One of my daughters was recently discussing the origins of nursery rhymes and there are two in this blog episode…
But quite apart from those, I commend to you this weekly cornucopia of metropolitan trivia from a London cabbie which never fails to fascinate my North London hubby (you can take the ‘boy’ out of London but you can’t take the Londoner out of the ‘boy’.)
On 31 October 1964, the Windmill Theatre closed for conversion to a cinema. Its slogan ‘We never close’ referred to the fact that it continued its Revuedeville shows throughout the war.
On 31 October 1971 at 4.30am a bomb exploded at viewing gallery of BT Tower 2 weeks previously a white kitten had felled it on The Goodies
In the 17th and 18th centuries London thief-takers were rewarded £40+ the horse, arms and money of any highwayman they captured and were convicted
Meard Street is not named after the French word merde. It was the unfortunate name of its 1720s developer John Meard
In his will Dickens stipulated that no monuments be erected to his memory, that’s why London has no statues of one of its greatest writers
London Bridge is Falling Down referred to Norwegian King Olaf who suggested destroying the wooden bridge while occupied by Danes
The nursery…
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Writing Wrinkles 
That was a delightful collection of facts that I will probably have no opportunity to share with anyone!
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Yes, it is very local. And posted every week (and, apparently, on Twitter, but I can’t get my head around Twitter. Everything is so ephemeral on there. If you blink, you miss it!
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Thanks Cathy for the reblog. My Twitter feed @cabbieblog only has daily trivia uploaded. Curiously tomorrow’s has a literary theme:
Dr Johnson’s Memorial House in Gough Square contains a brick from the Great Wall of China donated to the museum in 1822 #LDNTrivia
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Ring a ring of roses was I know about the plague, Little Bo Peep was about Samuel Pepys then minister of the navy.
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None of them are happy clappy numbers. I believe they all have a dark history.
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thanks for sharing those fun facts. I miss London…
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I still have a bolt-hole in the Eastern suburbs. Most of my kids live in or near London (the other one’s in New Zealand). My eldest son didn’t even want to leave for university (although he didn’t live at home while there so that wasn’t his reason).
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I’ve never heard of a bolt-hole. Is that like a pied-a-terre? I can see why your kids would want to be near London…
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It’s a very small pied-a-terre, where we can bolt when the Fen weather gets too fierce (or when our kids are having a party).
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