London in Quotations: Benjamin Disraeli
London is a modern Babylon.
Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)
London Trivia: All change
On 1 March 1966 the Chancellor of the Exchequer, James Callaghan announced in Parliament the “historic and momentous” decision to change to decimal coinage. The switch to be implemented in February 1971 and the £1 retained being divided into units called either ‘cents’ or ‘new pennies’. The changeover was estimated to cost £120 million. Companies obliged to invest in new equipment would not be compensated.
On 1 March 1711 the first edition of the Spectator founded by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele was published
On 1 March 1950 nuclear scientist, Klaus Emil Julius Fuchs, was jailed for 14 years at the Old Bailey for spying for the Soviet Union
The Monument stands on the site of St Margaret’s, the first church to burn down during the Great Fire of 1666, its height is exactly the distance it stands from the start of the fire
Clerkenwell is named after the ‘Clerk’s Well’ that supplied Charterhouse. It can be seen through the window of Well Court, Farringdon Lane
Suffragette Emily Davison died beneath the King’s horse at Epsom, recent research suggests she was attaching a sash, not martyring herself
On 1 March 1968 the first performance of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Old Assembly Hall, Colet Court was shown
Britain’s first purpose-built department store, Bon Marché, was built in Brixton in 1877 on the proceeds of racehorse winnings
In March1905 in The Butcher’s Hook pub Gus Mears & co held a meeting that decided a name for his newly formed football club – Chelsea FC
M25 J8: Reigate Hill Interchange has the longest motorway slip road in the country climbing up Reigate Hill for 1.5 miles to a roundabout
As late as the 1940s, waiters at the Savoy Hotel were forbidden from wearing watches, rings, spectacles or false teeth
St. Ethelburga’s font is inscribed with the longest known Greek palindrome: NI?ON ANOMHMTA MH MONAN O?IN ‘Cleanse my sins, not just my face’
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.
Protected: The rarest day
Tesco’s loading bay
Tesco the ubiquitous retailer has its shops in almost every location. Take the one in Covent Garden it has because its loading bay in a road so small I defy most cabbies to be able to locate New Row. To stock, their store Tesco despatch an articulated lorry the size of a small house, its driver just about managing to manoeuvre his vehicle into the tight space. If that wasn’t enough the geniuses in charge of logistics send their lorry at the height of the evening’s theatre-going public arriving, so the driver has to contend with negotiating the vehicle as hundreds of people try to squeeze past and then try vainly to get into Strand past dozens of parked cars.
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