On 27 October 1986 the London Stock Exchange rules changed. Dubbed the ‘Big Bang’, open-outcry, the system which had dominated the buying-and-selling of shares was ditched. Traders no longer had to bark their orders across trading pits or catch the attention of market makers with hand signals. Electronic trading was in, stocks could be bought and sold from upstairs, from the comfort of a leather-back chair with a coffee.

On 27 October 1997 the river dredger, MV Sand Kite, sailing in thick fog, collided with one of the Thames Barrier’s piers

Burlington Arcade was built to remove an alleyway beside Lord Burlington’s mansion from which dead cats were thrown into his back garden

The two golden pineapples over main entrance of St. Paul’s Cathedral – a very expensive insisted by Wren – are a symbol of hospitality

Great Ormond Street was the first hospital in England exclusively for children when it opened in 1851 42 per cent of deaths were children under 10

On 27 October 1968 over 6,000 marchers faced up to police in Grosvenor Square, they had broken away from an anti-Vietnam march facing up to police for 3 hours

London’s largest collection of Buddhas can be found in Soho’s Fo Guang Temple Margaret Street formerly All Saints’ Church

The top 50 tourist attractions in the world 6 are in London Trafalgar Square is 4th with 15 million visitors a year 44th is the London Eye

Wimbledon 1992 Mens Singles Final Goran Ivaniševic was warned for swearing in Croatian, the umpire realised as TV viewers rung in complaining

The custom of standing right on escalators started with a diagonal end to early ones and a sign saying “Step off: right foot first”

When St Pauls Cathedral neared completion its elderly architect Sir Christopher Wren was hauled to the roof by bucket and rope to inspect it

In the cloisters of Westminster Abbey is Britain’s the oldest door, in good nick, considering it was made in 1050 before the Norman Conquest

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 20 October 1927 in celebration of the Battle of the Marne, when the German army was stopped before capturing Paris in August 1914, Emile Guillaume’s 16ft statue of a naked woman holding a sword aloft – ‘La Déliverance’ – was unveiled at Henly’s Corner on the North Circular Road. A gift from press baron Lord Rothermere, the statue has had a number of local names including ‘Dirty Gertie’, and due to corrosion ‘Gangrene Gertie’.

On 20 October 1862 serial killer Catherine Wilson was the last woman to be publicly hanged in London, was thought to have poisoned six victims

The narrowest house in London lies next door to Tyburn Convent and was built to block a passage used by grave robbers, it is one metre wide

The 15th Century Crosby Hall once home to Thomas More was moved from Bishopsgate to current Chelsea riverside location in 1910

Lionel Logue who cured King George of his stammer had his practice at 146 Harley Street from 1926 to 1952 in the film Portman Place was used

The first bomb to be dropped on London by Zeppelins is commemorated by a plaque at 31 Nevill Road, N16

The Trafalgar Square lions were sculpted from life Landseer used dead lions supplied by London Zoo until neighbours complained of the smell

On Tower Hill is an entrance to the 1870 Tower Subway. You could ride under the river in a carriage pulled by cable

On 5 March 1870 the first ever International Football match was held at The Oval – England vs Scotland – the first of many England draws 1-1

London Bridge became so congested that in 1722 it became the first place in Britain where it was made compulsory to drive on the left

The weathervane on the Royal Exchange in the City is a grasshopper not a cock, the former being the crest of its founder Sir Thomas Gresham

The Queen’s jewellery collection is so extensive it has to be stored in a room the size of an ice rink, 40ft below Buckingham Palace

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 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 1985, after police raided the home of 49-year-old resident Cynthia Jarrett in a futile search for stolen property, causing her such a shock that she died from a heart attack, Broadwater Farm Estate erupted into riots, spreading out across London. In total, 230 police officers were injured and one, PC Keith Blakelock, was killed – stabbed 44 times in a frenzied mob attack. His memorial is located on his regular beat in Muswell Hill.

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

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 29 September 1792 the first church in England since the reformation dedicated to St. Patrick was consecrated in Soho Square, its successor was completed in 1893. It stands on the site of Carlisle House which became a venue for dazzling soirees, recitals and concerts. Once the home of a Venetian courtesan Mrs Cornelys, an opera singer, serial bankrupt and socialite, she had a child fathered by Cassanova.

on 29 September 1829 this Tuesday the first Metropolitan policeman went out in the streets of London from the unfinished Scotland Yard

‘The bells of Old Bailey’ in the nursery rhyme Oranges and Lemons are the bells of St. Sepulchre rung to mark an execution in Newgate Prison

The three Barbican towers were Europe’s tallest residential buildings when built – the drains zig-zag down so nothing hits the bottom too hard

St. Martin-in-the-Fields is the parish church of Buckingham Palace and any baby born at the Palace is entered into its church register

Ravens are kept at The Tower of London for ancient legend predicts that if they should depart the Monarchy will fall

The Beatles filmed the video for Penny Lane in Angel Lane Stratford (very near Olympic site) they didn’t have the time to go up to Liverpool

Mon Plaisir Restaurant, Monmouth Street claims to be London’s oldest French restaurant having been established in the 1940s

In 1702 while riding at Hampton Court William III was thrown when his horse stumbled on a molehill and died as an equestrian statue depicts

There are no Roads in the City of London only Streets, Lanes, Alleys to be named road highway had to be wide enough to allow two carts to pass

City Livery Companies have their halls in the City except The Gunmakers their use of gunpowder it was deemed prudent to locate at a distance

By the early 12th century the population of London was about 18,000 (compare this to the 45,000 estimated at the height of Roman Britain)

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.