On 10 March 1906, rumoured to have been funded by a few businessmen wanting to get to and from Lord’s Cricket Ground during Test Matches, the Baker Street and Waterloo Underground Line was opened. ‘Bakerloo’ was first coined by the Evening News. The trains ran between Baker Street and Lambeth North. It is now the 9th busiest line on the network, carrying over 111 million passengers annually.

On 10 March 1886 the First Great Terrier Show precursor to Cruft’s was organised in London by Spratt’s dog biscuit salesman Charles Cruft

Temple Bar on Fleet Street displayed decapitated traitors heads on spikes after being boiled in brine and cumin seeds to deter pecking birds

On Knight’s Road Docklands the world’s largest tin of syrup is affixed to Tate & Lyle’s factory producing the world’s oldest branded product

In his will Dickens stipulated that no monuments be erected to his memory, that’s why London has no statues of one of its greatest writers

On 10 March 1914 suffragette Mary Richardson attacked Velazquez’s painting the Rokeby Venus, hanging in the National Gallery, with an axe

Now charmingly inaccurate, the life-sized models of dinosaurs in Crystal Palace Park, constructed in the 1850s were the first in the world

The basement at 27 Endell Street was once the animal depot for West End theatres once two bulls escaped liberating a menagerie on Soho streets

A white strip near BBC White City marks the finish of the world’s first modern marathon in 1908 originally 25 miles extended to 26m 385yards

Early rear view mirrors in taxis couldn’t be adjusted allegedly to prevent drivers from ogling the legs of their lady passengers

South Bank’s Anchor Brewery, once the largest brewery in the world, all that remains is the old brewery tap the Anchor Tavern on Park Street

Burrell & Co on Blasker Walk Docklands once manufactured dyes, red smoke from the chimneys would tint the local pigeons rose-pink

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 3 March 1943 the worst loss of life during World War II in a single event took place at Bethnal Green Station when a mother carrying a child was hurrying down the steps to shelter during an air raid. She fell and an elderly man tripped on top of her. In the panic 178 people died including the baby. News of the disaster was withheld for 36 hours. It was not until 50 years after the disaster that a discreet plaque was erected at the site.

On 3 March 1982 the Queen opened the £153 million Barbican Centre, the largest arts centre in western Europe built on the site of Cripplegate, which was destroyed by Nazi bombers in World War II

In 1809 audiences at the Covent Garden Theatre rioted for 60 nights when the management increased ticket prices

Westminster Catholic Cathedral stands on the foundations of Tothill Fields Prison demolished in 1884. The prison’s foundations were re-used for the cathedral

Writer and Garrick member AA Milne left part of his estate to the club, in 2001 the club sold its interest (incuding Winnie the Pooh) to Disney

In 1972 William Whitelaw (Northern Ireland Secretary) secretly met Martin McGuiness and Gerry Adams at 96 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea

It was at The Criterion Long Bar where Dr Watson first met Sherlock Holmes (in Colan Doyle’s – A Study in Scarlet)

Author George Bernard Shaw once spent an evening dancing around Fitzroy Square after watching an Italian dancer at the Alhambra Theatre

The highest temperature recorded at the London Marathon 21.7C degrees on 22 April 2007: coldest 13 years previously in 1994 at 7.6C degrees

Approaching J15 on the M25 it has two six-lane carriageways, the widest stretch of motorway in the country, and yet it still gets jam-packed

Alexander Graham Bell made Britain’s first telephone call from Brown’s Hotel in 1876, the hotel to this day honours Bell’s legacy with the Alexander Graham Bell Room, with its antique telephone

In 1912 workmen found a chest buried on the corner of Cheapside and Friday Street, containing jewellery, gemstones, gold, rings and brooches

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.