90's London

[Sweetasstevia]

I've lived in London for nearly 25 years now but rarely get into the centre these days (I last worked in town in 2008.) I'm always stunned how much things have changed and have been feeling very nostalgic lately for the London of my uni years and youth: 1990 - 2000.
For starters I miss how Covent Garden used to be with the mechanical toy museum and Neal street East around the corner. I miss burgers at Ed's Diner and Jonny Rockets. I miss seeing arty films at the ICA, the montepulicano lounge club and whirligig, the mad market in South Kensington and how Camden used to be before it got all posh!
What things do you miss?

CerealMom! Centrale's gone????? Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

I used to go there almost once a week. It was BYOB, they'd charge peanuts to open it, give you glasses. Bench seats and shared formica tables. I was going to take dd there next time we were down.

Remember the forum when it was The Town and Country club anyone?
The Clarendon ballroom, the loos were always an inch high in water, happy days.
I used to love the hmv in Oxford street, spent hours in there.

Ah, Presto on old Compton street was my favourite place to go.
Pollo wasn't bad, but you could sit all night in presto drinking carafes of house red & spend under £20 a head. Those were the days...was gutted when it went

ItIsntReallyReal I agree, the Cross was fantastic. It always felt very glammy. Mind you, I remember dancing on one of the dodgem cars and sliding off - didn't fall flat on my face by some miracle.

Oh yes, the Town and Country Club

And the Dive bar! How could I forget - me and Dh used to do our courting there, many moons ago.

tshirtsuntan, I remember Caspers well - a real pick up joint!

it's come back to me - The Main Squeeze. Anyone?

Cafe des Artistes sounds v. familiar but can't place it. I rememeber a Tearooms des Artistes in Clapham. Seemed very upwardly mobile at the time!

The Brixton Brasserie. I was there a lot with BF.

As I read the thread I am getting my mourning out. Has the French House gone too? My parents used to go there. I used to go there. Oh, this is horrible. No more Stockpot, no more Centrale, and now no more French House. I really thought the French House had been there so long it would be there forever.

Ronnie's changed so horribly in the 80s that I stopped going, but it was a fab place, a proper jazz club where the music was the most important thing and people listened to it. I suppose the travesty it became is still there?

Kinky Gerlinky in the late eighties into 90 (when did it close?) and the George Robey, then later the Powerhaus.

Dancing at Trade with my colleagues from the HIV and AIDS charity I worked for- they sneaked me in as honoured guest. 160 beats per minute followed by wolfing down a bag of bagels at 4 a.m in East London on the way home.

Most of my memories are pretty debauched I am happy to say

Nigella the Tearooms used to do massive serve-yourself salads and was a fore-runner to the deli-style cafes we have now. I occasionally frequented the Brixton Brasserie too.

Does anyone remember Maxwells, on the corner of cvt gdn piazza towards bow street? It had a Magritte-style mural of men in bowler hats. As a child in the 70s it was our annual treat to have a hamburger and ice cream sundae

Yes! Amazing huge burgers and then a sundae.

I took my children there last year and it was ok, but not as magical as it was back in 1986.

I lived in SE London, so homeward bound we would go to the all night bagel shop on Walworth rd.

Oh! Love this. My weekend used to run Thursday (legends) or cafe du Paris? (I think) then Friday was Vivid at the Angel, Saturday was Fusion at the Marquee till 3am, then Astoria, then Busbys until Sunday lunchtime. I liked big clubs, gardening club used to make me claustrophobic.

I worked in Covent Garden and remember Neal st east and all the second hand clothes shops, and Shelleys where I got all my buffalo trainers from.

Still love London, wouldn't know where to start with clubbing now! Is there a club for old ravers? :-D

I'm hopeless with names but I remember
a french type bistro place off Sloane square, cheap
Stockpot
A canteen Chinese place where everything was served on metal platters

Maxwells was a treat. But TGIs was new and exotic.

Tilly and Family YY to the Landor...and playing pool
Didn't something happen and the landlord took over a pub on Bedford Rd just down from Clapham North tube - they had a quiz night. We also used to go the Admiral on Ferndale road (they had lock ins).

And the KFC on Clapham High street - a tower burger to soak up the cider - one of the few places still open late at night...

Man so many memories, Neal Street East, The Dive Bar, Piccadilly Cafe - at the greasy spoon round the corner from Charing Cross station…. it definitely still had the remnants of a musty 1960s London about it - not any more, it's like a big train station.

Is Sherry's off Carnaby Street still there??

Did someone already mention the all-you-can-eat vegetarian curry place in Chapel Market? That place was amaaaaaaazing!

Okay, the Dive Bar sounds familiar. Anyone care to remind me where it was/ what it was like? Actually lots of these pubs, bars and clubs sound vaguely familiar. But only vaguely.... In the words of Roly Birkin QC (another great 90s reference) "I'm afraid I was vair vair drunk...."

Im looking forward to sitting down and reading this thread later when i have more time!

I love london and lived there from 1993-96.

We had a club for every night of the week , apart from mon and tue, were detox days!

We went to The Wag on wed, Borderline-thu, Astoria-fri, Hellfire-Sat and buzbys on sun!

I was a little heartbroken when i heard the Astoria was coming down, i used to love getting my can of Holston Pils and rocking out the back to the Intrepid fox.

Cant remember eating that many places probably as i was too busy drinking we did you go to the Caff after the Astoria it was full of rockers on fri and ravers on a saturday.

And also The Prince Charles cinema off Leicester Square not sure if its still there, they used to do £2 screenings me and my now DH went to see True Romance there, still have the ticket stub!

I remember a fabulous, and cheap, curry place, BYOB, in Old Street. Opposite a shop called Flick Fashions. They did Baltis before baltis were fashionable.

I grew up in the suburbs so we were up to town most weekends, until I moved up to Fulham in the 70s. Lived in lots of different parts of London, until the mid-90s. Miss it forever!

Flip - original 501's and jelly shoes.

My first Chanel- a jacket with chain weighting and in perfect condition from the Notting Hill Housing Trust charity shops when they were good.

The collection plate in the North London Irish pubs. Being dragged to my feet by my then partner.

The do at the zoo The lark in the park and there was a day thing on Sundays pub with a garden can't remember the name Anyone?

There was a good "old man" pub in Crouch End that I used to spend a LOT of time in. Cramped, smokey, grotty carpet, Irish Landlord and an overweight dog who lived on crisps. It was also frequented by famous types who lived locally; I once discussed Irish literature with Neil Morrissey and Colin Firth held the door open for me. Bernard Butler from Suede used to drink there too.

Can't for the life of me remember what it was called though. We just used to call it "the magic pub".

Nigella Tearooms at the Artisan Well? Oh boy did we have some fucked up times in there...!

And lol at the Leopard Lounge. Oh god, that was full of twats.

This is the best thread ever.

Dive bar was just at the beginning of Chinatown as you come from Charing cross road, underneath a restaurant on the corner.

Anyone remember the 12 bar club? I think it's still there, round the back of Tin Pan Alley off charging cross road. It had an 'upstairs' and a 'downstairs' but was so tiny that you had to go upstairs to see the bands' heads and downstairs to see their feet

What was the god-awful club under the church in Brixton? I was an indie kid and kept getting dragged to drum n bass nights there

And the Marathon kebab shop in Chalk Farm for a cheeky late drink and a serenade from the French rockabilly.

We... We're old, aren't we?