This Week In London’s History
- Monday – 31st October 1971: An IRA bomb explodes on the 33rd floor of the Post Office Tower (now known as the BT Tower). The explosion occurs in the early hours of the morning, so nobody is harmed, despite extensive damage to the tower and other nearby buildings.
- Tuesday – 1st November 1848: Retail business W H Smith opens its first railway bookstall, at Euston Station.
- Wednesday – 2nd November 1785: London coachbuilder Lionel Lakin patents the first ‘unsinkable lifeboat’.
- Thursday – 3rd November 1783: John Austin, a highwayman, becomes the last person to be hanged at the Tyburn gallows.
- Friday – 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.
Random London Quote Of The Week
Three hundred years ago a prisoner condemned to the Tower of London carved on the wall of his cell this sentiment to keep up his spirits during his long imprisonment: "It is not adversity that kills, but the impatience with which we bear adversity."
Father James Keller
Picture by Stephen*Iliffe via the Londonist Flickr pool.