To ask you to help me remember…(if you lived in Cambridge in the 90’s)

[WhyMeWhyNot21]

HELP!!!!

I’ve been Googling for hours with no luck and it’s slowly driving me round the bend!!

In the mid/late 90’s I used to go to a club/music venue with my mates, we’d watch local bands play. It was around Napier street/Cobblers yard and it was possibly the strip club - Talk of the town at some point before then.

Any ideas?
Thanks!

Had my first date with my uni boyfriend in Erainas. We thought we were so grown up and sophisticated. The menu covered every cuisine under the sun and none of it very well!

On the whole I lived in my uni bubble in the 90s and never ventured into town. I thought the train station was a really really long way out of town.

It was more in the noughties that I realised the rest of Cambridge existed. When DH and I lived off Mill Rd we used to see Disco Ken and the man with stuff on his head all the time. We had late night coffees in CB1, went to gigs at the Man in the Moon, the Portland Arms and the Boat Race and got our spicy potatoes from Bosphorus.

We still live in Cambridge now but could never afford to live in the centre. I still love it and I guess that's why I never left. It's amazing to walk by the river on a sunny day and lie about in a park. There's usually (absent Covid) so much to do. There's such a variety of arts events and academic stuff. There used to be a tiny theatre on Covent Garden off Mill Road that put on bizarre stuff that we would often go along to just because it was there.

@ElliePascoe

Oh, and I've just remembered that Heffers used to be an EMPIRE in those days, with about 6 branches around town (the main shop, the paperback and videos (!) shop, the stationery one at the bottom of Sidney St where you could send faxes for a small payment, the Grafton Centre branch, the children's bookshop and the antiquarian bookshop - have I forgotten any?)

Oh, and Heffers Sound (the CD shop), of course!

My sister and I went to see PJ Harvey at the Corn Exchange in 1995 (I know because I kept the poster) and it's still one of my favourite gigs ever.

I went to my first gig at the Corn Exchange - Curtis Stigers in 1992 I was 15....my music tastes have improved since then

I saw Take That in the Corn exchange, must have been circa 91. I didn't know who they were .
In the foyer the staff were spraying Joop all over us.
I also saw the Boo Radleys at the Junction and we had our 6th form leaving party there too.
I shopped mainly in Evolution and lived in those black canvas shoes they sold with a really rubbish buckle.
So much nostalgia

Just googled it, Take That was 1992. It was my first gig and I was amazed that my parents let me go. Girls were being pulled from the crowd to ambulances

@PutYourBackIntoit I have photos of that somewhere, I was near the front.
I also went to see Salt n Pepa around the same time.
Used to go underage drinking in the pub near the station (station inn?). They did karaoke on a Friday. Also the castle inn took underage drinkers.
A few years later, when very much legal age, I met a boyfriend who was a DJ at Po Na Na and thought I was the dog's danglies being able to bypass the queue

@ElliePascoe

Oh, and I've just remembered that Heffers used to be an EMPIRE in those days, with about 6 branches around town (the main shop, the paperback and videos (!) shop, the stationery one at the bottom of Sidney St where you could send faxes for a small payment, the Grafton Centre branch, the children's bookshop and the antiquarian bookshop - have I forgotten any?)

My first job was in Heffers - it was a dream come true as I'd spent my childhood in the children's bookshop. I was at the small one on St. Andrews Street - now taken over by John Lewis - we were scorned by the 'proper' big Heffers staff as a bit second class, but I bloody loved my time there!

Yes! Casimirs. I remember the day that opened! Used to spend a fortune in there.

And yes, I remember Heffers as an empire

Also the old department stores felt quite elegant and old-fashioned - loved Eaden Lilley, especially the cafe!

Love this thread. Miss all the Heffers, Carringtons, Steps. Does anyone remember the Corner House restaurant in King Street?

I miss the cheese toasties at the Maypole
No cheese toasties have ever tasted so good

@shumway
The Corner House was great.
Didn't it become some dire themed restaurant after that? The theme was Henry VIII?!

Steps cafe was brilliant! Used to go there most mornings before Long Road. Carringtons was great too. Does anyone remember Peppercorns,they used to do fabulous filled rolls. I went to the one on Mill Road but I’m sure there was another one. The original Tatties was great too when it was up the top of Regent Street. It was tiny and you could sit upstairs. They moved to King Street and apparently it’s now a complete shitbox. Sad. Who remembers the elderly Italian lady who used to sit with the ice cream stall outside (what used to be) Dorothy Perkins at the end of Petty Cury? Best lemon ice!

Peppercorns Mexican tuna rolls

Yum

Peppercorns is still there, isn't it? Rose Crescent?

I used to like Garfunkel's on the corner

Bryony, I used to work there. The veggie lasagne was also epic.

What was the name of the Middle Eastern restaurant half way up Castle Hill? That was my really special place for celebrations.

Is the grafton centre still there?

Nadia’s… those cakes and sandwiches!

Where was Nadia's?

@allycat4 it is and they refurbed it. It's looking great, has loads of great shops and a Vue cinema with reclining armchairs as standard and now is going to be sold

@allycat4 were you an Alley Cat?

Thank you everyone. It was indeed the Eraina Taverna.

Not exactly haute cuisine, but happy days eating out with friends on a budget.

Peppercorns! And those giant granary baps that they used to sell (although I always had hummus and salad rather than Mexican tuna)! And the Nadia's rum balls (or whatever they were called - the squishy, dangerously alcoholic things that were covered with chocolate sprinkles)! I'm actually really sad that all those independent sandwich/cake shops have closed, leaving us with M&S and Pret and the like.

There was a Nadia's at the top of Trinity Street, definitely, and I think another one near Station Road?

Has anyone mentioned Gardies yet?

I'd kill to go to Nadia's or Peppercorns. Such a shame they've gone.