Crocker's Folly, 24 Aberdeen Place, NW8

This is one of London's great legends – true or not. In 1898, businessman Frank Crocker, believing that the proposed West Country railway line would terminate in Maida Vale, sank all his money into building the lavish Crown Hotel. Sadly, it turned out the terminus was built a mile away at Marylebone. Broke and distraught, Mr Crocker took a fatal dive from an upstairs window.

Well, that's the myth. In fact, Frank Crocker died peacefully in his bed and the Crown officially got its colourful name in, erm, 1987. Crocker's Folly is undeniably a gorgeously photogenic establishment, decorated with fifty different types of marble.

Who'd have thought you would have found Gene Hackman in Maida Vale? On screen, the pub became a ‘New York’ writers' club, where Pete Van Wherry (Gene Hackman) drinks with John Reed (Warren Beatty) in Beatty's Oscar-winning epic Reds. It later became a gentlemen's club in Oliver Parker's 2002 opening-up of The Importance of Being Earnest. Alas, it closed in 2004 and remains empty, its future uncertain.

Reds (1981, dir: Warren Beatty)
The Importance of Being Earnest (2002, dir: Oliver Parker)