On 26 October 1998: Welsh Secretary of State, Ron Davies was ‘robbed at knifepoint’ after meeting a stranger as he strolled on Clapham. He said he picked up a man and a woman before driving to Brixton, where the passengers turned on him and took his car, wallet and phone. He resigned as Welsh Secretary shortly afterwards.

On 26 October 1950 the first sitting was held in the rebuilt Chamber of the House of Commons; it had been destroyed by enemy action on 10 May 1941

On 26 October 1981 Kenneth Howarth, an explosives officer with the Metropolitan Police, was killed whilst attempting to defuse an IRA bomb in the basement toilet of a Wimpy restaurant on Oxford Street

The sarsen that stands outside the Guildhall in Kingston is known as the Coronation Stone, 7 Saxon kings are said to have been crowned there

The only former Prime Minister to die in 10 Downing Street was Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman saying: “This is not the end of me” – it was!

During Tony Blair’s tenure, 37 computers, 4 mobiles, 2 cameras, a mini-disc player, a video recorder, 4 printers, 2 projectors and a bicycle were stolen from 10 Downing Street

The Tabard Inn which once stood in Talbot Yard behind Guy’s Hospital was the 65-mile fictional starting point of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales

Covent Garden’s Stukeley Street was formerly Coal Yard where Samuel Pepys saw pretty resident Nell Gwyn standing in a doorway

The German Gymnastic Society, now a restaurant, at King’s Cross established in London in 1861, was Britain’s first purpose-built gymnasium

A signalling box in Tottenham Court Road’s ticket hall sealed in 2013 to be opened in 2063, it contains an Oyster Card and a Baby on Board badge

The King’s cockle-strewer was employed to spread powdered cockleshells on Pall Mall so paille maille could be played in the 17th century

In November 1903 The Daily Mirror was launched from 2 Carmelite Street the paper started well until the owner Alfred Harmsworth allegedly said, “Women can’t read and don’t want to read”

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 October 1972 Crown Matrimonial, a play about the Abdication crisis of 1936, was first performed at the Haymarket. Amanda Reiss portrayed the Queen Mother the first portrayal of a living member of the Royal Family.

On 19 October 1739 Captain Jenkins produced his pickled ear before Parliament, claiming it was cut off by a Spaniard, on the same day Walpole declared war on Spain

Cellars at The Mason’s Arms, Upper Berkeley Street were used as cells for those to be hanged at Tyburn to which there is a connecting tunnel

St Paul’s Cathedral is the fifth built on the site of a Roman temple dedicated to Diana, the first church was constructed around 604 AD

Charliatan, Dr. Bossey entertained vast crowds in Covent Garden, but decamped when heckled by who he believed to be a dissatisfied patient, in fact it was a parrot

King Charles I was the last monarch ever to enter the Chamber of The House of Commons. Today the monarch addresses Parliament in the House of Lords

William Hogarth’s Times of Day: Night shows 18th century magistrate Thomas de Veil being soaked by urine on Charing Cross Road

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

London’s oldest swimming club is the Serpentine SC, founded in 1864, unusually it didn’t adopt first and second class swims

The Rocket inventor Robert Stevenson proposed the Thames Viaduct Railway a steel structure for trains to travel along the river’s centre

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

The 1,800 people a year granted The Freedom of The City of London can if they should wish herd a gaggle of geese down Cheapside

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 October 1884, the Tower of London Underground Station opened, it had only been in existence for 2 years. Opened during the construction of the Metropolitan Line, but when the Circle Line was created a larger station was required, and so Mark Lane was built as a replacement.

On 12 October 1974 the UK’s first branch of McDonalds opened in Woolwich, it was McDonalds’ 3,000th restaurant. A burger then cost 18p and a ‘Big Mac’ was then called a ‘Big Boy’.

In 1894 Martial Bourdin accidently blew himself up – his funeral sparked riots by 15,000 near the Autonomie Anarchist Club, 6 Windmill Street

The Tower of London once contained a royal residence, barracks, armoury, prison, mint, a menagerie and an observatory

It took Dr John Snow years to persuade the establishment that cholera is the water-borne disease that he proved it to be in Soho in 1854

During the Cold War the statue of St Francis of Asissi at Brompton Oratory was used as a ‘dead letter’ drop for Russian KGB agents

Fassett Square in Dalston was the model for Eastenders’ Albert Square but no pub and the garden is for residents only

Tooting Bec Lido holds 1 million gallons, taking a week to fill, at 300ft x 100ft a maximum of 1,400 swimmers can enter the water at a time

Edgar Kail scored over 400 goals for Dulwich Hamlet FC won 3 England caps and refused to turn professional, Hamlet fans still chant his name

The first deep-level tube trains had no windows, guards called out the station names to advise your location

In the early days of the London and Birmingham Railway conductors travelled outside the train, leaning in through the open windows to check tickets

It would take 7,408 Hula Hoops to reach the height of Big Ben, it’s a claim made by the manufacturers of – well Hula Hoops

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 October 1999 a train collided with a First Great Western train from Cheltenham at Ladbroke Grove, 31 people, including the drivers of both trains involved, were killed and 227 people were admitted to hospital. It was the worst accident on the Great Western Main Line.

On 5 October 1983 Cecil Parkinson, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, admitted to an affair with his former secretary, Sara Keays

HMP Pentonville built in 1842 at a cost £84,186 12s 2d was intended to be a holding prison for convicts awaiting transportation

Cowcross Street is so named after the cows crossing on their journey to the slaughterhouses and butchers at Smithfield Market

Idol Lane, off Great Tower Street was formerly Idle Lane denoting an area of the city where loiterers would congregate

Christ Church Lambeth’s spire is decorated with stars and stripes commemorating the abolition of slavery, half the cost was borne by America

The album cover for David Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars was shot outside 23 Heddon Street

Tossing the pie which apprentice boys tossed a coin to win a pie, if the pieman won he kept the 1d and the pie, losing he gave the pie away

In the sixties gangsters ‘Mad’ Frankie Fraser & Eddie Richardson played football for the Soho Ramblers, in 1965 they played HMP Parkhurst

Transport for London Byelaw 10(2): No person shall enter through any train door until any person leaving by that door has passed through it!

Friday Street (Fridei Strete in 12th Century) was named after the Friday market of fishmongers selling fish in memory of Good Friday

Covering in total 620 sq miles London is the biggest city in Europe and with 4,699 people per sq kilometre has Britain’s highest density

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 September 1666, Frenchman Robert Hubert was hanged at Tyburn for confessing to starting the Great Fire of London, unfortunately, he was not in England at that time.

On 28 September 1985 riots in Brixton following the shooting of Cherry Groce by police review led to a ban on CID officers carrying firearms

Sumptuary law prescribed precisely what different echelons of London society were permitted to wear only aristocrats could wear pointy boots

The 6,000-year-old timber piles visible at low tide in front of MI6’s building are remnants of a Mesolithic structure beside the River Effra

Below Greenwich Park at Croom Hill Gate is a Bronze Age cemetery, excavations in the 18th century found glass beads, wool and hair, as well as shields and swords

More than 1 million bees were evacuated from London during World War II, as their hives were disrupted by the shocks of the Blitz

Whitechapel’s Marcus Samuel sold painted seashells, which is why he called his later oil industry concern Shell

The Thames has frozen completely 24 times the last Frost Fair in February 1814 an elephant was led across the river below Blackfriars Bridge

Richmond Golf Club’s 1940 rules: ‘During gunfire or while bombs are falling, players may take cover without penalty for ceasing play . . .

The unique London Underground mosquito was notable for its assault of Londoners sleeping in the Underground during the Blitz

Gentleman’s Magazine was the world’s first magazine, it was printed at St John’s Gate, Clerkenwell, it ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1922, and was the first to use the term ‘magazine’

London’s oldest shrub is the 200-year-old wisteria at Fuller’s Griffin Brewery in Chiswick, planted in 1816, its twin at Kew Gardens died

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.