SOME TIME AGO...

 

Carnaby Street, 1973

Pictured above shortly after its (typically hip) pedestrianisation, Carnaby Street will forever be prefixed as ‘the epicentre of swinging London’, with mod and hippy clans a permanent fixture in the street’s various fashion boutiques throughout the 1960s. 

Dean Street, 1968

Given the various film studios and media agencies based there, it’s not uncommon to stumble across a celebrity or two on Dean Street. It’s been that way for centuries, too: Karl Marx lived there, Mozart played there and Charles Dickens pursued a short-lived interest in acting at the Royalty Theatre before becoming a writer. More significantly still, Admiral Nelson stayed on Dean Street the night before the Battle of Trafalgar, where he drew up battle plans and chose the coffin he would later be buried in.

Old Compton Street, 1947

While London’s restaurant scene is currently in the midst of a French revolution (with Brasserie Chavot and Little Social leading the pack), it’s nothing compared to the Gallic influx that followed World War II. By the late '40s, you could barely move in the West End for cassoulet and bœuf bourguignon, with Restaurant des Alliés on Rupert Street, the still-standing L’Escargot on Greek Street and Old Compton Street’s Chez Auguste the places to be seen.