Keren Luchtenstein’s Cafes
Click here to book tickets for my tour for this Saturday and through spring
Keren Luchtenstein sent me her splendid photographs of cafes, published for the first time online today
Fredo’s, Bethnal Green Rd
“In 1978, I was in my last year at art school and needed a subject for a thesis. I had been noticing charming old cafes and enjoying their individuality, their names and decor – and seen them shutting down as times changed. Here was a subject that combined visual and historical interest along with the chance to document them before they disappeared. Driving round London on a motorbike with my boyfriend, Willy Smax, we took the photos on 35mm transparencies and drank a lot of cups of tea!
In each case, I described the cafe’s design and, where possible, talked to the owners about the family story behind each one. Many were established by people newly arrived in London, some as long ago as the beginning of the century. My dad had been a refugee and I respect the bravery needed to start a business in a new country – these little cafes represented enterprise, commitment and hard work.
The title of my thesis was The Sad Decline of the Working Man’s Cafe and it has proved correct with the vast majority that I documented now gone. One or two have survived and thrived, for example, E. Pellicci with its splendid marquetry, the Quality Chop House and there are a few Eel & Pie shops left too. Now my photos are getting on for fifty years old and have become a record of a lost London.”
Keren Luchtenstein
E. Pellicci, Bethnal Green Rd
E. Pellicci, Bethnal Green Rd
Toni at E. Pellici, Bethnal Green Rd
T. R. Brown, Battersea High St
Angel Inn, St John St
Arthur’s, Holloway Rd
Arthur’s, Holloway Rd
Arthur’s, Holloway Rd
Cosmopolitan, Crossway
Haggis Basher Transport Cafe
Haggis Basher Transport Cafe
Ice Cream Bar, Middlesex St
St George’s Dairy
Jack Hall, Battersea High St
Joe’s Cafe, Old Kent Rd
John’s Dining Rooms, Merton High St
L. Manze, Walthamstow Market
Lusardi’s Cafe, Kingsland Rd
Lusardi’s Cafe, Kingsland Rd
Modern Snack Bar, Pentonville Rd
The Quality Chop House, Farringdon Rd
The Quality Chop House, Farringdon Rd
Regent Ice Cream Bar, Edgware Rd
Regent Ice Cream Bar, Edgware Rd
Rossi’s, Walthamstow Market
Tea Rooms, Museum St
The Hope, Holloway Rd
Victor’s Restaurant, Old St
Photographs copyright © Keren Luchtenstein
You may also like to take a look at
Keren
These are absolutely wonderful! I was also photographing cafés in the East End at about the same period of time but I was using black-and-white film and most of my subjects were already derelict so it’s a real pleasure to see your images in colour when there was still life in these amazing institutions.
Cafés have continued to be a source of fascination for me over the last 50 years and I’m sure that there would be an audience for a book of your work. Craig Atkinson at Café Royal books would I’m sure be interested.
Great to see these, thanks for dusting them off!
Chris.
My goodness these are a real trip down memory lane. Fantastic. Thank you for sharing these wonderful photos.
Great photos!
Just to add, the Hope Cafe on the Holloway Road is still going strong.
These are great!
How I miss cafés like this, they are hard to find now. You got decent food, a good cup of tea and some cheery banter. Today’s chains just haven’t got it. I can’t believe my city in Switzerland has Starbucks, there are so many nice traditional bakeries with cafés attached that are better.
When these photos were taken, I was touring the UK for the first time. As my own photos have more or less the same colour cast, I feel like I’ve been transported back in time.
The small cafés and pubs each had their own charm, just like today. The typography and designs of the shops alone were all individual, and sometimes less was more in this respect. Impressive!
Love & Peace
ACHIM
Rossi’s are still going strong in Southend (on the seafront) – worth a visit if you’re ever out this way
I remember drinking my first Frothy Coffee, albeit in our local Milk Bar which had a Juke Box in it. Friends all congregated there on a Sunday afternoon, feeling very sophisticated (I didn’t even like Frothy Coffee!)
Cracking photographs, Keren: beautifully composed and brimming with life. They should be widely seen; have you thought of publishing, for instance with Café Royal Books?