Monday Miscellanea

This Week In London’s History

Monday – 14th May 1842: The first fully illustrated weekly newspaper, the Illustrated London News is launched, costing sixpence. It was still being published weekly as recently as 1971, but its publication frequency has since declined.

Tuesday – 15th May 1981: Zara Phillips, the daughter of Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips, is born in a private wing of St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington. She is currently the world champion in eventing, and 11th in line to the throne. Wednesday – 16th May 1968: A gas explosion causes the collapse of an entire corner of a newly constructed high-rise block of flats in Newham, East London, killing five residents. Unsurprisingly the flats are later deemed to be ‘structurally unsound’. Thursday – 17th May 1984: Prince Charles denounces an early proposed design of an extension to the National Gallery building on Trafalgar Square as “a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend”. Friday – 18th May 1593: A warrant is issued for the arrest of Christopher Marlowe following allegations of heresy. Less than two weeks later, he was murdered in Deptford, South East London.

Random London Fact Of The Week

As legend has it, William Overie (a.k.a. William Overs, or John Overy) had made a very successful living as a ferryman, transporting people across the Thames. He was notoriously tight-fisted, to the extent that he reputedly faked his own death to save on food costs for his household, as mourning was traditionally marked by a couple of days of fasting. However in a scene straight out of sitcom heaven, instead of fasting, members of his household threw a party around his open coffin to celebrate his death. This angered him to the extent that he sat bolt upright in his coffin, shocking the party’s guests so much that one of them assumed that he had risen from the dead and attacked him with an oar, killing him instantly.

Meanwhile Mr Overie’s daughter, Mary, had sent for her fiancée to join the celebrations. Unfortunately he was so over-excited at the demise of his potential father-in-law that he rode his horse too fast en-route to the party, fell off and died. Mary was so cheesed off at these events that she decided to become a nun, and used all of her father’s money to found a convent and a church – the Church of Saint Mary Overie, which is now better known as Southwark Cathedral.

London’s Weather This Week

The persistent rain of the weekend is going to linger for a bit, but it will also brighten up as the week progresses. Still it will be annoyingly unpredictable, so don’t even think of planning a barbeque or any other sort of outdoor event.

One Thing You Must Do In London This Week

From Thursday to Saturday, the newly rejuvenated Potters Fields Park (between Tooley Street and the Thames next to City Hall) will be celebrating its ‘Grand Opening’ with three days of music, arts and performances, all organised by Ken and his minions. It’s probably worth a look if you happen to be in the area – full details here. We advise taking an umbrella though.

For an alternative (albeit somewhat incoherent) viewpoint, check out the Shag Thames Residents’ Association blog. It’s good to know that Brian isn’t the only avian blogger in the capital.

Picture taken from Gora Gray’s Flickr Photostream under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 licence.