Last week on Londonist in numbers
40 years since the Beatles posed on the Abbey Road zebra crossing
33 days until Open House
6,000 bikes proposed for the bike hire scheme that Serco will manage
5 weeks in and the plinth gets the nudity we've all been waiting for
7.95 pounds sterling for cod and large chips to takeaway from the sadly burned down Seashell fish and chips shop
40 + 33 + 6,000 X 5 + 7.95 = 30,372.95 which turns out to be... John Betjeman in St Pancras as snapped by Mick h 51 in the Londonist Flickr pool.
This Week In London’s History
Monday - 17th August 1896: A woman named Bridget Driscoll becomes what is reported to be the first ever pedestrian to be killed by a motorcar, in Crystal Palace, south-east London. Witnesses later describe the car as travelling at “a reckless pace” when it hit Mrs Driscoll. It would later transpire that the car was travelling at 4 mph.
Tuesday -
18th August 1937: William George Rushton is born in Chelsea. Better known as Willie Rushton, he would become a popular comedian and satirist, co-founding
Private Eye magazine and featuring as a regular panellist on Radio 4’s
I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue game show.
Wednesday -
19th August 1897: London’s first horseless taxi is introduced by the London Electric Cab Company of Lambeth. The taxi is battery-powered, and reaches a theoretical top speed of 9 mph.
Thursday -
20th August 1989: The
Marchioness pleasure boat collides with the dredger
Bowbelle under Cannon Street Railway Bridge, causing the
Marchioness to sink rapidly. 51 of the pleasure boat’s 132 passengers drown.
Friday -
21st August 1920: A boy who would be named Christopher Robin Milne is born in Chelsea, West London. His father, the author A. A. Milne, would use him as inspiration for the Christopher Robin character in the
Winnie-the-Pooh stories.
London Quote Of The Week
London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained thirty-five for years.
Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
