Richmonds

Thanks and Goodbye , we have moved on

propercuppa | Thanks and Goodbye , we have moved on

In 1953 the Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida opened the Moka coffee bar at 29 Frith Street in Soho.

The café provided London with its first Gaggia expresso coffee machine and some have argued that the opening of this West End coffee bar was the early morning double-espresso that London needed to kick-start its way out of the grey post-war depression – ready to set itself up to become the world’s trendiest city in only a decade’s time.

Other coffee bars soon sprung up around Soho, often providing live music, and these included the Top Ten in Berwick Street and the Heaven and Hell bar in Old Compton Street.

The coffee shops were unlicensed and there was nothing to stop teenagers coming to Soho to listen to music, live, or on the jukebox.

If you were young, Soho was suddenly the place to be.

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