National Treasures in the category of "shrines" include main halls (honden), oratories (haiden), gates, offering halls (heiden), purification halls (haraedono), and other structures associated with Shinto shrines.
There's a basketball court, a church and a roomy dining hall offering soldiers platefuls of dependable American fare: mashed potatoes, pancakes, bacon, pork chops.
During the second world war, Covent Garden's Royal Opera House was converted to a dance hall, offering Londoners a refuge from their bombed and blacked-out city.
Having emigrated to America in 1909, communist activist and local legend James Gralton returned to Ireland where he provoked the ire of the authorities by opening a community hall offering teaching, music, radical thought, and (most alarmingly) dance.
Bakers and Larners 8-12 Market Place, Holt, Norfolk NR25 6BW, 01263 712323 bakersandlarners.com Established in Norfolk since 1770, Bakers & Larners is a traditional department store with a food hall offering everything from organic Christmas puddings to a variety of unusual condiments.
And, given the country's reputation for corruption, it is no surprise to find that the cost of an entry visa at Heidar Aliev international airport has risen sharply to $100 or that an army of dubious-looking fixers swarm around the arrivals hall offering to sort out all the documents and jump the long queues.
Some of the city's star chefs do their thing at this food hall offering both counter and communal table seating.
Even marriage ceremonies are on sale, with discount wedding halls offering weddings for $600 — less than a tenth of what ceremonies typically cost here just a decade ago.
