Monday Miscellanea

This Week In London’s History

Monday - 9th February 1996: The IRA detonates a massive bomb near South Quay DLR station, just south of Canary Wharf. The explosion kills two men working in a nearby newsagents shop and causes £85 million worth of damage to surrounding buildings and infrastructure.

Tuesday - 10th February 1840: Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert at St James’s Palace. Wednesday - 11th February 1826: The University of London is founded. It would later be known as University College London (or UCL). Thursday - 12th February 1554: Lady Jane Grey and her husband Lord Guildford Dudley are executed at the Tower of London. Friday - 13th February 1247: A major earthquake causes considerable damage to London. Curiously, it is reported that the quake was preceded for three months by a complete absence of tidal activity at the coast.

Random London Quote Of The Week

What is London? Clean, commodious, neat; but, a very few things indeed excepted, an endless addition of littleness to littleness, extending itself over a great tract of land.

Edmund Burke, letter to the Rev. Robert Dodge, 1792

London’s Weather This Week

The forecasters think that the current rain will be replaced by some sunshine mid-week. But, unsurprisingly, it will remain quite cold.

Picture taken from alexliivet’s Flickr photostream under the Creative Commons Attribution licence.