Tag: 1970’s

I Camisa & Son, Old Compton Street

I work around the corner from Old Compton Street and am partial to a Friday portion of fish and chips from the fabulous Poppies restaurant on that street….

In search of Geoffrey Fletcher’s Little Italy

The Italian community in Clerkenwell, which had grown from a handful of emigrants fleeing the revolutions in Italy in the 1840’s into a full “colony” of several thousand…

Spedan Close (but no cigar)

This was an unexpected pleasure. I was walking the length of the River Westbourne, one of the hidden, largely underground rivers that feed into the Thames when I…

Portland Mews, Soho

Entering from D’Arblay Street, the first thing you notice is an old “ghost” sign for R N Cattle & Son Limited. Mr Cattle and his colleagues were woodworkers. The…

White Horse, White Horse Road, Limehouse

Across the road from the Half Moon Theatre in Limehouse, and just up from picturesque pub The Grapes, is a different kind of old London boozer. The White Horse…

Church Street Market

I was following one of Geoffrey Fletcher‘s old walks through 1970’s London which he’d documented in his excellent book London At My Feet. Practically all of the “old…

The Borribles – pointy eared class warfare in South London

Some time ago Londonist website ran a poll to choose the best London novel of all time.  I’d heard of most of the top ten and had even read…

The Barbican’s concrete jungle, “Looking From Cromwell Tower”

The Cripplegate area of the City of London was decimated during the Blitz. In the 1950’s it was decided to build the Barbican residential estate on the Cripplegate…