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THE KING & QUEEN, FITZROVIA, W1. BOB DYLAN, WITHNAIL, BUT NOT I.
We’re not back yet from the dreaded virus, but when we are, we need to be ready to PARTYYY, a la roaring 1920’s. (Y’know, after a World War and then hundreds of millions killed by a new virus called the Flu.) This is a review from before lockdown. So here we go…
There are many pubs in Fitzrovia, just North of Oxford Street in Central London, W1 and most have some claim to fame, but the King & Queen, on Foley Street, in the shadow of the Post Office Tower, is a personal favourite for a number of reasons – although chiefly, as with most decent boozers – because of its staff. It’s what we would call a ‘proper’ pub. It’s part of a small chain. According to the website, it’s been owned by the family run LEA Taverns since 1985, and a jolly good job they’ve done too. Like most of the city centre pubs, I’ve not been there often for last orders and it has TVs and a juke box. But importantly for places to find inspiration, the vibe is good. And the staff are smart in that old-fashioned, no-nonsense way. The second time I went in there, on a fairly busy Friday night, I did single myself out by asking to take a pic of their classic old till, but then I perched on a seat at the end of the bar with a pint of what I call ‘cooking’ lager. Lower alcohol. Carlsberg, in this case. Just as I’d finished it, one of the barmen, faced with a busy onslaught of other customers, noticed I’d finished and nodded to me. “Same again?” Classy.
It’s a reasonable place to write in as well. Prices are not too bad. Wifi is good. They used to do food at lunchtimes, although I’ve not tried it, and I’m betting they will do again as we return to normality. An old pub, there’s quite a young vibe, in its one single bar, but it’s a real mixed crowd and in spite of its city centre location, there’s a smattering of locals. I got chatting to one chap – a Mathematician – who has lived nearby for over twenty years. He frequents the K&Q precisely because of the staff . “They have a low turnover of staff here”, he told me. “It makes a difference to the ambience of the pub.” And he’s right. It does.
They have a function room upstairs too and not only was there a regular folk club, but one of the best spoken word events in town – ‘In Yer Ear’ used to happen here monthly. Ish. It’s run by Covent Garden resident and Soho regular, Dave The Hat, a good and true man with ties to Julia Bell, erstwhile writer and head of Birkbeck’s acclaimed Creative Writing course. Even though I consider them friends and I’ve had them both on my radio show (you can hear them on our Podcast page) they are both soooooo cool, they almost frighten me.
The K&Q is also the place where non other than Bob Dylan performed. Yep, not only did he take his name from Dylan Thomas, another local, but it was Bob Dylan’s first gig outside the good old US of A. The story has it that in the days when the BBC could do such things, they hired him as an actor – to play the part of an American Folk Singer Apparently his acting wasn’t too good, but while he was in the area, he thought he’d get his box and ‘monica out and play a few tunes at the local boozers folk night. His performance in the pub was much more successful than his performance on the telly, apparently. No surprise there then!
It’s worth a visit even if you don’t want to write. This area of Fitzrovia is slowly but surely being overwhelmed by new build flats for millionaires, and I fear for its future. But the King has retained many of its original features and you wouldn’t be surprised if Withnail walked in, resplendent in Trenchcoat and asked for the finest wines known to man. The staff at the K&Q would, I’m sure, help him out.
🍷🍷🍷🍷 This pub changed the world. Wear tweeds.
Celebrating W.B. Yeats in London
An interview with broadcaster Nick Hennegan – on Resonance 104.4fm and the Maverick Theatre Company YouTube Channel and BohemianBritain.com – and poet and critic Cahal Dallat about an ambitious project to raise £135,000 to celebrate W.B Yates and his upbringing in Bedford Park, Chiswick, Weest London – the first Artists suburb in the world! For more information see www.wbyeatsbedfordpark.comTwitter @YeatsBedfordPk
London. It’s about community, stupid! (Leave your baseball bat at home…!)
Full disclosure. I’m from Birmingham. And I love Britain’s Second City. But I’ve been flirting with London for nearly 40 years and I’ve been here full-time for over 15 years. When I first came to live in London – south of the river – I travelled with a baseball bat for security. Now this might sound extreme, but remember, no one from my family had ever been further from Brum than Wales for summer holidays and I was coming to LIVE in That London – where the streets are paved with crime. My mate’s Dad told me not to make eye contact with anyone. It was dangerous. The night before I left, I had a farewell party at Traceys Nightclub in Redditch. Yep, a quality venue. My younger sister and some of my friends were inconsolable. I might have been going to Australia, not 100 miles down the road. But to a working class family, London felt that huge.
It didn’t take me too long to realise that I’d no more need a baseball bat in London than I would in Kings Heath, Birmingham. I was working with (brilliant) children in care for Social Services. A colleague introduced me to a voluntary radio station in Thamesmead, south-east London and after turning up as a volunteer ready to make the tea I ended up presenting a breakfast show. I won my first ever award in Thamesmead. The Tavy Bridge Social Club’s Services to The Community Pennant! (I must find out if the club still exists!) Tavy Bridge was where much of Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange was filmed. The club members were mainly ex-dockers from the East End, and they were very welcoming to a young Brummy lad. I wasn’t really drinking either, so it wasn’t about buying rounds at the bar. They were just really nice, welcoming people from That London!
And that was my first experience of how this Centre of Empire, this City of Progress, this Sceptred Isle, this Seat of Kings, where the Streets are paved with Gold (not crime!) was actually just as small and personal as the blessed council estate of my birth.
Recently I was at the launch of the Fitzrovia Arts Festival. (You can hear the recording I did for our podcast on this site.) And what really comes across – the essence of the people both involved in the creation and attendance of the event – was passion for their area and each other. And that’s why the art gallery owner in Fitzrovia reminded me of the corner shop owner on my Billesley council estate. Passion and love for their area and the people who live there. In spite of the huge differences between incomes and upbringings, both women would have been best friends, I think. Because they instinctively know life is about people and places, not property and profit. And so I’ve found all over London. Be it the fabulous Soho Society, the Fitzrovia Trust, Covent Garden Community Association or, of course Trust Thamesmead – from Canary Wharf to the Old Kent Road, from Ealing to Elephant and Castle, London is all about people living in communities. Even Newham, in East London, where the average resident only stays for two years, has some fantastic community groups.
So leave your baseball bat at home, young Bohemian. London, like every major world city, has its threats and dangers. But it will accept and love you, if you open yourself to it. It’s about community…
A new Literary arrival..!
The Fitzrovia Arts Festival Launch Party – Live!
Summary
To celebrate the return of the Fitzrovia Arts Festival, Nick Hennegan went to the opening event in Warren Mews, London, W1. There he meets (and tries to drink with!) the locals… who are writers, artists, historians, gallery owners, Soho tailors and office workers, all sharing a love for a unique and hidden part of London. And this gem of an area almost throws up the truth about… Jack the Ripper! (Sort of..!) — Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/londonliterarypubs/message
Transcription
Soho and Fitzrovia Arts on a quiet Sunday
Summary
After the launch of the Fitzrovia Arts Festival, Nick Hennegan has a reflective wander in London. — Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/londonliterarypubs/message
Transcription
Commemorating W.B. Yeats in London
An interview with broadcaster Nick Hennegan – on Resonance 104.4fm and the Maverick Theatre Company YouTube Channel and BohemianBritain.com – and poet and critic Cahal Dallat about an ambitious project to raise £135,000 to celebrate W.B Yeats and his upbringing in Bedford Park, Chiswick, West London – the first Artists suburb in the world! See the Video HERE
For more information see www.wbyeatsbedfordpark.com
Twitter @YeatsBedfordPk — Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/londonliterarypubs/message
CELEBRATING Sherlock Holmes.
Nick Hennegan celebrates the birthday of writer Arthur Conan Doyle with a rare vintage radio episode of Doyle’s most famous creation, Sherlock Holmes. — Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/londonliterarypubs/message
Best Bohemian Boozer 3 – The Palm Tree, Mile End.
The Palm Tree, Mile End.
127 Grove Road, London, E3 5RP
By Catherine O’Shea.
Entering the Palm Tree feels like stepping backwards into another time, or sideways into another world. First there is the matter of tracking it down, in the middle of a little park, not on any road – a stand alone relic. You may come at it from the canal that runs by, more likely you pass through a little thicket of trees and bushes and over a small bridge before crossing the car park to push open the door.
Inside, the Palm Tree is red. Red carpet, metallic red walls, red lighting. There are ageing photographs and illustrations on the wall and a piano and small stage in one corner – more on that later. Prop yourself up at the horseshoe bar, or grab a little table and stool around the edge of the pub. I hope you’ve brought cash, as they don’t take cards (the nearest ATM is up near a shop called Hello Fresh on Roman Road but it’s a walk of a few minutes so best done in advance rather than once you’ve arrived, although it is a dash I have done many times.)
The drinks are not the thing. Get a pint or a bottle of house red, open up a packet of peanuts on the table and settle in for the experience. Sometimes in the afternoon the pub is quiet and the air feels somnolent and if you’re the type of person who reads a book in the pub then this is where to do it. A regular may chat to you about it. That’s nice. But come the evenings and the weekend, and the vibe turns it up a notch, with a live jazz band – average age of band members, in their seventies – crooning and knocking out the classics from that aforementioned stage in the corner. Dancing with strangers may occur.
The bathrooms are freezing. The seating is not especially comfortable. Rumours of unfriendly service from Alf are greatly exaggerated in my opinion, but I’ll admit it’s certainly not a ‘the-customer-is-always-right’ situation and all the more authentic for it. When you’ve got sick of the blue light from your laptop or phone, when you’re tired of the grey glass and concrete of the city, when it’s wet or chilly or you’ve just become fatigued by the trials and tribulations of modern day life – then the warm red glow of the Palm Tree is where you must head to revive yourself.
Just remember, bring cash.
🍷🍷🍷 A must visit pub.
