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 think "Smashing" held a party in the Clerkenwell studios once ... We turned up at the club, were handed an invitation to the party, and the entire club had relocated to a party. ??. I thought that was incredibly cute.
I wonder what has happened to 'The Idler"? They were given some funding by "the Guardian" I think. I wonder if they carried on as writers?

I really want to say thank you to the poster who told us about the horologists of Clerkenwell. I loved that.
I have really enjoyed reading all these reminiscences.
I hope everyone is somewhere happy tonight.

thecatfromjapan - did you go to smashing?!?!?!?!??!?!

OMG OMG OMG

mignonette I went to Trade a few times- not as a regular thing as I lived out of London by then (in another gay Mecca with amazing clubs which shall remain nameless...) but I LOVED it.

Spent most of the time in the side room at Trade- can't remember the name of DJs but the something brothers? Twins? Amazing though. Sad that Turnmills has gone.
This thread is so brilliant! Remembering loads from this
And a bit scared that we all know each other IRL

Twin DJ's? Surely there can't be several sets of these. Not Alec (now Twin B) and Alex. But in the 90's they were about 14!

Ladywithlapdog I meant the venue that the Whirlygig used to be in is now a posh restaurant. I don't know about sitting under a parachute with spliff these days... It would feel like a trippy soft play session!

Stokey we don't last that long and usually have a cab waiting for us to take us back to the 'burbs, have a sleep and wake up respectable on Sunday.

'ponced up'

Fule - Not the Dust Brothers (who became the Chemicals)? I'm not aware of any regular gigs at Trade, but the style & name fits, along with the timing :)

Reading their history has reminded me of Mud. Mr Salon may have been a 'difficult' character, but he sure knew how to throw a party.

Did anyone used to go to the white bear theatre pub in kennington? They used to lock the doors, pull the blackout blinds down and carry on serving til 2am. Monday quiz nights were amazing, Tuesdays at work not so much, but then I was young and could handle it!
Also used to LOVE the bread and roses, fantastic pub.

I used to go there (White Bear)! Lived not far away in Carter Street. Happy memories.

Biba in the 70s?

My friends and I used to travel to London JUST to go to Biba, pink! We'd hang out there all day, soaking up inspiration. I got the catalogue sent to me (it was all printed in blue, grey & mauve) and I'd take it into school, where we pored over it in double English. To make my hair look all floaty & wild like the Biba models, I dried it in eighty pin-curled plaits. It took 24 hours to dry but did achieve the desired effect!

I must have owned every item of makeup they ever sold (teal kohl powder was a favourite) and have just one left: a tub of gold dust. It never seems to run out; I still use it.

I finally got to live in London in 1975, but didn't like the Derry & Toms store so much - although I was still going to the roof gardens 30 years later :)

Merry and Garlic I've done a quick google and it must have been the Sharp Boys at Trade, back in the day. I am not very surprised I couldn't remember

This thread is like a little tour of all my favourite London places when young.

Oh and randomly, While we are at it with eccentric 90s London men about town.. what about the ballet man at Whirly who used to somersault around in the balloons.. Brilliant.
As someone said upthread...looking back, Whirly was oddly prescient of today's paid for toddler classes with all the balloons and parachute etc. I always want to boom out 'Caaan yoooou dig it?' or 'all we are saaaaaying' when they unroll it.

It seems to me (I could be wrong) that at some point in the late 90s or early 00s it became normal for everything to look new

I know what you mean but for me that started in the 80's - up until then nothing much had changed since the war! Houses still looked the same, bomb sites still undeveloped, building sites everywhere! And then there was this influx of money and wealth and luxury started arriving on London's grubby streets and all started to become shiny and new!

Corporations move in to areas and try to recreate what was there originally but organically and it's a disaster! Borough Market, Spittlefields, Portobello Road, Covent Garden and many more are now soul-less corporate money spinners, local families moved out of their homes to make way for luxury apartments it's killing London's diversity and creativity, you can't buy that

Which reminds me - The Skateboard park at Southbank will remain it's original location - Well done to them! They stood up to the corporations and won, brilliant news!

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

The City Road just as you go under the railway bridge - that bit was bare tumbleweed territory! Nothing - couldn't believe it when I went back about 10 years later and it was like Ibiza!!

The district line didn't stop at Temple for ages - that was another tumbleweed zone; it just slooooowed down through the dimly lit station.

Franks Cafe on Neal Street (always visited after Neal Street East as mentioned in original post)

Oh my goodness, Franks. We used to go there for HUGE breakfasts on Fridays with work colleagues, and basically doss the day away in a very full stomach. I'd forgotten the name. Great memories.

What was Neal st east? Never heard of it.

Covent Garden General store... we used to go there for cheap meals before the theatre on a Friday Night (salad, jacket potatoes and chocolate cake in the Green & Pleasant). My mum's friend always called it The Green & Pleasant Land. Cocktails at the Dug Out in Leicester Square when I started working in London followed by Mexican dinner at Break for the Border. The salad bar in the Swiss Centre (is this M & Ms world now?). Clubbing at Equinox in Leicester Square.

It was a sort of 'oriental' superstore with a bewildering variety of interesting things, laid out in incomprehensible fashion. You could spend a whole Saturday on Neal Street alone, coming away well-fed & watered, spiritually satisfied, with new friends and a much lighter purse :)