The City seems so much more in earnest: its business, its rush, its roar are such serious things, sights and sounds. The City is getting its living – the West-End but enjoying its pleasure.
Charlotte Brontë (1815-18560) Vilette, 1853
London Trivia: Greenwich Observatory started
On 10 August 1675 one of Wren’s many projects, apart from building fifty churches, two theatres and Temple Bar, was also the designing of Flamsteed House, home of the first Greenwich Observatory. King Charles II, a keen astronomer, laid the first stone on this day.
On 10 August 1925 the Maharajah of Patiala took over 35 luxury suites at the Savoy while wearing special underpants costing more than £200
The Blind Beggar was the scene of another gruesome murder when street thief Bulldog Wallis stabbed a man through the eye with an umbrella
Pall Mall was the first street in England to be lit by gas by the splendidly named New Patriotic Imperial and National Light and Gas Company
Bread Street in the City of London, is the birthplace of 17th century English poet John Milton who wrote Paradise Lost
Found in Westminster Abbey after the Queen’s coronation: 3 pearl ropes, 20 brooches, 6 bracelets, a diamond necklace, 20 coronet gold balls
Contrary to popular myth, the statue of Nelson on his column in Trafalgar Square doesn’t have an eye patch
Green Park comes from when Charles II picked a flower giving it to the most beautiful woman, not his wife who ordered all flowers be removed
The Artillery Garden, Finsbury is the oldest venue for archery in the world, Fraternity of St. George 1509 uses traditional longbows
The reason London taxis are so high is so that gentlemen don’t have to remove their top hats, particularly when going to Ascot
Benjamin Franklin invented the lighting conductor and St Paul’s Cathedral was the first public building in the world having it affixed to it
Of the 700,000 dogs in London 10,000 each year end up at Battersea Dogs Home where contrary to urban myth only the old and dangerous are destroyed
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: A Marathon read
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.
A Marathon read (24.07.12)
Just how do they do it? I mean when an actor is given a major part to play, just how so they remember their lines. I only ask because last weekend a mighty 76-page tome thudded onto my doormat.
Years in the planning and in less than six days I have to commit it to memory.
The publication goes under the catchy title The taxi and private hire information handbook and was compiled by the Olympic Delivery Authority.
Comprising 23 maps, a dozen graphs and scattered liberally with gobbledegook straight from a script of Twenty Twelve: ‘No taxis or PHVs will be permitted to pass through a VSA without the correct VAPP’. It makes for an interesting read.
Like an inexperienced actor learning his lines in Hamlet, we have to make sense of this impenetrable jargon.
SatNavs will be obsolete as so many roads are either closed or had their direction changed. It is going to be hard for us but for private hire with their reliance on technology, it will be impossible.
The maps make for interesting reading. Should a spectator require a cab from the Olympic Stadium they will have to walk 1,400 metres (or nearly a mile in old money). Cross a 6-lane dual carriageway, and walk under a flyover to find the rank located, if memory serves, behind a caravan park.
According to the comprehensive map, only two small ranks service all the major hotels in Park Lane, but that is probably because every 5-star hotel in London is fully booked with the Olympic Family.
Sorry I’d better get back to memorising all this I only have three days to learn my lines.
London in Quotations: Arthur Conan Doyle
I do hate the City of London! It is the only thing whichever comes between us.
Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1900), A Duet with an Occasional Chorus, 1899
London Trivia: First traffic lights
On 3 August 1926, the first traffic lights in London were erected at the junction of Piccadilly and St James’s Street, they were operated manually by policemen in a signal box. There has been a traffic jam there since then.
On 3 August 1856 London got postcodes for the first time with 10 separate districts denoted by the compass points
The 1950’s Teddy Boys (originally ‘Cosh Boys’) were first seen in London, mainly Elephant & Castle, and became Britain’s first youth cult
Bevis Marks synagogue is named from boundary marks of the Bishop of Bury St Edmonds’ house which was here in medieval times
The Old Vic 1937, Lawrence Olivier’s sword broke and hit a member of the audience, who was so startled he promptly had a heart attack
By tradition the Monarch stops at Temple Bar to ask permission of the Lord Mayor to enter The City and to surrender the Sword of State
Jeremy Sandford’s acclaimed 1966 BBC play Cathy Come Home directed by Ken Loach was partly filmed on Popham Street in upmarket Islington
Kettner’s in Romilly Street, Soho was founded in 1867 by German named August Kettner, rumoured to have been Napoleon’s chef
Blackheath is the site of the United Kingdom’s first rugby club, also gave birth to the world’s first hockey clubs, the first golf club south of the Scottish border
The requirement for cabs to have a turning circle of 25ft was instigated as far back as 1906, Nubar Gulbenkian asked why he bought one replied: ‘Because it turns on a sixpence; whatever that is.’
The weathervane on the Royal Exchange in the City is a grasshopper not a cock, the former being the crest of its founder Sir Thomas Gresham
Army barracks near Mill Hill East were named after Lt-Col William Inglis killed in 1811 battle who told his men to “die hard” – hence phrase
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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