This Week In London’s History
- Monday - 13 May 1515: Mary Tudor, the younger sister of Henry VII, is officially married to Charles Brandon at Greenwich Palace (having previously secretly married in France a couple of months earlier).
- Tuesday – 14 May 1842: The first fully illustrated weekly newspaper, the 'Illustrated London News' is launched, costing sixpence. It was still being published weekly as recently as 1971.
- Wednesday – 15 May 1981: Zara Phillips, the daughter of Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips, is born in a private wing of St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington. She would become a very successful equestrian, and is currently 14th in line to the throne.
- Thursday – 16 May 1968: A gas explosion causes the collapse of an entire corner of a newly constructed high-rise block of flats in Newham, East London, killing five residents. Unsurprisingly the flats are later deemed to be ‘structurally unsound’.
- Friday – 17 May 1984: Prince Charles denounces an early proposed design of an extension to the National Gallery building on Trafalgar Square as “a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend”.
Random London Quote Of The Week
It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.
Sherlock Holmes (via Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, naturally, in The Copper Beeches)
Photo by M@.
