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.

On 14 February 1895 Oscar Wilde’s most enduring play, The Importance of Being Earnest, was premiered at the St. James’s Theatre, in King Street on a really cold St. Valentine’s Day. With already three other successful productions currently being performed in London, it would go on to be his most successful and quoted play. Lady Bracknell, she of “a handbag”, was played by the gloriously named Miss Rose Leclercq.

On 14 February 1946 the Bank of England (‘The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street’) was nationalised with the signing of a 250-page bill by King George VI

‘Do not attempt to travel by taxi while suffering from the plague’. Extract from the Public Health Act 1985. Just so you know should the need arise

The City of London the historical core of the Capital, roughly matches the boundaries the Roman city of Londinium and of medieval London

London’s first traffic lights, situated outside the Palace of Westminster, blew up injuring a policeman and causing passing cavalry horses to stampede

Upminster Bridge station has a swastika motif on the floor of the ticket hall installed before the symbol took on its sinister reputation

John Stow’s monument depicting him writing his Survey of London, he is holding a real quill pen, the quill is replaced every 5 years by the Lord Mayor

The London Eye can carry 800 people each rotation, which is comparable to 11 London red double-decker buses

In 1891 Arsenal was the first London club to turn professional, called the Royal Arsenal when the club turned professional the name changed to Woolwich Arsenal

The first parking meter was installed in Mayfair with a charge of one shilling per hour (5p) today the same fee buys you 45 seconds

The ‘porter’ style of beer was officially invented at the Bell Brewhouse in Shoreditch by Ralph Hardwood in 1722

The guns of HMS Belfast are targeted on Barnet in north London, but with a range of 30 miles could destroy Scratchwood Services on the M1

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.