On 23 April 1390 (St. George’s Day) a joust was held between Lord Welles, Ambassador to Scotland, and Sir David de Lindsay, a Scot, on London Bridge. This was a result of an argument as to the valour of the two nations. On the third run Lindsay unhorsed Welles so easily that the crowd began yelling that he had nailed himself to his saddle. To prove he had not, Lindsay jumped off his horse and then back on, while still wearing his full suit of armour.

On 23 April 1702 gout ridden Queen Anne became the first monarch to be carried to her coronation and wore a £12 wig to improve her demeanour

Reggie Kray and Frances Shea’s photographer at their wedding at St James the Great, Bethnal Green Road in April 1965 was David Bailey

Dr Samuel Johnson once owned 17 properties in London, only one of which survives – Dr Johnson’s Memorial House in Gough Square

18th century Hampstead was a spa resort where people came to take the waters which reputedly had health giving properties

In April 1905 Vladimir Lenin lived at 16 Percy Circus, since demolished and replaced with the rear of Kings Cross Royal Scot Travelodge hotel

Actor, dancer, comedian and clown Joseph Grimaldi lived at 56 Exmouth Market, Islington from 1818 to 1828, there is now a park off Pentonville Road named after him

Coram’s Fields park and playground in Bloomsbury is unique in that adults are only allowed to enter if accompanied by a child

The sport of golf, which originated in Scotland, was first played in England on Blackheath in 1608. The Royal Blackheath Golf Club was one of the first golf associations established (1766) outside Scotland

London’s heavily congested streets mean that a taxi’s average speed of 17mph is slower than that attained by Hansom cabs over 100 years ago

The ‘porter’ style of beer was officially invented at the Bell Brewhouse in Shoreditch by Ralph Hardwood in 1722

Marc Isambard Brunel came up with his idea on how to dig the Thames’ Tunnel whilst in debtors’ prison watching a shipworm bore through wood

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 16 April 1892 a letter to The Times was printed complaining about cyclists. Signed Pedestrian, London, W the writer wrote “Sir, . . . the growing number of cyclists is resulting in a Tyranny of the Road . . . and that his country walks were . . . regularly interrupted by hurtling wheelmen like a horde of Apache or Sioux Indians . . . woe betide the luckless man or aught else coming their way . . . can nothing be done?”

On 16 April 1969 Princess Anne saw the hippy musical Hair at the Shaftsbury Theatre surprising as it featured a nude sequence set to music

In the 17th and 18th centuries London thief-takers were rewarded £40+ the horse, arms and money of any highwayman they captured and were convicted

Meard Street is not named after the French word merde. It was the unfortunate name of its 1720s developer John Meard

On 16 April 1889 comedian Charlie Chaplin was born in Walworth, as his father was absent and his mother struggled financially, he was sent to a workhouse twice before the age of nine

London Bridge is Falling Down referred to Norwegian King Olaf who suggested destroying the wooden bridge while occupied by Danes

The nursery rhyme Pop Goes the Weasel refers to the act of pawning one’s suit after spending all one’s cash in the pubs of Clerkenwell

In 1840s a ‘Dances of the Dead’ were held in the Enon Chapel, St Clements Lane where 12,000 bodies lay rotting under the floor

In 2012 London became the first city to host the modern Olympic Games three times, having previously done so in 1908 and in 1948

The inaugural journey of the first Central line train in 1900 had the Prince of Wales and the American author Mark Twain on board

In the 1800’s London prostitutes were sometimes euphemistically referred to as ‘Fulham virgins’ inspired by the proximiy of Cremorne Gardens a 19th century ‘pleasure garden’

During a City clean up in 1,340 prostitutes were arrested, among them was Clarice la Claterballock but no record as to how she got her name!

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 9 April 1626 Francis Bacon, English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, and author, died of pneumonia. He was the agent of his own demise having experimented at trying to freeze a chicken with snow. He argued that scientific knowledge must be based only upon inductive and careful observation of events. He caught a chill and was taken to the Highgate home of the Earl of Arundel and put into a damp bed. He would never get out of the bed alive.

On 9 April 1970 at the High Court in London a petition brought by Paul McCartney formerly wound up The Beatles

On 9 April 1976 then president of the Young Liberals, Peter Hain, was acquitted of bank robbery at the Old Bailey (£490 from Barclays bank)

The only London residence of William Blake that still remains is 17 South Molton Street where Blake lived on the first floor 1803-1812

On 9 April 1483 Edward IV died at Westminster, the crown passed to his son Edward V aged just twelve years old

On 9 April 1747 at Tower Hill Scottish clan chief Lord Simon Fraser Lovat was the last person in Britain to be executed by being beheaded

On 9 April 1914 the world’s first silent colour film, the sleezy sounding World, Flesh and the Devil was shown in London

The Old Mitre pub in Holborn contains a cherry tree trunk round which, it is claimed by the pub owners, Elizabeth I danced

West Ham United football club were originally founded in 1895 as Thames Ironworks Football Club and reformed in 1900 as West Ham United

Seventeen different bus routes pass through Trafalgar Square it makes the square one of the busiest crossroads for London traffic

In 1100s human lavatories walked the streets of London wearing large cloaks and a bucket. Customers used the bucket whilst hidden by the cloak

On 9 April 1787 a fencing match between Chevalier de St. Georges and Chavaliere d’Eton took place at Carlton House, both were 1st class fencers, d’Eton 20 years older and dressed as a woman won

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 26 March 1862 to repay the ’courtesy, kindness and confidence’ he had received from the British public American banker George Peabody announced the creation of a fund that carries his name. Designed to ameliorate the condition of the poor and needy of London, from the first estate in Spitalfields opening in 1864 Peabody Estates now houses more than 70,000 Londoners. Born poor in Massachusetts he is today regarded as the ‘father of modern philanthropy’.

On 26 March 1973 women were finally allowed on the trading floor of the London Stock Exchange for the first time in the institution’s 200 year history

HMP Wormwood Scrubs was built by its inmates, nine inmates built 50 cells, then more inmates joined and built more cells to house even more etc, etc

Tins of Old Holborn rolling tobacco once featured a drawing of the front of Staple Inn, Holborn one of the last timber framed building left in London

Poet Shelly met second wife Mary, author of Frankenstein, in St Pancras Old Church graveyard where she visited her parents’ tomb

Margaret Thatcher used to stand on a chair in her Commons room to check the top of the door. “It’s the way you know if a room’s really been cleaned.”

Wyndham’s theatre programme 1940: ‘In the interests of public health this theatre is disinfected with Jeyes Fluid’

Hamley’s toy store was founded by Cornishman William Hamley in 1760, first named Noah’s Ark and sited in Holborn

Harold Abrahams (Chariots of Fire) from Golders Green won gold at the 1924 Paris Olympics, the first European to win an Olympic sprint title

Gordon Selfridge wanted Bond Street tube renamed Selfridges Station but he couldn’t persuade the Underground’s managing director to agree

Constantia Philips, a retired courtesan, opened London’s first sex shop in 1732. Her “preservatives” – condoms – were hugely popular

On 26 March 2014 Sesame Street star Kermit the Frog was made Honorary Bridge Master of Tower Bridge by the City of 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.

On 19 March 1958 the United Kingdom’s first planetarium opened adjacent to Madam Tussaud’s waxwork museum. Built on the site of an old cinema destroyed by a World War II bomb the new planetarium seated 330 beneath a horizontal dome, the opto-mechanical star projector gave a view of the night sky as seen from earth. Due to falling numbers it was closed in 2006. To say ‘farewell’ to the planetarium the public were allowed free entry to the show in its penultimate week.

On 19 March 1702 upon the death of William III of Orange, Anne Stuart, the sister of Mary, succeeded to the throne of England, Scotland and Ireland

Acid Bath Murderer John George Haigh was driven to murder 6 people by lust to drink his victim’s blood. He was hanged at Wandsworth Prison

The Princess Louise pub at 208 High Holborn was built in 1872 and named after Queen Victoria’s 4th daughter

The viewing plinth at the top of The Monument was caged in 1842 due to a high number of suicides many having a connection to bakers

The Soviet Union ran a spy ring from 49 Moorgate. Special Branch raided the place in 1927 finding ¼ million documents and crates of rifles

Jeffrey Archer’s London phone number ends 007 – he bought the old flat of Bond composer John Barry, who’d chosen the number

Rackstrow’s Museum of Anatomy on Fleet Street was popular in the 1700s because he was a skilled modeller in replicas of reproductive system

When The Oval, home of Surrey County Cricket Club, was built in 1845 over 10,000 pieces of turf from Tooting Common were used

The first London buses were so slow that operators provided free reading matter, the omnibuses could carry 22 people and were pulled by three horses, the service ran four return journeys every day.

The Wellcome Library on 183 Euston Road is home to the world’s largest collection of cards put in phone boxes by sex workers

Rumours of a woman with the head of a pig in Manchester Square who inherited a fortune communicating only in grunts – men advertised to meet her

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.