Python building saved for nation... celebrate with a waffer-thin mint!
IT was immortalised on screen as the backdrop to Mr Creosote’s gluttony – and subsequent graphic explosion – as he accepts one ‘waffer-thin mint’.
And now, the historic building featured in the much-loved Monty Python skit has received an enhanced protected status.
During the sketch, the vast Mr Creosote – played by Terry Jones – stuffs himself with caviar, pate, moules marinieres and more, washed down with six bottles of red wine and a ‘double jeroboam’ of champagne for good measure.
But his greed gets the better of him, and, after accepting ‘just one waffer- thin mint’ from John Cleese’s French waiter, he physitwo
‘Protected status’
cally explodes – leaving his rib cage hanging wide open as he’s presented with the cheque.
The sketch, filmed in the main hall of the Porchester Centre in Bayswater, west London, featured in the 1982 film The Meaning of Life. The 1920s site is now a Grade II* listed building, and features a rare Turkish bath complex.
It was revealed as one of the 21 most unusual buildings to receive protected status from the Government’s heritage agency, Historic England. The buildings were chosen from 500 historic sites which received a listed status or an enhanced listing last year.
Other unusual structures included an early telephone kiosk, 19th-century shipwrecks and wartime training sites. The remains of the Curtain Theatre in London’s Shoreditch also made the list. It was built in 1577, and hosted performances of Romeo and Juliet during Shakespeare’s lifetime.
Grade I listed buildings are of the highest significance, warranting ‘exceptional’ interest. Then come Grade II* listings – ‘particularly important buildings of more than special interest’. Grade II listed sites are of ‘special interest’.