Monthly Musings

2 December, 2025 Gibson Square 5 Comments

October 2025

🐕‍🦺 Rupert

On Bonfire Night, my constant companion lost his fight against a failing heart. Only dog lovers can truly understand how much the demise of your ‘best friend’ really feels: returning to an empty house, the absence of attending to the needs of a little life, and having a creature whose only desire is to please. If Heaven existed, my little dog would be at the front of the queue.

💊 The Magic Bullet

We have eradicated smallpox and can stop a novel virus in its tracks. So why can’t the huge pharmaceutical companies stop pain? The day after our dog died, my wife learned that an old friend had taken her life to block out pain.

🩺 Fortuitous discovery

The pre-operative assessment for my inguinal hernia discovered an undetected full heart block, which could have resulted in the termination of CabbieBlog. Hopefully, my new pacemaker has given this website a few more years of uploading London trivia.

🚓 Cabology

The more observant among you might have noticed CabbieBlog’s sidebar has been updated. From next year, facts and cabbie slang will appear under the ‘Today’s Cabology’ section. Also, there is now a preview of the latest Shelter Sleuths investigation.

📺 Gogglebox

I’ve reached the age when I watch considerably more TV than I once did – or should – a luxury my mother enjoyed for free (a concession withdrawn 22 months before I was eligible). Much of the BBC’s entertainment content now seems directed at Millennials, who probably have politely declined signing up for a licence. Channel 5 appears now to be the only channel that actually makes programmes for us Baby Boomers. I’m watching a news service from our National Broadcaster, which I don’t have confidence in being accurate or impartial, as Clive Myrie smugly informs me, ‘the fight for truth is on’. Then there’s the way Auntie insists I have a vested interest by calling it ‘Our BBC’, well, despite the licence fee, it doesn’t feel much like mine.

📅 November’s posts and pages

Most read post – Buying a black cab as a private car
Most read page – The Knowledge

📈 Last month’s statistics

1,516 views (-56.6%)
1,144 visitors (-6.8%)
33 likes (-21.4%)
44 comments (-15.4%)
21 posts (+40.8%)

London in Quotations

London in Quotations: Robert Smythe Hichens

Quote 1 December, 2025 Gibson Square 2 Comments

London’s like a black-browed brute that gets an unholy influence over you.

Robert Smythe Hichens (1864-1950), The Woman with the Fan

London trivia

London Trivia: Crystal Palace destroyed

30 November, 2025 Gibson Square 3 Comments

On 30 November 1936 fire broke out in the lavatory of the central transept at Crystal Palace, despite there being 88 fire engines in attendance most of the Palace was destroyed. The only elements left unscathed were Paxton’s bust and some sphinxes.

On 30 November 1016King Edmund II was reputedly stabbed in the bowels whilst in the ‘outhouse’ (toilet) and died in London on the same day

In 1736 gravedigger Thomas Jenkins received 100 lashes for selling dead bodies from St Dunstan & All Saints, Stepney High Street

The Strand (technically just “Strand” – look at the signs) was originally the north shore of the much-wider Thames – “strand” means “bank”

Dame Cicely Saunders founded St. Christopher’s Hospice in Sydenham, the world’s first hospice, eventually she died there herself in 2005

Pains Fireworks, still making fireworks, founded in the 15thC in the East End, sold the light gunpowder used in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605

The ArcelorMittal Orbit is the UK’s tallest sculpture, at 684ft, the structure incorporates the world’s tallest and longest tunnel slide

The Grand United Lodge of England on Great Queen Street, founded in 1717 is the oldest Masonic Grand Lodge in the world

Henry VIII played tennis at Hampton Court in silk or velvet drawers (the first shorts) slashed with ‘cuttes’ and edges sewn with gold cord

Below the control box on a puffin crossing is a little ridged bobbin which swivels indicating to the visually impaired it’s safe to cross

A ‘Seven Dials Raker’ was a Victorian prostitute who lived in the vicinity of Seven Dials but plied her trade elsewhere in London

The oldest living thing in London is the 2,000-year-old Totteridge Yew in St. Andrew’s churchyard, which stands on the ‘Tott Ridge’

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

Previously Posted: Making History

29 November, 2025 Gibson Square 4 Comments

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.

Making History (26.10.12)

This week three hundred and sixty-five years ago a series of debates took place in what was then the village Putney in the county of Surrey, Putney now has been subsumed into London.

After seizing the City of London from Presbyterian opponents in August 1647, the New Model Army had set up its headquarters at Putney. The year before in 1646 John Lilburne, John Wildman, Richard Overton and William Walwyn formed a new political party called the Levellers, which sought to give more power to the people. The debates to introduce those rights began at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, by the river Thames at Putney Bridge.

From the 28th October to 9th November 1647, soldiers and officers of Oliver Cromwell’s New Model Army, including civilian representation, held discussions on the constitution and future of England.

Should they continue to negotiate a settlement with the defeated King Charles I?

Should there even be a King or Lords or an abolition of the monarchy and the House of Lords?

Should the people have the civil right to vote or should it be limited to property-holders? Some wanted a constitution based upon manhood suffrage (“one man, one vote”).

Should there be bi-annual Parliaments and a reorganisation of parliamentary constituencies?

Should complete religious freedom be allowed?

Could an end to the censorship of books and newspapers be implemented?

Should man have the right of trial by jury?Could they end taxation of people earning less than £30 a year and introduce a maximum interest rate of 6 per cent?

Would these democratic changes lead to anarchy?

This historic event saw ordinary soldiers take on their generals to argue for greater democracy and provided a platform for ‘common people’ to make their voices heard.

The Levellers started publishing their own newspaper, The Moderate. They also organised meetings where they persuaded people to sign a Petition supporting their policies. These debates, forced by the Levellers, paved the way for many of the civil liberties we value today.

The Guardian newspaper ran a reader’s competition to unearth which neglected event in Britain’s radical past most deserved a proper monument. St. Mary’s Church Putney, the site of the Putney Debates was the worthy winner.