This Day In London’s History 1962: The first ‘Panda crossing’ is opened on York Road, opposite Waterloo Station. Since the 1930s, pedestrian crossings in Britain were marked by poles bearing orange glass domes known as ’Belisha beacons’ (named after Leslie Hore-Belisha, the Minister of Transport at the time). Traffic approaching these crossings was required to stop and give way to any pedestrians who were waiting to cross the road. At around the same time,......

This Day In London’s History 1916: Prolific actor Eric Christmas is born in London. OK, so it’s slim pickings this week in terms of interesting London-related events that have taken place on this date. But we did discover that the wonderfully-named Eric Cuthbert Christmas was born on 19th March 1916 in London, and in the absence of anything more interesting occurring on this date in London we thought we would find out a little......

This Day In London’s History 1825: The Grosvenor Canal is opened. In 1723 the Chelsea Waterworks were constructed to supply water for parts of West London. Part of these works included a small tidal inlet on the Thames, just east of Chelsea Bridge, which became the entrance to a canal that ran about a mile to Grosvenor Basin (where Victoria Station currently resides). The Grosvenor Canal was opened on 5th March 1825 and was......

This Day In London’s History 1554: Lady Jane Grey and her husband Lord Guildford Dudley are executed at the Tower of London. Named as successor to the throne by King Edward VI, Lady Jane Grey became Queen of England in July 1553. However her reign was exceptionally short-lived – she was replaced by her cousin Mary Tudor after only nine days, and detained in the Tower of London. Some months later, under considerable political......

This Day In London’s History 1924: The Greenwich Time Signal pips are broadcast on BBC Radio for the first time. This one is quite pleasingly geeky. Shortly after the formation of the BBC in 1922, it was suggested that it might be a nice idea to broadcast a time signal “under direct control of the Greenwich Observatory”. No-one did much about the idea for a couple of years, until John Reith (general manager of......

This Day In London’s History 1976: A series of IRA bombs explode in London’s West End. During the early hours of 29th January 1976, 12 bombs exploded in the area around Oxford Street, injuring the driver of a passing taxi and starting several small fires. Fortunately nobody was killed – it was thought that the bombs were deliberately timed to explode during the night. Much of the area was closed the next day, during......

This Day In London’s History 1788: Lord Byron born at 16 Holles Street, just north of Oxford Street. Born George Gordon Byron, but inheriting the family title at the age of 10, Byron was an extravagant, eccentric and hugely prolific writer. However he was just as famous for his tumultuous lifestyle as for his writings, both of which attracted much attention. Shortly after his birth in London, his mother moved him to Aberdeen. He......

This Day In London’s History 1759: The British Museum in Bloomsbury opens its doors to the public for the first time. Some may feel that the British Museum these days is little more than a massive boast, bragging about how many cool things the British Empire has stolen from the rest of the world. But regardless of whether this criticism is fair or not, it’s hard to deny that the museum is still one......

This Day In London’s History 1991: A packed rush hour train carrying over one thousand commuters collides with the buffers at Cannon Street station. At 8:44am on 8th January 1991, the 07:58 train from Sevenoaks failed to stop when pulling into Cannon Street station and hit the buffers at the central London terminus at about 5 miles per hour. Despite the relatively low speed, the impact caused the infrastructure of some of the carriages......

This Day In London’s History 1890: Public opening of the world’s first ‘deep-level’ electric tube line, running between Stockwell and King William Street. Although the Metropolitan and Metropolitan District Railways had opened several underground tube lines since 1863, these were relatively shallow ‘cut-and-cover’-type lines. Following advances in tunnelling techniques later in the century, it became possible to construct much deeper lines, and the City & South London Railway was opened to the public on......

This Day In London’s History 1911: Prolific film director Val Guest is born in Maida Vale. Although probably most renowned for directing (and co-writing) sci-fi classics The Quatermass Xperiment and Quatermass II in the mid 1950s, the cinematic career of the man who was born Valmond Maurice Grossman on December 11th 1911 in Maida Vale was long and varied. Since his early twenties, he had tried his hand at acting, scriptwriting and even composing,......

This Day In London’s History 1882: The Royal Courts of Justice on The Strand are opened by Queen Victoria. The impressive gothic spectacle that is the building for the Royal Courts of Justice was designed by George Edmund Street (who was, appropriately enough, a solicitor before he became an architect) and built in the 1870s. Also known as the Law Courts, the building is home to England’s primary civil court, dealing with some of......

This Day In London’s History 1970: The first ever public gay protest in Britain is held at Highbury Fields. Following the arrest (and alleged entrapment) of Louis Eaks for cottaging, the Gay Liberation Front (a name that always makes us think of The Life Of Brian) gathered on 27th November 1970 for a torchlight procession through Highbury Fields in protest. Reports differ as to how many protesters attended the procession, but it was clear......

This Day In London’s History 1990: Pandemonium in Westminster as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher fails to win outright victory over Michael Heseltine in the Conservative Party leadership contest. Following a lengthy period of discontent from her own party, including the resignation of Sir Geoffrey Howe from his position as Deputy Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher’s leadership was formally challenged for the second time in as many years, this time by Michael Heseltine. It was widely......

This Day In London’s History 1887: ‘Bloody Sunday’ - thousands of demonstrators are beaten to a pulp by police and troops in central London. Not to be confused with the day of violence in Derry in 1972, this particular ‘Bloody Sunday’ refers to the events that unfolded on 13th November 1887, as the Social Democratic Federation attempted to stage a large demonstration in Trafalgar Square. The government banned the meeting, deploying large numbers of......

This Day In London’s History 1975: The Sex Pistols play their first gig at Saint Martin’s College. After Johnny Rotten joined The Swankers as their new vocalist, the band changed its name to The Sex Pistols under the guidance of its new manager Malcolm McLaren. Shortly afterwards, on this day 31 years ago, they played (or attempted to play) their first gig at Saint Martin’s College. Their debut was not exactly an overwhelming success......