London Trivia: The Tatler

12 April, 2020 Gibson Square 3 Comments

On 12 April 1709 Isaac Bickerstaff, the pseudonym of Richard Steele published the first edition of the innovative journal, The Tatler. Appearing two or three times a week, it purported to publish news and gossip heard in various London coffeehouses, he declared in the opening paragraph, to leave the subject of politics to the newspapers, while presenting Whiggish views and correcting middle-class manners.

On 12 April 1665 England’s first Black Death victim, Margaret Ponteous, was buried in the churchyard of St Paul’s Covent Garden

The last nobleman tried by ‘God and his Peers’, Lord Edward Southwell Russell de Clifford who in 1935 faced the Lords on a manslaughter charge

There are 24 bridges over the Thames the original wooden London Bridge opened in 1209; the newest pedestrian Millennium Bridge in 2000

Albert Memorial has 61 human figures Albert died 1861; 19 men Albert born 1819; 42 women he died aged 42; 9 animals Albert had 9 children

Charles I’s neck vertebrae lost after being sliced through by the executioner’s axe appeared later as Queen Victoria surgeon’s salt cellar

In 1925 George Gershwin’s premier performance of Rhapsody in Blue was broadcast from the Savoy Hotel by the BBC

On 12 April 1911 the first non-stop flight from London to Paris a distance of 290 miles was completed by Pierre Prier in 3 hours 56 minutes

London’s only bespoke motor racing track was at Crystal Palace, opening in 1936, during its life it would attract crowds of 60,000 a day

For London’s first scheduled bus route from Peckham to Oxford Street was operated Thomas Tilling, they earned the nickname of ‘Times’, which later appeared on their sides

In 1766 at his London private laboratory Henry Cavendish discovered hydrogen calling it “Inflammable Air”, a rich man, upon his death he was the largest depositor in the Bank of England

In 17th century London Tomias Smollett reported cherries would be made to glisten afresh by being gently roll around the greengrocer’s mouth

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.

Puppydog tails

The widow’s son

10 April, 2020 Gibson Square 2 Comments

Just up the road from Beaumont Square is the Widow’s Son in Devons Road which is a Grade II* listed public house built in the 19th century with an interesting history, featuring a Christian festival behind its name.

The story is that a widow’s house previously stood on the site. Expecting her sailor son home from the sea during the Napoleonic wars one Easter, she naturally baked him a hot cross bun, but unfortunately, he did not return. The widow lived in hope and next year made another bun, and so on.

It was commonly believed at that time, that bread or buns baked on Good Friday would never grow mouldy and had a marked medicinal value, it was also not unknown for such items to be hung up.

After her death years, stale buns were found hanging from a beam in her cottage, inevitably the house became famous for its collection of buns, and when in 1848 a pub was built on the same site it was naturally called the Widow’s Son and the custom continued; each year a sailor bringing another bun to be hung from the pub’s ceiling. The tradition almost ended when ironically the lease on the Widow’s Son ran out a week before Easter, with developers wanting to turn the site into yet another a block of flats.

Thankfully the tradition is back at the Widow’s Son after the enthusiasm of the new landlord and the participation of sailors from the training ship HMS President which is permanently moored alongside the Victoria Embankment.

You can see the current, currant buns (sorry!) in the net.

Featured image: The Widow’s Son, Public House, Bow, a grade II listed public house on Devon’s Road, opposite Campbell Road, by David Anstiss (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Thinking allowed

Return to the litter

8 April, 2020 Gibson Square 2 Comments

Just returned from a short break in Norway. Bergen a small city of less than 1 million, has up to 3 cruise ships disgorging 5,000 passengers each every day. Hardly any litter in the streets or rubbish left on trains, the eating areas and beauty spots are, well, spotless. Back in London rubbish litters the gutters, bins overflow and there’s graffiti everywhere. Why?

Puppydog tails

A Journey by a 1950’s London Bus

7 April, 2020 Gibson Square 2 Comments

I came across this production by the Colonial Film Unit which tells those who find themselves in a foreign land, just how to identify a bus, the reasons we have a conductor, how to buy a ticket, and importantly how to queue. It’s just the sort of essential information our cousins from Africa would have needed in 1950 to assimilate themselves into British society. It also reinforces the perception that everyone speaks in either a plummy received pronunciation BBC accent or is a cockney urchin.

Opening scenes show Piccadilly Circus teeming with buses and cabs, some looking to be pre-1914 models. No cars or lorries are to be seen.

In case you haven’t realised, we are told that these “splendid” buses will transport you out of “the largest city in the world”, and yes, they will actually retrace their route back to the Metropolis, but we are told that one must ensure the bus is travelling in the correct direction for one’s needs.

The narrator describes how two “African students studying in London”, who’ve been walking across fields in the badlands of Potters Bar, now need to get back to their studies and prepare to catch the bus. They remarkably manage to join a queue at the bus stop, presumably having been told by the upper-class documentary makers at just what end of the queue to stand.

The Cockney conductor, after ensuring everybody is safely seated, collects the fares. The film is at pains to show even our African students are capable of purchasing a ticket, but our guinea pigs don’t have the correct change, which the narrator tells us that it’s just not the British way.

Later in the journey, as if to reassure the public, the bus manages to stop for schoolchildren at an early pedestrian crossing.

At the end, the students alight from the bus to a cheery wave from the conductor, before unhurriedly crossing the road, presumably the subject of another documentary to teach bright African students how to traverse England’s highways.

Wonderfully politically incorrect, and evocative of post-war Britain, when only those with the correct accent had the brains to use buses and a much-needed teaching aid for Johnny Foreigner.

Featured image: Northward up Old Bond Street from Piccadilly, the 25 bus, the only route on Bond Street, is bound for Victoria from Becontree Heath by Ben Brooksbank (CC BY-SA 2.0)