9 Miscellaneous London Firsts
Article by Clara Ros
1.First Demonstration of Television
The Scotsman John Logie Baird began his research into the transmission of visual images in Hastings in the early 1920s but moved to London in 1924. He rented an attic room at 22nd Frith Street, Soho, to use as a workshop and it was there on 26 January 1926 that members of the Royal Institution made up the first television audience. The room was above what is now Bar Italia. The world’s first sale of a television set took place at Selfridge’s in 1928.
2.First Indian Restaurant in London
The Hindostanee Coffee House opened off Portman Square, London, in 1809. Its owner was a remarkable man called Dean Mahomet who had arrived in London from India two years earlier. Mahomet’s establishment offered, in the words of one of its advertisements, ‘India dishes in the highest perfection’ but, sadly, the public wasn’t ready for them and the Hindostanee went bust in 1812. Mahomet then moved to Brighton where he opened a private bathhouse that was patronised by the Prince Regent. He died in Brighton in 1850, aged ninety- one.
3.First London Telephone Directory
The first known telephone directory was issued by the London Telephone Company in January 1880. It was six pages long and included 255 names.
4.First Known Representation of London
This can be seen on a gold medallion found in Arras, France, and now in the British Museum. The Roman emperor Constantius Chlorus, father of Constantine the Great, is shown being welcomed by a figure with outstretched arms, kneeling in front of a gate of the walled city. Ironically the fortified gateway shown on the medal was probably based not on anything a contemporary visitor could have seen in London but on the Porta Nigra at Trier which was where the medallion was minted.
5.First London Escalator
The first escalator in the city was installed in Harrod’s in 1878. The store management was so concerned that customers might be overcome by the experience of travelling on it that a member of staff was on hand at the top with brandy and smelling salts to revive them. Possibly their worries were justified since the escalator was not a moving staircase with steps but a smooth slope with a handrail at the side to which to cling.
6.First London A-Z
A young woman called Phyllis Pearsall compiled the first edition in the 1930s. She rose at 5.00 in the morning each day and walked 18 miles through the streets, taking notes, eventually completing 23,000 individual street entries which she kept in shoeboxes under her bed. No publisher was interested so she published it herself, delivering copies to branches of WH Smith in a wheelbarrow. By the time of her death in 1996, the A-Z had sold millions of copies.
7.First Metropolitan Police Officer Killed on Duty
PC Joseph Grantham was kicked in the head while attempting to make an arrest during a drunken disturbance in Somers Town, Euston, in 1830, a year after the Metropolitan Police was founded. Another early police fatality had an even more undignified demise. In 1832 PC Thomas Hart was drowned when a stray cow he was trying to return to its owner knocked him into the River Brent. In the early days of the force the police were extremely unpopular. Three years later another police officer, PC Robert Culley, was killed during a riot in Coldbath Fields, Grays Inn Road. The coroner’s jury returned a verdict of ‘justifiable homicide’.
8.First Railway Murder
On 9 July 1864 Franz Miiller, a German living in London, attacked an elderly man called Thomas Briggs on a train between Bow and Hackney Wick and threw him out of the window. Briggs died of his injuries the following day. Not very cleverly, Miiller took his victim’s hat instead of his own, leaving the latter for the police to find. They were able to trace it to Miiller and a jeweller in Cheapside identified the German from a photograph as the man who had tried to sell him a gold chain belonging to Briggs. Miiller had fled to New York but was brought back to England to face trial. His defence was that he was with a prostitute at the time of the murder but prosecuting counsel loftily dismissed this with the remark that ‘little reliance should be placed on a clock in a brothel’. The jury did not believe Miiller’s story and he was hanged on 14 November 1864.
9.First Ferris Wheel
Built by JR Whitley on the site of what is now Earl’s Court Exhibition Centre, the giant wheel had a diameter of 300 feet and was opened to the public in July 1895. In May of the following year, the wheel became stuck in mid-rotation and dozens of passengers were stranded on it, some of them overnight. They were given generous compensation in the form of a?5 note and, curiously, the breakdown increased the wheel’s popularity. The next day thousands of people queued to get on it, many of them hoping that it would come to a halt again and they too would be compensated. The wheel finally closed and was demolished in 1907.
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About the Author
Formerly a practising lawyer, Clara Ros is now a professional travel writer who specializes in cruises, luxury travel and soft adventure trips. Clara Ros has traveled worldwide – five continents, plus. So if you need to Rent an apartment London, Clara is the right person for advice.
