This Week In London’s History
- Monday – 24 March 1603: Following the death of Elizabeth I at Richmond Palace, James VI, King of Scots, is proclaimed James I, King of England.
- Tuesday – 25 March 1950: A team of Norwegian skiers construct a full-size ski jump from 45 tonnes of imported real snow and 60 feet of scaffolding on Hampstead Heath.
- Wednesday – 26 March 1973: After 200 years of male exclusivity, women are admitted to the London Stock Exchange for the first time (but still not allowed onto the trading floor).
- Thursday – 27 March 1625: Almost exactly 22 years after his accession to the throne (see Monday's anniversary), James I dies of dysentery at Theobalds House near Cheshunt.
- Friday – 28 March 1819: Joseph Bazalgette is born in Enfield, North London. He would become the chief civil engineer for the Metropolitan Board of Works, creating London's sewerage system (and contributing to the eradication of cholera).
London Quote Of The Week
If the parks be the lungs of London, we wonder what Greenwich Fair is – a periodical breaking-out, we suppose; a sort of spring rash; a three days' fever, which cools the blood for six months afterwards, and at the expiration of which London is restored to its old habit of plodding industry as suddenly and as completely as if nothing had ever occurred to disturb them.
Charles Dickens, 'Greenwich Fair'
Photo by Amidared via the Londonist Flickr Pool.
