Spice Girls 'Wannabe' — St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel, London

On 19 April 1996, five women in platform shoes descended on what was then known as the Midland Grand Hotel — now operating as the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel — and filmed what would become one of the defining pop music videos of the decade. 'Wannabe' was the debut single of the Spice Girls, and the video, directed by Johan Camitz, follows the five women crashing through the ornate Victorian building as if they own it: gate-crashing a formal dinner, sliding down banisters, dancing on the hotel's famous grand staircase, and treating the building's pompous grandeur as a playground. The original filming location had fallen through at short notice, and the St. Pancras hotel was secured as a replacement just days before the shoot.

The choice of location was serendipitous. Designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott and opened in 1873, the Midland Grand is one of the great Victorian Gothic buildings in Britain — a riot of terracotta, pointed arches, and neo-Gothic ornament. At the time of filming, it had been mothballed for decades and possessed an appropriately faded grandeur, a backdrop that made the Spice Girls' anarchic energy all the more striking in contrast to the building's stately decay. The hotel was eventually restored and reopened in 2011.

'Wannabe' reached number one in 37 countries and launched a global pop phenomenon. The hotel's grand staircase became one of the most recognisable locations in 1990s pop culture, and the building now actively acknowledges its connection to the video. The St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel is open to guests and visitors, and the staircase can be seen on hotel tours — a Victorian Gothic monument unexpectedly immortalised by five seconds of choreography and a lot of attitude.