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.

On 30 December 1981 Fribourg & Treyer snuff shop closed its doors for the last time. A British snuff manufacturer and retailer it was founded by Mr Fribourg in 1720, at the sign of the Rasp and Crown. They sold cigars and snuff and cigarettes from at least as early as 1852, from their premises at 34 Haymarket. Customers included David Garrick, King George IV and Beau Brummell. The listed building and the intact facade still exists.

On 30 December 1887 a petition addressed to Queen Victoria with the signatures of over 1 million women appealing for public houses to be shut on Sundays, was handed to the Home Secretary

The City of London police is the smallest territorial police force in the world, as it only covers the Square Mile, although it has nearly 1,000 officers and special constables

The façade of Liberty’s in Regent Street is constructed from the timbers of the navy’s last two wooden warships : HMS Impregnable and HMS Hindustan

St George’s Hospital has a cowhide belonging to Blossom who gave cowpox to Sarah Nelmes in 1796 Jenner developed smallpox vaccine from virus

Playwright George Bernard Shaw served as a St Pancras councillor from 1897 to 1903, during which he worked to establish the first free ladies toilet in the borough

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

Henry VIII acquired Hyde Park from the monks of Westminster Abbey in 1536; he and his court were often seen there on horseback hunting deer

Leyton Football Club, claims to be London’s oldest club, Cray Wanderers if not once in Kent founded 1860, could be the earliest

On the Piccadilly line the recording of ‘Mind the GP’ is notable for being the voice of Tim Bentinck, who plays David Archer in Radio 4’s The Archers

In the 18th century a ‘Winchester Goose’ was not an animal. It was the nickname for a prostitute that plied her trade on the south bank of the river

The ‘Dirty Dozen’ is a nickname for a section of 12 Soho streets once used by cab drivers to short cut between Regent Street and Charing Cross

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.