London in the 90s

[Mondayforthebin]

Just having a nostalgic 10 minutes and thinking about when I first moved to London in my early 20s from my small town in middle of nowhere, fresh out of University. Moved to leafy North London with 4 other friends for a really cheap rent (wow, how times have changed!) No proper job so just temped and did some bar work and was out all the time on seemingly very little money as I earned very little! Went to see loads of bands, drank lots, wore v little and made some amazing friends and generally had lots of fun.

I know I definitely have my rose tinted specs on but miss those days and feel quite sad for DS that he'll probably not be able to afford to have same experiences as London is so expensive now.

And the Living Room in Soho, can't remember the name of the road .. Bateman St? And Rough Trade/ Slam City Skates where I would buy my Etnies.

I suspect your teen would be fine with it as long as they were having fun. Just as we were.

If you’re having fun being skint doesn’t matter. It’s a crime how basic fun like gigs, drinks and meals out are rare treats if you’re a low earner these days. It’s what being young is all about. I employ a few students part time and I’m shocked at how much they have to pay for basic things like accommodation and transport. My loans covered everything and I managed to save up for backpacking, and I didn’t lift a finger outside schoolwork (which in hindsight maybe I should have as I had to go through all shitty job initiations in my twenties instead…)

I have a vague idea of a London memoir. I have written the intro and it's mostly about the joys of driving in London. Then I thought, with all these planter fans, maybe there's no audience for it.

but maybe I should just write it for the nostalgia trip.

I left London in 1991, having been there for most of the previous 10 years (undergraduate, temp jobs, postgraduate). I used to suffer terribly from insomnia and I really appreciated the through-the-night shows on LBC and Jazz FM in thos days when they were on the radio rather than the internet and LBC didn't have obnoxious trolls spouting hate. I particularly liked the phone-in quizzes, where various thick and/or drunk people would phone up and fail to answer simple questions. Living in a rented studio in 1990-91, though, I didn't have a phone and couldn't call up unless I went out to a public phone box.

Great thread OP. I grew up outside of London on the Surrey border. London in the 90s / 00s was brilliant!
Oxford Street shopping was brilliant. The fabulous Topshop with so many different outfits for clubbing.
Indie clubs in London, and Ministry of Sound, such good times!
I lived in New Malden in the late 90s and was a stones throw away from central london.
I've moved away now and there's no way DD would ever be able to afford the great experience I had.

feel quite sad for DS that he'll probably not be able to afford to have same experiences as London is so expensive now.

They find a way! DS is in London and he hacks living there cheaply to a fine art. He goes to theatre, music gigs (and even opera!) for £5-20 a ticket, he knows all the places where you can get a cocktail and dinner for about £10. He gets freebie coffees and juices all the time. Then with all the savings he's made, sometimes splashes out on a really nice dinner with his girlfriend or flatmates. He's having an amazing time.

I used to work in a restaurant that shared a fire escape with a really cool London club. When we'd finished work, we'd get dolled up and then climb down the fire escape and get into the club for free. They knew us after a while and didn't care. Happy days

Moved to London in 96 into a flatshare in Kilburn with 3 others. One guy worked as a trader so we’d find out where he was going out on a Friday and head over there as his mates would buy us drinks ( yes, feminism fail I know but I was on 17k and my rent was 500 a month). It was the best time. We had an all night election party in 1997 and the bestbuy used to let us have baguette and humous on tick after a big night. Moved through a few more flatshare a before I eventually bought. Then met DH and we moved to Asia. Still think London is the best city in the world though.

My teen dds have been clubbing since they were 16 at least (and possibly before). Why can't they do it now?

My dad worked at the Natural History Museum in the 90's and I could get in for free (but never went of course!) It only became free in the early 2000's

The big museums always were free, it was only for a relatively short period of time that there was a charge for admission.

Of course, the Swinging Sixties was when Swinging London really was the place to be!

I loved the arrabiata at Pollo!

This thread is bringing back so many great memories! I moved to London in 1996 aged 23 and I worked just off Leicester Square and lived in a flat share in Clapham. I was earning £18,500 a year and the city was my oyster. Managed many epic night outs in Soho and Bloomsbury on a shoestring, always getting the night bus home. I'm still here 27 years later, but we live north of the river now. Trips into the centre aren't as often as we'd like but every now and then me and my OH, who also moved to London in his twenties, will do a date night pub crawl around our old Soho haunts. I can't ever imagine leaving.

Loved Pollo and the Stockpot!

I used to scoff the apple crumble and custard at The Stockpot before going out clubbing.

Ahh, this is a great thread.

I think a lot of us are nostalgic for our youth. But there was something quite special about London in the 90s. It's still special now ofc because it's a proper global city with all to offer that you would expect. But at the start of the 90s it wasn't, not so much. Throughout the decade it really blossomed and came into its own and yes it was exciting to be part of it. You really had the sense that you were where the action was, in a place where people were taking notice.

I actually used to drive to the West end for nights out!

Oh yes, I have the happiest memory of cruising around London listening to For Tomorrow after we got turned away from Iceni. I can't imagine driving into town now!

Ashton’s nightclub on Cricklewood broadway….rough as, but we loved it!

-gabby’s falafel, Charing CrossRoad

the highly ‘collectible’ Quaglino ashtrays

starsky and hutch I think at London Bridge

pre mobile phones, outside the Empire Leicester Sq was the place to meet mates

Bushranger pub in Goldhawk Road with all the wood shavings on the floor- a fire hazard and a bugger when your coat fell off the back of your chair onto the floor

I still live here and it’s lovely that my kids enjoy London as much, just a different incarnation of what London was in the 90s

I remember in the late 90s Vanity Fair dedicated an entire issue to London and called it 'London Swings Again' with Patsy Kensit and Liam Gallagher in bed on the cover with a Union Jack duvet cover. Inside it featured everyone from Lee McQueen and the editorial team at Loaded to Tony Blair, Sophie Dahl and Damien Hirst. Maybe it was the change of Government, maybe not, but the city was full of hope, possibilities, ambition and creativity. I worked in one of the creative industries and it was the most amazing time to live and work here.

There was no red route back then, we drove everywhere!

I grew up in London. Moved out 13 years ago. I'm 52. Loved the clubs, pubs, bands. One of my favorite places in the nineties was the Electric Balloon in Camden. Great music.

I used to drive to the West End to go to the pictures or the shops! So not even for big nights out, just to get to places like you would anywhere. I had a favoured few spots I could park in with no meters, if I went around long enough one of them would come good hahaha.

I have very few photos of that time. In fact, I think very few photos of nights out were ever taken. It was liberating not having camera phones (or phones full stop) and we didn’t even know how liberating!

It's funny how others see it 💛

As someone who spent every year in Cornwall growing up
Then 2 decades living in London north and south

Now living in the suburbs but taking the kids to Cornwall very summer like I went as a child

I would love to be able to move to Cornwall
And would never look back from my life I. London

But shows how subjective it all is?!'