The Queen’s Head pub in Mortlake closes

Anglican vicar Chad Varah, using the crypt of a London church, sets up the first branch of what becomes the Samaritans

Barn Elms burns down, and its grounds are converted to school playing fields

The Jehovah's Witnesses first convention at Twickenham rugby ground takes place.

Ellaline Terriss, heart-throb of the Edwardian stage and now in her eighties, moves into 1 St Helena Terrace

Milbourne House, seriously damaged in World War II, is restored and divided into two separate dwellings

The first accurate caesium clock is developed at the National Physical Laboratory

The English Stage Company, founded by George Devine, opens in London's Royal Court Theatre

John Osborne's play Look Back in Anger features in the first season of London's new English Stage Company

The cartoonist Vicky depicts Harold Macmillan as Supermac in London's Evening Standard

Nigerian dramatist Wole Soyinka's play The Swamp Dwellers is produced in London

Harold Pinter's first play in London's West End, The Birthday Party, closes in less than a week

After nearly a century as a museum, the Orangery reverts to citrus cultivation before taking on its current role as Kew Gardens' main refreshment building.

Harold Pinter's second play in London's West End, The Caretaker, immediately brings him an international reputation

The remaining part of Whitton Tower or Whitton Castle, a gothic tower built in the grounds of Whitton Park in the 1740s, is demolished.

The Rolling Stones, led by Mick Jagger, give their first performance as a group, in London's Marquee Club

Mrs Ionides lealves the Octagon, stables and the site of Orleans House to the Borough of Twickenham to be used as a public gallery

US poet Sylvia Plath commits suicide in London

Dickens Close, with eight new houses, is built on 3.5 acres of the Elm Lodge gardens

Winston Churchill dies, and lies in state in London's ancient Westminster Hall

Maria Callas gives her last performance, as Tosca at Covent Garden in London

The Whale, a cantata by English composer John Tavener, has its premiere at the inaugural concert of the London Sinfonietta

A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, by English dramatist Peter Nichols, has its premiere in London

Garrick's Villa, now listed Grade 1, is reconverted into nine flats

Kew Pond is registered as common land under the Commons Registration Act 1965