Monday Miscellanea

This Week In London’s History

Monday – 7th April 1779: The Reverend James Hackman follows Martha Ray, a singer and the mistress of the 4th Earl of Sandwich, to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. When she leaves the theatre after the performance, Hackman shoots her dead, seemingly out of jealousy.

Tuesday – 8th April 1908: Edward VII appoints Herbert Asquith as Prime Minister, following the resignation of his predecessor, Henry Cambell-Bannerman, due to ill health. Wednesday – 9th April 2005: Prince Charles marries Camilla Parker Bowles in a civil ceremony in Windsor. Thursday – 10th April 1606: The London Company (a.k.a. the Charter of the Virginia Company of London) is established by James I and given a remit to colonise North America. Friday – 11th April 1981: Following the arrest of a black youth on the previous evening, a huge riot breaks out in Brixton. More than 300 police officers and 65 civilians are injured; over 100 vehicles and 150 buildings are seriously damaged.

Random London Fact Of The Week

A not-altogether-surprising fact is that the Jubilee Line connects with every other line on the London tube map. (After all, it does cross the river no less than four times as it meanders across London.)

But slightly more surprising, at least to us, is the fact that the Jubilee Line is the only line to achieve this. The first thought that sprung to mind when we heard this was: “But what about the Circle Line? Surely that touches every other line as they enter Zone 1?”

Of course, we were forgetting that there is one line on the tube map that hardly enters Zone 1 at all – namely London Overground. And, in case you think we’re cheating by including this nascent line in the criteria for this piece of trifling trivia, the same applies to its partial predecessor, the East London Line.

London’s Weather This Week

Snow? In April? In London, with its nice warm duvet of pollution? We honestly don’t know when that last happened (and, to be honest, we’re having some difficulty finding out).

Anyway, by all accounts the weather is going to continue to be schizophrenic this week, with the prospect of sunshine, rain, snow, wind and cloud. And the temperatures will be both mild, and freezing (as well as some points in-between). Good luck…

Picture of Charles and Camilla’s low-key wedding taken from TrevorLowe’s Flickr photostream.