Monthly Musings

1 April, 2026 Gibson Square 2 Comments

March 2026

📖 A London Noir Classic

Stench: The axe in the head murder. It’s the mid-1980s and south-east London is a melting pot of crime and corruption. This debut novel takes you back to a time of striking printers, immoral journalists, unprincipled freemasons, corrupt police and a well-documented murder. The concise fast-paced direct prose serves to heighten the unfolding drama. This work draws heavily on actual events, and as the narrative unfolds the line between fact and fiction becomes increasingly blurred. This meticulously researched work gives an impression that you’re a senior investigating officer reading the available evidence. The author’s Mickey Spillane writing style makes a refreshing change from the flowery language overused by today’s authors. Published by micro-indie publisher Black Rat Books.

💬 Geeks’ Corner

Well, it looks as though WordPress has finally discarded their original system, now only Gutenberg can be used in any editing. I’ve written code since the early 80s and I still find the ‘improved’ platform one of the worst I’ve encountered. Trying to write in HTML is almost impossible, as some characters are obscured beneath another section. Coupled with that, some of their flagship legacy widgets have been altered changing the date line and removing headings. Whinge over.

🚆 Mind The Map

How well do you know the Tube map? The Londonist pointed me in the direction of this infuriating game, in which you have to find six tube stations on a map against a stress-inducing countdown timer. Those of you who have no knowledge of, or interest in, London and its underground rail network, should look away now. Play it here.

🎥 Cabbie – The Movie

London’s black cab trade is set to feature at the centre of a new British action heist comedy film titled Cabbie. The producers have launched a crowdfunding campaign to begin filming a short pilot this spring, to be shown at the Cannes Film Festival ahead of a full feature production. The story centres on a working-class London character named Ed, whose father’s garage collapsed after ride-hailing services entered the market. Unable to secure finance to revive the business, Ed resorts to unconventional methods to reclaim what his family has lost. . .

❓ 40 Billion to One

The Knowledge school WizAnn have calculated that Knowledge boys and girls face the theoretical possibility of more than 40 million different questions during assessments. The premise is that with around 6,400 locations currently existing within the oral appearances section of the Knowledge syllabus, when those locations are combined into potential start and end destination pairings, the number of possible questions expands dramatically. The probability of any single specific question being asked becomes even smaller when multiple candidates are preparing at the same time. Analysis suggests that if around 1,000 students were studying the Knowledge simultaneously, the chance of any individual candidate being asked one particular route question could theoretically fall to around 40 billion to one.

📅 March’s posts and pages

Most read post – London Trivia: The customer is always right
Most read page – The Knowledge

📈 Last month’s statistics

2,649 views (-68.2%)
2,322 visitors (-69.0%)
26 likes (-16.1%)
54 comments (+86.2%)
15 posts (+15.4%)

London in Quotations

London in Quotations: William Henry Rideing

Quote 30 March, 2026 Gibson Square 4 Comments

London is like a smoky pearl set in a circle of emeralds.

William Henry Rideing (1853-1915), In the Land of Lorna Doone

London trivia

London Trivia: Stop, planes crossing ahead

29 March, 2026 Gibson Square 5 Comments

On 29 March 1920 Croydon Airport opened. The ‘Airport of London’ had been an amalgamation of two World War I airfields; Beddington and Waddon Aerodromes which were divided by Plough Lane. A level crossing linked the halves, with a man carrying a red flag to halt approaching traffic. The first destinations being Paris, Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Croydon was the first airport in the world to introduce air traffic control.

On 29 March 1981 at 09:00hrs in Greenwich Park 6,700 runners set out to run the first ever London Marathon

Legally children should obtain written permission from the Chief Constable before seeking to ask “A penny for the Guy, Mister?”

On 29 March 1871 the Prince of Wales opened the Albert Hall on behalf of his mother HM Queen Victoria, who was present but too overcome with emotion to speak

On 29 March 1772 mystic Emanuel Swedenborg died in Wapping. He had predicted there would be a special part in heaven reserved for the English

The owner of Tony Blair’s old house in Barnsbury has painted the front door Labour red. Blair’s house in Connaught Square, as with No 10 is black

The famous music hall song On Mother Kelly’s Doorstep is based upon a real location that can be found at Paradise Row, Bethnal Green

London’s first gastro pub the Guinea Grill, Bruton Street opened in 1952, a tavern is believed to have existed on the site since 15th century

London’s oldest golf club is The Royal Blackheath formed by Scottish courtiers visiting Greenwich Palace in 1608 in whose ground they played

In 1952 a 78 bus was on Tower Bridge when it started to rise – the driver put his foot down and jumped the widening gap, he got £10 for his bravery

Waterloo Bridge is known as the Ladies’ Bridge, because it was completed by female labourers during the Second World War

On the corner of Trafalgar Square is the official standard (in brass) for inch/foot/yard/etc it is accurate at 62 deg Fahrenheit

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.

Previously Posted

Previously Posted: Lost Bits of London Bridge

28 March, 2026 Gibson Square 4 Comments

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.

Lost Bits of London Bridge (19.02.13)

The first London Bridge was constructed by the Romans during their occupation of London around 50 AD. After the Romans abandoned Londinium the bridge fell into disrepair as the River Thames marked the boundary between the Saxon Kingdoms of Marcia and Wessex nobody bothered to maintain the structure.

A later bridge was thought to have been destroyed by Norwegian Price Olaf in the service of Anglo-Saxon King Aethelred against the Danes. This act might have given rise to the nursery rhyme London Bridge is Falling Down.

King John replaced an older bridge which had been destroyed by fire in 1136, all traces of the bridges prior to this date have been lost. Taking 33 years to build it boasted of having 7 storeys with shops below.

When this bridge was demolished in 1831 some features were sold off. Fourteen stone alcoves originally graced the bridge and four still survive. Two stand in Victoria Park, one stands in the grounds of Guys Hospital while the fourth bizarrely ended up in the garden of a block of flats in East Sheen.

A coat of arms which was located above the bridge tollgate now can be seen above the door of the Kings Arms on Newcomen Street.

In 1896 it was estimated that the bridge was the busiest point in London, with 8,000 people crossing the bridge by foot and 900 crossing in vehicles every hour. London Bridge was widened in 1902–04 from 52 to 65 feet, in an attempt to combat London’s chronic traffic congestion. A dozen of the granite ‘pillars’ quarried and dressed for this widening, but unused, still lie near Swelltor Quarry.

This bridge even after widening lasted barely a century when in the 1960’s it was decided to replace it. Instead of demolishing it one member of the body responsible for London’s bridges proposed that the bridge be sold.

Ivan Luckin – if ever a man needed to live up to the name – thought he could find someone to take the bridge off the City’s hands. This was not some 19th-century granite monolith; this bridge was the embodiment of London’s 2,000-year history.

Robert P. McCullock was building a city on the shores of Lake Havasu from scratch. The Colorado River had been dammed but the water at one end was in danger of going stagnant, he needed to redirect it by turning the peninsular obstructing the flow into an island, hence the need for a bridge.

McCulloch’s bridge was reconstructed around a concrete frame using the 1831 London Bridge’s stones as cladding. A few corbels from the Swelltor Quarry were sent as spares to America during this construction.

Not all of the Rennie Bridge made it to America. There’s a piece of granite from it behind the Duke of Wellington statue at the Bank, commemorating his involvement with the London Bridge Approaches Act 1827. Wonder how that compared with the Battle of Waterloo?