On 2 August 1833, the famous entertainment venue, Vauxhall Gardens, had its most successful day when an astonishing 133,278 people arrived to visit its paths being noted for romantic assignations, watching tightrope walkers, hot-air balloon ascents, concerts and fireworks providing entertainment, and a statue depicting George Frederic Handel. In 1817 the Battle of Waterloo was re-enacted, with 1,000 soldiers participating in our victory.

On 2 August 1921 residents of Hackney and Upper Clapton were summoned to the North London Police Court, found guilty, they were fined for illegally watering their gardens

London’s oldest tree a 2,000 year old yew in St Andrew’s Totteridge churchyard was used as the venue for an early type of magistrate’s court

Covent Garden takes its name from when the area was walled off as a garden for Westminster Abbey and the convent on the site

London’s first pedestrian refuge island was financed by a Colonel Pierpoint stepping back to admire his creation he was knocked down by a cab

The Archbishop of Canterbury’s sermon at Edward VII’s wedding was so boring the orchestra started playing to drown him out

The Duke of Wellington has the unique honour of having two equestrian statutes of him erected in central London

Britain’s first bagel bakery opened in 1855 – it still is open every day of the year 24 hours a day in Brick Lane

Montague Burton set up a chain of shops selling 30/- suits, upper floors were builliard halls for use by customers as they waited for their clothes to be altered

On 2 August 1870 Tower Subway opened under the Thames becoming the world’s first underground railway, carrying up to 12 passengers at a time

Twining Teas opened 1707 on the Strand selling tea to Queen Anne, it’s the oldest business in Britain operating from their original premises

The former Abbey National Building Society (now Santander) was founded in a Baptist chapel in Abbey Road, St. John’s Wood

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 26 July 1994, a car bomb has exploded outside the Israeli embassy injuring 14 people and causing widespread damage. The Audi 100, driven by a woman was packed with 30lbs of Semtex, it blew up minutes after the driver left it. Although embassy staff were dazed and confused, the worst injury was a broken arm. Thirteen hours later, another car bomb exploded outside the headquarters of a London Jewish charity.

On 26 July 1818 to publicise the opening of the Royal Coburg Theatre, Usher the clown drove a carriage, pulled by 4 tom-cats along Waterloo Road. The theatre was later renamed the Old Vic

The Bishop of Rochester’s cook was boiled alive at Smithfield after poisoning fellow cooks. Boiling was struck off the Statute Book in 1548

The clock known by many as Big Ben completed in 1854 its original 2.5-ton hands had to be remade lighter as the mechanism couldn’t turn them

London’s 1845 International Exhibition saw the world’s first plastic using nitro-cellulose – the product failed as it tended to explode

Sadly for the UK’s richest city, London has the highest proportion of people living below the poverty line than anywhere else in the country

On New Year’s Eve 1853 a dinner was held inside the stomach of a iguanodon being constructed for Dinosaur Park at Crystal Palace

The Savoy was the first hotel with electric lifts known at the time as ascending rooms – it boasted en-suite rooms with hot and cold water

In 2014 the London Playing Fields Foundation reported that 20 per cent of London’s football pitches had been lost over 20 years

During rush hour motor vehicles average speed is 7mph while cyclists maintain 13mph – 15 per cent of Londoners spend over 2 hours commuting each day

Eurostar’s departure lounge has columns that are 3 beer barrels apart as the building was once where beer in transit was stored

Barnet Hill, the hill outside High Barnet Tube station is the one the Grand Old Duke of York marched his men up and down

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 19 July 1983, a huge new dinosaur skeleton was unveiled to the media at the Natural History Museum. Plumber Bill Walker found a foot-long claw belonging to the flesh-eating beast at a clay pit in Surrey. Palaeontologists reconstructed it and dated the remains at 125 million years old, nicknamed ‘Jaws’ the creature would have been as tall as a double-decker bus, and could have run up to 20 miles an hour.

On 19 July 2011 Robert Murdoch’s face was hit with a shaving foam pie thrown by a protester at a parliamentary hearing into phone hacking

In Clink Street is the prison of the same name derived from the French “clenche” meaning catch outside of the door as opposed to the inside

The height of the Monument measures the same as the distance from its base to the place where The Great Fire of London was started

Statistically for some undefined reason would-be suicides prefer to meet their maker from underground stations than from one open to the sky

House near Globe Theatre claims Catherine, Henry VIII’s first Queen sheltered on her first landing in London and Christopher Wren lived there

Senate House on Malet Street in Bloomsbury was George Orwell’s model for the Ministry of Truth in his book 1984

The Guinea Grill in Bruton Street sells over 25,000 steak and kidney pies a year in 2000 it was officially declared Steak Pie of the Century

The home of cricket, Kennington Oval’s distinctive shape was dictated by the layout of the surrounding streets rather than the other way round

In 1928 Hyde Park Corner had more through traffic than any place in the world by 1998 Vauxhall Cross was declared Europe’s busiest junction

Beneath government buildings is a secret wartime complex between Great George Street and King Charles Street are 200 underground offices

Silver Vaults London’s oldest safe deposit assures confidentiality but when flooded one held a pair of knickers labelled “My Life’s Undoing”

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 12 July 1856 five died and 300 people were injured when fireworks exploded at Mr Bennett’s factory in Westminster Road. Bennett was charged that his business was making fireworks contrary to the law, and he kept combustibles at his house for that purpose. During his absence, a fire broke out through the negligence of his employees. The court found that the deaths were caused by the negligence of his employees.

On 12 July 1962 the Rolling Stones gave their first performance at The Marquee Club on Charing Cross Road

It is illegal for anyone to possess a pack of cards ‘who lives within a mile of any arsenal or explosives store’

The theatre ticket booth in Leicester Square conceals, 3-stories below, a electricity sub-station capable of supplying the entire West End

King Charles II took so long to pass away after having a stroke he apologised to his courtiers for “being an unconscionable time a-dying”

In 1902 after an “indignation campaign” the Richmond, Ham and Petersham Open Spaces Act became the first law to protect a view

A rather dubious attraction of the 1908 Franco-British exhibition at White City was a butter sculpture of King Edward VII

The Great Room at the Grosvenor House Hotel for many years the largest public room in Europe was a skating rink before becoming ballroom

Rugby netball was dreamt up by soldiers in 1907 and has been played on Clapham Common ever since. Games take place also on Tuesday evenings, but only during the summer

Dogs travel free on London’s buses but only at the discretion of the driver and must sit upstairs, TfL don’t specify which is the doggy seat

In 1748 Yorkshireman Thomas Chippendale set up his famous furniture business at 60-62 St Martin’s Lane employing just 40 men

The oldest door in the country dating from the Anglo-Saxon period is at Westminster Abbey using dendrochronology dates it at 950 years old

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 5 July 1975 American tennis player Arthur Ashe became the first black man to win the Wimbledon singles’ championship. Ashe beat defending champion Jimmy Connors three sets to one on Centre Court. Ashe would use his profile protesting against apartheid in South Africa and US treatment of refugees arriving in the country from Haiti. He died in February 1993 after contracting Aids from tainted blood.

On 5 July 2012 The Shard, standing at 1,016ft, the tallest building in the European Union was inaugurated, three weeks before the London Olympics

It is illegal to die in the Palace of Westminster on the grounds that anyone who dies in a royal palace is technically entitled to a state funeral, unfortunately, this has been proved to be a myth

The world’s first underwater tunnel was the Thames Tunnel opened in 1834 between Wapping and Rotherhithe was until 1866 used by pedestrians

The Museum of London has in its collection 6,500 skeletons comprising for study every period in London’s 2,000-year history

Charles I, rather ungallantly it has to be said, after his own nuptials declared that “you can get used to anyone’s face in a week”

The figure of The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street on the facade of the Bank of England has a model of the bank on her lap

On 5 July 1969, the Rolling Stones gave a free concert in Hyde Park following Brian Jones’ death two days earlier

On 5 July 1957 the men’s final at Wimbledon was interrupted by a polite protester against the banking system

Before motorised vehicles, horses were involved in an average of 175 fatal accidents a year in London and eat over 1 million tons of fodder

The Press Association was formed from an idea hatched in the back of a Hansom Cab stuck in a London smog in 1868

On 5 July 1799 the first streaker was arrested when a man run naked from Cornhill to Cheapside for a wager

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.