The Arts and the Café Royal

Between 29 June and 29 July 1956 the National Book League (whatever happened to this?) staged an exhibition entitled ‘London after Dark’ on the first floor of the famous Café Royal in Lower Regent Street. The exhibition was designed to tell the story, in books, manuscripts and pictures, of London night life between 1866, when the Café Royal opened its doors, and the present day, when Soho was still a vibrant bohemian quarter .It was this exhibition that three Soho habitués, Daniel Farson, Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon visited one day in June or July, 1956. Many of the pictures on display were by, or depicted, celebrities connected to the Café Royal, and one example caught Freud’s attention. Farson takes up the story:

Lucian looked at the label on the back and reported ‘Sickert’. This set me wondering as we continued our circuit, and as we passed it again I rashly broke my silence, for I had not dared to venture an opinion before. 'If that’s by Sickert', I declared, 'he could never have painted a great picture.’ The two of  them looked at me with irritation, so with the hope of proving my point I bent down and looked at the back for myself, emerging triumphantly with the tactless cry---‘It’s not by Sickert, it’s of Sickert, by Nina Hamnett!’ They were not amused. Daniel Farson, Soho in the Fifties (1987)

Stephen Graham—a prince among Soho tramps

Just a few minutes walk from Leoni’s Quo Vadis is Frith Street, now famous as the home of Private Eye, but for a century or more  the haunt of Soho journalists, writers and other near- do- wells, including Stephen Graham, who from 1912 to his death in 1975, lived in a flat at no 60, a handsome Georgian town house. In the days before adventurers in dangerous lands were accompanied by a TV crew, Stephen Graham, who described himself as ‘tramp’ before that word had gained unsavoury associations, explored a number of exotic lands, including Russia, on which he became an expert, recording his impressions in books and articles, until he could no longer finance his expeditions.

The letter, which was discovered among a batch of other unrelated correspondence, belongs to his most productive period, is written from Frith Street and is dated 4th December 1926. In it he invites a Miss Morley to an after-dinner ‘mixed party of various acquaintances who will sit around the fire & talk.’ He also invites her to bring along her copy of his recently published London Nights for him to sign.

Leoni’s Quo Vadis restaurant: ‘no better place in the world to dine or lunch’

Leoni printed this praise from the film actress Evelyn Laye in a tiny promotional booklet reprinted to coincide with the Festival of Britain in 1951.The year before, journalist, S. Jay Kaufman, a veteran American, in a letter to Leoni, revealed that from 1911 to July 1914 no 27, Dean Street, Soho, which under Pepino Leoni became the Quo Vadis restaurant in 1926, had been home to himself and the painter Horace Brodsky. Back then, Kaufman explained, the domestic arrangements might have been pretty basic, but the good company had made up for this:

'The cuisine ? Ours! The charwomen ? Ourselves! And to this Adam house came Harry Kemp, John Flanagan, Augustus John, Jacob Epstein, J.T Grien, Lillian Shelley, Nelson Keys, Lily Cadogan, David Burton, Louis Wolheim Arnold Daly, Sir Charles Cochran , Leon M Lion, Constance Collier, Granville Barker, and Frank Harris…’

That’s quite a crowd! Laye’s encomium from 1948 is joined in Leoni’s booklet by 'appreciations' from a number of very satisfied customers, including big names, such as stage designer Edward Gordon Craig (‘ I eat better there than anywhere else’) and Max Beerbohm. As for Kaufman himself, he testifies that in his day American stars like Jimmy Durante, Hoagy Carmichael and Joseph Cotton were also regulars at Quo Vadis.

In addition to these big-name recommendations, Leoni’s, booklet features photos of Italian beauty spots,

London Night and Day 1951

London Night and Day, illustrated by Osbert Lancaster, edited by Sam Lambert (Architectural Press, 1951)

Surely one of the most entertaining of the plethora of books brought out in the wake of the Festival of Britain. The coloured cover illustrations and the vignettes in black and white were by Osbert Lancaster, a friend of John Piper—the same John Piper who is named in a section devoted to the Festival, to which he contributed, among other things, a superb semi-abstract panorama. If you hadn’t been informed that Lancaster had designed the cover, you would have attributed it to Piper, whose style of portraying shop fronts is showcased in Buildings and Prospects, which had appeared just a few years earlier. Lancaster’s style is identical. Was Piper concerned that he was being flagrantly copied by Lancaster? Probably, but according to his biographer Frances Spalding, the two men were friends.

London Night and Day, like Stanley Johnson’s Soho (c1949), previously reviewed on Jot101, is a sparkling read. It seems to be multi-authorial, though in the list of names that feature in the Acknowledgments only that of J. M. Richards would be recognised by most people today. However, a few of the others, such as Colin Boyne, and Gordon Cullen were prominent in the world of architecture back then. One or two of the remainder may have been restaurant critics—seeing as at least a third of the book is devoted to pubs, restaurants, cafes and night clubs. Although his name doesn’t appear anywhere in the book, the voice of John Betjeman, then at the height of his fame, seems to colour much of the text. Perhaps he is there under a pseudonym, perhaps as the ‘editor’, Sam Lambert. After all, this is the sort of guide to which he would have been attracted. Betjeman  also worked with Richards at the Architectural Review and was a close friend of Lancaster’s. Neverthess, the best Betjeman bibliography, published by the Betjeman Society, has nothing to say about London Night and Day.

The guide is arranged to reflect a whole 24 hours in London, hour by hour. Under '4 pm cuppa' some attractive tea shops and cafes, none of which have survived, are described. Back in 1951 Yarner’s Coffee House, at 1, Langham Place , was the place to find BBC types. I  know for a fact that the abstemious Geoffrey Grigson, at various time both a producer and a contributor, was a frequent customer. His more thirsty colleagues, like Dylan Thomas, Louis MacNeice and Rayner Heppenstall, were generally to be found in a favourite local around the corner, propping up the bar way beyond the time allotted for lunch.

Two hours later, if you fancied a beer or a glass of wine after your day in the City, the Jamaica Wine Bar, off Lombard Street, would be a good place to overhear city types gossip, although in those innocent days before financial meltdowns, that accountant who looked like Bob Cratchit, was probably only on  about £12 a week.

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 ?’

Little Inns of Soho - the Koh-i-Noor

From a small book Little Inns of Soho (1948) this review of one of the few London Indian restaurants at that time.

The book is by Penelope Seaman (daughter of Owen?).

KOH- I- NOOR
29 Rupert Street
Telephone GER. 3379
Closes 11 p. m. Open on Sundays till 11 p. m. Unlicensed.

From vegetarianism to Indian food seems rather a long step. But many delicious Indian dishes are made with a vegetable base, such as dhal (of lentils, onions and curry sauce) and, of course, all the various accoutrements that go with a good Indian curry. Pickles and chutney are difficult to obtain nowadays and one substitute used consists of strips of onion flavoured with red pepper. One very delicious chutney is made from onions and mint. Bay leaves are also frequently used for all flavourings.

There are some four Indian restaurants in the West End of London; and the Koh-i-Noor is one of five run by the brothers Vir in Great Britain. Krishna Vir, who comes from Delhi, looks after the London, Cambridge and Brighton restaurants and his brothers run the ones at Oxford and Manchester. 

The Koh-i-Noor has been in Rupert Street since 1932. Mr. Vir is very conscious of its war shabbiness but this does not strike the visitor so much, for its wall decorations give the appearance of sunlight, high peaks and deep, green valleys. The candelabra is ornate in the eastern manner and the restaurant consists of one long, narrow room.

The biggest part of the clientele consists of English people, largely those who have travelled and who like Indian cooking, although an English menu is also provided. During summer months numbers of Indians on vacation come in. It is they who demonstrate the correct way of eating chapatis, a form of unleavened bread, with your curry. The English cut them up but the Indian rolls them in his fingers and dips them in the sauce.

Soyaghetti** now replaces the ever-needful rice; and Puri (a fried bread), and stuffed Paratha (a bread ball filled with minced meat, vegetables and spices), are appreciated by hungry people. Bhajee is another Indian dish, of vegetables braised and specially flavoured. Kofta curry is prepared with meat-balls, and Bhuna Ghost is the name given to curried roast meat. Kebab, an Asiatic dish popular also with Greeks, consists of specially skewered and grilled meats.

There are not a great many specifically Indian sweetmeats from which to choose but one known as Gulabjaman looks like a small sausage and tastes rather like a dull semolina. One, however, that has an entrancing taste and is a great favourite is Jalebi. Resembling an English brandy-snap, it loks intricate but in reality is simple to make. From a large bowl of fermented flour-battter the cook takes a spoonful and forces this in ringlets through an icing tube into a pan of smoking fat. Within a minute or so it is cooked and is then served luscious with warmed syrup.

The Koh-i-Noor is one of the few Soho restaurants that are open on Sundays.

**'Soyaghetti' (1943) was a soya bean meal compressed into small grains as a substitute for rice. It was almost tasteless, but fairly popular until rice again became freely available.