An alternative news and ideas channel on art, science, culture, politics and the environment, by freelance journalist, magazine editor and author John May.
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Wednesday, April 13, 2016
WISH YOU WERE THERE: A SOHO MAP 1960-66
This cute little number is a guide map to places that don't exist any more. Entitled 'Wish You Were There', it documents the Soho district of London in the period 1960-66 - the clubs, the boutiques, coffee bars, restaurants, record shops and much more - 130 in all, that made up a dynamic junction box of culture at that time. Meticulously researched with the help of the legendary Jeff Dexter, the map's back contains info on each from The In Place in Allsop Place, which you went to 'after first nights while waiting to read the reviews,' to Sete E Mejo in Whitehorne Street where the'design of the club was Edwardian and the music was way out.' These streets, now clogged with chain stores and modern intrusions, once held the hippest haunts in town. Following their ghostly trail, whilst dropping into surviving pubs and eateries along the way sounds like a perfect day out, a trip back in time, when sleaze, gangsters,mods, pills, music and fashion made Soho rough and ready but oh so cool.
The map is one of whole stable of similarly intriguing map guides produced by Herb Leslie Associates, a bijou operation run by designer Ben Olins and his partner Jane Smillie. Herb is, incidentally, an imaginary boss, with distinctive tastes. In contrast to yer bog standard guide books and maps, each of these craft-wrought items are the product of shoe leather research by seekers of the unusual, the curious, the old, the entertaining nooks and crannies that gets you under the skin of some of the world's most intriguing cities. See: www.herblester.com
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