Tube station used as WW2 command centre put up for sale

An underground station used as a World War II command centre has been put up for sale. The Ministry of Defence has put on the market Brompton Road Tube station, which housed Winston Churchill’s anti-aircraft operations.

The station, which closed in 1934, was revived to control anti-aircraft batteries to protect London from air raids. It will go on sale next month. 

Julian Chafer, an MoD surveyor who has been working on the site, told the Telegraph: “There would have been maps on the walls, there would have been perhaps an operations table and perhaps a scale model of part of the city, actually physically moving scale models about with the anti-aircraft batteries so people could envisage exactly where they were in the city.”

Sinister history of common phrases revealed 

The dark history of common sayings such as ‘gone to pot’ and ‘rule of thumb’ has been uncovered. Using old newspapers, Genes Reunited found ‘paying through the nose’ was a Viking punishment of slitting the nose of anyone who refused to pay tax, while ‘rule of thumb’ refers to a ruling that a man was entitled to beat his wife with a stick provided it was no thicker than his thumb.

Permission granted to examine ‘Prince Alfred grave’  

Permission has been granted to see if remains from an unmarked grave are those of King Alfred the Great. Scientific tests will begin shortly on the remains at St Bartholomew’s Church, Winchester, after community group Hyde900 saw its application approved.

Evidence humans lived on Thames in 7,000 BC 

Archaeologists working on the Crossrail project have discovered rare evidence humans lived on the River Thames 9,000 years ago. A Mesolithic tool-making factory, a well-made Roman road and gold were found.

50,000 mark Hiroshima in Japan 

Some 50,000 people in Japan stood for a minute’s silence on Tuesday to mark the 68th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The blast on 6 August 1945 killed up to 250,000 people.

York Minster stonework to go under hammer 

York Minster is to auction off stonework removed during ongoing restoration work. The masonry will on 16 August go under the hammer to help raise funds for the continuing conservation programme.

Statue erected for ‘first UK pilot’

Aviation pioneer Samuel Franklin Cody has been honoured with a statue at Farnborough Common in Hampshire. There, in October 1908, he took to the skies in what was the first official sustained and controlled flight of a powered “heavier-than-air” machine in the British Isles.