Guest Post: Graham Greenglass – Six Degrees of London Separation and Taxi Slang

The following is a guest post from Graham Greenglass, a London Taxi Driver and London Tour Guide. Check out his cool London tours here.

This week six degrees separates William Wallace (aka ‘Braveheart’) to David Copperfield.

William Wallace (aka ‘Braveheart’) – Executed at Smithfield (1305) on being captured by his mortal enemy King Edward I (aka ‘Longshanks’). Hanged, drawn and quartered, his head was tarred and placed on a spike atop the drawbridge gate at London Bridge. His quartered remains were sent to hang in public at Berwick, Perth, Stirling and Newcastle. A plaque in Wallace’s memory is set into the north wall of St Bartholomew’s Hospital, facing the site of his execution. Flowers are still placed, by someone or some people unknown, beneath his memorial.

Smithfield – Smithfield was the site of Bartholomew Fair every August from 1123-1855, regular cattle and cloth markets, Royal Tournaments and, of course, public executions. Once the Fair closed the site became home to the London Central Meat Market – and it still is – in a fine building designed by Horace Jones, future architect of Tower Bridge.

In 1381 Wat Tyler, the leader of the Peasants’ Revolt, was stabbed to death at Smithfield, in front of the fourteen year old King Richard II, by the Lord Mayor of London, Sir William Walworth. The knife that did the deed can still be seen at Fishmongers Livery Hall (Walworth was a member of the Guild of Fishmongers).

Peasants’ Revolt (1381) – Whilst the Revolt ended with the death of Wat Tyler it had reached London days earlier, most notably with the mob storming the Tower of London, seizing Archbishop of Canterbury Simon Sudbury, separating his head from his body and then parading it (his head that is) through the streets.

The rioters also stormed the Marshalsea Prison, destroying it in part and releasing prisoners.

Marshalsea Prison – Well established before The Peasants’ Revolt, Marshalsea Prison stood in Borough, just south of London Bridge. It was a gaol for those who challenged authority (it’s name derives from the Marshal of the Kings Household) and debtors.

In 1824 a debtor named John Dickens entered this ‘old pile most dreadful to the view’. His son was the twelve year old Charles Dickens.

Charles Dickens – Dickens lived in many London addresses from boyhood through adulthood. He forgot little and often merged real life and his past within his fiction. Mr Micawber, for instance, was a debtor held in Marshalsea.

In 1834 Dickens took lodgings at 15 Buckingham Street, just south of Strand, almost touching the north bank of the Thames.

Buckingham Street – The street gets its name from having been built on the site of York House, former mansion of the Duke of Buckingham, in the 1670′s. It has housed Samuel Pepys, the Earl of Oxford, the Earl of Lichfield, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Peter the Great, David Hume, John-Jacques Rousseau, Charles Dickens and in this tiny street, one of his greatest fictional creations also found a roof over his head:

David Copperfield

I could have linked Dickens directly to Copperfield, but the Buckingham Street connection makes it far more interesting.

For this game to be more fun it should perhaps involve the Anglotopia reader. Email your Six Degrees of London Separation suggestions to enquiries@londoncabtours.co.uk /Subject Six Degrees

London Taxi Drivers Slang Continued

Dead Animals Zoo/The Dead Zoo –  A bit of lateral thinking required on this one. It’s the Natural History Museum, well known for having stuffed animals of every variety. Thousands of them. Built by Alfred Waterhouse, it opened in 1881. Part Romanesque ‘cathedral’, part gothic revivalist Victorian ‘statement’, it is a terracotta wonder that dominates from without and within.

The Pit – Every major London rail terminus has a nickname. If you have ever been dropped off by, or queued for, a cab at Euston Station you’ll know why it’s called ‘The Pit’. The taxi rank lies below street level in an airless, windowless ‘bunker’ quite frankly. The station itself is a charmless 60′s glass and concrete block, mostly hidden behind other charmless 60′s glass and concrete blocks, and a charmless bus terminus.

Butterboy – A squeaky clean, brand new qualified taxi driver having just completed The Knowledge. Derivation contested. It either means ‘but a boy’ ie. still wet behind the ears, or alternatively – and still a newly qualified taxi driver – one so keen they will do any job, anywhere, anytime in order to earn their bread (& butter).

Famous People In My Taxi This Week

Dame Kelly Holmes – Double Gold Medal Olympian (2004 – 800m & 1500m)

Mika – Pop Star