On the night of 8 December 1980, Mark David Chapman murdered John Lennon, in front of Lennon’s residence, the Dakota Building, at the corner of West 72nd Street and Central Park West in Manhattan. He had a copy of The Catcher in the Rye on hand at that time.
Earlier in the day, Chapman had shaken hands with Sean Lennon and secured an autograph from John Lennon. He then remained in waiting for several hours for John to return, whereupon he shot at him five times, inflicting four wounds.
He was charged with second degree murder and was found competent to stand trial. It was expected that he would plead insanity; instead, he lodged a guilty plea.
Hayes and Harlington
Hayes and Harlington is a railway station in the London Borough of Hillingdon.
The station is on Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s former Great Western Main Line running out of London Paddington to the Thames Valley, Bristol, South Wales and the West Country.
The line was opened on 4 June 1838, initially running to a temporary Maidenhead station to allow completion of the famous brick arch bridge over the River Thames just west of the station. The station at Hayes opened in 1868.
From 1 March 1883, the station (then named Hayes) was served by District Railway services running between Mansion House and Windsor. The service was discontinued as uneconomic after 30 September 1885.
Hayes is the location of the junction for the Heathrow Airport branch and is a station on Crossrail.
The film ’Trains at Hayes Station’ showing trains passing through the station with stereophonic sound was filmed from the roof of the defunct Aeolian pianola factory just north of the station. The factory had been purchased by HMV when the pianola company had collapsed owing to fraud and technological obsolescence. The film is almost the first demonstration of stereophonic sound to accompany moving pictures, an invention of Alan Blumlein.
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TUM Dine With Me: Spaniards Inn
The Spaniards Inn lies in Hampstead Lane on the way from Hampstead to Highgate and on the edge of Hampstead Heath.
It is believed to have been built in 1585 on the Finchley boundary, with the tavern forming the entrance to the Bishop of London’s estate – an original boundary stone from 1755 can still be seen in the front garden. Opposite it there is a toll house built in around 1710.
The Spaniards was licensed to Francis Porero, the eponymous Spaniard, in 1721. It stood at the south-west exit from Hornsey park, where a gate was marked in 1754. The building itself may be 17th century, although it has been extensively altered and refaced. It was there that the mob at the time of the Gordon Riots in 1780 was halted on its way to destroy Lord Mansfield’s house at Kenwood.
It causes a notorious traffic bottleneck. It was the site of a toll and opposite the pub lies the former toll keeper’s cottage. Both the pub and the cottage are now listed buildings and so traffic has crawl between the two. These boundaries are still relevant today – the pub is in Barnet and the tollhouse is in Camden, both are now listed buildings and traffic is reduced to one lane between the two.
Dick Turpin is thought to have been a regular at the Inn, as his father had been its landlord. Highwaymen frequented this area and likely used the Inn to watch the road.
The Inn remains a quaint, oak panelled and atmospheric pub with one of the best pub gardens in London – originally created as pleasure gardens and capable of seating 300. A visit to its tea-gardens was described by Dickens in the Pickwick Papers.
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