This Week In London’s History
- Monday – 20 January 1265: The English parliament holds its first meeting, in Westminster Hall.
- Tuesday – 21 January 1976: Concorde’s first commercial service, from London to Bahrain (and Paris to Rio de Janeiro) commences.
- Wednesday – 22 January 1876: The Royal Aquarium opens in Westminster. It would be demolished just 26 years later and replaced by the Methodist Central Hall.
- Thursday – 23 January 1571: The Royal Exchange in the City of London is officially opened by Elizabeth I. Over the next few hundred years it would be destroyed by fire (and rebuilt) twice.
- Friday – 24 January 1969: Students and staff at the London School of Economics riot in protest over the installation of steel security gates.
London Quote Of The Week
Sir, if you wish to have a just notion of the magnitude of this city, you must not be satisfied with seeing its great streets and squares, but must survey the innumerable little lanes and courts. It is not in the showy evolutions of buildings, but in the multiplicity of human habitations which are crowded together, that the wonderful immensity of London consists.
Samuel Johnson
Photo by nigelwilliams2001 via the Londonist Flickr Pool.