This Week In London’s History
- Monday – 7th November 1783: John Austin, having been convicted for ‘cruel highway robbery’, becomes the last person to be hanged at the Tyburn gallows near Marble Arch.*
- Tuesday – 8th November 1674: John Milton, author of Paradise Lost, dies of gout in his house at Finsbury.
- Wednesday – 9th November 1911: The Victoria Palace Theatre is opened opposite Victoria Station.
- Thursday – 10th November 1862: This first Lambeth Bridge is opened. It would soon fall into disrepair, and in 1932 it would be replaced with the structure we know today.
- Friday – 11th November 1688: A Benedictine convent in St. John’s Square, Clerkenwell, is destroyed by an anti-Catholic mob during the revolt against King James II.
Random London Quote Of The Week
It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.
Sherlock Holmes (via Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, naturally, in The Copper Beeches)
Picture by Simon Crubellier via the Londonist Flickr pool.
* For the pedantically inclined, some conflicting sources say that John Austin's execution took place on the 3rd, not the 7th.
