This Week In London’s History
- Monday – 1st October 1868: St. Pancras Station is officially opened as the London terminus for the Midland Railway, despite its construction being incomplete. Part of the buildings would form the iconic gothic St. Pancras Chambers, which housed the Midland Grand Hotel (now replaced by the St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel and some posh apartments).
- Tuesday – 2nd October 1909: Twickenham Stadium hosts its first ever rugby match, with Harlequins beating Richmond 14-10.
- Wednesday – 3rd October 1975: After three days of holding several of the staff at a Knightsbridge Italian restaurant hostage in a storeroom, three gunmen surrender to police. The hostages are released unharmed.
- Thursday – 4th October 1911: London Underground’s first escalator goes into service at Earl’s Court tube station.
- Friday – 5th October 1999: 31 people die and over 400 are injured as two trains collide head-on at Ladbroke Grove Junction, two miles west of Paddington Station.
London Quote Of The Week
If you lived in London, where the whole system is one of false good-fellowship, and you may know a man for twenty years without finding out that he hates you like poison, you would soon have your eyes opened. There we do unkind things in a kind way: we say bitter things in a sweet voice: we always give our friends chloroform when we tear them to pieces.
George Bernard Shaw, 'You Never Can Tell'
Picture by McTumshie via the Londonist Flickr Pool.
