Monday Miscellanea

Dave Haste
By Dave Haste Last edited 158 months ago
Monday Miscellanea

This Week In London’s History

  • Monday17th January 1997: At the Old Bailey, a jury decides that Szymon Serafinowicz, the first man to be charged under the 1991 War Crimes Act, is medically unfit to stand trial.
  • Tuesday - 18th January 1882: Alan Alexander Milne is born in Hampstead, north London. He would become known as successful author A. A. Milne, most notably for his Winnie-the-Pooh books.
  • Wednesday - 19th January 1917: A fire breaks out at a munitions factory in Silvertown, East London, igniting some 50 tonnes of TNT. The resulting explosion kills 73 people, injures some 400 more, and damages as many as 70,000 buildings (including, reportedly, the Savoy Hotel in the West End).
  • Thursday - 20th January 1265: The English parliament holds its first meeting, in Westminster Hall.
  • Friday - 21st January 1976: Concorde’s first commercial service, from London to Bahrain (and Paris to Rio de Janeiro) commences.

Random London Quote Of The Week

I had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air - or as free as an income of eleven shillings and sixpence a day will permit a man to be. Under such circumstances I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained. There I stayed for some time at a private hotel in the Strand, leading a comfortless, meaningless existence, and spending such money as I had, considerably more freely than I ought.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet

Picture by LiamCH via the Londonist Flickr Pool.

Last Updated 15 January 2011