On 24 January 1907 William Whiteley was shot dead outside the office of his own store by 29-year-old Horace George Raynor, who then turned the gun on himself. Raynor, who survived, claimed to be the illegitimate son of the store’s owner by his Whiteley’s long-term mistress, former shop girl, Louie Turner. Raynor’s death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He was released in 1919 on licence.

On 24 January 1965 Winston Churchill following a stroke died at his home at Hyde Park Gate aged 90, he ordered his coffin leave London from Waterloo just to annoy General de Gaulle

Acid Bath Murderer Haigh dissolved his victims in a house now occupied by the Kentucky Fried Chicken Gloucester Road

On 24 January 1956 plans were unveiled for homes in Barbican a public inquiry considered plans to build in the area left devastated by war

During the plague of 1665 Londoners lived on huge rafts floating on the Thames in an attempt to escape the pestilence

The howitzer sculpture at Hyde Park Corner is pointed at the Somme – but if it was a real, its range would mean it would hit Crystal Palace

The Travellers Club in Pall Mall is the fictional start to Jules Verne’s story Around The World In Eighty Days

Hidden under the Ministry of Defence are Cardinal Wolsey’s wine cellars from the Whitehall Palace which burned down in 1698

The Racing Driver’s Handbook on how to behave on a racetrack is called The Blue Book the same as the Knowledge book of runs for cabbies

Only five Underground stations have ‘X’ in their names: Uxbridge, Brixton, Oxford Circus, Vauxhall and Croxley

The Bowler Hat is named after Mr Bowler who made it but Locks the Hatters call it the Coke after Mr Coke who ordered it

London cabbie George King founded the Aetherius Society to prevent the annihilation of Earth by improving cooperation with alien species

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.

On 17 January 1934, The Times reported that Battersea Power Station was fully operational, known as Battersea A. The building as we know it would not be completed until 1955. During the 4 years of constructing Battersea A, there were six fatal and 121 non-fatal accidents. This history of this iconic building which went into decline on 17 March 1975 when A station was closed is now the subject of a book by Peter Watts Up in Smoke.

On 17 January 1712 Robert Walpole, England’s first ‘Prime Minister’ was imprisoned in the Tower of London following charges of corruption

Byng Street, Wapping named after a seafaring family, one of whom Admiral Byng was executed for cowardice on the deck of HMS Monarque in 1757

Adelaide House completed in 1925 was the first building in the City to employ the steel frame technique at 141ft the tallest block in London

The gravestone of the famous Elizabethan actor Richard Burbage in the graveyard of St Leonard’s, Shoreditch, reads simply ‘Exit Burbage’

Margaret Thatcher went to the same Mayfair hairdresser, Evansky as Barbara Castle, while Thatcher sat in main area Castle had a private room

The George Inn, Borough High St. dates back to 1676, is the last galleried coaching inn in London and is mentioned in Dickens’ Little Dorrit

In the early 1800s Thomas Britton ran a music club above his coal shop in Jerusalem Passage, Handel often attended

The footbridge outside Wembley Stadium is named White Horse Bridge after the police horse who controlled the 1923 FA Cup Final

There’s only one Tube station that doesn’t have any of the letters from the word mackerel in it: St John’s Wood

In 14th century London employed Rakers to rake the excrement out of toilets, notably one Richard the Raker died by drowning in his own toilet

Between 17-25 January 1963 the temperature at Kew failed to rise above freezing that winter is regarded equal to the infamous winter of 1740

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.