On 21 June 1675 only a few onlookers observed as Thomas Strong, a master mason, set into place the first stone of St. Paul’s that was lowered deep into the earth. The lack of fanfare could be attributed to the King fearing for his safety. He had recently implemented financial measures which were unpopular in the city and had caused great distress, there had also been considerable controversy over the plans for the Cathedral.

On 21 June 1937 the first TV broadcast of a tennis match from Wimbledon was shown of a 1st round match between Bunny Austin & George Rogers

The narrowest house in London lies next door to Tyburn Convent and was built to block a passage used by grave robbers. It is one metre wide

Holborn Viaduct was built in 1869 to overcome the steep slope on both sides of Farringdon Street and is the world’s first road flyover

On 21 June 1944 the Kinks singer Ray Davies was born in Muswell Hill, London “Well, I’m not the world’s most physical guy”

William IV was the last king ever to dismiss his government, although all subsequent monarchs have in principle been free to do so

On 21 June 1978 the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical Evita premiered at the Prince Edward Theatre, starring Elaine Page

There are 32 pods on the London Eye, one for every borough, but they’re numbered 1 to 33 – no number 13 for superstitious reasons

The 21 June 1997 saw England all out for just 77 runs their lowest score at Lords since 1888 one Aussie bowler took 8 wickets for 38 runs

Electric cabs on Victorian streets numbered a mere 19 at the time 10,361 horse drawn cabs plied for hire and continued in service until 1947

Prince Philip who first referred to the Royal Family as “The firm” also described Buckingham Palace as “not ours, it’s a tied cottage”

On 21 June 1854 the 1st VC was awarded to Charles Davis Lucas who picked up a live shell from his ship’s deck throwing it into the sea

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 June 1822 the Astronomical Society in Bedford Street received a paper from mathematician, philosopher and mechanical engineer, Charles Babbage, entitled ‘A note respecting the application of machinery to the calculation of astronomical tables’. It was an automatic mechanical calculator the precursor of the computer, little did this son of a Walworth banker realised how his thesis would develop into the present digital age.

On 14 June 1971 the world’s first Hard Rock Café opened in Old Park Lane, it contains London’s only rock n’ roll museum tucked away in an old Coutts Bank vault

At Westminster Abbey traces of skin from a 14th century thief who attempted to steal the church’s valuables are still nailed to a door

Westminster Abbey was built on what was a remote island called Thorney Island situated in the middle of some marshland to the west of London

Dirty Dicks PH comes from dandy Richard Bentley whose house was on the site, on their wedding eve his bride died after which he lived in squalor

On 14 June 1380 revolting peasants occupied London and decapitated Archbishop Simon of Sudbury his skull is on display in Sudbury in Suffolk

Little St Pauls Cathedral is a sculpture on the side of Vauxhall Bridge and only visible from the River Thames

Henry VIII’s Wine Cellar a 40,000 cu. ft. cavern weighing 800 ton was moved more than 40ft to preserve it during the rebuilding of Whitehall

Tottenham Hotspurs deliberately set Jimmy Greaves’s 1961 transfer fee from AC Milan at £99,999 to avoid putting him under the pressure of being the first £100,000 player

The longest gap between stations is 3.89 miles from Chesham to Chalfont and Latimer; the shortest Covent Garden to Leicester Square 0.25 miles

The Mercers Livery Company is the oldest of London’s Guilds with ordinances dating back to 1347 and are No. 1 in the list of precedence

Estimated distances Bow Bells could be heard from City in olden days (definition of true Cockney) – 6 miles to east, 5 north, 3 south, 4 west

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 June 1832 the British Reform Act received royal assent and became law. The Act, pressed through by Prime Minister Earl Grey, forestalled a revolution by increasing the number of people who were eligible to vote. The Act created 67 new constituencies and broadened the qualification to vote to include small landowners, tenant farmers, and shopkeepers. Earl Grey tea was later named after the Prime Minister.

On 7 June 1977 more than one million people lined the streets of London to watch the Royal Family on their way to St Paul’s at the start of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee celebrations

An unrepealed law from 1313 makes it illegal to wear a suit of armour when entering The Houses of Parliament

The oldest apartments in London the Albany, Piccadilly founded in 1770 were until recently bachelor only accommodation and banned women

Measurements of skeletons at Christ Church Spitalfields are shorter on average than their medieval forebears probably caused by pollution

Her Majesty The Queen cannot enter The City of London without first asking permission from The Lord Mayor a ceremony performed at Temple Bar

A series of animal shapes have been highlighted in the London Underground map, first discovered by Paul Middlewick in 1988, created using the tube lines, stations, and junctions on the map

The top 50 tourist attractions in the world six are in London Trafalgar Square is 4th with 15 million visitors a year 44th is the London Eye

Bearing in mind the limited number of words that rhyme with ‘taxi’, users of rhyming slang must have greeted the arrival of Joe Baksi on the boxing scene of the 1940s with great delight

Heathrow Airport was the world’s first international airport to be linked to a city’s underground when the Piccadilly Line connected in 1977

Since 1910 the Goring Hotel has been run by the same family. It was the first in the world with full central heating and en-suite bedrooms

Hampstead Heath, Highgate Wood, Queen’s Park and Epping Forest are actually owned and managed by The Corporation of City of London

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 31 May 1669 bad eyesight forced Samuel Pepys to give up his diary. He was just 36 years old. It read ‘And thus ends all that I doubt I shall ever be able to do with my own eyes in the keeping of my journal, I being not able to do it any longer, having done now so long as to undo my eyes almost every time that I take a pen in my hand; and, therefore, whatever comes of it, I must forbear. . . all the discomforts that my being blind’

On 31 May 1915 a German bomb hit Stoke Newington, the dubious distinction of the first building attacked by a foreign power in 1,000 years

In May 1726 a stand erected at Tyburn collapsed as reviled Catherine Hayes was burnt at the stake six spectators predeceased her as a result

On 31 May 1859 the Great Clock on Big Ben started telling the time. The Great Bell and the quarter bells chimed later that year

Many Londoners died in the Black Death of 1348, it raged in London until spring 1350, and is generally assumed to have killed between one third and one half of the populace

Avenue House in High Holborn stands on the site of the First Avenue Hotel destroyed in WW2 below is built the first Atomic air raid shelter

The Savoy Hotel built by Richard D’Oyly Carte in 1889 on profits from Gilbert and Sullivan operas he produced at the adjoining Savoy Theatre

Old Bond Street predates New Bond Street by only 14 years and became popular after the Duchess of Devonshire boycotted smarter Covent Garden

Every July the Soho Waiters’ Race takes place, contestants run around the streets carrying a tray, a napkin, bottle of champagne and glass

In 1920 the world’s first passenger airport opened in Croydon adding the world’s first airport terminal and airport hotel 8 years later

The Ritz Hotel named after the great César Ritz although he never worked there, actually he was the first manager of the Savoy Hotel

St James’s Park is home to one example of every native waterfowl – the Swiss-style cottage is a hide and has a steam heater egg incubator

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 24 May 1989 Private Eye editor Ian Hislop declared: “If that’s justice, then I’m a banana”, after Sonia Sutcliffe, the wife of Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, won £600,000 damages – £100,000 more than the previous record British libel sum, and 100 times larger than that awarded to three of Sutcliffe’s victims – the magazine claimed she had profited from her notoriety by selling her story (it was later reduced to £60,000 on appeal).

On 24 May 1906 the Ritz Hotel opened, today it serves between 400 and 500 afternoon teas a day costing up to £79 per person

The notorious 18th century highwayman Jack Shepherd gained historic fame from jailbreaking and escaping not his robbing stagecoaches leaving London

North Ockendon is the only settlement within the Greater London boundary to poke outside the orbit of the M25 motorway

If Dutch ships land cargoes in the Pool of London the harbour fees are waived as they were the only ones prepared to come during the plague

Westminster Bridge is painted green and Lambeth Bridge painted red they mirror the seats’ colour in the Chambers of the Commons and Lords

Queen Victoria’s Memorial outside Buckingham Palace is called The Wedding Cake by cabbies as it still retains its whiteness after 100 years

In 1998 William Allen, aged 84, when driving the few miles to his daughter he inadvertently joined the M25, and spent two days going round in circles

On 24 May 1966 Cassius Clay fought Henry Cooper at Arsenal’s Stadium in front of 46,000 people Cooper’s cut eye gave Clay the match in Round Six

The Routemaster bus first appeared on London’s streets in 1956 and Transport for London still run the iconic red double decker bus on two routes

Part of modern Camden Market was once a horse hospital patching up animals after having slipped on London’s cobbled streets

Known as eyots, or aits there are 190 islands dotted along the Thames from source to sea, most are uninhabited

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.