Monday Miscellanea

This Week In London’s History

Monday – 24th September 1917: A zeppelin drops a 50 kilogram bomb that lands just outside the Bedford Hotel on Southampton Row in Bloomsbury, central London. 13 people are killed and a further 26 injured.

Tuesday – 25th September 1818: The first human-to-human blood transfusion is performed at Guy’s Hospital. Previous blood transfusions had used animals’ blood. Wednesday – 26th September 1850: The first stretch of the North London Railway is opened, running between Bow in east London, and Islington in north London. These days, the DLR follows part of this original route, and some of the subsequent extensions are serviced by NutterSilverlink trains. Thursday – 27th September 1968: Marking the end of British stage censorship, the musical Hair opens at the Shaftsbury Theatre in the West End, complete with on-stage nudity and portrayals of drug-taking. Friday – 28th September 1985: Following the accidental shooting of a woman during a police raid, riots break out on the streets of Brixton, south London.

Random London Fact Of The Week

On the corner of Cock Lane and Giltspur Street, near St. Paul’s, is a somewhat cherubic golden statue of a chubby boy mounted on the wall. Known as the Golden Fat Boy, the statue marks the spot where the great fire of 1666 was extinguished.

At the time of the fire, this place was known as Pie Corner – a mildly curious coincidence bearing in mind the great fire started at Pudding Lane. However at the time, many interpreted this as more than a coincidence, preferring instead to believe that it indicated that the fire was a form of divine retribution for the gluttony that was widespread in the city. And so, the Golden Fat Boy was placed on Pie Corner, accompanied by an inscription:

This Boy is in Memmory Put up for the late FIRE of LONDON Occasion’d by the Sin of Gluttony 1666

London’s Weather This Week

It’s definitely going to snow this week. You heard it here first.

Image taken from loloeig’s Flickr photostream under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 2.0 licence.