This Week In London’s History
Monday – 1st September 1856: Richard Westmacott, the sculptor responsible for numerous London landmarks, dies at his Mayfair home.
Tuesday –
2nd September 1666: The Great Fire of London breaks out. It would burn for three days, destroying over 13,000 buildings.
Wednesday –
3rd September 1878: Passenger steamer
Princess Alice collides with cargo ship
Bywell Castle on the Thames near Woolwich Pier. All of the 700 passengers of the
Princess Alice are either thrown into the heavily polluted river or trapped below the decks of the sinking vessel. Fewer than 100 passengers survive.
Thursday –
4th September 1899: Moorfields Eye Hospital (known at the time as the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital) is opened at its current site on City Road (having previously been situated on Moorfields since 1805, hence the name). It would become the largest eye hospital in the world.
Friday –
5th September 1975: An IRA bomb explodes in the lobby of the Hilton Hotel on Park Lane in central London, causing 2 fatalities and injuries to a further 63 people.
Random London Quote Of The Week
A mighty mass of brick, and smoke, and shipping,
Dirty and dusty, but as wide as eye
Could reach, with here and there a sail just skipping
In sight, then lost amidst the forestry
Of masts; a wilderness of steeples peeping
On tiptoe through their sea-coal canopy;
A huge, dun cupola, like a foolscap crown
On a fool's head – and there is London Town.
Lord Byron, Don Juan
London’s Weather This Week
It’s going to be mostly grim.
Photo of Richard Westmacott’s Wellington Monument taken from wallyg’s Flickr photostream via the Londonist Flickr pool.
