The London Trocadero was an entertainment complex on Coventry Street, with a rear entrance in Shaftesbury Avenue, London. It was originally built in 1896 as a restaurant, which closed in 1965. In 1984, the complex reopened as an exhibition and entertainment space. It became known for the video-game oriented SegaWorld attractions which were added in 1996, and later downscaled and renamed to "Funland" before its closure in 2011. Part of the building was opened as a hotel in 2020.
The complex incorporates separate historic London buildings, including the old London Pavilion Theatre (a former venue for the Palace of Varieties), the New Private Subscription Theatre, the Royal Albion Theatre, the Argyll Subscription Rooms, the Eden Theatre and the Trocadero Restaurant.
The name Trocadero indirectly derives from the Battle of Trocadero in 1823, through the Palais du Trocadéro in Paris, named after the French victory. Since at least 1919, the Trocadero has been abbreviated to the Troc or Chicarito, and under that name it appears in a poem by John Betjeman.[1]
- ^ Jocelyn Brooke, John Betjeman, Chapter 3, Poems online at ourcivilisation.com, accessed 15 May 2013