This is a great one. A quirky hidden relic from a bygone age.
Look at this building on Great Newport Street. Seems pretty normal, doesn’t it?
When would-be black cab drivers are doing ‘The Knowledge’ – the famous and incredibly hard test to become a London black cab driver (which can take 3 years or more) – they are sent out to find certain ‘points’ across the city to prove they know London, and one of the points is hidden on this building.
Look closer and you can just see something sticking out the side of the building. What could it be?
It’s known as the policeman’s coat hook.
Before traffic lights were introduced to London in the 1930’s, traffic at busy intersections was controlled by local bobbies.
Here at this intersection in Covent Garden where five roads meet, without a policeman controlling the traffic flow, it would have been bedlam.
During the summer it would have been hot work for the policeman given the job of keeping the traffic moving, and a hook was drilled into the wall for him to hang his coat on.
I told you it was a nice one!