And yet London is a solid city, in spite of the broken images it evokes in the mind of a wanderer like myself. There is a grandeur there, an impersonal power of endurance that is somehow comforting beneath the rot.
James Wright (1927-1980), A Wild Perfection: The Selected Letters of James Wright
On 17 May 1941, Rudolf Hess was interned for 4 days at the Tower of London where he signed autographs for the warders – one of which is still in the warders bar. Hitler’s deputy had parachuted into Scotland asserting that he wanted to open peace negotiations. He would be the final state prisoner to be held at the castle. Hess would only remain for a few days, he was later tried at Nuremberg and given a life sentence.
On 17 May 1993 at the cost of £345 million, the Limehouse Link opened, becoming the most expensive road per foot to be constructed in Britain
The Seamens’ and Soldiers’ False Characters Act 1906 makes it an offence to walk London’s streets in military fancy dress – fine £20
Affixed to a wall of the Charterhouse is London’s oldest surviving sundial dated 1611 marking the year Thomas Sutton established the school
Postman’s Park near the site of the old General Post Office has a memorial to those dying – many of them children – trying to save others
Incarcerated in the Tower of London King John II of France while awaiting for his ransom to be paid had his own court jester to cheer him up
Named after London’s famous comic, Joseph Grimaldi Park in Islington plays host to an annual ceremony populated by clowns
The Savoy Hotel which reopened at 10.10 on 10.10.2010 was built 1889 and was London’s first luxury hotel and the first with electric light
Abe Sapperstein, a Jewish businessman, born in Flower and Dean Street in 1900 was the founder of the Harlem Globetrotters, he was neither black nor American
The longest distance between Underground stations is the Metropolitan line from Chesham to Chalfont & Latimer: a total of only 3.89 miles
London and Westminster Gas Light and Coke Company founded the world’s first gas works in 1812 to supply gas to Westminster
Rare before, Sysimbrium irio a native plant of the Mediterranean prolificated in the City which had been devastated after the Great Fire
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.
For those new to CabbieBlog or readers who are slightly forgetful, on Saturdays I’m republishing posts, many going back over a decade. Some will still be very relevant while others have become dated over time. Just think of this post as your weekend paper supplement.
Maids of Honour: A personal favourite of mine. Just opposite Kew Gardens is a rather quaint tea room selling these puff-pastry cakes containing a rich melange of almonds, cinnamon, butter and brandy named after a famous terrace in Richmond. This was built for the ladies-in-waiting to a former Princess of Wales, Caroline of Anspach, who lived at nearby Richmond Palace.
Sandwiches: Those resourceful Romans are said to have stuck meat between two slices of bread to make a convenient way of eating on the move, presumably when conquering their European neighbours. But the name sandwich is attributed to John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich. His family insist that he invented its creation to allow him to work on Admiralty papers, but those less charitable suggest that it was more likely he was rather busy at White’s gaming tables. The current Earl of Sandwich has resurrected his ancestor’s invention and given his name to a chain of upmarket sandwich shops.
Champagne: Don’t mention this to our Gallic cousins but in 1662 Christopher Merrett having moved from Oxford to London demonstrated at The Royal Society how to make champagne, a full 30 years before Dom Perignon started his famed tipple.
Peach Melba: The Savoy’s famous chef Auguste Escoffier was credited as creating this dessert for opera diva Dame Nellie Melba. The combination of peaches, raspberries, redcurrant jelly and vanilla ice cream were combined to protect her precious vocal cords prior to her appearances at Covent Garden.
Chelsea Bun: On the corner of Pimlico Road and Lower Sloane Street before the antique dealers arrived selling Georgian furniture, there stood a famous bun house royally patronised by Georges II, III and IV. Note the genuine light fluffy article containing raisins is always square.
London is a cluster of communities, great and small, famous and unsung; a city of contrasts, a congregation of diversity.
Roy Porter (1946-2002), London: A Social History
On 10 May 1940 after losing a vote of confidence in the House of Commons, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigned at the same time that Germany was invading Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Winston Churchill stepped in as Prime Minister to lead a coalition Government. Within six weeks German forces had conquered all three countries with France capitulating a few weeks later.
On 10 May 1553 Sir Hugh Willoughby and his fleet set sail from Ratcliff Stairs to discover the North-East Passage
German Nazi Rudolf Hess was the last prisoner to be incarcerated in the Tower of London, captured in Renfrewshire after parachuting out of a plane
Westminster Catholic Cathedral stands on the foundations of Tothill Fields Prison demolished in 1885, which was deemed as a ‘house of correction’ for the compulsory employment of able-bodied but indolent paupers
The roof’s shape of the famous red telephone box was influenced by Sir John Soane’s tomb in St Pancras Old Church
The first bomb to drop on London in World War I is commemorated by a plaque at 16 Alkham Road in Stoke Newington, there were no injuries
Carlyle Mansions, a smart Victorian apartment block in Chelsea, was once home to authors Ian Fleming, T. S. Eliot and Henry James
Radio and music hall comedian Tommy Handley once lived at 34 Craven Road, Paddington – Known for the saying: “It’s That Man Again”
1912 was a bad year for the Boat Race on this day when both boats sank, the subsequent re-row on the following Monday was won by Oxford by six lengths
The Tube tunnel between Knightsbridge and South Kensington negotiates a massive curve to avoid a 17th century plague pit
On 10 May 1922 Ivy Williams was called to the Bar, becoming England’s first female barrister. She would never practice in a London court
In 2010, Eurostat calculated that Inner London’s Gross Domestic Product per capita stood at 328 per cent of the EU’s 27 average
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.
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