Revisiting: The Regency Cafe
In London SW1 the other day I passed a building I posted nearly seven years ago. I was never very happy with the photograph I took then, on a dull day, with my mobile phone. So here’s a better one, showing some of those simple cut-out letters more closely. Back then, I wrote that the café, established in 1946, was very much evocative of the 1940s ‘back-end of Art Deco’ style, while also looking forward to the clean modernism of the 1950s, a style that café designers of that period liked. I’d not want to change much of that, except to say that the number of such cafés surviving in any number is still on the decline. So it’s pleasing that this one is still there.
It’s not only still there, but apparently still thriving. As I looked through the window the place was packed. So I didn’t go in for a coffee. So another thing I said in my earlier post must stand: I hope when next I’m passing I’ll have time to go in and try it.
It's like E Pellicci in Bethnal Green Road. It's reputedly London's best breakfast but I've never managed to get in there!
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Establishing a cafe in 1946 must have been an interesting event. On one hand I imagine people were desperate for some pleasure in life, preferably in company. On the other hand the city must have still been full of rationing, bombed out sights and grieving families.
ReplyDeleteI've been in here! I've been in here! And newsman John Pienarr was on an opposite table. Or did I say that the last time you posted this? Anyway, I expect you know it's mentioned in Edwin Heathcote's admirable London Caffs published by my old friends Wiley. With excellent photographs by Sue Barr.
ReplyDeleteHels. Yes rationing lasted ages after the war. I've forgotten, for the moment how long the staples of cafe life (tea, coffee, milk) were restricted - not everything was rationed, as you will know. But you're right about the desperation with which anything new longed for.
ReplyDeletePeter. Yes the Caffs book is good...even if the places featured are going. Last time you held forth on gingham curtains and cloths, but the Regency seems have toned Down the colour scheme a bit.
ReplyDeleteIt's my local cafe and its extremely old-school and extremely good.
ReplyDeleteI love this lettering, especially being white on black tiles. However, I must admit that I'd really like to move the letters A and F to the left a little so that the spacing looks more uniform, lol.
ReplyDeleteMost of my designer friends would like to move these letters, Eileen. They (the letters, not the designers) are rather randomly spaced.
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