All mine used to be cafes, greasy-spoons spread across London
‘Harry's’ open all night behind Carnaby St on Kingly st – who kindly
saved my neck from a fight in the queue I think I may have drunkenly started. But
grub to die-for, and rare as hens teeth to find somewhere open late, back then;
‘Franks’ on Neil st, which is still banging out the
death-defying fry ups. Occasionally in my research to complete the definitive
pan-London café handbook, I felt the hands on approach to health and safety that
characterised these venues got beyond the beyond, when I saw the chef with
freshly bleeding knuckles stirring the soup, and much worse that cannot be
printed.
But it's not just cafes that stay with me - my first
vinyl record that I bought when I came to London was Nena Simons ‘My Baby Just
Cares For Me’ from a specialist record shop off old Compton st. The shops of
that area are packed with memories for me, the Algerian coffee bean shop on Old
Compton St (below) which has a beautiful interior and service to match - you feel you’ve
had a freebie just by inhaling over the doorstep.
The beautiful, and impractical seeming 'Cloth House' that houses all manner of fabric in every colour and pattern but always seems to arrange the huge collection with an eye to design;
‘Gerry’s’ - the booze specialist on the same road where
you can get exotic polish vodka with real gold in it, and a mind bending array of
Absynth... That makes you blind just looking at them through the wondorous window
- the staff appear to have tried everything
in there and loved it.
I love the shop in cambridge circus selling royalty-free designs for your own use; giftshops - mostly gone now - behind Charlotte st, American Retro on old compton;
Pattisserie Valerie that has survived by expanding to
other venues, but retained the magnificent painted fake Lautrec's, and shared tables
- I could spend hours there,
eves-dropping on conversations about 'films in
preproduction' or theatrical agents or the germ of an idea being pitched.
The best I remember was a self-confessed porn-star
pitching a series of children's books in which the characters were pieces of
food inside a fridge - Charlie cheddar cheese, Tommy Tomato..he supplied the
voices too. I nearly choked trying to pretend I wasn’t listening.
One fateful day, I struck up a conversation with a young man because
I couldn't believe how much he looked like Robert de Niro - he invited me to
the show he was in that night, where I met my future wife.
'Northfields Pottery' was a pottery shop in
Holborn where I would loiter on my way home from drama school and stare at the
bold colourful patterns on mugs and bowls – not very rock and roll, but the
designs were so rich and colourful. ‘Second time
around’ on upper st was an early vintage clothes store, and of course ‘Laurence Corner Army Surplus’ where Anna got the military
coat that saw her warmly through RADA. Similarly, the German cavalry boots I bought
aged 19 from a specialist in Nottingham hill –
(why?)
I know that locally in
Wandsworth everyone agrees that the post-office/ sweet shop on Bellevue rd was a
favourite, it's sloping sweet counter and the old man who ran it with memorable
dignity and charm - and of course the 'Lucky Parrot,' (now the glorious ‘Tickled
Pink’ of course) eccentric centre of the world for all children in the
Wandsworth area with it's resident parrot and Ginny, the unforgetable and
colourful patron.
Which reminds me of another favourite - L'Artiste Assoiffee, also had a parrot as well as Labradors roaming around the 3 story house in Notting Hill
that was the epitome of bohemian dining, a combo of quite cheap nosh and linen
table cloths - now Paul Smiths house, I think.
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