On 1 February 1971 Karpal Kaur Aandhu became the Metropolitan Police’s first female Asian police officer. In Cressida Dick the Met might have recently got its first female Commissioner but for Karpal she didn’t rise up through the ranks. Born in Zanzibar and of Indian parentage, her husband murdered her in 1973 believing her career was not Asian nor ladylike. Today there are 280 Asian women police officers in London alone.

On 1 February 1952 the first TV detector van was demonstrated to Postmaster-General Lord De La Warr at Post Office Laboratories, Dollis Hill

The building of Holloway Prison was completed in 1852 at the grand cost of £91,547 10s 8d, there were 436 cells, 283 for males, 60 for females, 62 for juveniles, 18 refractory cells and 14 reception cells

London used to be the largest and most influential city in the world. With a population of 12 million, it is still the world’s largest financial centre and Europe’s largest city

The world’s first underground public lavatory opened in 1855 under the pavement next to the Bank of England

The Prime Minister who created the most peers was Tony Blair at 357. The second-most created was 201 by Margaret Thatcher

19th-century historian Thomas Carlyle and his wife chose to live in Chelsea because it was ‘at once cheap and excellent’

On 1 February 1814 the last Thames Frost Fair commenced lasting 4 days, the ice supported an elephant led across under Blackfriars Bridge

The Royal Tennis Court at Hampton Court Palace is the oldest functioning sports building in England and still used regularly

Angel has the Underground’s longest escalator at 60m/197ft with a vertical rise of 27.5m its shortest is Stratford a vertical rise of 4.1m

The largest ox sold in England was from the Isle of Dogs. It weighed 236 stone and was sold at Leadenhall Market in 1720 for 100 guineas

Every 3 years a quill pen in the hand of Historian John Stow’s effigy is replaced at a ceremony in St Andrew Undershaft Church

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 January 1731 when accused by William Pulteney of being homosexual, Lord Hervey, a supporter of the first minister Sir Robert Walpole felt compelled to call a duel. Incredibly as the 1st Earl of Bath, Pulteney was, at that time, leader of His Majesty’s Opposition. Paulteney would have run Hervey through with his sword had he not slipped over at the crucial moment, enabling Hervey to be spirited away. Afterwards, Pulteney was struck off the roll of privy councillors.

On 25 January 1839 Henry Fox Talbot showed the photo he had taken of a window at his home to the Royal Institute, he had previously taken several photographic images but had never before shown them

Scotland Yard is so called as in 1829 the Metropolitan Police headquarters was on a site where Scottish kings stayed when visiting England

Liberty’s mock Tudor store is made almost entirely from oak timbers taken from two dismantled wooden ships HMS Hindustan and HMS Impregnable

The body of 18th century author Laurence Sterne was exhumed from St George’s Burial Ground, Bayswater by body snatchers

On 25 January 1981 David Owen, Shirley Williams, William Rodgers, Roy Jenkins issued the Limehouse Declaration from 78 Narrow Street

18th century audience members at Drury Lane Theatre who didn’t enjoy a ballet broke the windows of theatre manager David Garrick

Before Soho became a favourite haunt of the literati writers and artists drank at the Fitzroy Tavern in Charlotte Street

In 1770 Joseph Merlin demonstrated his new invention roller skates in Carlisle House, one of Soho’s first members’ clubs

Belsize Park Station is the only station with the letter ‘Z’ in its name and only two have a ‘J’ St James’s Park and St John’s Wood

Prostitutes working near The Globe Theatre on land owned by the Bishop of Winchester were called ‘Winchester Geese’

The rawlplug was invented for the British Museum. They wanted to fix fittings with min. damage to a wall – John Rawlings did them proud

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 11 January 1993 at the High Court British Airways was forced into a humiliating climb down when their counsel apologised ‘unreservedly’ for an alleged dirty tricks campaign against Virgin Atlantic. Richard Branson’s top lawyer George Carman QC on winning the case claimed ‘distinctly hostile’ rumours against the airline forcing BA to pay nearly £4m in damages and legal costs. BA though still made a profit that year of £301 million while Virgin posted losses of £9.3m.

On 11 January 1858 Harry Gordon Selfridge, founder of Selfridges Department Store, was born in Ripon, Wisconsin, USA

On 11 January 1950 Timothy Evans was wrongly found guilty & sentenced to death for murder of his daughter, Geraldine at 10 Rillington Place

The Brunei Gallery at SOAS on a wall is a plaque apologising for its being there-the only building in London to apologise for its existence

On 11 January 1890 Harold Bride, wireless operator on the Titanic, was born in Nunhead he washed off the ship as the boat deck flooded and was later rescued by the Carpathia

It was on High Holborn that Israel’s secret service, Mossad, killed one of the 1972 Black September Massacre terrorists by running him over

The movie Four Weddings and a Funeral was filmed at the Augustinian priory church of St. Bartholomew the Great

On Blackheath is an 18th century Pagoda designed by William Chambers used as a hideaway for Queen Caroline, wife of George IV

The 1908 London Olympics, the first of three held in London, were sponsored by Oxo, Odol mouthwash and Indian Foot Powder

Angel has the Underground’s longest escalator at 60m with a vertical rise of 27.5m. The shortest is Stratford with a vertical rise of 4.1m

Cock Lane was the only place licensed prostitutes could legally ply their trade in medieval London, although many roads took their name from the illegal sex industry

On 11 January 1569 Britain got its first state lottery when punters bought their tickets at the door at St. Paul’s Cathedral

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 4 January 1946 the day after William Joyce became the last Briton put to death for treason, 27-year-old Theodore Schurch a British soldier of Anglo-Swiss parentage was hanged for treachery by Albert Pierrepoint at Pentonville Prison, the last person to be hanged for a crime other than murder. Tried by court-martial at the Duke of York’s Headquarters in Chelsea during September 1945. He was found guilty of nine charges of treachery.

On 4 January 1962 Galton & Simpson sitcom Steptoe & Son was first broadcast from the BBC’s Shepherds Bush

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

On the site of Bridewell Court, New Bridge Street, Blackfriars once stood Bridewell Palace the residence of Henry VIII from 1515-1523

In 1938 a pedestrian was killed by a stone phallus falling from a statue on Zimbabwe House in the Strand other appendages removed for health and safety

During World War II French Resistance leader Charles de Gaulle set up Le Bureau Centrale de Renseignements et d’Action at 10 Duke Street, Marylebone

England’s first public playhouse was The Theatre built in Curtain Road in 1576 by actor James Burbage. It was the second permanent theatre ever built in England

Comedian and actor Will Hay English comedian, who first became well-known for his theatrical sketch as a joke-school master lived at 45 The Chase, Norbury from 1927 to 1934

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

The George Inn, Borough High St. dates back to 1676, is the last galleried coaching inn in London and is mentioned in Dickens’ Little Dorrit

Abbey Road Free Church members formed the Abbey Road Building Society in 1874 in 1944 it merged with the National to form the Abbey National

In 1969 Laurence Olivier started a petition demanding that the dining car of the London to Brighton train reintroduce kippers – it worked

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 28 December 1802 on this Tuesday morning, a young man discovered the corpse of the Dulwich Hermit, Samuel Matthews, outside the entrance to his cave in Dulwich Woods. His murderer was never discovered.

On 28 December 1594 the first performance of Shakespeare’s A Comedy of Errors took place in the hall of Gray’s Inn

Thief-Taker General Jonathan Wild sent more than 120 men to the gallows but was hanged at Tyburn for running gangs of thieves

When Camden’s Egyptian style cigarette factory opened in 1927 the road was filled with sand and opera singers performed Aida

In 1907 William Whiteley was shot dead in his Bayswater store by a young man claiming to be his illegitimate son

When Napoleon was thinking of invading England his failed attempt was mocked by an unusual ale house sign: ‘My Arse in a Bandbox’

The Grapes, Limehouse was the inspiration for Charles Dickens’ ‘Six Jolly Fellowship Porters’ in Our Mutual Friend

Pimms was invented in 1823 at 3 Poultry at the Pimm’s Oyster Rooms as an aid to digestion serving it in a small tankard known as a No. 1 Cup

Queen Victoria’s husband, Albert, saved the Oval cricket ground from closure only six years after it opened, desperate for funds they had considered adding poultry shows to the venue’s activities

Before CrossRail was named the Elizabeth line, Belsize Park was the only part of the London Underground to use a Z in its name

Wall’s Sausages used to be located at 113 Jermyn Street, where the meat for their products was ground by a donkey operating a treadmill

‘Hobson’s Choice’ comes from the livery stable owner Thomas Hobson who would drive from Cambridge to the Bull Inn, Bishopsgate Street

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.