Monday Miscellanea

M@
By M@ Last edited 226 months ago

Last Updated 27 February 2006

Monday Miscellanea
One two three four - therell be bluebirds over the white clifs of dover.JPG

This day in London’s History

1900: The future Labour party was founded. A jamboree of like-minded lefties gathered at the Congregational Memorial Hall on Farringdon Street (building long since demolished and currently a construction site near Ludgate Circus). To the rumble of passing LCDR trains, the delegates created the Labour Representation Committee, which evolved into the party we know and deride today. Perhaps more importantly, on this day in 1957 Adrian Smith of Iron Maiden (pictured) debouched from the Hackney womb he had inhabited for nine months.

London fact of the week

That building site, which was once a 1960s office block, which was once the Congregational Memorial Hall (see above), was also once the site of the Fleet prison. This benighted jail was destroyed on four occasions – by revolting peasants, by Great Fire, by Gordon rioters and by the corporation of the City of London, who finally did away with it in 1846. Not the most auspicious of places to found a new political party.

London person of the week

It has to be Ken. Love him or loathe him, you’ve got to admit that London politics is never dull thanks to his frequent intrusions of character and personality.

One thing you must do in London this week

It’s Shrove Tuesday tomorrow, so get along to one of the many pancake races going on around town (Spitalfields, All Hallows Tower Hill, Guildhall Yard). Alternatively, you could go on a Shrove-themed walk, which starts at Aldgate Tube, 6.30. Though we’re not quite sure why you’d want to.

One thing you must not do in London this week

Go watch a double-bill of Lucky Number Slevin and The Fog.