Monday Miscellanea

Dave Haste
By Dave Haste Last edited 202 months ago
Monday Miscellanea
Southern gateway to the Blackwall Tunnel

This Week In London’s History

  • Monday21st May 1853: The Aquatic Vivarium, the world’s first public aquarium, is opened in Regent’s Park.
  • Tuesday22nd May 1897: The Blackwall Tunnel is officially opened by the Prince of Wales, becoming the longest underwater tunnel in the world (at the time). The original tunnel now forms the western (northbound) carriageway – the adjacent tunnel that houses the eastern (southbound) carriageway was opened in 1967. Wednesday23rd May 1701: Captain Kidd is hanged in Wapping, East London, following his conviction for piracy and murder. Thursday24th May 1862: The current Westminster Bridge is opened, replacing an earlier stone bridge that was subsiding badly. Friday25th May 1878: The first ever performance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore takes place at the Opera Comique on The Strand.

    Random London Fact Of The Week

    Archaeologists have discovered that much of the City of London is built on top of a so-called ‘red layer’ that dates back to Boadicea’s sacking of Londinium in 60 AD. As part of an epic strop at the Romans, the warrior queen marched on the city and burned it to the ground. The fires were so intense that they left a thick layer of burned debris that can be found about a dozen feet below today’s ground level.

    London’s Weather This Week

    The coming week’s weather will be as unpredictable as last week’s, with both showers and warm sunshine forecast. It probably won’t get too cold, but you should still put a brolly in your bag if you’re planning to spend any time outside.

    One Thing You Must Do In London This Week

    Crikey – has it really been a year since we last visited the Paradise Gardens (mini-)Festival in Victoria Park? Well once again the coming weekend will see a substantial area of Victoria Park transformed into “a modern day pleasure garden”. To quote the website:

    The second May Bank Holiday weekend will once again explode into life boasting off the wall street theatre and awesome outdoor spectacle, open air music stages, the best in urban dance performance, The Designer Village Fete, Carters Steam Fair, Side Shows, Circus Performances, a Desert Island, Specialist Food from around the world, Craft Markets, Spectacular Fireworks, and much much more...

    In the Victorian era, parks were pleasure gardens with the most thrilling activities of the day were on offer for families to enjoy. For Paradise Gardens we update this idea for the 21st Century, offering a dizzying array of artforms, stages and activities for audiences of all ages to enjoy.

    The event was a lot of fun last year, despite the rain, and if it doesn’t turn into too much of a mud-bath it looks set to be quite entertaining this year too. Best of all, entrance is FREE (apart from a £5 admission fee for the Bassline Circus). From 1pm to 10:30pm on Saturday and Sunday, it’s worth a look if you’re in the area.

    Picture taken from angryhaggis’s Flickr Photostream under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence.

    Last Updated 21 May 2007