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.

On 23 November 2006 Russian dissident, Alexander Litvinenko, died at University College Hospital. His death was attributed to poisoning with radioactive polonium-210. The Russian government were suspected of his murder.

On 23 November 1896 Woolwich Arsenal’s Joe Powell broke his wrist in a league match, he died 6 days later from tetanus complications

It was at Francis Bacon’s studio at Narrow Street, Limehouse that he met lover George Dyer as Dyer attempted to burgle the place

The dome of the O₂ weighs less than the air contained underneath it; there’s only one curved piece of glass in the Gherkin – the one right at the top

In 1862, Dr Thomas Orton, one of London’s most senior physicians, established four sibling’s deaths in Limehouse were caused by vivid green wallpaper whose constituent was arsenic

Under Paddington Green is a disused Cold War command centre its entrance covered by a bush, nearby are the top-security jail cells for terrorist suspects inside London’s Paddington Green Police Station

A fight with a fashion designer at a party is said to have inspired Ray Davis to write The Kinks hit Dedicated Follower of Fashion

During World War II the south moat at the Tower of London was used by the Yeoman Warders as allotments to grow vegetables

The neon sign on Hornsey Road Baths is the sole survivor of 12 similar signs commissioned at various London baths in the 1930s

The eastern extension of the Jubilee line is the only Underground line to feature glass screens to deter ’jumpers’

Constructed in 1850 Crystal Palace had nearly 1 million square feet of glass, about a third of all the glass produced in England that year

The Clapham South wartime bomb shelter was later used to house the first ever Jamaican immigrants who arrived in 1948 on the Empire Windrush

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 16 November 1724 Jack Sheppard, the diminutive 22-year-old thief and working-class hero, was taken from Newgate to Tyburn to be hanged. His hanging was attended by a crowd of 200,000, and he was buried in the churchyard of St Martin-in-the-Fields that evening. He was only twenty- two.

On 16 November 1898 Britain’s first escalator was installed in Harrods, customers were so overcome that attendants were posted at the top to administer brandy to gentlemen and smelling salts to the ladies!

In 1597 Ben Jonson was charged with ‘Leude and mutynous behavior’ and jailed in Marshalsea Prison for co-writing the play The Isle of Dogs

The Fire of London destroyed: 87 churches; Guildhall Royal Exchange; Customs House; 52 company halls; 4 prisons; 3 City gates; 4 bridges; and 13,000 houses

William Cowle died in the upstairs room of the Carlisle Arms, Soho in 1893, by placing a billiard ball in his mouth for a bet

The Ayrton Light atop Parliament’s Elizabeth Tower, popularly known as Big Ben, shines to show that the House is sitting

The ships surmounting flagpoles on The Mall depict Nelson’s fleet who defeated the French at The Battle of Trafalgar

Millwall (Rovers) were formed in the summer of 1885 by workers at Morton’s Jam Factory on the Isle of Dogs

Spurs’ first competitive match was versus St Albans in the London Association Cup in 1885, Spurs won 5-2

Clapham Junction Station is the busiest terminal in Britain once having 2,500 trains per day passing through

The majority of workers at Mortons Jam factory were of Scottish origin, this is the origin of Millwall’s famous blue & white colours

The definition of a Londoner: one who has never been to Madame Tussaud’s; Harrods once claimed to be able to supply elephants

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 9 November 1783 the first public hanging outside Newgate Prison took place when 10 criminals were hanged with the ‘new drop’ system, devised by Edward Dennis, the hangman, he was no saint either. He had been imprisoned in Newgate in 1780 and sentenced to death for taking part in the Holborn riots. He was later reprieved so he could hang his fellow rioters.

On 9 November 1947 a telerecording was used for the first time when the Remembrance Service from the Cenotaph was filmed by the BBC and recorded for transmission that evening

In 1415 following the Battle of Agincourt the Duke of Orleans, prisoner in the Tower of London, sent his wife the first ever valentine card

Blackfriars Bridge has several pulpits along its flank homage to Blackfriars Monastery which stood here until it was dissolved by Henry VIII

Domestic servants with visible smallpox scars were preferred to those unmarked, proof that they would not bring smallpox into the household

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

The dinner party attended by Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant in the film Notting Hill was held at 91 Lansdowne Road, Notting Hill

Tradition has it that Pimlico is named after Ben Pimlico, a 17th Century Hoxton brewer who supplied London with a popular Nut Brown ale

The world’s oldest cricket ball dates from 1820, was swatted over a 3 day period during William Ward’s record innings of 278 at Lord’s its present home

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

Arsenal were founded as Dial Square in 1886 by workers at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, but were renamed Royal Arsenal shortly afterwards

The world’s first weather forecast was issued from Greenwich Royal Observatory in 1848 by James Glaisher

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 2 November 1936, the BBC’s first high definition television service was officially inaugurated with a transmission from Alexandra Palace. The programme was received by only 20,000 television-owning homes within 35 miles of the palace and was described as ‘flickering’.

On 2 November 1953 the Samaritans, based in the crypt of St Stephen’s Walbrook, received its first call. It was founded by the Revd Chad Varah, vicar of St Stephen’s, with the stated aim ‘to befriend the suicidal and despairing’

On 2 November 1824 Henry Fauntleroy, a partner of Marsh, Sibbald 81 Co., bankers of Berners Street, was sentenced to death for forgery. He was executed at Newgate before an estimated 100,000 people

In Star Yard Holborn stands a late Victorian gents’ ‘pissoir’. Another one in is to be found in Twickenham, a similar example is in Regency Street

In 19th century London, middle class men lived to 45, workmen and labourers life spanned half that time and children were lucky to survive until five

It was at the Merchant Taylor’s Hall, in 1607 in honour of King James I, that the National Anthem was first sung

The West End’s oldest theatre, Theatre Royal Drury Lane, is also reported to be haunted by the Victorian music hall star and panto dame Dan Leno, whose spirit is said to exude the scent of lavender oil

You are allowed to use a camera in a London Royal Park, but not a tripod, nothing is mentioned about the use of a monopod

Richmond Golf Club’s 1940 rules: Known unexploded bombs are marked by red flags at a not guaranteed safe distance, a player whose stroke is affected by a explosion may play another ball from the same place

There are thirty-three bridges of all types across the tidal Thames up to Teddington Lock, a distance of just under 99 miles

Filming on location in the Underground costs £500 per hour (plus VAT) unless you have a crew of less than five

At 440 feet the village of North End on the edge of Hampstead Heath is the highest inhabited point in London

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.