Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Eating Chinese in late 1940s Soho


Forwarded to us by a loyal jot watcher. One restaurant was favoured by celebrities - Johnnie Mills, Bobby Howes, Coral Browne, Sandy Powell, Ivan Maisky and Lady Cripps - probably impressive names in their day. I especially like the bit about Lord Tredegar bringing his own jade chopsticks...

Click to read


Stanley Jackson’s brief but brilliant Indiscreet Guide to Soho is crammed with so much colourful reportage on the immediately post-war night life, petty crime, Bohemian characters and restaurants in this popular quarter of London, that it is difficult to choose what to Jot down. In the end, I opted for two pages on Chinese restaurants. Jackson attributes our ‘craze‘ for eating Chinese to our sympathy for the nation’s stand against the ‘Jap Fascists‘, but the trend must surely pre-date this.

Incidentally, what happened to the redoubtable ‘Ley-On’s ?’

2 comments:

  1. Stanley Jackson's Soho book followed "An Indiscreet Guide To Theatreland", both coming from Ralph L.Finn's imprint Muse Arts Ltd. "An Indiscreet Guide to the East End" seems to have been much trailed as well (see Google Books for spoors): does anyone know if it ever actually appeared?

    ReplyDelete

  2. Many thanks. 'An Indiscreet guide to Theatreland' (by the prolific Macqueen Pope) came out in the same year (1949) but no sign in COPAC or WORLDCAT of an 'indiscreet' guide to the East End, making it a 'ghost' I'm sorry to say.

    ReplyDelete