Monday Miscellanea

Dave Haste
By Dave Haste Last edited 163 months ago
Monday Miscellanea

Frankenstein's monster
Picture by buckaroo kid via the Londonist Flickr pool.
This Week In London’s History

  • Monday - 30th August 1797: Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin is born in Somers Town. She would become known, under the name Mary Shelley, for her novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.
  • Tuesday - 31st August 1888: Mary Ann Nichols is found dead in Whitechapel. Her death would be attributed to Jack the Ripper. Wednesday - 1st September 1856: Richard Westmacott, the sculptor responsible for numerous London landmarks, dies at his Mayfair home. Thursday - 2nd September 1666: The Great Fire of London breaks out. It would burn for three days, destroying over 13,000 buildings. Friday - 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.

    Random London Quote Of The Week

    London is enchanting. I step out upon a tawny coloured magic carpet, it seems, and get carried into beauty without raising a finger. The nights are amazing, with all the white porticoes and broad silent avenues. And people pop in and out, lightly, divertingly like rabbits; and I look down Southampton Row, wet as a seal's back or red and yellow with sunshine, and watch the omnibus going and coming, and hear the old crazy organs. One of these days I will write about London, and how it takes up the private life and carries it on, without any effort.

    Virginia Woolf, Diary

    Last Updated 30 August 2010