At a enceinte intersection near London ’s Leicester Square , sharp-worded - eyed pedestrians will be able to make out a mysterious pelage hook shot drilled into a building façade near 5 Great Newport Street . According toAtlas Obscura , the hook was aim there for a very specific mathematical group of masses — traffic bull .
London ’s first motoristsdidn’t trust traffic lights . The city installed its first red - yellow - green signaling at the junction of St. James ’s Street and Piccadillyonly in 1925 , and most major intersections still employed Metropolitan Police officer to direct dealings . At the junction of Great Newport Street , Garrick Street , Long Acre , Cranbourn Street , and Upper St. Martins Lane , cars and stroller depended on a bobby to tell them when to go ahead .
At the meter , law officers wore woolenuniformswith mantle , even in the hottest month of summertime . One of the traffic pig at the intersection , whose name is not recorded , noticed a nail protruding from a building site near 5 Great Newport Street and hung his ness on it . His fellow military officer postdate suit as temperatures climbed . When the construction work ended sometime in the 1930s and the nail was removed , the officers petitioned the building ’s owners to install a permanent fixture .
Today , the ornate iron hook remains drill into the wall , along with a alloy plate read " Metropolitan Police . " It ’s undecipherable whether those who are not police force officers can drape their crownwork on it .
The unique small-arm ofstreet furniturehas outlast the need for dealings - directing bobby , but it remains a beloved part of London ’s transportation chronicle . Allegedly , the bait is one of the 20,000 points of pursuit to be memorized forThe Knowledge , the infamously unmanageable test one must pass to become a London cab driver .
[ h / tAtlas Obscura ]
