On 21 March 1829 started the tradition of Duel Day when Wellington duelled with the Earl of Winchilsea at Battersea Fields over Wellington’s support of Catholics. The two drew their arms on the asparagus fields that would later become Battersea Park. Both took care not to hurt their opponent Winchilsea, deliberately firing a wide shot, perhaps with the sudden realisation that shooting the prime minister wouldn’t be a good move.

On 21 March 1853 Alfred Cops, zookeeper at the Tower of London, died at the Tower of London 18 years after his menagerie closed

Hanway Street (links Oxford St and Tottenham Court Road) – named after Jonas Hanway (1712-86), the first man in London to be arrested for carrying an umbrella

Spencer Street and Percival Street in Clerkenwell are named after Spencer Percival, the only British Prime Minister ever to be assassinated

In 1803, Chalk Farm: Lt-Col Montgomery and Capt Macnamara duelled because the dog of one snarled at the dog of the other Montgomery died Macnamara was severely injured

Now luxury flats, Tower House in Whitechapel, once a lodging house for homeless men, played host to Stalin and George Orwell

Announcements in Royal Court Theatre’s lifts are the voices of actors: Richard Wilson, Lindsay Duncan, Ray Winstone and Harriet Walter

The original plan for the Barbican’s cinema was to have the screen on the ceiling and the audience lying on their backs on the floor

Wisden were one of the original tenants above Leicester Square station – their bat, ball and wicket emblem are still there in the terracotta tiling

On 21 March 1922 Waterloo Station was formally opened by Queen Mary. The rebuilding had started in 1909, but World War I interrupted construction

St Bride’s Church steeple in Fleet Street was the inspiration for the bridal cake design by local baker Mr Rich, his design made him rich

London cabbies’ slang for Harley Street is ‘The Resistance’ because doctors opposed the creation of the NHS. Parliament is nicknamed ‘The Gasworks’

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 March 2008, The Queen officially opened Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5, in her speech she described it as “a 21st Century gateway to Britain”. The opening followed a major security alert after a man with a rucksack scaled the perimeter fence and ran into the path of an aircraft. Ketheeswaran Uthayakumar, of no fixed abode, was charged with endangering aircraft security, not to mention himself.

On 14 March 1885 Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta The Mikado premiered at the Savoy Theatre running for 672 performances

It’s against the law to roll or carry a cask, tub, hoop, wheel, ladder, pole, showboard or placard upon any footway unless loading a cart

Southwark Street laid out in 1862 by Sir Joseph Bazalgette was the first street in London with water and gas pipes in the middle of the road

Accused of murder John Williams committed suicide, his body was buried with a stake through his heart at New Road/Cannon Street Road

The American Declaration of Independence was printed in Caslon typeface designed in Chiswell Street by William Caslon, it’s now a Tesco

On 14 March 1805 fourteen-year-old William Betty played Hamlet on the London stage. The House of Commons was adjourned to enable Members to watch the performance

Opening in 1910 with 2,286 seats the London Palladium had its own telephone system, so patrons could talk to each other

In the 18th century at the Cat & Mutton, Broadway Market hosted the Soapy Pig Swinging Contest, drovers lathered a pig’s tail and hurled it

Sir Christopher Wren sat on the Parliamentary Commission regulating hackney cabs knowing nothing about them, nothing has changed then

The last executioners were Harry Allen and Robert Stewart. A scaffold is reputed to exist at Wandsworth Prison and still used for practice

Twice the Channel Tunnel’s length, deeper and wider than the Tube the Water Ring Main’s could fill The Royal Albert Hall in under 3 hours

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 7 March 1804, the Royal Horticultural Society was formed by Sir Joseph Banks and John Wedgwood. Its first meeting chaired by John Wedgwood was held at Hatchards bookshop in Piccadilly, committed the society to ‘the encouragement and improvement of the science, art and practice of horticulture’. The Society’s first garden was in Kensington, from 1818–1822. Wisley is now the society’s oldest garden.

On 7 March 1895 out of work plasterer Frank Taylor from Fountain Road, Tooting murdered his wife, and six of his seven children by slitting their throats

Until 1886 City of London police used rattles not whistles, helmets were strengthened top hats, so could stand on them to look for villans

Dukes Hotel, once part of St. James’s Palace, has knee height locks on doors because the staff used to have to enter and exit whilst bowing

The finest dentures of 19th-century London contained real human teeth, some gleaned from casualties of the Battle of Waterloo

Parliament’s jail was last used in 1880 imprisoning atheist Charles Bradlaugh for refusing taking oath of allegiance to the Queen on a Bible

Douglas Adams based characters of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe on Islington where he lived, Hotblack Desiato was an estate agent

Until recently Londoners consumed a prodigious amount of champagne, by volume they equalled the entire amount exported by France to America

London Fives is a dartboard game with 12 large segments counting down from 505, players standing 9ft away. Henry VIII was said to play it

The term ‘tube’ was first coined in 1890 when the first deep level electric line was commissioned 17 years before the brand name was adopted

When John Noakes climbed Nelson’s Column (removing pigeon poo) for Blue Peter a sound engineer didn’t record the stunt Noakes had to reclimb

On 7 March 1926 the first transatlantic telephone call was made between London and New York, the following year it was available with an initial capacity of one at a time costing $75 for 3 minutes

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 February 1975 the 08.37 tube from Drayton Park to Moorgate, packed with commuters overshot the platform and ploughed into a dead-end tunnel at over 30mph. The driver and 42 passengers died, a further 74 were injured, many seriously. Working to relieve the dead from the train took until 4 March before the last body, that of the driver was recovered. No cause of the crash was ascertained.

On 28 February 1948 King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, his two daughters went to see Danny Kaye at the London Palladium, the first non-command performance attended by a reigning monarch

Gallows Corner so called because the crossroads was popular with highwaymen holding up stagecoaches erecting gallows saved transporting them

When constructed the QEII Bridge was the longest cable-stayed bridge in Europe and the first bridge built east since Tower Bridge in 1894

London’s doctors prescribe 116 million items a year with amlodipine for heart disease/hypertension in the lead with 3,517,000 pills @ £1.42

During World War II 77 Baker Street was requisitioned by the Special Operations Executive, using it as a Homing Station for message-carrying pigeons

The 007 stage at Pinewood Studios is so large it housed the entire Greek fishing village in the 2008 musical Mamma Mia!

Ambassador Coach Travel of Great Yarmouth offered orbital coach tours of the M25 when it opened, the excursions were sold out for months

The placename Millwall originates from the windmills that previously lined the western embankment of the Isle of Dogs

Between 1984 and 2004 Russ Kane travelled 1.5 million miles of the M25 without any delays in the Flying Eye reporting on traffic jams

Truefitt & Hill at 71 St James Street are the world’s oldest barbers having been established in Long Acre in 1805

St Pancras was a 14 year old Christian orphan who was martyred in Rome in AD 303, his relics were returned to England in the 7th Century

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 February 1702 while horse riding at Hampton Court Park, William III’s horse stumbled on a molehill, throwing the King from his mount. The King broke his collarbone, his health, which had never been strong, deteriorated rapidly and he died 15 days later on 8 March. The Jacobites, supporters of James II who had died in exile, still raise a toast to ‘The Little Gentleman in the Black Velvet Waistcoat’, who made that little hill.

On 21 February 1934 the German ambassador’s dog Giro was accidentally electrocuted, given a full Nazi burial, Giro now lies at 9 Carlton House Terrace

In 1836 a sewer worker penetrated the Bank of England’s bullion room and was given a reward for showing how he breached the bank’s security

Adelaide House completed in 1925 was the first building in the City to employ the steel frame technique at 141ft the tallest block in London

Christopher Wren’s tomb in the crypt of St Pauls Cathedral is inscribed “Reader, if you seek his monument, look about you”. How very true

In 1940 from Room 36 at Brown’s Hotel the Dutch exiled government declared war on Japan since it wasn’t broadcast Japan was hardly terrified

The Beatles A Day in the Life immortalises Tara Brown, Lord Oranmore’s son who in Redcliffe Gardens “blew his mind out in a car . . .”

On the London Eye capsules travel at a leisurely pace of 26cm per second, which is twice as fast as a tortoise sprinting

Only seven Wimbledon Championships since 1922 have not been affected by rain delays promoting Centre Court’s retractable roof

Cabbies are still required to carry sufficient foodstuffs for their horse, so our luggage compartments can still accommodate a bale of hay

World’s first fire insurance company was started in London after The Great Fire, it employed firemen to protect only policyholder’s property

The Mayflower pub is licensed to sell American postage stamps for allowing the Pilgrim Fathers to leave for America from its landing stage

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.