This Week In London’s History
- Monday – 19 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.
- Tuesday – 20 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.
- Wednesday – 21 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.
- Thursday – 22 August 1964: Iconic football programme 'Match of the Day' is screened for the first time, covering a 3-2 defeat of Arsenal by Liverpool. It is aired at 6:30pm on BBC Two, and thus generally only available to London viewers – as the channel would not become available outside the capital until some time later.
- Friday – 23 August 1940: What is described as the “first all-night bombing raid on London” during the Second World War takes place, paving the way for tit-for-tat retaliation and The Blitz.
Random London Quote Of The Week
This melancholy London – I sometimes imagine that the souls of the lost are compelled to walk through its streets perpetually. One feels them passing like a whiff of air.
William Butler Yeats
Photo by mattomatto via the Londonist Flickr Pool.
