Private courts, / Gloomy as coffins, and unsightly lanes / Thrilled by some female vendor’s scream, belike / The very shrillest of all London cries, / May then entangle our impatient steps; / Conducted through those labyrinths, unawares, / To privileged regions and inviolate, / Where from their airy lodges studious lawyers / Look out on waters, walks, and gardens green.
William Wordsworth (1779-1850), The Prelude
On 21 December 1846 Robert Liston, the ‘Fastest Knife in the West End’, who could amputate a leg in two and a half minutes, carried out the first operation in the United Kingdom using ether, amputating the leg above the knee of Fred Churchill. His comment was, ‘This Yankee dodge sure beats mesmerism’.
On 21 December 1842 Pentonville Prison was opened, called the ‘Model Prison’ and with the aim to contain men in jail, although many would be transported to Australia
In 1841 the Metropolitan Police reported there were 9,409 prostitutes and 3,325 brothels known to the police across the 17 police districts
St Pancras station’s bricks are that famous red colour because they’re made from Nottinghamshire clay supplied by the Nottingham Patent Brick Co. Ltd.
St. James’s Palace and its park were formerly the site of a leper hospital for women dedicated to Saint James the Less, the palace was secondary in importance
Trafalgar Square was to have been called ‘King William the Fourth’s Square’ architect and landowner George Ledwell Taylor suggested its name
Charles I’s statute in Trafalgar Square stands on the site of the original Charing Cross marking where all distances from London start
Tradition has it that Pimlico is named after Ben Pimlico, a 17th Century Hoxton brewer who supplied London with a popular Nut Brown ale
Running between Old Street and City Road Bath Street recalls the location of London’s first purpose built outdoor facility the Peerless Pool
London has fewer bridges spanning its principal river than Paris but has 23 underwater tunnels more than any other city in the world
Arsenal were founded as Dial Square in 1886 by workers at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, but were renamed Royal Arsenal shortly afterwards
Bank is the only one-syllable station name and Knightsbridge is the only London street name with six consecutive consonants
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.
Islington Council has a long history of discouraging the use of cars within its boundaries; passengers have told me of having their cars taken to the car pound one day after their residents’ permit expired.
Another wealthy resident said his cul-de-sac which was 100 metres long had 8 speed humps ‘to prevent excessive speed’.
The existing speed humps, which were designed to keep speeds below 20mph, have only managed to impair the emergency services. All the ‘boy racers’ went out and purchased wide-wheeled 4x4s and continued to drive furiously.
Islington’s next ploy was to build ‘pincer points’ which allow only one vehicle through at a time and construct innumerable pedestrian crossings on Upper Street. This has resulted in an 18 hour-a-day traffic jam with cars belching out noxious fumes and pedestrians resolutely refusing to cross at the designated places.
The slower a vehicle travels reduces the risk of injury to pedestrians, but so does observation and driving. In Islington you spend an inordinate amount of your journey looking out for obstructions installed by the council.
Vehicles are not designed to travel at 16mph (the speed you should travel as 20mph is the maximum), use far more fuel and increase their emissions at these low speeds. In addition many odometers are inaccurate at low speed resulting in drivers having to maintain a speed of 15mph.
If this north London council is serious about keeping speed limits below 20mph it can only enforce it by a complex system of average speed cameras, just how much would that cost the ratepayers?
The Trembling Lady, my latest novel, has just been published on Amazon, and I’m running a competition to win a signed copy.
In September, YouTuber Tom Hutley ran 14.75 miles across the capital, visiting all thirteen of the remaining historic green taxi huts, setting off from Warwick Avenue and finishing at St John’s Wood, the headquarters of our intrepid heroes.
The question is: What was Tom’s run time between all 13 shelters?
Entries should be sent via CabbieBlog’s Contact Page (I’ll only need the time at this stage).
You may make multiple entries.
If the winner gets to within 5 minutes of the exact time, as a bonus prize, a signed copy of On The Meter, the first in the series, will also be included.
The competition is open until 23.59 GMT on Sunday 28th December 2025. The winner will be contacted by Saturday 3rd January 2026.
Good luck!
Cabbieblog’s decision as to the winner is final. If there are two correct entries, CabbieBlog reserves the right to decide the winner. The competition is not open to Tom Hutley. Apart from notifying the winner, no correspondence relating to the competition will be entered into. Up to the closing date, there is no limit on the number of entries a person can make. Cabbieblog reserves the right to cancel or alter or amend the competition at any stage, if deemed necessary in its opinion, or if circumstances arise outside of its control.
London is the clearing-house of the world.
Joseph Chamberlain (1836-1914), speech at Guildhall, 19th January, 1904
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