Dave Haste
Monday Miscellanea
This Week In London’s History
Monday – 15th October 1881: The Royal Comedy Theatre (now simply known as the Comedy Theatre) opens in the West End.
Tuesday –
16th October 1987: In the early hours of the morning, a huge storm of hurricane intensity wreaks havoc across London (and much of the rest of southern England).
Wednesday –
17th October 1814: At the
Horse Shoe Brewery on Tottenham Court Road, a colossal vat containing 3555 barrels of beer bursts. The ensuing tsunami of beer causes several nearby buildings to collapse, and results in 8 fatalities – including a dubious report of alcohol poisoning as one man supposedly attempts to stem the tide of beer by drinking it.
Thursday –
18th October 1922: The
British Broadcasting Company (later to become the
British Broadcasting Corporation, or BBC) is formed, and soon starts broadcasting from Marconi House on the Strand.
Friday –
19th October 2003: After 44 days of being pointless in a perspex box suspended from a crane near Tower Bridge, illusionist David Blaine comes down.
Random London Fact Of The Week
In 1797, inspired by emerging Parisian fashions, hatter John Etherington designed a somewhat curious-looking tall cylindrical hat. On walking outside his shop on the Strand, sporting his new creation, he attracted so much attention that a huge crowd gathered. In the crush to get a glimpse of this new fashion, some members of the crowd became unruly, and one man was pushed through a shop window. The police were duly called, and Etherington was arrested for inciting a riot.
The ‘top hat’ did catch on, though.
London’s Weather This Week
If the forecasters are to be believed, it’s going to continue to be quite mild for a couple of days, albeit with the chance of rain tomorrow, but then the nighttime temperatures will drop a bit. Turn the heating up a bit on Wednesday.
Picture taken from haleyhughes’ Flickr photostream under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial licence.
Last Updated 15 October 2007