Cafe ID

[Puddy_Tat]

ETA: you can search phone directories online up to 1984 at ancestry.co.uk, but it's geared towards searching for people's names.

as well as the 'search' function, you can just browse and open up any directory and see each page as an image (like i got the met police listing above) of any page - you don't have to scroll through page by page, but it's a bit long winded jumping (for example) to page 200, seeing that's too far, then to 150, and going forward to 153 to get the right page, which for the 1984 London phone book (the latest they have) gets this -

 

[Puddy_Tat]

platinumsage

do you do tweeter?

this came up today - might be a good place to post something?

 

[salem]

Interesting thing about the coin market, apparently when that site was redeveloped into the current office complex they were required to maintain a Saturday market as part of the planning permission. So there is still (bar covid) a market in a carpark hidden away somewhere on the site where people sell antique coins and the like on Saturdays. Ian Visits did a great write up on it although his site is currently unavailable - link to the market - Coins, Stamps, Postcards and more | Charing Cross Collectors Market

Currently working cached version of Ian Visits Link
Ian Visits link for future readers

It's on my to do list

 

[Epona]

I worked in Whitehall Place in the early '90s and so Villiers Street was where I would often get lunch or after work drinks - a lot of the eateries and drinkeries there have a lower floor where the rumble of tube trains is obvious. I don't recall ever going to an Italian cafe there though, which is odd - used to head over to Pollo Bar on Old Compton Street for cheap pasta - that also had a downstairs but wasn't near a tube station.

This has sent me off on a right nostalgic trip, other places I recall frequenting back in the day were a flamenco bar round the back of Tottenham Court Road station (had a late license, often ended up there with a bottle of wine and a bowl of patatas bravas until 2am), and there was an Italian coffee place I used to go to a lot as well but memory has failed me and I cannot recall where it was or what it was called (it wasn't Bar Italia, it was a quieter place but also somewhere fairly central).

 

[oryx]

This has sent me off on a right nostalgic trip, other places I recall frequenting back in the day were a flamenco bar round the back of Tottenham Court Road station (had a late license, often ended up there with a bottle of wine and a bowl of patatas bravas until 2am),

Costa Dorada? If it was, I used to go there a bit in the late 80s, maybe early 90s. I remember going there with my best mate and two blokes we liked. We all got extremely pissed and my friend and I were told off for going on the dance floor in the flamenco area when we had only bought drinks in the bar. Afterwards we reckoned we should have made a disaster movie called 'Double Date'.

Also sent me off on a bit of a nostalgia trip, and made me want to go into central London as soon as it's safe and feasible.