Did you know...




  • …that the building now housing the Brick Lane Mosque (pictured) was built as a Huguenot chapel in 1743, and subsequently became a synagogue?
The Savoy Hotel
The Savoy Hotel
  • …that the Ritz Hotel in Piccadilly was the first British hotel with a private bathroom to each room?
  • …that the forecourt of the Savoy Hotel (pictured) is the only street in the United Kingdom where vehicles are required to drive on the right?
The "Circle of Lebanon" in Highgate Cemetery, London
The "Circle of Lebanon" in Highgate Cemetery, London
  • ...that the Dulwich Picture Gallery opened in 1817 with a collection assembled for a never-realised Polish national gallery, and that it was first purpose-built public art gallery in England?
  • ...that the remains of London's Roman amphitheatre can be found in the basement of the Guildhall Art Gallery?
  • ...that the Secretum was the name given to a cupboard in the British Museum containing a collection of supposed ancient erotica, which in fact largely consisted of Victorian fakes?



  • ...that The Clink prison in Southwark, from which the phrase "in the clink" derives, was possibly the oldest prison in England, founded in the 12th century?
  • ...that Millbank Prison, used largely to hold convicts who were to be deported to Australia, stood on the site now occupied by Tate Britain?



  • ...that Victoria Park was laid out between 1842–1846, partially on the former hunting grounds of the Bishop of London. It contains two alcoves from old London Bridge and the oldest model boat club in the world founded in the Park on 15 July 1904.
  • ... that the Peacock Theatre is believed to be haunted by the ghost of a dolphin called "Flipper"?



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Archive of all previous Did You Know pages from the Portal:London: