This Week In London’s History
- Monday – 10th October 1881: The Savoy Theatre is opened on the Strand, becoming the first public building in the world to be entirely lit by electricity.
- Tuesday – 11th October 1573: Sir John Hawkins, Treasurer of the Royal Navy, suffers an assassination attempt whilst riding down the Strand. The would-be assassin, one Peter Burchett, stabs Hawkins, mistaking him for Sir Christopher Hatton. Despite being severely injured by the attack, Hawkins would survive. The same could not be said for Burchett, who would be hanged near the place of the attack.
- Wednesday – 12th October 1609: London composer Thomas Ravencroft publishes an early version of what would become the nursery rhyme Three Blind Mice.
- Thursday – 13th October 1884: At the International Meridian Conference (taking place in Washington, D.C.), Greenwich is established as the location for the 'Prime Meridian' – the starting point for calculating longitude and the world’s time zones.
- Friday – 14th October 1852: King’s Cross Station is opened.
Random London Quote Of The Week
The established government has no more right to call itself the state than the smoke of London has to call itself the weather.
George Bernard Shaw
Picture by victorianlondon via the Londonist Flickr pool.
