On this day in London history … 19 February
In 1819, William Smith who was born in Northumberland but captained cargo vessels out of Wapping, was sailing round Cape Horn as he skippered the vessel ‘Williams’ from Buenos Aires to Valparaiso. Spotted an archipelago which he dubbed the South Shetland Islands. In 1820, the Royal Navy sent Smith and Williams back to survey the islands, discovering the Antarctic Peninsula as they did.
In 1985, the first episode of TV soap ‘EastEnders’ is broadcast, documenting the everyday life of rape, murder, arson and general unpleasantness that typifies life in the imaginary East End borough of Walford (an amalgam of south London’s Walworth and east London’s Romford).
Two London actors born on this day. In 1717, the great actor-manager David Garrick (who gives his name to both a West End street and theatre). His great grandfather, David Garric was a French Huguenot family, who fled Europe after the Edict of Nantes in 1685, first to Spitalfields in the East End. Somewhat in contrast, Ray Winstone was born in 1957 in Homerton - Scum, Sexy Beast, Quadrophenia, I’d like to have seen Garrick take a pop at those.