The secrets of London by postcode: NW (North West)

This month our trivia-inspired tour of London’s postcode areas reaches NW, where Tim Burton snored, Madness caused an earthquake and Desmond Tutu asked policemen for directions even though he knew where he was going…

• The Renaissance hotel at St Pancras station had the first revolving door in Britain. It was installed at the Midland Grand (as the hotel was then called) in 1899, by the device’s inventor Theophilus Van Kannel. (The door itself – or rather a modern replacement – is still in the same spot, at the entrance nearest the road, rather than the main one set further back.) Another innovation was the Ladies’ Smoking Room, the first in Europe where women could light up. And there was more girl power a century later, when the Spice Girls shot the video for Wannabe at the hotel. (Although, as they filmed it at night during a spell when the hotel was closed, the group were freezing cold – the resulting reaction from Mel B’s nipples meant the video was banned in some parts of Asia.)