This innocuous pavement light hides a dark secret.
It is in Throgmorton Avenue, just outside my office, and is part of the Drapers’ Livery company Hall (incidentally built on the site of Thomas Cromwell’s stately home in the City, from where he plotted the downfall of Anne Boleyn).
However it marks the faded glory of a now closed Lyons restaurant which was empty for many years until my enterprising friend Bob Slayer turned it into a pop-up comedy club – which in an alternative career I was the house magician for!
https://www.kzwp.com/lyons2/throg.htm
I played virtually every night there alongside Stewart Lee, Simon Munnery, Arthur Smith, Nish Kumar, Josie Long and loads of other comedians.
It was fantastic, one of the best things I have done.
The pavement light is just above this.
Bob Slayer himself, the proprietor.
The club itself spreads over 3 floors beneath the pavement, and is fitted out with beautiful faded fixtures.
Here is a posting by my friend John Fleming about it.
The Grotto of Comedy, blood in Bahrain and a British comic who might not exist
