Lola’s Underground Casino

Lola McGuire was no ordinary showgirl. In the early 1900’s she created and ran the under-stage after parties at The Hippodrome, organising gambling, money lending through her own makeshift bank, operating a cellar bar using gin ?salvaged’ from the barges making their regular trips up the Thames from bankside distilleries. It is even rumoured she offered every customer owing her money a chance to win it back on the turn of a card. She never lost and the whisper at The Hippodrome is that Lola had some powerful friends on the dark side. She disappeared into the London fog on 28th September 1914 and no trace of Lola McGuire has since been found. Some believe she was the victim of a disgruntled gambler or jealous wife: others that she has simply vanished into the London smog to avoid the increasing attentions of the Metropolitan police. Others still, believe she never actually left the building and somewhere, in the maze of tunnels and hidden rooms under The Hippodrome, she waits for her perfect moment to return.