Monday Miscellanea

Dave Haste
By Dave Haste Last edited 138 months ago
Monday Miscellanea

This Week In London’s History

  • Monday24th September 1917: A zeppelin drops a 50 kilogram bomb that lands just outside the Bedford Hotel on Southampton Row in Bloomsbury, central London. 13 people are killed and a further 26 injured.
  • Tuesday25th September 1818: The first human-to-human blood transfusion is performed at Guy’s Hospital. Previous blood transfusions had used animals’ blood.
  • Wednesday26th September 1850: The first stretch of the North London Railway is opened, running between Bow in east London, and Islington in north London. These days, the DLR follows part of this original route, and some of the subsequent extensions are serviced by London Overground.
  • Thursday27th September 1968: Marking the end of British stage censorship, the musical 'Hair' opens at the Shaftsbury Theatre in the West End, complete with on-stage nudity and portrayals of drug-taking.
  • Friday28th September 1985: Following the accidental shooting of a woman during a police raid, riots break out on the streets of Brixton, south London.

London Quote Of The Week

If the parks be the lungs of London, we wonder what Greenwich Fair is – a periodical breaking-out, we suppose; a sort of spring rash; a three days' fever, which cools the blood for six months afterwards, and at the expiration of which London is restored to its old habit of plodding industry as suddenly and as completely as if nothing had ever occurred to disturb them.

Charles Dickens, Greenwich Fair

Photo by victorianlondon via the Londonist Flickr Pool.

Last Updated 23 September 2012