Crocker's Folly

Crocker's Folly stands as one of the most opulent examples of a Victorian gin palace in London, though it was originally built simply as The Crown Hotel. When you step inside, you are entering a space where no expense was spared, featuring over fifty different types of marble covering the walls, pillars, and fireplace. Its architect, Charles Worley, designed this grand, Northern Renaissance-style structure in 1898 to impress visitors who were expected to arrive at a major nearby railway terminus. While the station was ultimately built over half a mile away, the building remains an extraordinary display of late-Victorian ambition and decorative excess.