I got to thinking about other places I had lost and there’s more. What worries me is there are few if any places that I can think of that have some connection to my past that still exist, at least ones with pleasant connotations, the bloody school’s still there, every bloody school I went to is still there! I was pleased to find this picture tho because this was my first stamping ground, this is the King’s Rd. in Chelsea and if you look at the picture and follow the road down and turn right there at the end that is Park Walk where I used to live. Minor interest point there, who knows one day maybe I’ll have been notorious enough to have a blue plaque on the wall!
There used to be a proper pancake cafe on the King’s Rd about 200 yards from where I lived called Asterix, Joan Armatrading used to eat there in the 70s she wrote a review about it. Apparently even tho’ Asterix went it remained a Creperie, I don’t remember it after it wasn’t Asterix. When we moved from Chelsea we ended up a couple of years later in Latimer Rd which is the shit side of Notting Hill Gate, near Portobello maket was Obelix the sister cafe. It was laid out quite French in style, I remember the black cherries that I used to have in my crepes and the jambonfromage gallettes. I think there was a waitress called Anna or Emma, blonde and gorgeous but I could be imagining things! Asterix due to its location has a little more archive history, Obelix was more off the beaten track and a google search reveals sadly nothing.
In the King’s Rd days my Ma used to wheel me along in the buggy and I used to chat to all the shopkeepers in my garbled gibberish, the butcher’s (Coenicke’s I think) would insist on giving my Ma sausages for me every now and again and the greengrocer would do the same with a piece of fruit. I don’t even know if they have greegrocer’s anymore. My Mother’s favourite restaurant was as I recall on the Fulham rd, it was a greek place called the Wine and Kebab. There was also a restaurant on the Fulham Rd called Dominic’s. I’m not sure we ever ate in there, going out to a restaurant in those days was not something that happened very often, at least not on our budget. There was also the nearest thing to a supermarket that I remember it was called Oakshotts and it was like a fairly small convenience store I think it became a Cullen’s. I don’t remeber ever seeing large supermarkets then. I don’t know if the Chelsea District library is still on the King’s Rd., huge redbrick building, I think somewhere I still have a book called ‘The Cat Who Couldn’t Get Down” it was due back in 1973! (FYI if you look the title of the book up it is a Googlewhack – which probably means I’ve got it wrong, strange since it hardly seems an outlandish title). I loved that book as a child, it used photos of this ginger cat, I think my Mother may have tried to take it back but may have relented due to my apoplexy, I didn’t lose my temper that often as a rule but when I did I really threw my toys out of the pram!
Of course the omens were not good for the survival of buildings that I had frequented since St. Stephen’s Hospital on the Fulham road where I was born was demolished some time ago!
I have a section now for cinemas -I suspect at least in England that everyone over about 25 has a beloved cinema story. I have 4! Firstly when I was a kid Victoria stn and Waterloo stn each had a Cartoon Cinema with I believe a picture of Tweety Pie outside. They basically showed a 1 hour loop of cartoons and Pathé-style newsreel, The newsreel was still black and white (as of course were most tellys in them days) So you’d come into the cinema and either stay until your train was due or until you’d watched the whole loop, or in my case until Dad finally couldn’t take any more after we’d already gone round the houses at least once! I still love cartoons! (Quiet – Rachel!) These were the proper ones from the 1930s & 40s no dialogue on the whole just orchestral music,
(I remember it more as the second pic but the first one I think is a nicer representation)
The Wimbledon fleapit, can’t remember what it was actually called, I don’t think it was the Wimbledon theatre altho’ I went there too. But the other cinema was where I saw my first film -Bugsy Malone 1976 I think. Shortly after that Dad took me to the Dominion Leicester Sq to see Star Wars on the screen the size of a small town!
That was all pretty mainstream cinema, the place that introduced me to the alternative stuff was the Scala which in those days was near Goodge St. I think there is now one in Kings Cross but I’m pretty sure that wasn’t the one I used to go to.
The Scala was great it showed what to me was stuff I’d never seen before like Metropolis which was the film I remember most. There were others in something of a Forbidden Planet style, sci-fi and such like which weren’t so difficult to get kids into. They showed a lot of other films that I wasn’t allowed to see, cult stuff and British-made thrillers. I saw a cartoon film with Davy Jones from the Monkees in it and I can’t for the life of me remember any others by name. My Dad took me a couple of times as did the bass player that my Ma was going out with so I was there quite a bit, I loved it, it was a bit scruffy and not very mainstream and I guess that’s me all over! They often did series runs of things like King of the Rocket Men and Harold Lloyd. The sort of things which in those days were still quite popular and would get the 6pm slot on BBC2 most nights. The Scala was my first experience of the genre now known as ‘arthouse’ basically anything that requires a brain or an eclectic mind especially foreign language stuff and I still tend to gravitate towards that sort of film now.
I do lament the loss of the old picture palaces, the Art Deco style buildings, the ornate interiors, faux velvet, intermissions etc. Going to the cinema seemed more of an event then or maybe I am over-romanticising but bearing in mind I remember you used to get to the cinema, see some adverts which always had the groovy Peal & Dean music (Altogether now -Ba-ba ba-ba ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba ba, ba-ba ba-ba ba-ba-ba-baaaaaaaaaaaaa da! – This may seem strange to the Americans and others but trust me no-one who has seen that at a British cinema can ever forget that music!) Anyway then you had the pre-film, which might be a nature documentary or in the case of Star Wars it was Hardware Wars -a classic in its own right. Then you had some more adverts usually extremely funny low budget ones for local Indian restaurants, then some previews – then the ‘Main Event’. So the whole thing went on for hours – most people with children went to the Saturday matinee and it was the day’s activity. Now I know this may sound like decades ago to the yoof out there, actually bollocks it is decades ago it’s nearly 30 years since I first went. I am now off to wave my stick at some hooligans and talk about ‘in my day we had a bit of respect for ours elders’ and how ‘a spell in the army would do ’em good’! Bastards.
Song Of The Day ~ Kings Of Convenience – Sing Softly To Me
Original Comments:
baracuda made this comment,
Raised on songs and stories,
The heroes of renoun(sp?)
The passing tales and glories
That once was Dublin* town…
Ring a ring a rosie
As the light declines
I remember Dublin* city
In the rare oul’ times*replace with London.
Visit me @ http://myveryownblog.blog-city.com/
comment added :: 19th April 2005, 17:39 GMT+01
A visitor made this comment,
I enjoyed viewing your jam-packed blog.
MJD from Indiana
USA
MJD[Redbaron responds – Hi MJD, thanks very much for taking the time to say that, it’s always rather nice when people enjoy what one has done.]
comment added :: 20th April 2005, 03:23 GMT+01
A visitor made this comment,
See you next week at the Help the Aged drop-in centre Baron. 😉
John[Redbaron responds – Excellent, can we drink real ale and moan about the youth of today not knowing they’re born?!]
comment added :: 23rd April 2005, 17:17 GMT+01
protagonist made this comment,
Ah, rememberance of things past. I understand, dear Baron. I think often of my old stomping grounds at the University of Chicago. I miss the place, dearly. I hope you only form good new fond memories where you are now. Moving sucks. I will have to move soon – I will miss, I hate to admit, Ann Arbor. Even with everything I’ve said about it – I will miss it. Hope you’re well. Mandrake
comment added :: 24th April 2005, 22:58 GMT+01
RED BARON'S WORDS 
I used to go to both Asterix and Obelix.
The smaller one more often, in Notting Hill.
I lived in Cornwall Gradens, on the corner of Gloucester Road.
I always had “Chicken & Rat” crepe (Ratatouille)
The black cheery galette sounds familiar as well.
My mate Alan always had something vegetarian, until one day they accidentally switched our crepes and he spat his first mothful out, saying it tasted like Rags…
Alex Mac
– Redbaron responds – Ah the black cherry galette, marvellous, I’m salivating just to think about it. Gloucester Rd bit, hmm can’t remember if that end were posh or not!!!!
Astérix was one of my favourites; first discovered it in 1974, having just walked all the way from Sloane Square, aged 15, after a trip to Greenwich on one of the two Russian hydrofoils that plied the river for 50p each way. I kept going there as often as possible, particularly in the 80’s, until it eventually disappeared about 10 (?) years ago. My son would have been 5 then; hell of a shame that I couldn’t continue taking him there – sorely miss it! Before its final demise, it was called Astrix, to get around the fact that the publishers wanted astronomical fees for the right to use the name, as far as I understood. They also had to paint over the mural downstairs in the basement, which had the most magnificent Franglais, said by Anticlimax (Jolitorax): “Je dis! Quel morceau de chance, une véritable crêperie!” (I say! What a bit of luck …)! Upstairs had scribbled/sprayed on the wall, “Uderzo était là”; I am sure it was that, despite ‘ici’ being more obvious. I went to Obélix in Portobello once, but also sought out the other Obélix in The Lanes, Brighton, once! My favourite was a ham, mozzarella & mushroom buckwheat galette with a carafe of cidre bouché, followed by honey & nut or lemon & sugar crêpes; sitting in the window upstairs on the ground level, watching the King’s Road go by, or even the Chelsea Cruise on the last Saturday evening of every month. Some of my earliest friends in London, c.1979, lived in Park Walk (Elm Park Mansions), and I think that my father’s family were bombed out of Park Walk during the War; as a result, an Aunt, Uncle & Cousin lived in World’s End, having been moved from Wellington Square & then The Vale during the 60’s. I used to enjoy going on a RouteMaster with my Aunt to Safeway towards Sloane Square; of course, the Chelsea Kitchen was almost opposite that, but now Timberland! My cousin told me, one evening in the Pizza Express at the top end of Limerston Street, on the Fulham Road, that his father had bought his Volkswagen Type 2 Camper (c.1960) at Pizza Express, because it was the Volkswagen dealership at that time (I assume that the Up All Night has gone too). Finally, in passing, the King’s Road Jam has also gone, but the Italian restaurant, there, still has the scaffolding up-down-up-down tables, and calls itself Buonasera at the Jam.
Thanks for your comment Nigel I appreciate it, I really like that sort of reminiscence that gives you a nice insight to the people who will have crisscrossed your path at various points due to mutual interests and (often lamented) places. Interestingly therefore that you will have crossed paths again in Elm Park Mansions since that’s where I was born!!!
I remember the murals but not the name change, must have happened after we’d had to leave because of the prices going silly.
Thank you Red Baron; we are obviously both dreadful at sentimentality & nostalgia, but they were good days! I must admit, that I did not expect a response, because it looked as though you had gone ‘off air’ since September. I am Jan ’59, may I ask what year you were born? Are you a million miles from London, now? How about Nineteen (Mossop Street) & the Bistro Vinos? Of course, opposite Astérix was a small block, since demolished & replaced, within which was the Ho Lee Fook; always worth a giggle, rather like the shoe shop R Soles, but people rarely believe me! I am sure that there were many more ‘cheap & cheerfuls’; nowadays it’s more like cheap & plastic chains, though! I suppose there is still Pizza Express, but Tootsies lost its way & died, sadly. Finally, again, I lusted after a pair of red Kickers, in the mid 70’s, from the shop on the corner of King’s Road & Beaufort Street, beside Astérix, when they were quite a novelty; before even my grooviest uncle got some, damn him. (I could have started talking about that lion bought from Harrod’s too!)
PS Never quite had the same desire for My Old Dutch; had my first at the one near Holborn tube in ’79, and only went once to the King’s Road one about 4 or 5 years ago.
Nigel I’m a little behind you in ’71 but I do therefore remember the Kickers shop well, never owning a pair either! I remember the Pizza Express very well too because they let us have a take away because I had Rubella, in those days PE had marble tables and great big pepper grinders and was considered somewhat posh! (I now possess one of the pepper grinders!)
I can’t remember if the Ice Dream Parlour was on King’s Rd or Fulham Rd but I’m told that was my absolute favourite place! That and the butchers!
Tootsies I only remember from Notting Hill where I ended up in the 80s it was a decent burger joint and the butterscotch milkshake was a thing of beauty!
My Dad used to take us to My Old Dutch every now and again, not so much because it was in town so a bit of a trek. I liked it but it was certainly not Asterix in food or atmosphere.
A ‘little’ behind!! I was thinking more ’61 than ’71! Anyway, I won’t prattle on, so I shall keep it brief.
Cannot think that I have been to that PE for about 18 years, but I think that they still had the same tables etc. then, including the ’70’s decor (wasn’t it?). RED pepper grinder?
The best thing about Tootsies, apart from pretty good burgers (nowadays Byron are great!), were the crinkle cut chips, which they lost in the expansion (hence their demise, in my humble opinion), and those awful sort-of-criss-cross-plywood bowls out of which I always had hot chocolate fudge cake, which was excellent, but always naked, without cream or ice cream. (I say awful, because they were the same as the trays we used at school [bloody, too] in the dining hall, which had a certain smell when damp.)
Astrix’s logo had a little boy with a catapult behind his back, having knocked out the original ‘é’! I really do miss that place; it lasted me a good 30 years!
My cousin (’54) lived behind the pub which is at the top of Milman’s Street, but both his parents are now dead, so he has eventually finally moved fully to his long-time place in France, in the last year or so; so even that lifetime connection for me has gone.
Down on the river was ‘All My Eye and Betty Martin’, hidden in a warehouse, at this end of Lots Road, and I used to go quite a bit to ‘Henry J Bean’s’ in its early days.
You may find this interesting (just happened across it whilst writing this):
http://www.athomeinnchelsea.com/simons-walks.html
All the Very Best! (always write more than intended)
Was that pub ‘The Water Rat’?
Always a pleasure to see the reminiscences Nigel, sometimes other people’s spark more of your own. My memories of Lots Rd are really very different to your,s as it was in the shadow of the power station that I went to nursery. For some time I had been convinced I had gone to nursery on Battersea such is the icon across the river. As I inderstand it the plan was to demolish the Lots Rd PS but they seem not to have done it, perhaps someone is feeling nostalgic for the place. One can but hope. I do have a picture of it from the wartime poster with a quote from Whistler, it is hung in my loo!
And prattle on as much as you wish I am, as you can plainly see, not at all averse to a good long wallow in ghosts of establishments past!
I believe the book is “The Kitten Who Couldn’t Get Down” by Helen Piers, ISBN 9780416574302
I just orderd a copy from Alibris. They have 1 more at £10, then the price jumps to £25. Abebooks have it fro around £50.
Hi Sam
Thanks for that tip, I could;t find the one for £10, £71 was the cheapest I got and on Alibris it was £119!!! Could you send me the link please, I will certainly have it for a tenner but I can’t really justify more than that.
Oh La La! I was a waitress in Asterix back in those days when we were all actors or artists- The owner, George was so good at giving time off for auditions or times of feast and then letting us return in times of famine. It was lovely to be able to serve those making waves in the 80’s and I particularly remember Pete Burns used to leave me enough tips to get by for the week ahead.