On 13 September 1971 a theft from Lloyds Bank on Baker Street was reported by the media. The £3 million robbery, the largest ever in Britain, had taken place the previous Saturday. The robbers had tunnelled a distance of approximately 50 feet passing under the intervening Chicken Inn restaurant. Three days later a ‘D’ Notice requested all further media coverage was suspended until the trial of four men in 1973.

On 13 September 1958 Collins’s Music Hall on Islington Green was badly damaged by fire, Waterstones now stands on the site

In 1999 a man tested his right as a Freeman of the City of London to drive two sheep named Clover and Little Man, across London Bridge

79 Pall Mall is the only building in the street not owned by the Crown. Charles II gave Nell Gwynn the freehold after she refused its lease

From the lower office windows of 16 Farringdon Lane can be seen the original medieval medicinal drinking water of ‘Clerks Well’ from which Clerkenwell takes its name

On 13 September 1940 at 11 am, Buckingham Palace was damaged by German bombs during the second of three daylight raids on London that day

Lambeth Bridge’s statutes symbolise human virtue: for men ironworking building working honour; for women agriculture housework cooking power

The oldest baths building in London which still serves the needs of a functioning swimming pool is the entrance block of Forest Hill Baths

Britain’s earliest supplier of rackets balls in the 19th century Mr Maling of Woolwich learnt his craft as an inmate at King’s Bench Prison

In 1989 a version of the famous FX-4 London taxi went on sale in Japan badged as the ‘Big Ben Novelty Car’, no records exist as to the number of buyers

During World War I a giant postal sorting office was located in Regent’s Park handling 2 billion letters in the world’s largest wooden structure

London has a population density ten times higher than anywhere else in Britain with its residents speaking over 300 languages

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 6 September 1889, a letter to the Editor of The Times was published, the correspondent pointed out the inconvenience to a gentleman of the errant low hanging awning rods outside shops. The gentlemen in question complained that on occasion his hat was actually knocked off his head, and at night further obstructions were placed in the way of his headgear, in the shape of lights being hung at unreasonable heights.

On 6 September 1828 the Gothic House for llamas, presented by the Duke of Bedford was opened, he was President of the Zoological Society of London from 1899 to 1936

Buckingham House built 1702 which would later become Buckingham Palace was built on the site of a notorious brothel

A ‘tot’ was an artificial Celtic beacon hill arranged along solstice lines London’s most famous tot hill was Westminster hence Fields and Street

On 6 September 1921 an inquest ruled that 63-year-old retired French cook, Joseph Enecker, had shot himself after suffering hiccups for 48 hours

Pear Tree Court on Lunham Road has an 18-room nuclear bunker in the basement, now closed as Lambeth declared the borough nuclear free

165 Broadhurst Gardens was home to Decca Records until the early 1980s, on 1 January 1962, Brian Epstein paid for an hour audition for The Beatles, but they were turned down by Decca

Bleeding Heart Yard is almost certainly derived from an ancient religious symbol later adopted by a tavern which once stood on the site

On 6 September 1913 Arsenal played their first game at Highbury, 20,000 watched the Gunners beat Leicester Fosse 2-1

Building the tunnels for the first section of the District Line (South Kensington to Westminster, 1868) used 140 million bricks

Until Edward VIII changed the rules in 1936, Beefeaters at The Tower of London were required to sport a beard

Dulwich College founded in 17th century by actor Edward Alleyn has famous alumni including PG Wodehouse and Ernest Shackleton

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 30 August 1976, the Notting Hill Carnival ended in a riot, with more than 100 police officers taken to the hospital and 60 carnival-goers needing hospital treatment after the clashes which led to the arrest of at least 66 people. The trouble started after police tried to arrest a pickpocket near Portobello Road on the main carnival route. The police were attacked with stones and other missiles, however only two were convicted.

On 30 August 1572 Elizabeth I issued a decree: ‘no foteball player be used or suffered within the City of London and the liberties thereof on pain of imprisonment’

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!

Once Britain’s largest enclosed space, if measured, the air within the Albert Hall would weigh in at over 30 tons

John St. John Long appeared at the Old Bailey on a charge of manslaughter, his victim dosing on his medicated vapours, he paid the £13,000 fine from his vast wealth accululated from selling quack remedies

The Dorchester was seen as safe during the Blitz it is built using 2,000 miles of steel rods, a host of political and military luminaries chose it as their London residence

St. George Church, Mayfair designed by John James, one of Sir Christopher Wren’s assistants, when completed in 1725 was the first church in London to be built with a portico

There are three tube stations on the Monopoly board: Liverpool Street Station, King’s Cross and Marylebone

On 30 August 1930 the first Dutchman to play in the English Football league Gerrit Keizer made his goalkeeping debut for Arsenal

Underground’s longest tunnel is from East Finchley to Morden totalling 17.3 miles but only 45 per cent of the network is actually in tunnels

The Daily Courant was London’s original newspaper first published in 1792 near Ludgate Circus, consisting of a single page, with advertisements on the reverse side

The Constable of The Tower of London can extract a barrel of rum from any naval vessel plying the Thames

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 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.