On 5 April 1973, the Department of Health & Social Security declared London ‘a smallpox-infected area’, after a laboratory technician working part-time in the pox virus laboratory at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine became ill on 11 March and saw her own family doctor. A patient at the London hospital subsequently proved positive, he died the next day. Three cases of the contagion were confirmed.

On 5 April 1968 Flight Lieutenant Alan Pollock became the first pilot to fly a jet aircraft (Hawker Hunter) under the span of Tower Bridge

Bollards near Tate Britain were used to tie up barges alongside Millbank Penitentiary used to house prisoners destined for deportation

When tunnelling for the Jubilee Line extension St. Stephen’s Tower – which houses Big Ben – shifted over an inch it had to be shored up

St. Bartholomew’s Hospital was founded in 1123 and is the oldest hospital in England still on its original site

On 5 April 1967 fans of The Monkees walked from Marble Arch to the US Embassy, Grosvenor Square to protest at Davy Jones’ planned call-up

London street artist or graffiti dauber depending on your view comes from Bristol, famously secretive, he could come from, well — anywhere

Birdcage Walk derives its name from the aviary owned by King Charles I containing exotic species including a crane with a wooden leg

On Shrove Tuesday charity teams race up and down Dray Walk, Spitalfields flipping pancakes. The winning team receives an engraved frying pan

On Tower Hill is an entrance to the 1870 Tower Subway. You could ride under the river in a carriage pulled by cable

Lionel Logue who cured King George of his stammer had his practice at 146 Harley Street from 1926 to 1952 in the film Portman Place was used

Plaque on house by the Globe Theatre which claims that Wren lived there was put up by past owner Malcolm Munthe who made it up!

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 29 March 1920 Croydon Airport opened. The ‘Airport of London’ had been an amalgamation of two World War I airfields; Beddington and Waddon Aerodromes which were divided by Plough Lane. A level crossing linked the halves, with a man carrying a red flag to halt approaching traffic. The first destinations being Paris, Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Croydon was the first airport in the world to introduce air traffic control.

On 29 March 1981 at 09:00hrs in Greenwich Park 6,700 runners set out to run the first ever London Marathon

Legally children should obtain written permission from the Chief Constable before seeking to ask “A penny for the Guy, Mister?”

On 29 March 1871 the Prince of Wales opened the Albert Hall on behalf of his mother HM Queen Victoria, who was present but too overcome with emotion to speak

On 29 March 1772 mystic Emanuel Swedenborg died in Wapping. He had predicted there would be a special part in heaven reserved for the English

The owner of Tony Blair’s old house in Barnsbury has painted the front door Labour red. Blair’s house in Connaught Square, as with No 10 is black

The famous music hall song On Mother Kelly’s Doorstep is based upon a real location that can be found at Paradise Row, Bethnal Green

London’s first gastro pub the Guinea Grill, Bruton Street opened in 1952, a tavern is believed to have existed on the site since 15th century

London’s oldest golf club is The Royal Blackheath formed by Scottish courtiers visiting Greenwich Palace in 1608 in whose ground they played

In 1952 a 78 bus was on Tower Bridge when it started to rise – the driver put his foot down and jumped the widening gap, he got £10 for his bravery

Waterloo Bridge is known as the Ladies’ Bridge, because it was completed by female labourers during the Second World War

On the corner of Trafalgar Square is the official standard (in brass) for inch/foot/yard/etc it is accurate at 62 deg Fahrenheit

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 22 March 1963 the Beatles debut studio album, Please, Please Me was released. After discovering that the Cavern Club in Liverpool was unsuitable for live recording purposes they recorded live at EMI Studios in Abbey Road. At 10:00 am on Monday, 11 February 1963, the Beatles began working their way through their live set song by song, the number of takes varying on each, and finished at 10:45 pm – less than 13 hours later.

On 22 March 1888 the English Football League was formed at a meeting instigated by Aston Villa of 12 clubs in the Anderton Hotel, Fleet Street

The average weight of a City of London policeman in the early 20th century was twenty-two stone, we have no record of their current size

A clock tower in Market Road N7 is all that remains of the market which replaced Smithfield as London’s live cattle market in 1855

According to the burial register at St. Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch Thomas Cam died in 1588 at the ripe old age of 207

On 22 March 1963 The Secretary of State for War, John Profumo, denied any impropriety with the model, Christine Keeler

Itchycoo Park (recorded by the Small Faces) is actually Manor Park Cemetery, Sebert Road, Forest Gate and not some bucolic scene

On Tower Hill is an entrance to the 1870 Tower Subway, there you could ride under the river in a carriage pulled by cable

Harold Thornton invented table football in 1922 attempting to recreate Spurs with a box of matches, play it at Bar Kick, Shoreditch High Street

A 2011 study suggested 30 per cent of passengers take longer routes due to the out-of-scale distances on the Tube map

Vine Street, Spitalfields was where John Dolland of Dolland and Aitchison opened his optical workshop in the 1740s

On 22 March 1942 London’s Warship Week was launched in Trafalgar Square with the aim to raise £125m to fund the war, the first day it raised £27 million

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 15 March 1909 American retailer, H. Gordon Selfridge opened his new store in the unfashionable west-end of Oxford Street. His newly built department store boasted over half-a-million square feet of retail space. Gordon Selfridge coined two mottos ‘Only – shopping days until Christmas’ and ‘Business as usual’. He would later unsuccessfully attempt to get Bond Street Underground Station renamed Selfridge’s.

On 15 March 1824 the first piles driven in to River Thames of coffer dams for construction of Sir John Rennie’s new London Bridge

Suicides (a crime) used to be buried at crossroads – the last one in London (1823) was outside the garden wall of Buckingham Palace (then House)

The Monument a memorial to the Great Fire, the 202ft pillar designed by Wren is a telescope watch the cam on http://www.themonumentview.net/

Conservative MP Sir Henry Bellingham is a direct descendant of John Bellingham the assassin of Prime Minister Spencer Perceval in 1812

When Julian Assange was holed up at the Ecuadorian Embassy those visiting included Pamela Anderson, Lady Gaga, Eric Cantona and Nigel Farage

On 15 March 1932 Henry Hall and his dance orchestra performed the first musical programme from the new Broadcasting House in Langham Place

The short Holywell Street was the centre for the Victorian gay porn trade, with an estimated 57 pornography shops in as many yards

On Shrove Tuesday charity teams race up and down Dray Walk, Spitalfields flipping pancakes. The winning team receives an engraved frying pan

Edward Johnston designed the typeface for the London Underground in 1916. The design he came up with is still in use today, named Johnson

Following Prince Philip’s declaration that it was unmanly to do so royal footmen at Buckingham Palace no longer powder their hair

M25: 33 junctions; 6 counties; 117 miles, driving at 70 mph without braking it takes 1 hour 40 minutes to complete one lap of the motorway

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.