On 12 December 1988, three commuter trains crashed near Clapham Junction. One train stopped due to a signal malfunction, another collided into it, while a third train ploughed into the wreckage, 35 died and 415 were injured.

On 12 December 1898, Fulham London’s oldest football club was granted professional status

Serial billiard ball thief Harry Jackson received seven years jail for two convictions – how times have changed

The house numbering in Downing Street used to be different. Number 10 was originally No 5 and did not acquire its present number until 1779

Henry Campbell-Bannerman has been the only British Prime Minister to die at 10 Downing Street. He died there in April 1908

While Cromwell never readmitted Jews a London colony of Sephardic Jews was identified in 1656 and allowed to remain – first time since 1290

In Elizabethan theatre different coloured flags were used to advertise the play’s theme – black flag tragedy, white comedy and red history

Until 1983 women could not be served at the bar in Fleet Street’s El Vino – only when seated at a table served, presumably by a subservient waiter

On 12 December 1988 the first satellite pictures were beamed to over 2,000 London betting shopsbroadcasting live horse racing

The tallest escalator on the Underground is at the Angel with a length of 197ft (making it the world’s longest) and a vertical rise of 90ft

London Scientist Christopher Merret invented sparkling wine in 1662, Champagne didn’t come on the scene until 1697

17th century diarist John Evelyn proposed moving smoky industries out of London and then encircling with ‘sweet-smelling plants and hedges’

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 December 1952, the Great Smog of 1952, formed by a sharp cold snap, lack of wind and a combination of industrial and domestic smoke, engulfed London for four days, resulting in the death of upwards of 12,000 people.

On 5 December 1766 thirty-six-year-old James Christie held his first auction sale in London

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

On 5 December 1863 at Freemasons Arms, Great Queen Street modern footy was codified, Freemasons Arms, Long Acre displays old football boots

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.

On 28 November 1919, American Nancy Astor married the 2nd Viscount Astor and became the first woman to be elected in the House of Commons taking her seat on 1 December.

On 28 November 1994 Buster Edwards, great train robber, inspiration for Phil Collins’ Buster, committed suicide in Lambeth

Serial killer Dennis Nilsen once lived at 195 Melrose Avenue, Cricklewood the scene of 13 murders. Nilsen was sentenced to 6 life sentences

The GDP of London is significantly larger than that of several European countries, including Belgium and Sweden

Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg who lived off Farringdon Road predicted there would be a special part in heaven reserved for the English

A white spike at the south end of London Bridge commemorates a practice of displaying traitors heads dipped in pitch on the original bridge

Kenneth Grahame author of The Wind in The Willows and Secretary of the Bank of England was shot at at the bank by a deranged George Robinson

6ft 5in circus strongman Carl Dane in 1926 was the first to pull a London bus with 12 passengers inside using only his teeth

When he was Prime Minister the Duke of Wellington held indoor races along Downing Street corridors with men pulling women seated on rugs

In 2014, not a single 07.29am Brighton–London Victoria train reached its destination on time after failing to roll in at its scheduled time of 8.35am on a single occasion

When Selfridges opened in 1909 their information bureau answered queries on subjects from crossword clues to government stats

The City’s Square Mile is now an imperfect 1.16 square miles following 1990s boundary changes incorporating an area north of London Wall

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 21 November 1953, the Natural History Museum announced that the Piltdown Man skull, initially thought to be one of the most important archaeological finds, was actually a hoax.

On 21 November 1989 the House of Commons proceedings were televised for the first time

In the 1940s and 1950s Metropolitan Police Officers using their own bicycles to cover police beats were paid an allowance of threepence

The New Exchange was a kind of early shopping mall which was built on the south side of the Strand in 1608 and stood there until 1737

All but one of the ravens at the Tower of London died from stress during the Blitz, fortuitously as legend has it that should they leave the Tower England will fall

London was once the capital of six countries in World War II it was safe haven for the governments of Poland, Norway, Belgium, Holland, France

Jarvis Cocker, lead singer of band Pulp, wrote a song called 59 Lyndhurst Grove after being thrown out of a party at that address in Peckham

The first London Eye was erected in Earls Court in 1894 for an Empire of India exhibition, 300ft high, as opposed to 442 for the London Eye

The foppish son and heir apparent of King George II died in Leicester House as a result of being struck in the throat with a cricket ball

Cockfosters Underground station was originally going to be called Trent Park or ‘Cock Fosters’ (an early spelling of the area’s name), the original site hoarding displayed the name as a single word

In 1981 Soho had 184 sex establishments today only Brewer Street the upstairs windows of Old Compton Street and alleys near Berwick Street belie its past

At 135ft Candover Street off Riding House Street is London’s shortest street, Rotherhithe Street the longest named street at 1.5 miles

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 14 November 1896, the ‘Emancipation Run’, later known as the ‘London to Brighton Car Rally’ took place to celebrate the increase in the speed limit from 4mph to 14mph.

On 14 November 1666, an experimental blood transfusion between two dogs took place observed by Samuel Pepys, one of first successful in 17th century

In 1906 Messrs Spillberg, Nabian and Aaroris of Nelson Street, Stepney were convicted of smuggling saccharin which then was considered a drug

Liverpool Street’s Great Eastern Hotel (now the Andaz) opened in 1884 and was at one time the only hotel in the City

Builders working on the Builders working on the Bakerloo Line are reported to have suffered from the bends while tunnelling under the Thames

During World War II and the Nazi occupation of Holland Queen Wilhelmina moved her Dutch government into her London home at 77 Chester Square, Belgravia

The Cliff Richard musical Summer Holiday had a bus bound for ‘London to the South of France via Dover Paris’ most was shot in LT’s bus works Aldenham

Museum of London tracing the capital’s history from Prehistoric times to the present day is the largest urban history museum in the world

In 1966 actor, bodybuilder and politician Arnold Schwarzenegger lived at 335 Romford Road Ilford as a guest of bodybuilder Charles Bennett

The first section of the Underground ran between Paddington and Farringdon Street. The same section now forms part of the Circle, Hammersmith & City, and Metropolitan lines

Miles Coverdale who supervised the production of the first complete bible in English in 1535 was once Rector of St Magnus the Martyr

When the Millennium Dome was built, a Blue Peter capsule was buried containing amongst other items a spice girls cd, a tamagotchi and a Blue Peter badge!

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.