, ECG and ENT, you name it, there’s an acronym or abbreviation for it.

Everywhere you look there’s another. Kentucky Fried Chicken became KFC, Transport for London is TfL and the Metropolitan Police is just the Met. The BBC’s excellent Line of Duty is littered with them. I’m sure there are dozens of other examples, and I just don’t know why.

Are we supposed to be saving seconds of our valuable time by just voicing the letters? I assume that they feel they are so familiar that they don’t need to have the words said to be identifiable.

I’ll admit that I am old-fashioned. I don’t care for change. I’d be happy to say the words, and most days I have the time.

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Johnson’s London Dictionary: Bow Bells

16 February, 2022 Gibson Square 5 Comments

BOW BELLS (n.) Hollow bodies of cast metal that, for reasons unknown, doth give provenance to those born within earshot

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

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London Opinion

15 February, 2022 Gibson Square 2 Comments

As a London cabbie, I just had to include on CabbieBlog a magazine which most Londoners didn’t realise existed, but most cabbies could have edited. London Opinion ran for 50 years, first as a weekly from 26 December 1903 to 27 June 1931, then monthly until April 1954.

At its height of popularity, it was one of the most influential publications in the world. On 5th September 1914 at the start of the First World War, it published a cover, the image of which encouraged more than two million men to sign up in the first years of the war before conscription was introduced in 1916.