Go where we may, rest where we will, Eternal London haunts us still.
Thomas Moore (1779-1852), Rhymes on the Road, The Poetical Works of Thomas Moore
London Trivia: FA Cup draw
On 20 April 1901, the final tie for the FA Cup was between Tottenham Hotspur and Sheffield United at Crystal Palace, Sydenham; 114,000 people attended and it ended with a 2-2 draw. It would be replayed at Bolton a week later.
On 20 April 1968 Conservative MP Enoch Powell made his ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech warning about immigration, he was fired from the Cabinet
Magpie and Stump pub until 1868 would charge extra for drinks taken upstairs where punters could enjoy viewing the public hangings at Newgate
At 141ft, Adelaide House was the tallest office block in London when it was completed in 1925 and was the first office building in England to have electric and telephone connections on every floor
Now located in Beckenham, King’s College London Institute of Psychiatry was originaly named bedlam, meaning uproar and confusion
The future Mary II is said to have wept for a day and a half when she was told that she would have to marry William of Orange in 1677
Off Greville Street, Clerkenwell is the cobbled Bleeding Heart Yard mentioned by Charles Dickens in Little Dorrit
The world’s oldest public zoo opened in London in 1828 it was initially known as the ‘Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological Society of London’
Greyhound racing’s first superstar ‘Mick the Millar’ was so popular his stuffed body was put on display at the Natural History Museum
The Peter Lodge recording of “Mind the Gap” is still in use, but some lines use recordings by a Manchester voice artist Emma Clarke
Tesco was founded in 1924 when Jack Cohen and T. E. Stockwell sold tea in bulk opening a store in Tooting
The corgis also have hot scones every afternoon, served with butter and crumbled onto the kitchen floor by the Queen herself
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.
Previously Posted: Sugar Daddies
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.
Sugar Daddies (27.04.12)
A tin bearing an image of the rotting carcass of a lion surrounded by a swarm of bees is not by today’s standards the most politically correct way to advertise your product. The brand registered in 1904 is recorded by the Guinness Book of Records as having the world’s oldest branding and packaging.
The man who chose that design was Abraham Lyle who set up his sugar refinery in Silvertown a mile downriver from his competitor Henry Tate who famously invented the sugar cube and founded his eponymous art gallery.
Both men refused to acknowledge the other’s presence, even taking separate carriages on the train for their daily commute from Fenchurch Street to Silvertown.
Even though the two sugar barons refused to meet there was a tacit agreement not to tread on each other’s business toes.
At one point Lyle thought Tate was preparing to launch his own version of partially inverted sugar syrup and in retaliation built a sugar cube plant, whatever was the truth neither eventually copied the other’s product.
It was not until both men had died that in 1921 both companies merged. Surprisingly both factories are still run by a member of the respective families, and workers will never refer to themselves as working for Tate & Lyle, you either work at Tate’s or Lyle’s.
Located on an artificial peninsula – sandwiched between the Royal Docks to the North and the River Thames to the South just half a century ago it was a hive of activity, at the heart of industrial London.
After the war, more than 20 factories lined the banks of the river. The location was perfect for the factories, being as close to London as was legally possible and providing access to both the docks and the river, where raw materials could be unloaded and finished products shipped away.
Positioned at either end of the so-called Sugar Mile which stretched between them, the factories also had a reputation for looking after their employees well, with an onsite surgery, dentist, chiropodist, eye doctor, hairdresser and even bar open during the working day. There was a purpose-built social club, The Tate Institute – still standing opposite the Thames Refinery, but now sadly derelict – which laid on parties every week with cheap rum shipped in from Jamaica.
A nearby sports ground at Manor Way, no longer in use, played host to football, cricket, netball and other sports, and was where the annual company sports day and beauty contest took place – the latter judged by movie stars.
These days, the number of factories remaining can be counted on one hand, and although Tate & Lyle’s refineries are still standing, they employ a fraction of the staff they once did.
An excellent account of life working for Tate & Lyle has been written by Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi: The Sugar Girls: True Tales of Hardship, Love and Happiness at Tate & Lyle’s East End Factories, based on interviews with over fifty men and women who worked for Tate & Lyle in Silvertown in the 1940s and 1950s.
London in Quotations: Ben Aaronovitch
My Dad says that being a Londoner has nothing to do with where you’re born. He says that there are people who get off a jumbo jet at Heathrow, go through immigration waving any kind of passport, hop on the tube and by the time the train’s pulled into Piccadilly Circus they’ve become a Londoner.
Ben Aaronovitch (b.1964), Moon Over Soho
London Trivia: Yvonne Fletcher murdered
On 13 April 1984 during an anti-Gadaffi rally at the Libyan People’s Bureau, No. 5 St James’s Square, shots were fired from a window at the Bureau, one of which killed PC Yvonne Fletcher, a few yards away from her fiancé who was also a policeman.
On 13 April 1999 a nail bomb exploded in Brixton, injuring at least 45 people, it was thought that the target was the largely black clientele of Brixton Market
In Oliver Twist Charles Dickens sited Fagin’s Lair in the notorious area that existed around the current Saffron Hill
In the 11th century, Brixton was known as ‘Brixistane’ meaning ‘the stone of Brihtsige’. Locals used the stones as a meeting place
Behind the stalls of Islington’s Sadlers Wells Theatre is the well containing medicinal water which Thomas Sadler found in 1684
The House of Commons’ press gallery bar is named Moncrieff’s in honour of respected political journalist, Chris Moncrieff – a teetotaller
George Orwell used Senate House in Bloomsbury as the inspiration for The Ministry of Truth in his book 1984
Birdcage Walk was the site of the 17th century Royal Aviary. Diarist John Evelyn spotted “many curious kinds of poultry” here
In 1922 in the rafters of Westminster Hall was found a tennis ball dating from before 1520 made of leather and stuffed with dog’s hair
In between Golders Green and Hampstead the tube slows down for the ghost station “Bull and Bush”, a station which was never built
In the early 80’s comic Jo Brand worked as a psychiatric nurse at the Maudsley Hospital, Denmark Hill, a fact of her life she will often talk about
Chains from Brunel’s Hungerford Bridge, demolished in 1864, were re-used as part of the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol
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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