Should the Bank of England move? After all, it is a ‘city incubus that stops all the traffic’ and stops Kendall Robinson of, er, Cheapside from getting home at night. True, it is a large monolith which probably does hinder traffic flow, but it’s probably easier to do something about the traffic that the BoE.
This marvellous clipping was snipped by the reader of an old book on London. Perhaps Kendall Robinson himself preserved his moment of glory, only to be found now. It’s undated, but the clipping on the back offers some clues. It has a report of Chelsea losing 2-1 to Manchester City.
The clipping talks of Nils Middelboe, a Danish player who turned out for Chelsea between 1913 and 1923. Chelsea lost twice in two years to Manchester City on City’s turf in this period, on 22 November 1913, on Boxing Day 1914. However, the clipping talks of Middelboe as though his appearance is a novelty, suggesting the earlier fixture. If so, he had made his debut the previous week after having been made captain of the team in an apparent gesture of faith from his team-mates. They may also have been scared of him as he stood 6″2, earning the unsurprising nickname ‘The Great Dane’. Both matches would have taken place at Hyde Road in Ardwick, Manchester City’s home before their move to Maine Road in 1923.
Thanks to Mr Robinson or whoever else snipped this clipping some 103 years ago. I’m glad the Bank of England didn’t get moved, and not hugely sorry to read about the eight-year-old arrivistes Chelsea losing to a more venerable footballing force. What would Nils Middelboe make of these two clubs, under foreign ownership, slugging it out for the title of largest todger in English football?
Tom Hall: travel, London, other things 