AROUND THE CAFE BARS

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12181, 4 July 1925, Page 12

AROUND THE CAFE BARS

: By

Stephen Graham

At the hack of theatre world on© finds Bohemian resorts of London; the night clubs, tht Cosy little supper restaurants, and the cafe bars. In recent years there has been a remarkable growth of little foreign resorts in the purlieus of Leicester square and of : Soho. I refer to the “cafe bars.” More or less asleep Curing the daylight hours, they are thronged at midnight There must be 30 or 49 of them in London now, and they are nearly all foreign. Their furniture includes chairs and table., but the chief feature is generally a mahogany-coloured horseshoe or lemon-shaped bar, behind which Frenchwomen and Italians dis) tense refreshments, talking in English, but calculating in their own tongue. The bars are named fantastically Au Chat Noir, Rona, Oaiffa, Venice, or prosaically just’ by numbers. Tims, there is Cafe Bar No. 10 in Denman street, or Cafe No. 21 in Frith street, in imitation of certain night clubs. EASTERN ATMOSPHERE Great Windmill street is one of the capitals of all-night pleasure, and it one wander* up that narrow Soho lane just after the theatres empty, to the corner where tho clock of the Red Lion public-house ehow3 the witching hours of night, one is in the midst of foreign Bohemian life. The back exit of the Lyric Theatre is flanked by the charming Stage Door resort, served by theatrical ladies, and flanked on the other side by the Armenian cafe, with its clanking of dominoes and >’ta Easterns sipping thick Turkish coffee. Here on racks rangb red fezes for those who wish to he como Turks or Tartars for the even ing, the narghile and hookah are at I your disposal, and you may exchange at a stop the atmosphere of Shaftesbury avenue for the atmosphere of

- ’ Smyrna or Constantinople. The later the hour the more the compuny. Opposite is the Roma, a comfort able little bar where chorus girts and ’ supers often resort to discus* their affairs over a cup of coffee and.? ban. Then there is tho Corelt- Caulois,

which iiccommodatea, amongst others, tha Blue 801 l Workers' Union,..whose ■ banner hinging from an upper window sag* in tha damp air and rain. COURT OF MUSIC ■ This is Archer street. Opposite • j tha llsd Lion, which .’i» on the uiiati ■| of thi>. street and Great Windmill : st-eet, is the entrance to a little blind

alley called Ham Yard, a place of gre ’t- activity. At first sight you think it is merely the entrance ,to a garage. But it is something very much more, It is one of th© chief centres of night club life. There is » sort of garage; it seems to b© called the Night Club Garage, but when you follow a car in by the narrow way , you come into a gaily-lighted open court which i* jingling with music and song, while overhead laughter and the noise of merriment surge upward to the dull sky, One establishment in this place is tho .Pavil’on Club, another is called the Last Club. There may be ofliers, London youth rolls up to dance and rang. The cars climb Windmill street i tooting and coughing and make the difficult entry, and then empty their gay pa.wengars. often straight from the footlights and the dressing-rooms, often from the large cafea of the Circus; the Royal, the Imperial, ‘the Monico. * SPARK OF EXCITEMENT Hawkers come up io sell matches and hog: The roast-chestnut men wheel their glowing barrows up to the entrance of the yard. Loungers wait arid watch The night club’s interior and style is well known now. It Has been so often described. Plenty of reputable people go to night clubs; men even triko 1 their wives. ■ The little booths where they sell refreshments, at the very doors of tho night c)u!>, are more novel and arc gV°"'ing in number'. There is one in this curious garage yard. -Tt io called a cafe bar, and it remains open all night. It does a. thriving trade in sirops and coffees. There, os in many of the others, there i* that spark (if excitement which distinguishes the place from the mere tea-sliop. Tbe romance of the , all-night coffee-stall has beer kept, and something has been added.