The first London Pavilion (located on the corner of Shaftesbury Avenue) in London, England, was a music hall built in 1859. The full gallery could not be used, however, since “part of the premises contained Dr. Kahn’s “Delectable Museum of Anatomy.” Don’t ask.
In 1934 said music hall morphed into a cinema and premiered masterpieces such as The Curse of Frankenstein, a gala event in which the foyer was done up to resemble Victor Frankenstein’s laboratory, complete with The Creature skulking about in a tank. The beleagured edifice did open The Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night” in 1964, but in ‘86 shut down cinematic operations entirely and left The Creature still in his tank in the basement, by now quite sullen indeed. You can’t make this stuff up.
Today this magnificent architectural edifice is a shopping arcade which houses Ripley’s Believe It or Not! a tacky tourist attraction featuring the odd, unusual, and unbelievable. SOMEONE PLEASE BUY THIS BUILDING AND TREAT IT PROPERLY THIS IS JUST WRONG.
(image and info by wikipedia; sarky comments, entirely mine)
image by wikimedia
(Source: bewitchingbritain)
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