On 22 September 1735 Sir Robert Walpole moved into 10 Downing Street. Before taking up residence as Prime Minister, he commissioned William Kent to join the adjacent house at the rear to form a property more suited for a Minister of the Crown. Walpole persuaded Mr Chicken, to move to another house in Downing Street, this small house and the mansion at the back were then incorporated into Number Ten.

On 22 September 1848 John Harold, London’s first case of cholera died at 8 New Lane, Gainsford Street, Horsleydown, Southwark

The smallest prison in London is a single room in the base of the St Stephens Tower in the Houses of Parliament, although never used these days, it is still classed as a state prison

The Ritz was one of the first steel-frame buildings to be erected in Europe. The restaurant has so many chandeliers that its ceiling has had to be specially reinforced

Playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan died at 14 Savile Row. Whilst laid out in his coffin an overzealous bailiff arrested him for his debts

Christ Church, Lambeth, has a spire decorated with stars and stripes, half the cost of the church was borne by Americans, and the tower commemorates President Lincoln’s abolition of slavery

In the film The Da Vinci Code – The ‘Parisian’ lecture hall, where Tom Hanks gives a lecture is actually Fairfield Halls, Croydon

The Roundhouse in Camden was originally built as a turntable engine shed for the London & Birmingham Railway in 1846, within 10 years the engines were too big for the building to continue to serve its purpose

The 1908 Olympics were heading for Rome until Mount Vesuvius erupted on 5 April 1906 and the Italians suddenly had other priorities, with just two years’ notice, London came to the rescue

Cabbies face a daily £1 fine should he take two consecutive days off ‘without just cause’ according to section 33 of The London Hackney Carriages Act 1843

The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, one of the Livery Companies of the City of London, was formed by a Royal Charter in 1631 and remains the world’s oldest horological institution

There are now 25 Sherlock Holmes Societies around the world, in countries as diverse as Japan, Israel, India, Australia and Venezuela

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 15 September 1964 the Sun newspaper, printed on Fleet Street, was published for the first time, replacing the Daily Herald promising to follow a ‘radical’ and ‘independent’ agenda – unlike its predecessor the Daily Herald which had strong ties to the Labour party. The TUC sold its 49 per cent stake in the paper in 1960. It hit the streets on the day an announcement of a general election by Prime Minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home.

On 15 September 1928 Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin while studying influenza at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School, the University of London

Garnet Street was the scene of four victims from the famous Radcliff Murders of 1811, Johnny Speight used the name for his character Alf Garnet

London’s oldest statue King Alfred in Trinity Church Square with an estimated date of 1395 originally stood in the old Palace of Westminster

Europe’s largest crypt is under St. Paul’s Cathedral and the first person to be interred was its architect Sir Christopher Wren

During the First World War Alexandra Palace was used to detain German civilians living in Britain in what was called a concentration camp

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

Gordons Wine Bar is London’s oldest wine bar founded at its present location in 1890 by Arthur Gordon. Current owners are unrelated Gordons

On 15 September 1930, the first international bridge match was held in London United States team defeated England

With 207,000 items handed into Transport for London’s Lost Property Office in Baker Street last year made it the highest total in its 77-year history

N, S, E, and West Tenter Street surrounded a ground where tenters- wooden frames used to stretch woven cloth- were; hence “on tender hooks”

On 15 September 1784 Vincenzo Lunardi commenced England’s 1st hydrogen balloon flight from the Honourable Artillery Company area, Moorfields

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 8 September 1915 the first bomb of World War I to fall on the City of London hit Fenchurch Street; the first bomb of World War II fell at the junction of Wood Street and Fore Street, and curiously on 8 September 1944 the first V2 long-range rocket fell on Chiswick killing three. Altogether 1,050 V2 rockets reached Britain, killing 2,754 and injuring 6,523. For some reason, the Germans liked 8 September to start their assaults.

On 8 September 1961 the gallows at Wandsworth Prison’s E Wing were used for the last time to hang Henryk Niemasz

In 1780 during the Gordon Riots volunteers from the Bank of England repelled rioters using bullets made by melting down their inkwells

Until the 1990s the City’s Square Mile was exactly that, then pesky boundary changes made it an annoying inexact 1.16 square miles

When Humphrey Lyttelton host of Radio 4’s I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue died, people left flowers outside Mornington Crescent Tube station

The MI6 building at Vauxhall is as deep below ground as it is tall above-its river frontage is one of the few places inaccessible to walkers

London’s first Punch and Judy show was in 1662 at Covent Garden commemorated by the Punch and Judy pub in the modern Piazza

The oldest gentleman’s club in London is White’s, St James’s Street originally opened in 1693 as a chocolate house which evolved into a club

Theobalds Road was once a track that led to the Stuart kings’ hunting grounds at Theobalds Park in Hertfordshire

Hardy (as in Nelson’s ‘kiss me ..’) refused to travel from London Bridge station in 1836 because he saw the newfangled trains as ‘too risky’

All-American Marlboro Man’s name comes from London’s Great Marlborough Street, where the cigarette manufacturer had their headquarters

They’re over 25 places in the world called London 17 in the USA, there’s even an asteroid called 8837 London discovered in 1989 by Eric Elst

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 September 1951 the Premier Store opened in Streatham High Street, which at the time was the longest, busiest shopping strip in South London. Arguably Britain’s first supermarket, when competitors were pulling in £100 per week, Premier racked up £1,000 as 1,500 housewives descended on the store in its first day. Jack Cohen of Tesco bought the chain in 1960 having opened their first self-service store at St. Albans in 1956.

On 1 September 1875 Lambeth’s 14-year-old swimming prodigy Agnes Beckwith swam the six miles from London Bridge to Greenwich in 69 minutes

The 16th century bawdy courts were held at St Paul’s Cathedral and dealt with cases of sexual assault and described intercourse as occupying

All Christopher Wren’s churches are replacements after The Great Fire of London except one St. James’s, Piccadilly- built 1676 on a new site

An elephant is buried under Castle Bar Hill, Ealing the animal died whilst being moved and was interned where it fell

On 1 September 1939 Big Ben’s clock faces were unlit for the first time as war with Germany was impending

When Smithfield superintendent found a gold wedding ring he said the statute of a woman there should be married and soldered to her finger

Gordon Selfridge installed a secret lift in the store so his girlfriends, twins who eventually bankrupted him, could arrive unobserved

Dash to Pope’s Road, Brixton in September to watch the Brixton Bolt, see if you can beat Usain’s 100 metre time of 9.58

On 1 September 1968 the Walthamstow-Highbury Victoria Line extensions opened, giving a considerable uplift to local house prices

Cable Street is named after the local 18th century ropes and cable industry and was originally 608ft, the same length as a nautical cable

It wasn’t until an Act of 1765 that street names were made compulsory, traditional colourful shop signs having to give way to street numbers

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 25 August 1870 Richard Seymour-Conway the 4th Marquees of Hertford, died in Paris, Richard Wallace his illegitimate son, learned that the nobleman was his father and inherited a priceless collection of paintings, sculptures, furniture and decorative objects. After his death, the collection was donated to the nation by his widow, it is now located in what was his London home, Hertford House, Manchester Square.

On 25 August 1840 a conductor on an Chelsea omnibus found a pocket book containing £150, owned by Mr Kempis on New Road. He received £60 for his honesty

In Farringdon Street is the site of the Fleet Prison where fallen clergymen conducted clandestine weddings until the 18th century

The Tudor frontage of St. Bartholemew The Great Church which had been covered was revealed after a Zeppelin raid on the City

In the late 1880s, the life expectancy of an East End labourer was less than 19 years, his average wage was 25/- a week it would just cover his rent, and a very sparse diet for him and his family

The 0 on 10 Downing Street’s front door is at an angle, in tribute to original door, whose 0 slipped due to poor fixing

In the film Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy MI5 headquarters was, in fact, the Victoria and Albert Museum store in Olympia

Petticoat Lane home to London’s Sunday market doesn’t exist renamed Middlesex Street in 1830 the market still retains its original name

A site where starved bears were chained to a post and set upon by dogs as spectators bet on the outcome is marked by Bear Gardens Southwark

Half of London’s Tube stations have no light switches, meaning their lights can never be turned off. Transport for London (TfL) has no idea how much that is costing

Edwards of Camberwell has a Royal Warrant to supply the Queen with err . . . mopeds, it is not known if Her Majesty has need of that form of transport

Knightsbridge is the only Underground station with six consecutive consonants in its name, Aldwych has six but closed in 1994

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.