On 14 April 1471 the decisive battle of The Wars of the Roses was fought in Arkley, north of Barnet between Edward IV of the House of York and Henry VI who led the House of Lancaster. The battle lasted from two to three hours, most of it in thick fog. Contemporary sources say that at least 10,000 men died in the battle. The subsequent Battle of Tewkesbury would ensure the House of York was victorious.

On 14 April 1913 The Royal Geographical Society opened their new premises at Kensington Gore. Now known as ‘Hot and Cold Corner’ for the Livingstone and Shackleton statues

Magpie and Stump pub until 1868 would charge extra for drinks taken upstairs where punters could enjoy viewing the public hangings at Newgate

At 141ft, Adelaide House was the tallest office block in London when it was completed in 1925 and was the first office building in England to have electric and telephone connections on every floor

Now located in Beckenham, King’s College London Institute of Psychiatry was originaly named bedlam, meaning uproar and confusion

The future Mary II is said to have wept for a day and a half when she was told that she would have to marry William of Orange in 1677

Off Greville Street, Clerkenwell is the cobbled Bleeding Heart Yard mentioned by Charles Dickens in Little Dorrit

The world’s oldest public zoo opened in London in 1828 it was initially known as the ‘Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological Society of London’

Greyhound racing’s first superstar ‘Mick the Millar’ was so popular his stuffed body was put on display at the Natural History Museum

The Peter Lodge recording of “Mind the Gap” is still in use, but some lines use recordings by a Manchester voice artist Emma Clarke

Tesco was founded in 1924 when Jack Cohen and T. E. Stockwell sold tea in bulk opening a store in Tooting

The corgis also have hot scones every afternoon, served with butter and crumbled onto the kitchen floor by the Queen herself

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 April 1903 a Polish barber, George Chapman was hanged at Wandsworth Prison for the murder, by poison, of his wife. His three other wives had died under suspicious circumstances. John Abberline, who headed up the Jack the Ripper investigation, thought Chapman was also The Ripper. He had closely interviewed his first ‘wife’, Lucie Badewski, and she had told him that her husband often used to go out during the night.

On 7 April 1908 Herbert Henry Asquith’s Liberal Party won the General Election. Edward VIII was abroad, the only time the elected Prime Minister had the official ‘Kissing of the Hands’ abroad

In Oliver Twist Charles Dickens sited Fagin’s Lair in the notorious area that existed around the current Saffron Hill

In the 11th century, Brixton was known as ‘Brixistane’ meaning ‘the stone of Brihtsige’. Locals used the stones as a meeting place

Behind the stalls of Islington’s Sadlers Wells Theatre is the well containing medicinal water which Thomas Sadler found in 1684

On 7 April 1968 after previously accompanying Princess Margaret and The Queen Mother King Freddie of Buganda was found living on the dole

George Orwell used Senate House in Bloomsbury as the inspiration for The Ministry of Truth in his book 1984

Birdcage Walk was the site of the 17th century Royal Aviary. Diarist John Evelyn spotted “many curious kinds of poultry” here

In 1922 in the rafters of Westminster Hall was found a tennis ball dating from before 1520 made of leather and stuffed with dog’s hair

In between Golders Green and Hampstead the tube slows down for the ghost station “Bull and Bush”, a station which was never built

In the early 80’s comic Jo Brand worked as a psychiatric nurse at the Maudsley Hospital, Denmark Hill, a fact of her life she will often talk about

Chains from Brunel’s Hungerford Bridge, demolished in 1864, were re-used as part of the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol

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 March 1986 the Greater London Council was abolished, with thousands of people taking part in festivities to mark the historic final hours of 97 years of local rule in London. A throng of 250,000 people gathered on the South Bank in London, home to the Greater London Council, which ceased to exist at midnight, festivities ended with the largest display of fireworks ever seen in the city after a week of events costing £250,000.

On 31 March 1986 Lady Gale died in her apartment at Hampton Court Palace, the result of a fire that caused millions of pounds damage

In 1961 Elsie Batten was killed in Cecil Court by Edwin Bush the first UK man to be caught by the use of an identikit picture

The Oxo Tower’s windows were designed in ‘O-X-O’ shapes to get round rules banning neon advertising. Lit up at night they did the same job

The Imperial War Museum was once Bethlem Asylum known as Bedlam where Victorian artist Richard Dadd was incarcerated

The clock above Horseguards Parade has a black mark by the figure II marking the time when Charles I was executed nearby

Artist Rosetti kept several animals in his Chelsea home including a wombat who ate the hat of a woman he was painting

Waterstone’s Islington Green was built as Collins Music Hall where Charlie Chaplin and Gracie Fields were among the performers

Jonathan Trott has never hit a Test six. The only man ever to hit a six over the Lord’s pavilion was Albert . . . Trott. Related (distantly)

Actor Timothy Bentinck who plays David Archer in the long-running Radio 4 soap drama was the voice of “Mind the Gap” on the London Tube

In 1696 Edward Lloyd published London’s first daily newspaper containing shipping information he picked up from customers in his coffee shop

After purchasing a London cab, the immensely rich Nubar Gulbenkian said that a London taxi can turn on a sixpence – “whatever that is”

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 March 1918 a bigamist and American conman died at the Wood Green Empire. For years he had masqueraded as Chung Ling Soo the most famous – and wealthiest – ‘Chinese’ magician on London’s stage. His famous trick of being shot backfired when a real bullet hit him. His first English words since reaching Britain were “Oh my God, something’s happened, bring down the curtain”.

On 24 March 1877 the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race ended in its only dead heat with a time of 24 minutes, 8 seconds

Bow Street Police Station was the only Victorian London police station with a white light outside rather than a blue light

Smithfield Market was designed by Sir Horace Jones who also designed Billingsgate and Leadenhall Markets and Tower Bridge

On 24 March 1947 businessman Alan Sugar (The Apprentice, Amstrad) was born in Hackney, East London

The Wiener Library, Russell Square contains 1 million items relating to the Holocaust, it is the world’s oldest library of related material

The 100th anniversary of the roundel (the Tube Logo) was celebrated in 2008 by TfL commissioning 100 artists to produce works that celebrate the design

Early 1980s – Burlington Arcade beadle tells someone off for whistling – they turn round – it’s Paul McCartney – beadle exempts him from whistling ban for life

In March 1950 a ski-jump contest was held on Hampstead Heath with 45 tons of snow brought from Norway in wooden boxes cooled by dry ice

St James is the only Underground Station to have Grade-I protected status. It includes 55 Broadway, the administrative headquarters of London’s Underground since the 1930s

Daniel Defoe wrote Robinson Crusoe in Stoke Newington where he also ran a civet farm in the grounds of his house

London boasts over 300 different spoken languages, more than any other city in the world, 78 per cent cite English, followed by Polish and Bengali

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 17 March 1968, an anti-Vietnam war rally with 10,000 protesters held at Trafalgar Square turned violent when a large group marched to the American embassy in Grosvenor Square. Hundreds of police surrounded the building, which at that time was not protected by anti-terror barricades. Violence flared and by the end of the day, 246 had been arrested, of which 7 were imprisoned and 91 police injured.

On 17 March 1845 the rubber band was patented by Stephen Perry, it was made to secure papers, early versions were made of vulcanised rubber

Anne Morrow might have regretted marry three times while dressed as a man when she was permanently blinded by missiles while being pilloried

The Serpentine was the world’s first artificial pond designed not to look manmade when the River Westbourne was diverted in 1730

Holy relics kept at Westminster Abbey included: Virgin Mary’s girdle; Mary Magdalene’s hair; a phial of Christ’s blood and St. Benedict’s head

So unpopular he was deposed in 1688 but before going into exile King James II petulantly threw the Great Seal of State into the Thames

The statute of Field Marshal Lord Woseley on Horse Guards Parade was cast in bronze from recycled from captured enemy cannon

Theatre Royal, Haymarket was the third theatre to get a royal licence, it was granted after the owner broke his leg falling from the Duke of York’s horse in 1766

The youngest rower to win the University Boat Race is Matt Smith who at 18 years 255 days won with Oxford in March 2000

The longest journey in a car (1988 Volkswagon Scirocco) powered by coffee was from London to Manchester (337km) in March 2010

At Forty Hall, Enfield 15 acres of grapes are growing – the purpose is to start London’s first commercial vineyard since medieval times

50 Berkeley Square was once the home of George Canning, Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister and claims to be the most haunted building in 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.