The London Daily Newsletter Thursday 8 December

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.

Harringay
Harringay is a district of within the London Borough of Haringey.

Harringay is centred on an area between the New River and Duckett’s Common. Harringay’s main shopping street is Green Lanes. Towards the southern end stands the well-preserved Victorian ’Beaconsfield’ pub. A large section of the eastern side of Green Lanes is called Grand Parade. Interrupted only by the gaps introduced by the residential roads running eastwards, Grand Parade runs from just north of Harringay Green Lanes station to St Ann’s Road. The streets to the west of Green Lanes are known as the Harringay Ladder. The streets to the east are known as ’The Gardens’. Harringay railway station is situated between Finsbury Park to the south and Hornsey to the north and opened on 1 May 1885.

Video: Flying into LCY
A simulated flight into LCY courtesy of Google Earth Studio.

TUM Dine With Me: Ship Inn
The Ship Inn (later the Swan) stood where today’s Queen’s Gate intersects with Old Brompton Road.

It stood opposite a lane called variously Ship Lane and Sallad Lane which today roughly follows the line of Selwood Terrace and Onslow Gardens. Immediately next door was a house generally known at the Scotts Barracks, since since the early 1700s it had been full of Scottish lodgers. It had also been a pest house (a place where victims of infectious diseases were kept, sometimes forcibly).