Some millennials have been shocked to discover that an iconic London building is in fact not a hospital as they were led to believe. Opened in 2004, The Gherkin is a commercial skyscraper in London’s primary financial district, the City of London. Standing at 591 feet tall, the building picked up its moniker years before it was built after plans revealed its highly unorthodox layout and appearance.
However, some viewers of a noughties CBeebies TV show have only just come to the realisation about the building’s actual use. In the show MeToo!, a live action educational programme for preschool children, the building is known as Harlequin Hospital . Running from 2006 until 2008, the series was set in the fictional city of Riverseafingal in Scotland, but was filmed in North Berwick, Glasgow, Edinburgh, London, Newcastle upon Tyne and Manchester.
Following six parents and their children, the show alternated between what the kids did during the day when going to child minder Granny Murray’s house and their parents’ work lives. One of those parents was Dr. Juno (played by Rosemary Amoani), an A&E consultant who worked at the hospital.
Despite it being over 15 years since the show wrapped up, now grown-up viewers were gobsmacked finding out the real use of the iconic building. Sharing a real-life video of The Gherkin overlapped with a song from the show on social media, TikTok user Heather said being told the building was a hospital ‘was one of the biggest lies ever told to .