Jeff Dexter  Kramer Shoes, the first kind of self service shoe stores, next door to the Kenny Lynch Record Cemte.

2015-12-05-22:29:07

Jeff Dexter  Actually, Kenny's store would have closed down by the time this pic was taken, if it's really 72!

2015-12-05-22:38:41

Dave Rogers FRATELLI CAMISA LTD   Our store in Old Compton Street , If anyone has a copy of the original photo I would be interested in getting hold of it

2018-02-28-12:00:57

Adrian Stern  Hi Dave.
I got it from Pinterest I think. there is a watermark that I can't decipher so it must have come from a professional photographer or a media agency.
Try searching those

2018-02-28-15:57:59

Adrian Stern  And this is a photo of the original shop on Berwick Street of course. Not Old Compton Streeet

2018-02-28-15:58:57

Pasquale Marioni  i worked in my uncle;s restaurants jn Denman Street in the mid sixties, the Barca next to the Casino de Paris strip club, the Vienna nex t the pu at the corner with Shaftesbury Avenue and the famous New PIccadilly with my cousin Lorenzo Marioni, all gone

2016-03-23-21:24:05

Jon F  Can beat a dirty grey raincoat and hat on the lap :)

2015-12-05-22:04:23

Jon F  Back stage & backside :)

2015-12-05-21:50:23

jon f  Salt Beef Bar right across the street from there

2016-03-23-20:08:54

jon f  dirty 'ole sod copping a feel!!!

2016-03-23-16:58:51

Jon F  what they used to call euphemsically "good time girls" with US soldiers

2015-12-05-22:06:09

Jon F  Very different with the new Crossrail station

2018-08-19-14:33:32

jon friend  Anyone remember "The Last Chance Saloon " dance club. The door was next to the entrance to the tube station. Freddie Mills was shot in his car in the alley behind the station . Right across the street was the former Tottenham Court Road Lyons Corner House.
This whole corner of Oxford St & Charing Cross Road is now being rebuilt as part of the Cross Link Rail network

2013-01-24-20:19:29

Adrian  Certainly remember the Lyon's tea rooms - we used to go to the Corner House on Leicester Square as a birthday treat!

2013-01-25-12:15:29

Jon Friend  Yes Lyons had lots of rooms, The Brasserie, The Carvery,The Grill and Cheese. Te Bacon & Egg. Other Corner Houses were at Marble Arch, Coventry Street and The Strand. All real treats for kids when money was tighter for Mums & Dads than now

2013-07-09-22:17:06

jon f  The new Crossrail & Tube station opened Dec 2015, All very shiney & new.

2015-12-05-21:42:14

Paolo O  Last Chance, great birds there.

2016-03-23-17:33:42

jon f  Just along the block to Oxford Circus there was "Beat City" and "The 100 Club".

2016-03-23-20:08:01

David Williams  hi the snap taken at tot ct road showing the entrance to what was the last chance saloon really took me back , i was a regular at the "chance" from late 64 thru 65 i used to give out cards to passers-by for free admission , knew the manager and mick the guy that stamped your hand as you went in , later on i frequented wardour mews and the seedy little club/coffee bars down there, the limbo, the take five , round the corner on the corner of berwick and d'arblay st was the freight train and i recall a place opposite called the coffeepot always full of tranvestites , koko's was along there too , st anne's court and the blue gardenia , i remember the "student prince" but i cant recall its exact location ? went to the scene, la discotheque , flamingo , never ventured up stairs to the whisky a gogo ? was it a french club ? the coffee-ann, le macabre, even ventured into the 2'is once or twice , love chatting about the old days "up west"

2017-02-27-23:15:53

Phil Evans  David, do you know exactly where The Blue Gardinia was situated? Its been a mystery in Beatles circles for years. They allegedly played there in 1961.

2018-08-07-09:42:39

Adrian Stern  Sometime in the 2000s I think, the premises at 93 Dean St were known as the Black Gardenia. In 1961 it was definitely still Les Enfants Terribles and no band ever played there as far as I know. There really wasn't room. Though as the Black Gardenia they did squeeze in bands and cabaret!

Some sources put a Blue Gardenia Club at 20 St Anne's Court. But I had never heard that name and I think we knew ALL the coffee bars and clubs in Soho in those days as there weren't that many. Soho isn't that big! Yet usually reliable sources show it. Maybe it was a very short-lived place? a year or two so we missed it? I don't think I was in Soho before 1962 personally.

2018-08-07-10:51:03

Phillip Evans  Thanks for the reply Adrian. According to James Morton’s book Gangland Soho there was a Gardenia in Wardour Mews managed by Harry Bidney. Morton mentions a home made bomb being thrown into the premises in Feb 1961. Maybe this is the elusive Blue Gardenia?

2018-08-07-11:47:18

Adrian Stern  Quite honestly I think he's confused as we do have a Blue Gardenia at 20 St Annes Ct in 1961. Unlikely to have been another a short walk away, but I don't know";

2018-08-07-15:34:39

Jon F  Quite an historical edifice, I think it is now M & S

2016-03-23-17:00:14

Jon F  I seem to remember old store names from that strip, Marshall & Snelgrove, Debenham & Freebody, Studio 1, His Masters Voice (HMV) The Paris Cinema ( Marble Arch). I think that the building on the right was a large 2 floor Dolcis.

2015-12-05-21:55:40

jon f  Oh also Bourne & Holligsworth

2015-12-05-21:59:56

Jeff Dexter  Cambridge Circus with the old Alkit building and West Street.

2015-12-05-18:50:13

Adrian  Quite right Jeff - what an eagle eye

2015-12-05-19:07:10

Pasquale Marioni  bought my wedding suit and tie at Alkit in 1971, i lived at 5/7 Earlham Streeet round the corner

2016-03-23-19:38:10

Jon f  Great photo. I wonder where she is now!! Could she ever imagine then being old?

2015-12-05-22:03:05

Jeff Dexter  Ley-On's made the most wonderful dim sim, but their dumplings never as good as The Dumpling Inn.

2015-12-05-22:23:39

Jon F  Pretty daring for those days. I think Phyllis gained her stage reputation for the "Fan Dance" before the war

2015-12-05-22:08:12

Adrian  This section replaces "Soho scenes" - and there's another to come. The pictures that follow are a mystery to me - I've no idea where they may have been taken. Any ideas?

2015-11-22-18:02:09

Jon F  Great place, real Soho

2016-03-23-17:00:46

Jeff Dexter  4 Old Compton Street, once also known as the French.

2016-03-23-21:11:27

Adrian   My god Jeff you've done it again! This is No 4 - now I recognise the barber shop next door!

2016-03-24-18:14:52

Adrian   My god Jeff you've done it again! This is No 4 - now I recognise the barber shop next door!

2016-03-24-18:14:52