London is an endless skirmish between angles and emptiness.
China Tom Miéville (b.1972), Kraken
London Trivia: James Earl Ray arrested
On 8 June 1968, James Earl Ray was arrested at Heathrow, travelling under an assumed name and false passport, on charges of conspiracy and murder in connection with the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. He was later jailed for 99 years.
On 8 June 1925, Noel Coward’s comedy Hay Fever opened, making theatrical history as there were then three Coward plays running concurrently in the West End
At Westminster Abbey traces of skin from a 14th century thief who attempted to steal the church’s valuables are still nailed to a door
Westminster Abbey was built on what was a remote island called Thorney Island situated in the middle of some marshland to the west of London
Dirty Dicks PH comes from dandy Richard Bentley whose house was on the site, on their wedding eve his bride died after which he lived in squalor
Pains Fireworks, still making fireworks, founded in the 15th century in the East End, sold the light gunpowder used in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605
Little St Pauls Cathedral is a sculpture on the side of Vauxhall Bridge and only visible from the River Thames
Henry VIII’s Wine Cellar a 40,000 cu. ft. cavern weighing 800 ton was moved more than 40ft to preserve it during the rebuilding of Whitehall
Tottenham Hotspurs deliberately set Jimmy Greaves’s 1961 transfer fee from AC Milan at £99,999 to avoid putting him under the pressure of being the first £100,000 player
The longest gap between stations is 3.89 miles from Chesham to Chalfont and Latimer; the shortest Covent Garden to Leicester Square 0.25 miles
The Mercers Livery Company is the oldest of London’s Guilds with ordinances dating back to 1347 and are No. 1 in the list of precedence
Estimated distances Bow Bells could be heard from City in olden days (definition of true Cockney) – 6 miles to east, 5 north, 3 south, 4 west
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: Welsh rarebit
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.
Welsh rarebit (25.05.12)
It is a cut-through we cabbies use when wishing to turn into Euston Road from Tottenham Court Road, by turning down Warren Street we miss the traffic and join the bus lane at Great Portland Street which also has the added advantage if you time it correctly of enabling you to collect your evening newspaper without the inconvenience of having to stop as the friendly vendor standing on the corner presses the paper into your hand. I have used this cut-through numerous times and have always admired this little corner shop with its blue tiles hardly realising how important the shop was at the time.
Before we had supermarkets which now supply all our provisions, we were served quite adequately by door deliveries and one of the last to survive is the milkman.
From about 1860 onward, as a result of hard times in Wales, many Welshmen, especially from Cardiganshire set up dairy businesses in London.
Keeping cows on the premises in the middle of London, many if these dairies were set up in close proximity to the Marylebone/Euston Road which leads directly from Paddington Station, the mainline terminus of the Great Western which serves South Wales (in fact until very recently all early morning trains were still called ‘milk trains’).
In King’s Cross Road, there is a faded sign of a company that supplied all the paraphernalia needed to produce milk products.
London is home to the oldest and largest Welsh community outside Wales. The middle of the 19th century saw an exodus of Welsh dairymen to London with many setting themselves up as dairies. By 1900 it is estimated half of all Dairies in the Capital were Welsh.
Even by 1950, there were still over 700 Welsh dairies in the City. The last survivor in Clerkenwell is believed to have closed as recently as 2001.
London in Quotations: Charles Dickens
The appearance presented by the streets of London an hour before sunrise, on a summer’s morning, is most striking even to the few whose unfortunate pursuits of pleasure, or scarcely less unfortunate pursuits of business, cause them to be well acquainted with the scene. There is an air of cold, solitary desolation about the noiseless streets which we are accustomed to see thronged at other times by a busy, eager crowd, and over the quiet, closely-shut buildings, which throughout the day are swarming with life and bustle, that is very impressive.
Charles Dickens (1812-1870), Sketches by Boz
Monthly Musings
1st June 2025
🎤 A cabbie’s talk
Out of the blue a local residential home invited me to give a talk about being a cabbie. I’m still waiting to fix a date. I’ll report later how it went.
✈️ Holiday invitation
On my contact page I’ve received this:
‘I hope you are well and enjoying the sunshine!
I wanted to reach out as we would like to invite you to a press trip to the gorgeous region of Haute Savoie in the French Alps.
You will have the opportunity to immerse yourself in the culture and learn about the heritage of the region while exploring places like Yvoire, the historic, medieval town in bloom, Evian’s Belle Epoque architecture, Menthon castle’s history and architecture. You will also enjoy visiting the relaxing Saint-Gervais Thermal centre and the famous Évian springs.’
What’s that to do with being London cabbie? Write your answers on the comments below.
📖 The Diary of a Bookseller
To save having to pay postage to Amazon I topped up an order with a recommend book. How I wish my memoir was this good – humorous, warm and informative. Quite brilliant.
📺 Canal Boat Diaries
I came across this antidote to living in London some time ago. Series 6 of Canal Boat Diaries features Robbie Cumming’s narrowboat, the Naughty Lass (Nautilus, get it!), as he navigates the canals and countryside of southern England. Bliss!
🎥 London’s youngest cabbie
Most start The Knowledge at middle age, Mo The Cabbie started at 18, and actually passed his Knowledge before he was 21. You can begin studying from age 18, but you can only receive your badge and start driving legally from 21. He’s recently started a TikTok channel which has gone viral, and is inspiring a new generation of potential London cabbies.
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