On 3 February 1814 two youths died in the Thames. A frost fair had been taking place, when a piece of ice broke away and floated free just upstream of Westminster Bridge. One boy slipped titing the mini-iceberg tipping them both into the icy water. The frost fair of 1814 began on 1 February and lasted four days, during that time an elephant was led across the river below Blackfriars Bridge. It would be the last frost fair seen on the frozen Thames.

On 3 February 1975 despite having little knowledge of law, Prince Charles was called to the Bar at Gray’s Inn and became a Master of the Bench

St Martin Le Grand maintained right of sanctuary as late as 1697 and became a Mecca for counterfeit jewellers breaking the law with impunity

Merchant Tailors Hall still stands where it’s been since 1347 what is now Threadneedle St. though much rebuilt after The Great Fire and the Blitz

The first person to be buried in Poets’ Corner at Westminster Abbey in 1400 was Geoffrey Chaucer; Laurence Olivier was the last

William Wallace, commemorated in Mel Gibson’s Braveheart, was the first to suffer the ignominious fate of being hanged, drawn and quartered

Novelist William Thackeray wrote Vanity Fair, Pendennis and Henry Esmond whilst living at 16 Young Street, Kensington

On two occasions in 1813 and 1814 Jane Austen stayed with her brother in his apartment above his bank at 10 Henrietta Street

Polo imported in 1870 by cavalry officers serving in India was first played in Britain on Hounslow Heath and then Richmond Park

The Underground helped over 200,000 children escape to the countryside during the Second World War; The largest number of people killed by a single wartime bomb was 68 at Balham Station

By tradition, all the waiters at Pratt’s Club are called George (whatever their real name). When they got a waitress she was called Georgina

When tunnelling Crossrail at Tottenham Court Road an underground vault revealed 8,000 unused Cross & Blackwell ceramic jars for pickles and jams

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 27 January 1854 a proposal to re-site the Law Courts from Westminster to a new building on the Strand was greeted with opprobrium claiming it to be a waste of public money and be liken to the Tower of Babel . . A Nero’s Palace . . . A labyrinth of Crete. The first brick was laid on 30 April 1874, 20 years later, at the junction of Bell Yard and Carey Street; the complete buildings were opened by Her Majesty on 4 December 1882.

On 27 January 1796 Gentleman’s Magazine reported that Lady Caroline Campbell ‘displayed in Hyde Park the other day a feather four feet higher than her bonnet’.

In 1517 ‘Evil May Day’ saw riots against traders from Flanders, Italy and France led by John Lincoln he and other ringleaders were later hanged

The City of London’s smallest church St. Ethelburga-the-Virgin in Bishopsgate dates from at least the 13th century measures 56ft by 30ft

Dr Johnson (or dictionary fame) was known to drink up to 25 cups of tea in one sitting, despite his prodigious consumption he lived until 74 his final words were “I who am about to die”

For years Chelsea Bridge, originally named Victoria Bridge, was only lit on those nights when the Queen was sleeping London

Derelict Beckton gas works provided locations for Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket (he refused to leave Britain) and Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun

In preparation for the 1980 Christmas Office Party Nilson brought in a huge cooking pot it was later used to boil his victims’ heads

Only since the 1700s has Chelsea been known as that, before it was Chelsey, Chelceth & Chelchith. Doomsday Book lists Cercehede & Chelched

The greatest elevation above the ground level is on the Northern line at Dollis Brook viaduct over Dollis road, Mill Hill: it rises a total of 60ft

Howard House, 14 Fournier Street, Spitalfields is where the silk for Queen Victoria’s coronation gown was woven

The 1950’s ‘Teddy Boys’ (originally ‘Cosh Boys’) were first seen in London, mainly Elephant & Castle, and became Britain’s first youth cult

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 20 January 1989 Sir Ranulph Fiennes decided to test his equipment by paddling a floating sledge on the River Thames by Westminster Bridge, to ensure his equipment was suitable before setting off on his third attempt to claim the unconquered Polar record of reaching the North Pole trekking 425 nautical miles without dogs, motorised transport or air transport supply. With Mike Stroud he achieved his goal.

On 20 January 1802 Joseph Wall, former governor of an African colony, appeared in court charged with murdering a subordinate. He had him tied to a gun carriage and given 800 lashes, from which he died.

In 1868 Michael Barrett became the last to be publicly hanged outside Newgate for attempting to free Richard Burke by blowing up the prison

The Dove Pub Upper Mall, Hammersmith, where Charles II and Nell Gwynne dined, at 4ft 2in by 7ft 10in has the smallest bar room in the world

Fragrance Madeleine was trialled at Piccadilly station in 2001 to make the Tube more pleasant. Stopped after days people said they felt ill

Edward VI punished Westminster Abbey (St Peter’s) by diverting their funding to St Paul’s hence the phrase ‘Robbing Peter to pay Paul’

The 1951 film The Magic Box starring Robert Donat was the first moving picture on celluloid in a London Park (Hyde Park)

Before its current venue in Frith Street, Ronnie Scott’s jazz club was beneath a Chinese fan-tan gambling den at 39 Gerrard Street

Arsenal’s Paul Merson cashed his first football pay cheque at Barclays Bank Finsbury Park then blew it all at William Hill’s across the road

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

Men who searched through Victorian sewers for valuables that had been lost down drains were known as Toshers ‘What a load of old tosh!’

Between 17-25 January 1963 the temperature at Kew failed to rise above freezing that winter is regarded equal to the infamous winter of 1740

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 13 January 1583 eight people were killed in Paris Gardens a lawless area outside the City’s jurisdiction. This day was Sunday when God fearing folk at church. However crowds were standing on scaffolds watching bear baiting when the scaffolding collapsed. Many considered it God’s wrath as London’s Lord Mayor, Thomas Blanke would write ‘it giveth great occasion to acknowledge the hande of God for suche abuse of the sabbath daie’.

On 13 January 1612 the first purpose-built court house was opened in St. John Street, Clerkenwell financed by Sir Baptist Hicks

Cellars at The Mason’s Arms, Upper Berkeley Street were used as cells for those to be hanged at Tyburn to which there is a connecting tunnel

The first London Eye was erected in Earls Court in 1894 for an Empire of India exhibition, 300 feet high, as opposed to 442 for the London Eye

41 people drowned in 1867 after they decided to ignore warnings and skate on thin layer of ice on the lake in Regent’s Park

One of Boris’s first acts as London Mayor was to ban alcohol on the Tube – and all London Transport – from June 2008

On 13 January 1972 David Bowie, was photographed by Brian Ward, in front of 23 Heddon Street, creating one the most celebrated album covers of all time

At Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens one visitor complained that meat was sliced so thinly that a joint could cover the entire gardens

The Tube Challenge record did not appear in the Guinness book of Records until its eighth edition in 1960, when it stood at 18 hours, 35 minutes

Standing on the right on tube escalators came about because early escalators ended in a diagonal, one had to step off with the right foot

Over three-hundred cats were ’employed’ as rat catchers when St Katherine’s Dock was built in the 1820s on a site in which thousands had been evicted from their homes

It is from the white stones of St Mary Matfelon church, demolished after World War II, that Whitechapel takes its name. The church was built in 13th century

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 January 1792 The Anacreontic Society whose membership was dedicated to wit, harmony, and the god of wine published their last notice in The Times. The club’s anthem, ‘To Anacreon in Heaven’, sung at all venues as they promoted their interest to music to the wider public, was adopted by American rebels for the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’. The later was made the United States National Anthem by congressional resolution on 3 March 1931.

On 6 January 1540 Henry VIII married Anne of Cleves at the Royal Palace of Placentia, Greenwich. He was later to call her his Flanders’ Mare

The Magpie and Stump opposite Newgate Prison (on site of modern Old Bailey) served ‘hanging breakfasts’ to those watching public executions

In 1726 at No. 4 Church (now Fournier) Street, Spitalfields carpenter Marmaduke Smith built his home and England’s first mahogany staircase

On 6 January 1928 a storm surge travelled up the Thames submerging the Tate Gallery’s ground floor and drowning 14 Londoners

At the beginning of World War II Broadcasting House, home of the BBC, was painted battleship grey to avoid German bombers, it was still hit

The Highbury scenes for the movie Fever Pitch were shot at Craven Cottage. It still had terraces, which by then Highbury didn’t

The viewing plinth at the top of the Monument was caged in 1842 due to a high number of suicides some were bakers

William Webb Ellis, who invented rugby football, was rector of St Clement Danes, the church claimed to be featured in the nursery rhyme Oranges and Lemons

The busiest Underground station is by far Oxford Circus, it was used by around 98 million passengers in 2014

Carrier pigeons on an Evening Standard van in 1936 were used to quickly take photo negatives to the paper’s HQ

In the early 70s David Bowie lived at 89 Oakley Street, Chelsea where he painted EVERYTHING in the house black to simulate a coal mine

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.