On 8 September 1915 the first bomb of World War I to fall on the City of London hit Fenchurch Street; the first bomb of World War II fell at the junction of Wood Street and Fore Street, and curiously on 8 September 1944 the first V2 long-range rocket fell on Chiswick killing three. Altogether 1,050 V2 rockets reached Britain, killing 2,754 and injuring 6,523. For some reason, the Germans liked 8 September to start their assaults.

On 8 September 1961 the gallows at Wandsworth Prison’s E Wing were used for the last time to hang Henryk Niemasz

In 1780 during the Gordon Riots volunteers from the Bank of England repelled rioters using bullets made by melting down their inkwells

Until the 1990s the City’s Square Mile was exactly that, then pesky boundary changes made it an annoying inexact 1.16 square miles

When Humphrey Lyttelton host of Radio 4’s I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue died, people left flowers outside Mornington Crescent Tube station

The MI6 building at Vauxhall is as deep below ground as it is tall above-its river frontage is one of the few places inaccessible to walkers

London’s first Punch and Judy show was in 1662 at Covent Garden commemorated by the Punch and Judy pub in the modern Piazza

The oldest gentleman’s club in London is White’s, St James’s Street originally opened in 1693 as a chocolate house which evolved into a club

Theobalds Road was once a track that led to the Stuart kings’ hunting grounds at Theobalds Park in Hertfordshire

Hardy (as in Nelson’s ‘kiss me ..’) refused to travel from London Bridge station in 1836 because he saw the newfangled trains as ‘too risky’

All-American Marlboro Man’s name comes from London’s Great Marlborough Street, where the cigarette manufacturer had their headquarters

They’re over 25 places in the world called London 17 in the USA, there’s even an asteroid called 8837 London discovered in 1989 by Eric Elst

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 1 September 1951 the Premier Store opened in Streatham High Street, which at the time was the longest, busiest shopping strip in South London. Arguably Britain’s first supermarket, when competitors were pulling in £100 per week, Premier racked up £1,000 as 1,500 housewives descended on the store in its first day. Jack Cohen of Tesco bought the chain in 1960 having opened their first self-service store at St. Albans in 1956.

On 1 September 1875 Lambeth’s 14-year-old swimming prodigy Agnes Beckwith swam the six miles from London Bridge to Greenwich in 69 minutes

The 16th century bawdy courts were held at St Paul’s Cathedral and dealt with cases of sexual assault and described intercourse as occupying

All Christopher Wren’s churches are replacements after The Great Fire of London except one St. James’s, Piccadilly- built 1676 on a new site

An elephant is buried under Castle Bar Hill, Ealing the animal died whilst being moved and was interned where it fell

On 1 September 1939 Big Ben’s clock faces were unlit for the first time as war with Germany was impending

When Smithfield superintendent found a gold wedding ring he said the statute of a woman there should be married and soldered to her finger

Gordon Selfridge installed a secret lift in the store so his girlfriends, twins who eventually bankrupted him, could arrive unobserved

Dash to Pope’s Road, Brixton in September to watch the Brixton Bolt, see if you can beat Usain’s 100 metre time of 9.58

On 1 September 1968 the Walthamstow-Highbury Victoria Line extensions opened, giving a considerable uplift to local house prices

Cable Street is named after the local 18th century ropes and cable industry and was originally 608ft, the same length as a nautical cable

It wasn’t until an Act of 1765 that street names were made compulsory, traditional colourful shop signs having to give way to street numbers

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 25 August 1870 Richard Seymour-Conway the 4th Marquees of Hertford, died in Paris, Richard Wallace his illegitimate son, learned that the nobleman was his father and inherited a priceless collection of paintings, sculptures, furniture and decorative objects. After his death, the collection was donated to the nation by his widow, it is now located in what was his London home, Hertford House, Manchester Square.

On 25 August 1840 a conductor on an Chelsea omnibus found a pocket book containing £150, owned by Mr Kempis on New Road. He received £60 for his honesty

In Farringdon Street is the site of the Fleet Prison where fallen clergymen conducted clandestine weddings until the 18th century

The Tudor frontage of St. Bartholemew The Great Church which had been covered was revealed after a Zeppelin raid on the City

In the late 1880s, the life expectancy of an East End labourer was less than 19 years, his average wage was 25/- a week it would just cover his rent, and a very sparse diet for him and his family

The 0 on 10 Downing Street’s front door is at an angle, in tribute to original door, whose 0 slipped due to poor fixing

In the film Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy MI5 headquarters was, in fact, the Victoria and Albert Museum store in Olympia

Petticoat Lane home to London’s Sunday market doesn’t exist renamed Middlesex Street in 1830 the market still retains its original name

A site where starved bears were chained to a post and set upon by dogs as spectators bet on the outcome is marked by Bear Gardens Southwark

Half of London’s Tube stations have no light switches, meaning their lights can never be turned off. Transport for London (TfL) has no idea how much that is costing

Edwards of Camberwell has a Royal Warrant to supply the Queen with err . . . mopeds, it is not known if Her Majesty has need of that form of transport

Knightsbridge is the only Underground station with six consecutive consonants in its name, Aldwych has six but closed in 1994

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 18 August 1668 Samuel Pepys wrote: “ . . . turned into St. Dunstan’s Church . . . stood by a pretty, modest maid, whom I did labour to take by the hand and the body; but she would not, but got further and further from me; and, at last, I could perceive her to take pins out of her pocket to prick me if I should touch her again – which seeing I did forbear, and was glad I did spy her design. And then I fell to gaze upon another pretty maid . . .

On 18 August 1274 arriving in London, a full two years since his accession, King Edward I received an enthusiastic welcome

On formal occasions judges attending at the Old Bailey carry nosegays of aromatic herbs their scent were once thought to ward off typhus

Under Clapham Common are three wartime shelters which were a temporary home for Jamaicans arriving via the Windrush in 1948

Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots never met but are entombed within yards of each other (one without her head on her shoulders)

In 1940 from Room 36 at Brown’s Hotel the Dutch government in exile declared war on Japan as it wasn’t broadcast Japan was hardly terrified

Bob Dylan’s cue card video for Sub.Home.Blues – you’d think it was New York City, right? But actually shot at the back of the Savoy in London

The American Bar at the Savoy – where the barman used to be called Joe – hence “set ’em up Joe” in Sinatra’s One For My Baby

The German Gymnasium by St. Pancras station was built in 1864 by the German Gymnasium Society for use of visiting German businessmen

The woman recording the Tube announcements was asked for different pronunciations of Marylebone – including (no word of a lie) “Mary-Lob-On”

18th-century artist Hogarth was an Inspector of Wet Nurses in Chiswick near his home which is open to the public

The only Celtic name in London not a river is Penge from penn ced ‘the woods end’, originally a woodland swine pasture by Battersea manor

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 11 August 1982 Ronnie and Reggie Kray were allowed out of prison to attend their mother’s funeral. The service was attended by Diana Dors who arrived wearing a fetching black dress and sunglasses. Ronnie was brought from Broadmoor for the criminally insane, Reggie from Parkhurst where he was held as a Category ‘A’ prisoner. The brothers were not allowed to attend the graveside service at Chingford Mount Cemetery.

On 11 August 1897 Enid Blyton was born at 354 Lordship Lane, she would go on to sell more than 600 books and have been translated into 90 languages

Marc Brunel invented a tunnelling machine to bore the first Thames Tunnel after watching the common shipworm while in a debtors’ prison

The site of the previous New Scotland Yard was originally to be an opera house, after spending £103,000 they couldn’t afford the roof and it was pulled down

In 1878 Britain’s worst river disaster happened on the Thames when the paddleboat Princess Alice was struck by a collier with the loss of 640 lives

Fearing its gold would illuminate Kensington Palace at night the Albert Memorial was painted black during World War I, it wasn’t restored until 1998

In 1970 Dan Crawford founded The King’s Head Theatre, Islington the first pub theatre in the England since the time of Shakespeare

In 1905 millionaire George Kessler flooded the Savoy’s courtyard to float a gondola, a birthday cake on an elephant’s back and Caruso singing

Wisden were one of the original office tenants above Leicester Square station their name is still there in Cranbourn Street side of building

The 1695 London to Harwich Roads Act allowing country justices to collect tolls is to be repealed – traffic cameras have made the law obsolete

The former headquarters at 1 Cockspur Street of The White Star Line, owners of the Titanic, is now a US restaurant the Texas Embassy Cantina

In one of our favourite derivations, Chiswick is Old English for ‘cheese farm’, and was first recorded as Ceswican around the year

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.