So long the New Piccadilly
It seems particularly cruel, just after I was eulogising proper cinemas the other week, that that one of my favourite cafes in London, the New Piccadilly on Denman Street, will be closing down this weekend. I only went there a few times over the years, but each visit is a cherished memory.
It was the sort of café where you could just sit on your own with your egg and chips, kick back and lose yourself in the décor and the sense of history. In the New Piccadilly I could pretend that it was 50s/60s London, and that just up the road in Soho, young trendy types (a la Cliff Richard in Expresso Bongo…) might be lurking about in basement cafes.
This temple to formica and coffee, not to mention the long lost art of table service in cafes, will always have a place in my heart.
Tags: architecture, dirty nostalgia, London
October 1st, 2007 at 11:52 pm
Sadly if you walk down this street now not a trace remains of the cafe. All of the fittings and even the signs above the door went into the skip and are lost forever. Now even the windows are boarded up as that whole block waits the fate of re-development.
Lets hope Lorenzo has a long and very happy retirement.