The Big Smoke

‘The finest collection of trivia on the web’, says the somewhat overzealous blob in this week’s magazine, which is designed to guide desolate readers to this site. Which is all well and good, but I hadn't planned on delivering anything particularly trivial (hold your tongue) this week.

Fortunately, as I may have mentioned, I’m ankle deep in London literature at the moment, so here are some things I learnt recently.

The Thames used to be a tributory for the Rhine.

‘Getting off at Clapham Junction’ is a euphemism for coitus interruptus - it’s one stop before the terminus).

Amen Corner, Ava Maria Lane, Creed Lane and Paternoster Row were named after the parts of mass said by clergymen as they moved in procession round St Paul’s. They began at Paternoster Row with the Lord’s Prayer and ended at Amen Corner.

The original pedestrian Hungerford Bridge was designed by Brunel. Part of it is now incorporated into the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol.

The world’s first passenger-carrying railway was opened in 1808 by Richard Trevithick in Euston Square. It went round in a circle and cost a shilling per go.

Every Victoria Cross is made from a bronze Chinese cannon captured in the Crimean War. The medal is fashioned by Messrs Hancock & Co in Burlington Gardens.

The London Nose is a protuberance on the inside of Admiralty Arch that looks like a human nose. Newly qualified black cab drivers touch it as a post-Knowledge ritual.

The spam sketch in Monty Python was set in the fictional Green Midget Café in Bromley.

There are 412 escalators and 122 lifts on the London Underground.

Not bad eh?

Update The lyrics of MC Hammer's seminal 1990 hit 'U Can't Touch This' include a reference to London. Namely 'I've toured around the world/ From London to the Bay/ It's Hammer, go Hammer, MC Hammer, Yo Hammer/ And the rest can go and play/ Can't touch this'.