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?

I remember going to the Marquee club and the Mean Fiddler in Harlesden in the early 90s. There were some great charity shops near Marylebone High St, Camden was very cool and there were some great market stalls. Last time I went back to have a good look I hardly recognised anywhere.

Mignonette I went to Trade! I have some very messy memories of it. I had a lot of gay friends back then. I also used to go to the Two Brewers was it called? Brilliant Drag shows there

There was a fabulous jazz club under the arches around London Bridge/Tower Bridge area (was always "tired and emotional" when I went - could never find it when I was sober!). It was dark and smokey andnhad loads of things hanging from the ceiling. It closed in the early 90s. The manager went on to run another blues/jazz club near Waterloo, but it was modern, clean and bright, with no atmosphere

UncleSue, I remember when the Fire Station opened. I lived just down the road from it.

My dd said something about her school's "gardening club" and I went into a reverie

I work near Covent Garden now, we have just moved offices, and it is so weird to be walking around here

-b-b-but the French House is still there, in Soho? Who said it wasn't?

Did anyone used to go and drink cocktails in the basement of 23 Romilly St?

Mrs

At last! I was starting to feel lonely. Yes it was vair messy, a temple to the body BUT not necessarily a super healthy lifestyle IYKWIM?

I notice that the MN blog of the day is about the 90's- oh what a coincidence...

Yes Bah Humbug was the restaurant ...the Crypt was the club - but remember the Bug bar too ...think they were either different areas or had different names at different times. Also Helter Skelter opposite the arches?
Don't think the big shop next to the tube was called Bon Marche???...not sure though - know when they were refurbishing the tube there was a petition to stop them closing it - it was like a poundstretcher kind of place...was a similar place -like a little indoor market - on the corner of Edgely Rd on Clapham High street in late 80s became an estate agents. My wicker laundry basket (still use!) came from there and a chopping board that only collapsed a few years ago ...
And Morleys was the dept store! (Get confused cos there was an independent one in my local town too that has closed down)
Dog Star - went a couple of times but had mixed feelings, I can still remember the Atlantic that used to be there. It was the 'start of the gentrification' of Brixton. (And the guy who ran it was (allegedly!) trying to get places like Taco's and the Irish pub and Cool tan shut down - can't remember his name but remember him complaining about the drugs there - but in fact he (allegedly) had a coke habit himself!! And it was trashed in the 1995 riot because of that...
Actually was anyone there for that? I was working (restaurant) and we put the shutters down and kept the customers in - we were watching them burning out cars & recycled bins outside Tescos on Acre Lane. Stayed till it had all calmed down but trying to drive home, police everywhere and they had me driving on the pavement past road blocks, told me to stay on the main roads etc and when I needed to go on back streets to get home and one told me I should be ok - but if I saw a gang of people to "get the fuck out of there, just drive, don't stop for anything" I was petrified...
migonette I've been to Trade!!! More than once I'm sure ....I just used to go where everyone else was going - recognise the name but can't remember anything about it .....really don't know why (whistles and looks innocent)...

And I've been to the Dover Street Wine bar too a few times...

I remember that shop unlucky, they had everything. Do you remember Kitschen Sink (Sync?), up by Clapham common?

I was standing by Clapham North tube on the night of the riot in 1995, watching a fleet of police vans fly past with the grills down. My daft friend said he'd like to see a riot so headed off to Brixton and was promptly mugged

not Trade, but Love Muscle at the Fridge in Brixton was great!

and yy the Gardening Club - Friday night with Choccy, who used to play Money for Nothing IIRC?

what about sugary, fruity cocktails at The Pharmacy? in fact all those places with great ashtrays that I still have (Quaglinos, Mezzo, Quo Vadis). I lost a stone when I moved job from Picadilly to Hammersmith in 2000 purely because I wasn't drinking pints of sugary vodka routinely after work. "muddled berries" were the thing.

Oh god, and the Zeta bar under the Hilton park lane - actually much nicer room than the Met. I had a birthday party there and my mother got really pissed and climbed into her car to drive home, silly bag.

and for west london - 192 and the Cobden club, Woodys and Paradise by Kensal Rise, plus late nights at the Globe where there'd be a high chance of spotting Damon Albarn skanking with a Red Stripe in hand.

Family

I was friends with the guys who ran Kitschn Sink in Soho- bought a flashing photo of the Virgin mary with fairy lights all around it, a giant plastic flowered light shade and those tomato shaped ketchup dispensers before anywhere else sold them. Got chatting with them, discovered friends in common (as you did) and they became good friends.

Unlucky

Yes, you needed to be very liberal to go to Trade and probably best forgotten about of a morning.

Did anybody else drink at the Colony?

"hello cunty" yup, used to love the colony and the poisonously strong g&ts

pink / garlic
I met DH in the Office a vair long time ago. We are still together but he has rather less hair now!

yes to the Colony. Remember Michael?

TranmereRover - not only did I pinch all those ashtrays too but I think I must have been born a stone's throw from you. you can take the girl out of Prenton, but you can't take the Prenton...

Oh yes the Gardening Club! And wasn't it Choccy of Choccy's Choons? Or something like that... The record shop in soho, Queen Anne's Court I think.

Me too for the office bar, I worked in the same street, it has an 80's night before it became the norm didn't it.
Garlic, did you ever go to that very old pub in Newman street, it was near a kind of 'jack the ripper' style alleyway, it sold the tallest Yorkshire pies in the world.

Family sorry don't remember that shop at the Common - rarely went up there ...I hung around Clapham North/Brixton mainly...
And your friend was an idiot!!! Never appreciated before that how innately safe we feel cos we 'know' we can dial 999 and someone will come and 'save us' ...
Migonette was Trade the one you needed an escort to go to the loo? Remember one where it didn't matter what it said on the door - found both sexes in the loos and lots happening in there ...the bouncers used to come and chuck people out every so often....

Cave, I used to go to a little place called Prohibition - can't remember anything about it, but do remember I went there a lot It wasn't the much bigger place in Bishopsgate that comes up on Google, though, and is more likely to have been in the West End or SW.

I went to Trade a lot while working in Farringdon & Clerkenwell. Used to really enjoy it, but found it a bit scary after it got very popular (and moved down the street? Did it?)

I lived in Brixton from 93-96 and Clapham North for 2 years before that. I loved Brixton for its very strong community spirit - the small shopkeepers always looked out for you - and the free weed () but NOT the 72-hour hip-hop vs drum'n'bass decibel competition emanating from all the surrounding flats every weekend!

There was a big, proper old-fashioned pub by Clapham Common tube, that did lock-ins almost every night. Sue, the pie pub was the Newman Arms in Newman Passage. The pies were fab! It was run by a really nice family, iirc.

Yes to the Colony Rooms, and the numerous un-advertised arty 'dining' (drinking) clubs in upstairs rooms at Soho pubs back then. You used to meet the same people enjoying 5-hour lunches at Borscht & Tears on Dean (or Frith?) Street.

How the actual fuck did we manage to sink that much alcohol and still do our jobs properly? Rhetorical question - jobs started at 10am in those days, and the socialising was a big part of mine; I'm guessing many of yours, too. Happy days ... daze ...

HeyLuciani - YY The Church! I was trying to remember the name. That was in the middle of nowhere round the back of Kings Cross station wasn't it? I can't place which road Backpackers was on though. And the road nearby where everyone went to buy and sell campervans?

If you remember a bunch of grubby bikers at the Church and Backpackers that was us from the Pembury!

The pie room in the Newman Arms is still there (though I don't think I have been since 1998)

Anyone remember the Leisure Lounge?

Dreaded, I think the India Club has finally gone.

The WibbleyWobbley - I remember that! 2 straight male friends of mine told me they were living on a boat in Surrey Quays and we must visit. It turned out to be the world's smallest cabin cruiser (very cosy!) and didn't even have any "heads" (toilets) so we had to wee over the stern into the water

Walking from there to the WibbleyWobbley I remember making a mental note not to get pissed because the danger of falling off the walkways seemed quite high.

sweetasstevia you started this in CHAT! it's going to self-immolate... is there any power that you have as OP to get it moved somewhere we can luxuriate in nostalgia for more than 30 days?

(and does anyone remember the vegetarian restaurant in Battersea called Fungus Mungus? used to go there before Linford film studios on a Saturday. I was dating the dj from the upstairs room before it all went wrong. There was always some scruffy bloke dancing in the corner, who my friend always assumed was a homeless kid they let in for warmth for the evening. His name? Jay Kay. He did ok for himself)

ArtFool, I used to go to Up The Creek 1990-1995, knew Malcolm Hardee the owner and host well. I left London in 2001.
I found out sadly that in 2005, when he had the Wibbly Wobbly, he fell in and drowned. Quite ridiculous yet fitting for a man who loved Rotherhithe, New Cross, Deptford and Greenwich.

rip Malcolm x

If anyone knew New Cross, we used to go to the Crystal Palace Tavern, spit and sawdust pub, open very late.
I looked on google maps the other day, it's no longer there (replaced by flats).

Some crazy characters used to go in there, we loved it.

I had my birthday at Fungus Mungus . When i worked at Tootsies in Chiswick Jay Kay used to dance outside in the street with his big hat on!