Serving vegetarian Indian food on the same spot, and alleged with the same green coloured frontage, since 1982, Ravi Shankar Bhel Poori House certainly qualifies as Old London. One of a cluster of long-established restaurants on Drummond Street serving South Ian food for decades, it has survived economic gloom, pandemic, and the disruption of the… Continue reading Ravi Shankar Bhel Poori House [Old London]
Tag: restaurants
The Clermont at Charing Cross [Old London]
The Clermont Hotel on the Strand, which I am old enough to still think of as the Charing Cross Hotel, must certainly count as Old London, since it has its own page on Historic England's National List of protected buildings. Built in the 1860s - "an ebullient design in the French Renaissance style", according to… Continue reading The Clermont at Charing Cross [Old London]
Paul Rothe [Old London]
With a century and a quarter's history, Paul Rothe's Marylebone delicatessen and cafe certainly counts as a part of Old London, with an interesting back story. Opened on 2nd August 1900 as a 'German delicatessen' by the eponymous Paul Rothe, it has been operated on the same Marylebone Lane premises by four generations of the… Continue reading Paul Rothe [Old London]
Spaghetti House [Old London]
Continuing our occasional look at eating places which might qualify as Old London, we come, as everyone wanting a quick meal in Central London does at some point, to Spaghetti House. This has something of a mixed reputation for food quality, but we cannot doubt its longevity. Founded in 1955 in Goodge Street, it is… Continue reading Spaghetti House [Old London]
Kew Maids of Honour [Old London]
Should you be visiting Kew Gardens, and feeling inclined to match the horticulture with some culinary history, call into Newens Original Maids of Honour tea rooms and bakery, on Kew Road opposite the gardens. It has a long history: developed from an earlier business in Richmond, established in 1887 in its present site on Kew… Continue reading Kew Maids of Honour [Old London]
Cosmoba [Old London]
Located in Cosmo Place, between Southampton Row and Queen Square in Bloomsbury, the Cosmoba restaurant has been run by the same family for several decades. It serves a varied clientele of locals, tourists from the nearby hotels, visitors to the nearby British Museum, and academics from the University of London. It is not the sort… Continue reading Cosmoba [Old London]
Simpsons-in-the-Strand [Old London]
Amid the churn and hype of the London restaurant scene, there are some places that qualify as Old London for their longevity as the same kind of restaurant on the same site. Among these, on the same spot since 1828, is Simpsons-in-the-Strand (yes, for the pedants among you, it's 'in', not 'on', the Strand). Aiming… Continue reading Simpsons-in-the-Strand [Old London]
Terre a Terre
Moving away, as I occasionally do, from things informational, I had the chance to eat at the Terre a Terre restaurant in Brighton the other day, as I'd wanted to do for a long time. Could this really be as good as the hype claims: 'the best vegetarian restaurant in the world' and so on… Continue reading Terre a Terre
Eating in the Library
We have become used to the idea that libraries of all kinds are adding on coffee shops and the like, and no longer necessarily barring food and drink being brought in. This increasing linkage between food and libraries seems to be taken a stage further in London, where a number of former libraries are being… Continue reading Eating in the Library
The Occasional Informationist 