Monday Miscellanea

Last week on Londonist, in numbers:

15 lively years that web legend Urban 75 has been going

15 disputed kilometres covered by the domino rally of breeze blocks across Olympic boroughs

12 same sex couples taking part in the London 2012 Open Weekend hand-holding relay

48 hours of rail strike leaving Liverpool Street bereft of commuters and (thankfully) flashmobbers

176 times Oxford Street was subjected to roadworks in one year, to be taken into consideration by TfL for future fines against late completion of roadworks

(15+15) X (12X48) + 176 = 17,456 which is a collection of old flames on the underground in the Londonist Flickr pool, as snapped by our photographer friend chutney bannister.

This Week In London’s History

Monday - 3rd August 2001: Just a few seconds after midnight, a car bomb explodes in Ealing Broadway, injuring 7 people and causing significant damage to the surrounding area. The bombing is subsequently attributed to the ‘Real IRA’, and three men are later jailed for causing this and two other explosions.

Tuesday - 4th August 1902: The Greenwich Foot Tunnel is opened, providing pedestrian access between the Isle of Dogs and Greenwich. Wednesday - 5th August 1100: Henry I is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey. Thursday - 6th August 1937: Barbara Windsor is born in Shoreditch in central London. She would achieve fame as an actress, notably as a ‘saucy strumpet’ in the Carry On films of the 60s and 70s and later as a major character in Eastenders. Friday - 7th August 2001: The Department of Health pays £27 million for a private Harley Street heart hospital, re-nationalising it and bringing it into the NHS. It becomes the first private hospital to be nationalised since the foundation of the NHS.

London Quote Of The Week

If the parks be the lungs of London, we wonder what Greenwich Fair is - a periodical breaking-out, we suppose; a sort of spring rash; a three days' fever, which cools the blood for six months afterwards, and at the expiration of which London is restored to its old habit of plodding industry as suddenly and as completely as if nothing had ever occurred to disturb them.

Charles Dickens, Greenwich Fair