This Week In London’s History
- Monday – 25th April 2002: Two teenage brothers are acquitted of the murder of 10-year-old schoolboy Damilola Taylor, in the first of three trials for the crime over four years at the Old Bailey.
- Tuesday – 26th April 1999: Television presenter Jill Dando is fatally shot in the head on the doorstep of her home in Fulham, West London.
- Wednesday – 27th April 1840: Following its almost complete destruction by fire in 1834, work on rebuilding the Palace of Westminster starts with the laying of a foundation stone by the wife of the architect Sir Charles Barry.
- Thursday – 28th April 1801: Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, is born at 24 Grosvenor Square. He would become a noted politician and philanthropist, whose works would be commemorated by the construction of the Shaftesbury Memorial (a.k.a. ‘The Angel of Christian Charity’, a.k.a. ‘Eros’) in Piccadilly Circus.
- Friday – 29th April 1745: Cowper Thornhill, keeper of the Bell Inn in Stilton, Cambridgeshire, rides from the inn to Shoreditch Church and back. He then turns around and rides back to London again, covering a total of 213 miles in 12 hours and 17 minutes, to the awe of many spectators lining the route.
Random London Quote Of The Week
In town let me live then, in town let me die
For in truth I can't relish the country, not I.
If one must have a villa in summer to dwell,
Oh give me the sweet shady side of Pall Mall.
Charles Morris, The Contrast
Photo by Simon-K via the Londonist Flickr Pool.
