This Week In London’s History
- Monday – 29th October 1986: The M25 ‘London orbital’ motorway is officially opened by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, at a ceremony at the last section to be completed (junctions 22 and 23 in Hertfordshire).
- Tuesday – 30th October 1883: A group known as the 'Fenian Dynamiters' detonates a bomb on the Metropolitan Railway, injuring 62 people.
- Wednesday – 31st October 1971: An IRA bomb explodes on the 33rd floor of the Post Office Tower (now known as the BT Tower). The explosion occurs in the early hours of the morning, so nobody is harmed, despite extensive damage to the tower and other nearby buildings.
- Thursday – 1st November 1848: Retail business W H Smith opens its first railway bookstall, at Euston Station.
- Friday – 2nd November 1785: London coachbuilder Lionel Lakin patents the first ‘unsinkable lifeboat’.
Random London Quote Of The Week
In town let me live then, in town let me die
For in truth I can't relish the country, not I.
If one must have a villa in summer to dwell,
Oh give me the sweet shady side of Pall Mall.
Charles Morris, 'The Contrast'
Picture by Doilum via the Londonist Flickr Pool.
