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?

Hurrah, Mandy Come here and swap arthritis stories over a few strangely-flavoured vodkas!

HeeHiles
Does anyone remember when the City had the barricades around it? We would be driving through trying to avoid being stopped by the police and getting searched!! Got lost every Saturday night blush

Of course - forgot about the 'ring of steel'. The IRA bombings were still quite prevalent in 90s London. I remember living in Finsbury Park when one went off on in a taxi on Seven Sisters Rd (not sure that it was supposed to explode there!) The whole house shook and one of our windows broke.

garlic I too remember marquee in wardour St, I much preferred it to the Charing cross one. The intrepid fox opposite too. Went to both a lot but was very sad when they closed the wardour St one.

I love vodka - bison grass is my favourite. I have fibromyalgia and CFS so I hope old age does not bring arthritis as well

How did you get on with the housing application?

I used to go to the venue in new cross too, and the Amersham Arms irish pub.

In Central London, we used to go to the Maple Leaf, just off Covent Garden, they used to do shots in test tubes. Also, the Comedy pub in Leicester Square, the Long Island Iced Tea bar, and we had some great office nights out on the Tattershall Castle.

I used to love going drinking in the Old Kent Road, the Prince of Wales, the Old Gin Palace and a club I can't remember the name of, something to do with boxing? Oh I remember, the Henry Cooper :)

Great memories and a brilliant place to have fun. And I don't remember seeing any trouble either. The last train home from Charing Cross was like a party.

Woah major nostalgia trip - Fungus Mungus, the Whirly Gig, Gardening Club, Fabric, The End, Arts Club and so forth.

I went out for dinner last year and the restaurant was in Shoreditch Town Hall, Whirlygig part 2 - think the original was in Camden IIRC, it felt very odd to be eating posh food there.

I remember when the Blue Note club, The Bricklayers Arms and Cantaloupe was the grand sum of Hoxton nightlife!!

I have fibromyalgia and CFS - We did wear ourselves, didn't we?
Was it worth it? Hell, yeah :)
No feedback on the flat yet. Thank you for asking!

Old Street tube was like getting off a a ghost station - you were lucky if another person got off there with you.

• wear ourselves out. (Though I'm sure we wore ourselves well, too!)

Laidback I used to go to Costa Dorada with DH and his mates after the pubs shut - was that it?

MagicswirlinShip I worked off the Old Kent Road in the 90's - dodgy pubs indeed! What about the Thomas a Beckett? It's gone (a bit) upmarket now!

becool I was working round there during the 90s and remember when the Canteloupe opened! Had my work leaving do there

The only place to go before that was a pub called the Horse and Groom just off Worship Street.

Ooh which has reminded me of when the Broadgate centre opened at Liverpool St station - we couldn't believe how corporate it seemed! It also had a Blazer, the men's clothes shop, which seemed so sophisticated at the time

and a Sock Shop. It was the days when next was sophisticated

Hey

Tell Stevie I love her and she is super talented as evidenced by the fact that the stores still copy her designs. Shame she didn't have somebody like Lulu Kennedy championing her back then.

Stokey, I mentioned upthread that Whirl-y-gig is still going, if it's the same one we're talking about. Next night is 11 Oct. I didn't go when I first lived in London, in the 90s, but last went in May this year.

And a Knickerbox. Many a purchase made there before work in the morning dirty stop out

mignonette I see you found the other thread! And thanks re my nn

Beyond I have a confession - we took our then 4 year old for a weeks holiday in London during the Olympics and took him to Gordon's

YY I took baby there too and also mother who hated it and and said why the hell have you brought me here and raced outside gasping for breath

"mignonette" ^Hey
Tell Stevie I love her and she is super talented as evidenced by the fact that the stores still copy her designs. Shame she didn't have somebody like Lulu Kennedy championing her back then.^

Yes, will have to tell her about the comments here . I'm very fond of her - she's lovely, really interesting, eccentric in a good way. And very creative - always got some wacky project on the go

That's a point garlic - I suppose this is the backlash from staying awake 2 and 3 nights at a time

"As ye sow so shall ye reap"...!

Hey

Yes please ask Stevie to come back and regain her rightful place. Stop these upstarts nicking her designs too :)

Anyone else buy records at Dub Vendor? The smell of grass was so strong in those little kiosks, I only had about 5 minutes to find and pay for what I wanted, or risk passing out.

Yes Abbie, I lived very close to a certain market nearby!

London 1991 - 2001
YY to Dive Bar, Turnmills, The Cross, that one in Covent Garden downstairs under a mini-cafe (can't remember name but met a Manchester band there - whose name I've forgotten too!)
Also, what about Milk bar, Studio 94, Maximus (think that's right - Piccadilly Circus? Saw Leigh Bowery do a set there once), Icini near Park Lane,packed full of rich people? Fred's club.
Remember 'festivals' at New Cross Gate.
I worked in Hoxton and remember when the Electricity Showrooms opened. And when Blue Note opened. We used to go to Blue Note on a Sunday afternoon, I think. Went to Hoxton Bar & Grill most evenings after work, which we used to mistakenly call the cinema. There was a dodgy nightclub nearby where Jarvis Cocker used to go/?DJ? It used to pretend it was a Chinese restaurant I think for the licensing laws, but I never saw a scrap of food pass anyone's lips.
Then Clerkenwell - 3 Kings, Cicada restaurant, Duke of York (known as the red pub instead though).
How things change. I NEVER go out now.