On 1 September 1951 the Premier Store opened in Streatham High Street, which at the time was the longest, busiest shopping strip in South London. Arguably Britain’s first supermarket, when competitors were pulling in £100 per week, Premier racked up £1,000 as 1,500 housewives descended on the store in its first day. Jack Cohen of Tesco bought the chain in 1960 having opened their first self-service store at St. Albans in 1956.

On 1 September 1875 Lambeth’s 14-year-old swimming prodigy Agnes Beckwith swam the six miles from London Bridge to Greenwich in 69 minutes

The 16th century bawdy courts were held at St Paul’s Cathedral and dealt with cases of sexual assault and described intercourse as occupying

All Christopher Wren’s churches are replacements after The Great Fire of London except one St. James’s, Piccadilly- built 1676 on a new site

An elephant is buried under Castle Bar Hill, Ealing the animal died whilst being moved and was interned where it fell

On 1 September 1939 Big Ben’s clock faces were unlit for the first time as war with Germany was impending

When Smithfield superintendent found a gold wedding ring he said the statute of a woman there should be married and soldered to her finger

Gordon Selfridge installed a secret lift in the store so his girlfriends, twins who eventually bankrupted him, could arrive unobserved

Dash to Pope’s Road, Brixton in September to watch the Brixton Bolt, see if you can beat Usain’s 100 metre time of 9.58

On 1 September 1968 the Walthamstow-Highbury Victoria Line extensions opened, giving a considerable uplift to local house prices

Cable Street is named after the local 18th century ropes and cable industry and was originally 608ft, the same length as a nautical cable

It wasn’t until an Act of 1765 that street names were made compulsory, traditional colourful shop signs having to give way to street numbers

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 25 August 1870 Richard Seymour-Conway the 4th Marquees of Hertford, died in Paris, Richard Wallace his illegitimate son, learned that the nobleman was his father and inherited a priceless collection of paintings, sculptures, furniture and decorative objects. After his death, the collection was donated to the nation by his widow, it is now located in what was his London home, Hertford House, Manchester Square.

On 25 August 1840 a conductor on an Chelsea omnibus found a pocket book containing £150, owned by Mr Kempis on New Road. He received £60 for his honesty

In Farringdon Street is the site of the Fleet Prison where fallen clergymen conducted clandestine weddings until the 18th century

The Tudor frontage of St. Bartholemew The Great Church which had been covered was revealed after a Zeppelin raid on the City

In the late 1880s, the life expectancy of an East End labourer was less than 19 years, his average wage was 25/- a week it would just cover his rent, and a very sparse diet for him and his family

The 0 on 10 Downing Street’s front door is at an angle, in tribute to original door, whose 0 slipped due to poor fixing

In the film Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy MI5 headquarters was, in fact, the Victoria and Albert Museum store in Olympia

Petticoat Lane home to London’s Sunday market doesn’t exist renamed Middlesex Street in 1830 the market still retains its original name

A site where starved bears were chained to a post and set upon by dogs as spectators bet on the outcome is marked by Bear Gardens Southwark

Half of London’s Tube stations have no light switches, meaning their lights can never be turned off. Transport for London (TfL) has no idea how much that is costing

Edwards of Camberwell has a Royal Warrant to supply the Queen with err . . . mopeds, it is not known if Her Majesty has need of that form of transport

Knightsbridge is the only Underground station with six consecutive consonants in its name, Aldwych has six but closed in 1994

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.