For those new to CabbieBlog or readers who are slightly forgetful, on Saturdays I’m republishing posts, many going back over a decade. Some will still be very relevant while others have become dated over time. Just think of this post as your weekend paper supplement.

London’s first coffee house (11.01.13)

In 1971 three men sat down and decided to open a coffee supply company in Seattle which within 40 years would become the largest coffeehouse company in the world.

Their choice of name would be prophetic for they chose a fictional seafarer. Their first favoured name was Pequod named after a whaling boat from Moby Dick this was rejected in favour of Starbuck the ship’s chief mate.

The coffee shop we know today came about after Howard Schultz, who had joined the company the previous year; he travelled to Italy and saw the potential to develop a similar coffee house culture in Seattle.

Using a coffee house to relax, talk with friends, meet and conduct business might have been novel to Howard Schultz but in London 300 years ago this was precisely what Londoners did in coffee houses. Only the business conducted would have been marine insurance, for the type of boat featured in Moby Dick. According to Dr Matthew Green who conducts coffee house tours of London the Starbucks in Russell Street, Covent Garden occupies the same site that 300 years ago stood Button’s Coffee House. It was here that people gathered to discuss the issues of the day. Journalists would gather stories with poets and playwriters would meet to discuss and critique each other’s work.

Nailed to a wall where the Starbucks community board now resides was the marble head of a lion with open jaws in which Button’s customers were invited to pop stories for a weekly publication.

London’s coffee culture had started in 1652 by a Greek, Pasqua Roseé and it wasn’t long before he was selling 600 dishes of coffee a day. The beverage was seen as an antidote to drunkenness and the coffee houses’ popularity would give rise to London becoming the world’s insurance capital.

The coffee houses became the centre for free thought as well as business and by 1663 there were 82 coffee houses within the old Roman walls of the City. By the 28th century, London had over 550 coffee houses each with its own identity, unlike today’s homogenised Starbucks.

London’s coffee houses would transform Britain. The exchange of ideas would make it the centre for invention and the arts.

The first stocks and shares were traded in Jonathan’s close to the Royal Exchange.

Lloyd’s Coffee House on Lombard Street (now a Sainsbury’s) attracted merchants, ships captains and stockbrokers.

How did the beverage taste? The 18th-century palate found it comparable to ink or soot for it was a thick, gritty but addictive drink which gave a physical boost.

Starbucks might produce a more sophisticated brew but the convivial atmosphere where debate and communicating (with laptops) did not originate in Seattle but within London’s Roman walls by a Greek.

For those new to CabbieBlog or readers who are slightly forgetful, on Saturdays I’m republishing posts, many going back over a decade. Some will still be very relevant while others have become dated over time. Just think of this post as your weekend paper supplement.

Cabbie entente cordiale (04.01.13)

Tourists it seems, still think of the traditional London cab as an iconic symbol of London. It was rather reassuring to me when I was contacted by Amandine late last year who was working for a French publisher of tourist guides wanting to include a London cabbie in this year’s French London guide.

My return to London after the New Year break was not to sit on a rank, at this the quietest time of the year, in the forlorn hope of getting a fare. No today I was to be interviewed and spend time being photographed beside my cab.

Amandine, I was relieved to discover spoke perfect English, just as well for I can just about order a coffee in French.

After meeting outside Leadenhall Market we drove to Westminster Abbey and parked in the forecourt outside the south entrance. The Abbey is too large a building to be photographed at such close quarters, but in winter with the trees stripped of their leaves, the Sanctuary, to give it its correct title, is perfectly positioned to photograph Big Ben in the distance.

It was not long before the photographer; Regis and his assistant Caroline were asked for a photography permit. We were informed that this land was owned by the Abbey.

For a place of worship needing £150,000 a day just to maintain the fabric of the building, one would think publicity would be embraced.

After a short period of discussion it transpired that while the Abbey is trying to forge stronger bonds with Rome, entente cordiale seems not one of their priorities.

With the cost of travel falling year-on-year, the tourism industry has found it much tougher to attract to London the much-needed Euro and Dollar, and yet no one seems prepared to support the very unique aspects of our Capital.

The old Routemaster bus was replaced by a German bendy bus seen in many towns in Europe. After much public debate, a token route is now maintained.

Drive around central London and every tourist wants to be photographed opening a red telephone box. With their demise with the advent of the mobile phone, we are left with a stock of dirty boxes advertising ‘adult services’. How much would it cost to clean them up?

Now we can see on the horizon the demise of the traditional London cab. Its predecessors the Fairway and FX Series are being withdrawn from service. Now deemed to pollute London’s atmosphere. While the manufacturer of the current model has been placed into administration as a buyer is sought, many in the trade feel that it is the end for the black cab.

The only current alternative is a converted van from a German manufacturer, the like of which could be seen around the world. The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the highly successful 2012 Olympics have shown London in the best light for a generation, now is not the time to sit back and wait for the world to come to us.

We need red buses, red telephone boxes and yes, at this time we should have a colour prejudice – black cabs.

For those new to CabbieBlog or readers who are slightly forgetful, on Saturdays I’m republishing posts, many going back over a decade. Some will still be very relevant while others have become dated over time. Just think of this post as your weekend paper supplement.

Blogger’s Block (01.01.13)

I could have entitled this post . . . and why won’t it just write itself. My New Year Resolution that I must spend more time writing and less fiddling with the nuts and bolts of the blog has been broken in under a day.

First I caught the vomiting virus and two days after that came a cold. No work, no London, nothing to write about. Now here’s the thing: You go for months with loads of inspiration and then you’re under the weather for a few days and suddenly it all stops.

I’m scratching my head staring at a lone cursor blinking in the middle of a blank white screen. So why do bloggers put themselves through this? I started nearly 4 years ago as a little light distraction and after trying various platforms and blog names within a short time I realised that not only did I have something to say about London you, dear reader, were willing to contribute with comments, suggestions and occasional guest posts.

On the 4th anniversary of CabbieBlog next month I’ve scheduled my 21 tips for bloggers, one of which will be that you don’t beat yourself up trying to write on a regular basis. Better to have one good post than 10 bland ones. So why am I worrying because one bi-weekly post is missed?

The attraction of blogging is writing about a subject you live – in my case it is London – and sharing your passion with others from around the world. Look at the map at the foot of this blog for how spreads over the globe CabbieBlog’s readers are.

The problem is exacerbated is your chosen blog is about an unchanging subject – say chewing gum through the ages. But for London, which seems to reinvent itself every 10 years, the opportunities for writers are endless. I know of at least 20 top London bloggers (see my blog list on the right) and curiously many are not born and bred Londoners.

So why would anyone want to put themselves under pressure to write regular posts? Many just start a blog with a few well chosen pieces which become less and less over the first few weeks and then after a month the passion to communicate goes away and http://www.chewinggumthroughtime.com becomes another dead digital spot which even the author seems to forget exist.

For others – myself included – writing is a feeling of catharsis. It costs nothing to put pen to paper and even the most obscure topic will be read by someone in the world who might even reply.

So this week I plan to return to London, its streets might not be paved with gold, but I know somewhere there will be a nugget to write about.

Watch this (blank) space.

For those new to CabbieBlog or readers who are slightly forgetful, on Saturdays I’m republishing posts, many going back over a decade. Some will still be very relevant while others have become dated over time. Just think of this post as your weekend paper supplement.

A window on Talgarth Road (04.12.12)

You have probably seen them as you sit in the interminable 24-hour traffic that travels along the Talgarth Road, the artery which connects Central London with Heathrow. Just near to Barons Court Underground Station is a row of eight Arts and Crafts-era artists’ studios that stand out majestically with their soaring chimneys and red-brick and terracotta exteriors, with their enormous windows they are simply breathtaking (in looks as well as price, with number 135 an end-terrace currently on the market for £1.3 million).

The double-story windows are north facing to fill the rooms with constant diffused light, the quality of that light does not change as the sun moves, making painting and drawing considerably easier.

Built in 1891 for bachelor artists, St. Paul’s Studios are based on a house that once stood at number 151; it was here that Pre-Raphaelite painter Sir Edward Burne-Jones painted his last canvas.

The studio of these houses are on the first floor and measure a wapping 30ft. long x 22ft. wide with a 20ft. high ceiling, with a vast window dominating the room at the front of the house, it was this window which once overlooked the playing fields of St. Paul’s School, now moved to Barnes, it now looks on to the A4 dual carriageway. Beneath each property is a scullery, kitchen and a bedroom in the basement for the housekeeper.

Given a Grade II listing in 1970 a number of well known people from the arts have occupied these studios, including Dame Margot Fonteyn who lived at the end of this small block once known as Colet Gardens when the area was full of Bohemian artists and was very different from what it is now.

If you want a detailed look at these fascinating houses, which none other than Sir Roy Strong ex-director of the V&A and National Portrait Gallery once nominated as his favourite buildings in London, describing them as an “Eruption of joy”.

For those new to CabbieBlog or readers who are slightly forgetful, on Saturdays I’m republishing posts, many going back over a decade. Some will still be very relevant while others have become dated over time. Just think of this post as your weekend paper supplement.

The Mousetrap ensnares tourists (30.11.12)

The definition of a Londoner, it could be said, is someone who hasn’t seen The Mousetrap, the world’s longest-running stage play, having played over 25,000 performances since opening in November 1952 over six months before the Queen’s Coronation.

Written by Agatha Christie as a radio play entitled Three Blind Mice and broadcast in 1947, she rewrote the whodunit for the stage and The Mousetrap was first seen exactly 60 years ago this week, opening at The Ambassadors Theatre on 25th November 1952 before transferring to its present location, the beautiful St. Martin’s Theatre next door 22 years later.

The play entered the record books on 12th April 1958 becoming the longest-running show in the history of the British theatre (shows didn’t have the longevity they do today).

The first leading roles were played by Sir Richard Attenborough and Sheila Sim and over time 382 actors have appeared in its production. David Raven entered the Guinness Book of Records as the ‘Most Durable Actor’ for his 4,575 performances as Major Metcalf and spare a thought for the late Nancy Seabrook who spent 15 years as an understudy.

Even the scenery must hold some kind of record lasting 50 years before being replaced in 2000, without a loss of a single performance, still faithful to the original design.

I saw the play in the late ’60s (does that make me a non-Londoner?), and you expected the entire production to appear in black-and-white as the set and dialogue were reminiscent of the early British films.

The theatre seats 550 and in the foyer many tourists have themselves photographed by a wooden sign informing the audience how many performances have appeared on stage. Most don’t go to see the play for it is part of the London experience with the audience as much a part of the proceedings as the cast.

The person who probably has the best experience of The Mousetrap has to be Agatha Christie’s grandson, Mathew Prichard, to whom she gave the rights to the play on his 9th birthday.

The producer and promoter of the original production was Peter Saunders, married to Katie Boyle who in the 1960s presented The Eurovision Song Contest which brought viewers’ attention to the memorable line ‘Nul points’ – strange that.