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Lawrence Hall, London

Art Deco architecture in LondonBuildings and structures completed in 1928Exhibition and conference centres in LondonGrade II* listed buildings in the City of WestminsterLondon building and structure stubs
Royal Horticultural Society
RHS Lawrence Hall 652R
RHS Lawrence Hall 652R

Lawrence Hall in Greycoat Street, Westminster was the newer of the two Royal Horticultural Halls owned by R.H.S. Enterprises Limited, which is part of the Royal Horticultural Society charity in central London. The other is Lindley Hall in Elverton Street; both are close to the RHS' headquarters in Vincent Square. The site of Lawrence Hall incorporates a self-contained purpose-built conference centre above the main hall. The building's name relates to Trevor Lawrence, president of the Royal Horticultural Society from 1885 to 1913 who was chiefly responsible for moving the Society from its expensive Kensington site to a more practical home in Westminster in 1904. Lawrence Hall has vaulted ceilings and Art Deco interior features. It was awarded a gold medal by the Royal Institute of British Architects for its dramatic architecture. It was constructed between 1925 and 1928 and was designed by the partnership of Easton and Robertson. The tall parabolic arches which begin as square piers are credited to Easton, derived from the reinforced concrete work of Hennebique and Freyssinet. It has been listed Grade II* on the National Heritage List for England since 1983.Lawrence Hall and the conference centre underwent a £1.2 million renovation in 2006. Although built as an exhibition hall, Lawrence Hall was increasingly used for product launches and conferences. In December 2011 the RHS announced that it had leased the hall for 999 years to Westminster School for £18 million, the terms allowing the hall to continue to be used for four RHS flower shows each year. Westminster School has converted the building for use as a Sports Centre. It was used as a filming location for Pink Floyd - The Wall, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Richard III, The Saint, Killing Eve, and Children of Men.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Lawrence Hall, London (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Lawrence Hall, London
Elverton Street, London Millbank

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N 51.495 ° E -0.1339 °
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Lawrence Hall and Conference Centre (Royal Horticultural Hall)

Elverton Street
SW1P 2QG London, Millbank
England, United Kingdom
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RHS Lawrence Hall 652R
RHS Lawrence Hall 652R
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Westminster Pit
Westminster Pit

The Westminster Pit was a well-known blood sport arena in nineteenth-century London, England. It reached a zenith of popularity between 1820 and 1830, and hosted such spectacles as dog-fighting, cock-fighting, bear-baiting, badger-baiting, monkey-baiting, and rat-baiting. A legal enterprise at the time, the Westminster Pit openly declared its activities, ushering notoriety on the district in which it existed. The Westminster Pit was located on Duck Lane, Orchard Street (since renamed St. Matthew's Street), and its dimensions were approximately 20 feet (6.1 m) by 18 feet (5.5 m). The gallery was 3 feet (0.91 m) above the arena and was capable of containing 200 people – or, by report of William Pitt Lennox, "perhaps a greater number of less refractory persons, for the common run of spectators were so obstreperous and so agitated by various emotions, according to the amount of bets depending, and the various turns of the conflict, that a decent orderly person would feel himself much incommoded by a considerably less number."Prior to the beginning of matches, the stakes would be formalised and the dogs weighed. It was common in the Westminster Pit (and other venues like it) for cheating to occur, often by way of covering a dog with substances – such as acid or pepper – that would deter his opponent from biting him. For this reason, it was compulsory that all combatants be washed in water or milk, and a participant was permitted to lick his opponent's dog as a precaution.Perhaps the most famous dog to perform in the Westminster Pit was a bull and terrier named "Billy", whose fame was his rat-baiting ability. The October 1822 edition of The Sporting Magazine describes his feat of killing 100 rats in six minutes and twenty-five seconds: almost six minutes faster than what was wagered. Billy's best time ever is recorded as five minutes, or slightly over "by a very few seconds". The name of Billy's owner is not consistently documented: some sources refer to a Charles Dew, some to Charley Westropp, and others to Charley Aistrop. Pierce Egan gives Billy's date of death as 23 February 1829. Later commentators have questioned the legitimacy of Billy's success; in particular, James Rodwell, in his 1858 The rat: its history & destructive character: With numerous anecdotes, stated: "let it be borne in mind, and I assert it on the testimony of living witnesses, that numbers of the rats were dead before the dog commenced, and that the whole had been poisoned with nux-vomica before being put into the pit . . . and when he did commence, several were thrown out as dead that were able to crawl away".In 1830, an indictment was lodged against the Westminster Pit by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The Society charged the proprietor, John King, with a nuisance, while noting that it was "indebted to corporal Denny, of No. 17, Queen Square, Westminster, and to James Yewen, of No. 6, Horseferry Road, Westminster . . . for obtaining a sufficient number of witnesses, residing on the spot, to prove the case as a nuisance." King was convicted, and, according to The Cottager's monthly visitor, "the prosecution completely suppressed that notorious sink of cruelty and vice".