On 8 January 1806 after laying in state in the Painted Hall at Greenwich Nelson’s body was carried by state barge along the Thames to the Admiralty in Whitehall in preparation for his internment the next day in St. Paul’s. With the commercial value of good viewing places The Times carried advertisements such as ‘Those ladies and gentlemen who are desirous of seeing . . . may be accommodated with seats in a spacious loft, fitted up for the occasion’.

On 8 January 1991 one person died and 542 were injured in a train crash at Cannon Street station. A further passenger died three days later

In 1952 a Nigerian visitor was fined £50 for committing an indecent act with a pigeon in Trafalgar Square and £10 for having it for his tea

On Carting Lane, which runs down from the Strand towards Embankment, there’s a sewer gas destructor lamp hence its nickname of Farting Lane

The worst death toll on the Underground occurred at Bethnal Green Tube tragedy in 1943 when 173 people died. It is the largest loss of life in a single incident

Brompton Road (now disused) on the Piccadilly, Line was apparently used as a control room for anti-aircraft guns during World War II

Scenes from the film Sliding Doors were shot at Waterloo station on the Waterloo and City Line and at Fulham Broadway tube station on the District Lines

The various streets named Savoy take their name from the Savoy Palace where in 1381 thirty-two men trapped in the cellar drank themselves to death

The Lord’s pavilion is only in red terracotta because a strike by masons meant stone, which the architect had wanted was unavailable

The shortest distance between two adjacent stations on the underground is only 260 metres between Leicester Square and Covent Garden and takes about 20 seconds

222 Strand was London’s first air conditioned restaurant, ladies from local cycling club pedalled a bicycle in the basement powering bellows

On 8 January 1938 a German tourist Willie Hitler told journalists that his uncle Adolf was peaceful “who thinks war is not worth the candle”

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 1 January 1845: The suspect for the murder of Sarah Hart using prussic acid boarded the train at Slough bound for Paddington. The nascent telegraph could not send the letter Q. The message describing the suspect read: ” . . . In the garb of a Kwaker“. John Tawell was the first person to be arrested the result of telecommunications technology. Found guilty he was publicly hanged in Aylesbury on 28 March 1845 watched by a huge crowd.

On 1 January 1967 George Harrison recognised by the doorman was barred from Annabel’s for not wearing a tie, he went to Lyons Corner House

The last man in Britain to be hanged for killing a police officer was Guenther Podola at Wandsworth Prison in 1959

The Savoy Hotel has a permanently lit gas lamp near the river entrance powered by methane gas from the sewers

John Keats trained as an apothecary/surgeon at Guy’s hospital but he gave up surgery for a precarious existence as a poet

Number Ten Downing Street has two front doors, rotated to allow maintenance. The zero is at a slight angle to mimic an earlier one that slipped

In 1905 millionaire George Kessler flooded the Savoy’s courtyard to float a gondola, a birthday cake on an elephant’s back and Caruso singing

A stone in the beer garden wall at the Prospect of Whitby, Wapping identifies the wall as the boundary between Wapping and Limehouse

The ‘Ashes’ are displayed at Lords but the cricket match that led to the ashes being presented is played at the Oval

The first commercial flight from Heathrow was made on 1 January 1946 by South American Airways bound for Buenos Aires in a civilian Lancaster

1757 saw publication of Harris’ List of Covent Garden Ladies a directory of prostitutes and their special skills, it was very popular!

In January 2005, in an attempt to alleviate a problem with loitering young people, the London Underground announced it would play classical music at problem stations

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.