On 23 August 1305, famous thanks to Hollywood, one of Britain’s most famous rebels, died this day. William Wallace, the Scots resistance fighter had taken on one of England’s most formidable kings, Edward I, and lost. Tried at Westminster Hall, found guilty of treason and murder, he was dragged to Smithfield to be hanged, drawn and quartered. A memorial attesting to his martyrdom is to be found in Smithfield.

On 23 August 2010 the flat of GCHQ operative Gareth Williams was searched by police, here they found his body locked in a holdall placed in the bath

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

If London was a country it would be the 8th biggest in Europe in monetary terms and the greenest city of its size in the world with two-thirds covered in green space or water

Royal Pharmaceutical Society Museum has a collection of over 45,000 objects including a collection of English delftware drug storage jars amongst which is the oldest known dated piece in the world

On 23 August 1940 the German Luftwaffe began night bombing on London, when Ju88s dropped more than sixteen tons of high explosives

A pyramid to cover Trafalgar Square was proposed by Irishman, Colonel Frederick Trench, MP to commemorate the triumph at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805

The Grosvenor Hotel (now Thistle Victoria) was one of the first hotels in London to have a lift called at the time ‘a rising room’

On 23 August 1933 the first televised boxing match took place in London between Archie Sexton and Laurie Raiteri

On 23 August 1617 the first one-way streets opened in London, they ran into Thames Street, the next one-way street in London was Albemarle Street

In 1661 the first postmarks in the world were struck at Post Office Court near to where today’s Bank of England now stands

In 1661 the world’s first postmark was struck at the General Post Office located in Prince’s Street opposite the Bank of England

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 August 1897, the Tate Gallery was opened on Millbank, it contained a collection of 67 Victorian paintings donated by sugar magnate Sir Henry Tate. Starting a grocery shop, which grew to a chain of six stores by the time he was 35. Selling the grocery business, Tate became a partner in John Wright & Co. sugar refinery, and in 1872, he purchased the patent from German Eugen Langen for making sugar cubes.

On 16 August 2008 as Notting Hill Carnival drew to a close, 40 young men fought a running battle with police, a tradition repeated on many a August bank holiday

The 1950’s Teddy Boys (originally ‘Cosh Boys’) were first seen in London, mainly Elephant & Castle, and became Britain’s first youth cult

Pall Mall was the first street in England to be lit by gas by the splendidly named New Patriotic Imperial and National Light and Gas Company

Bread Street in the City of London, is the birthplace of 17th century English poet John Milton who wrote Paradise Lost

Found in Westminster Abbey after the Queen’s coronation: 3 pearl ropes, 20 brooches, 6 bracelets, a diamond necklace, 20 coronet gold balls

Contrary to popular myth, the statue of Nelson on his column in Trafalgar Square doesn’t have an eye patch

Green Park comes from when Charles II picked a flower giving it to the most beautiful woman, not his wife who ordered all flowers be removed

The Artillery Garden, Finsbury is the oldest venue for archery in the world, Fraternity of St. George 1509 uses traditional longbows

The reason London taxis are so high is so that gentlemen don’t have to remove their top hats, particularly when going to Ascot

Benjamin Franklin invented the lighting conductor and St Paul’s Cathedral was the first public building in the world having it affixed to it

Of the 700,000 dogs in London 10,000 each year end up at Battersea Dogs Home where contrary to urban myth only the old and dangerous are destroyed

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 August 1901 after developing appendicitis on 24 June, Edward VII had recovered sufficiently to be crowned at Westminster Abbey on this day. The surgical skill of Sir Frederick Treves ensured that the 50-year-old monarch was well enough to attend the ceremony. Prior to the anaesthetic, the King made Sir Frederick a Baronet. Sir Frederick was known for his friendship with Joseph Merrick, dubbed the ‘Elephant Man’.

On 9 August 1967 Kenneth Halliwell bludgeoned lover and playwright Joe Orton to death at 25 Noel Road, Islington

The Blind Beggar was the scene of another gruesome murder when street thief Bulldog Wallis stabbed a man through the eye with an umbrella

Bevis Marks synagogue is named from boundary marks of the Bishop of Bury St Edmonds’ house which was here in medieval times

The Old Vic 1937, Lawrence Olivier’s sword broke and hit a member of the audience, who was so startled he promptly had a heart attack

By tradition the Monarch stops at Temple Bar to ask permission of the Lord Mayor to enter The City and to surrender the Sword of State

Jeremy Sandford’s acclaimed 1966 BBC play Cathy Come Home directed by Ken Loach was partly filmed on Popham Street in upmarket Islington

Kettner’s in Romilly Street, Soho was founded in 1867 by German named August Kettner, rumoured to have been Napoleon’s chef

Blackheath is the site of the United Kingdom’s first rugby club, also gave birth to the world’s first hockey clubs, the first golf club south of the Scottish border

The requirement for cabs to have a turning circle of 25ft was instigated as far back as 1906, Nubar Gulbenkian asked why he bought one replied: ‘Because it turns on a sixpence; whatever that is.’

The weathervane on the Royal Exchange in the City is a grasshopper not a cock, the former being the crest of its founder Sir Thomas Gresham

Army barracks near Mill Hill East were named after Lt-Col William Inglis killed in 1811 battle who told his men to “die hard” – hence phrase

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 August 1833, the famous entertainment venue, Vauxhall Gardens, had its most successful day when an astonishing 133,278 people arrived to visit its paths being noted for romantic assignations, watching tightrope walkers, hot-air balloon ascents, concerts and fireworks providing entertainment, and a statue depicting George Frederic Handel. In 1817 the Battle of Waterloo was re-enacted, with 1,000 soldiers participating in our victory.

On 2 August 1921 residents of Hackney and Upper Clapton were summoned to the North London Police Court, found guilty, they were fined for illegally watering their gardens

London’s oldest tree a 2,000 year old yew in St Andrew’s Totteridge churchyard was used as the venue for an early type of magistrate’s court

Covent Garden takes its name from when the area was walled off as a garden for Westminster Abbey and the convent on the site

London’s first pedestrian refuge island was financed by a Colonel Pierpoint stepping back to admire his creation he was knocked down by a cab

The Archbishop of Canterbury’s sermon at Edward VII’s wedding was so boring the orchestra started playing to drown him out

The Duke of Wellington has the unique honour of having two equestrian statutes of him erected in central London

Britain’s first bagel bakery opened in 1855 – it still is open every day of the year 24 hours a day in Brick Lane

Montague Burton set up a chain of shops selling 30/- suits, upper floors were builliard halls for use by customers as they waited for their clothes to be altered

On 2 August 1870 Tower Subway opened under the Thames becoming the world’s first underground railway, carrying up to 12 passengers at a time

Twining Teas opened 1707 on the Strand selling tea to Queen Anne, it’s the oldest business in Britain operating from their original premises

The former Abbey National Building Society (now Santander) was founded in a Baptist chapel in Abbey Road, St. John’s Wood

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.