Dave Haste
Monday Miscellanea
This Week In London’s History
Monday - 1st November 1848: Retail business W H Smith opens its first railway bookstall, at Euston Station.
Tuesday -
2nd November 1785: London coachbuilder Lionel Lakin patents the first ‘unsinkable lifeboat’.
Wednesday -
3rd November 1783: John Austin, a highwayman, becomes the last person to be hanged at the Tyburn gallows.
Thursday -
4th November 1871: Queen Victoria Street, providing a new route from the Bank of England to the Houses of Parliament (via Victoria Embankment), is opened.
Friday -
5th November 1605: Following a tip-off, a party of armed men led by a Justice of the Peace discover Guy Fawkes guarding a large amount of gunpowder and incendiary materials in the vaults under the House of Lords.
Random London Quote Of The Week
I must have a London audience. I could not preach, but to the educated; to those who were capable of estimating my composition.
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
Picture by Anatoleya, via the Londonist Flickr Pool.
Last Updated 01 November 2010