On 13 October 1884 despite opposition from the French, Greenwich was finally adopted as the meridian of Longitude from which standard times throughout the world are calibrated. Because the Earth is not perfectly round, and because different locations on Earth have different terrain features affecting gravitational pull, traditional ways to measure longitude have proved inaccurate, it’s now 334 feet east off the original.
On 13 October 1905 Emmeline Pankhurst and Anne Kenney we’re arrested and charged with assault when protesting for women’s suffrage at a meeting in London
On 13 October 1660 Major-General Thomas Harrison, one of the commissioners to sign King Charles I’s death warrant was the first person to be found guilty of regicide, was hanged, drawn and quartered
On or around the site occupied by 61-63 Kings Cross Road was once Bagnigge House the home of Nell Gwynne, mistress of Charles II
Winsor Castle had a trapdoor cut in the floor of Queen Anne’s rooms to hoist by means of pulleys her obese frame into the state rooms below
Churchill called the Thames “the golden thread of our nation’s history”, MP John Burns described it as, “The St. Lawrence is water, the Mississippi is muddy water, but the Thames is liquid history”
At St Pancras Church the caryatids supporting the roof didn’t fit the space and had to have several inches removed from their midriffs
Fortnum and Mason was started by Queen Anne’s footman having sold part-used candles from St James’s Palace to fund the store with Hugh Mason
In 1926 Kitty and Leslie Godfree from 55 York Avenue, East Sheen became the only married couple to win the mixed doubles at Wimbledon
There are 412 escalators on the Underground, Waterloo has 25; the longest at 197ft is at the Angel; Chancery Lane the shortest at just 30ft
Horseferry Road commemorates a 16th century ferry which took men and animals across the Thames until 1750 when Lambeth Bridge was built
Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, the 23rd Lord Shrewsbury is the only earl to have a car named after him they were manufactured in Ladbroke Grove
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 6 October 2007 Jason Lewis completed his ‘self-powered’ 13-year circumnavigation of the earth at Greenwich using bikes, kayaks and roller blades
For years inmates on hard labour at Brixton were required to wash their own laundry and that of Pentonville, Millbank and Wandsworth’s lags
On 6 October 1834 The old Palace of Westminster burned down, caused by the burning of small wooden tally sticks which had been used as part of the accounting procedures of the Exchequer until 1826
Lord Horatio Nelson is buried directly under the centre of the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral, occupying the best spot as he was the first person of national importance to be buried at the cathedral
The equestrian statue of Charles I in Trafalgar Square has the King facing his place of execution outside Banqueting House in Whitehall
Marylebone Station is the one the Beatles are chased into by fans at the beginning of the film A Hard Day’s Night
Dr Johnson, on a drunken overnight wander with friends, offered to help the Covent Garden stallholders set up, curiously the offer was declined
Opened in 1862 Islington’s Business Design Centre was London’s first multi-purpose indoor arena, an early event was a 6-day walking race
The London Cab Trade is the oldest regulated land passenger service in Britain licensed in 1654 – 150 years before the horse-drawn bus
London’s oldest shop could be the Old Curiosity Shop, Portsmouth Street although it is not thought to be the one featured in Dicken’s novel
When Chad Varah started Samaritans at St Stephens Walbrook he used the church’s huge crypt which had remained undiscovered for centuries
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