• Added: 24th of January 2007
• Area: Soho
• Category: Cafes and Coffee Shops

London W1D 5DQ
020 7437 6007

StillOpen said
A must-see cafe
A little French patisserie and tearoom founded in 1871, this charming Soho institution is a must-see. The proprietor, Michele Wade, runs the place in a place in a warm and friendly manner and creates a cosy, loving atmosphere. The shop window displays a wonderful selection of cakes tempting customers inside. The decor has recently become flamboyant with pink netting strewn across the lamp fitting as if a party is about to start. In its quaint interior a piano sits in the corner waiting to be played, the counter is centre stage and small round tables and dark polished walnut bentwood chairs are scattered about the room. The style of chair is based on Michael Thonet's 1859 Vienna Cafe chair , a design that greatly influenced cafes all over Britain.
Behind the counter is a fantastic display of oddments and pictures collected by Michele over the years and this adds to the tearoom's quirky nostalgic atmosphere.
All the cakes and pastries are baked on-site in the kitchen on the top floor, and alongside the kitchen is a little rickety room with more seating.

• Added: 8th of December 2006
• Area: Greenwich
• Category: Food and Drink

London SE10 8RT
020 8858 4032

StillOpen said
Get your meat on
This friendly local butcher's is the last vestige of what used to be a bustling village style high street. Established in 1964, it is now run by the founders' sons, Rob and Dave Bring. Bob says On this short parade, there used to be a grocers, a fruit and vegetable shop and fishmongers. It was all you would ever want in one street just like a mini supermarket! There is virtually nothing of that left now. The building next door, which dates from the 1690s, has been left derelict for the past q11 years, but R>W. Dring continues to do a roaring trade. Each Christmas the queue for turkeys wraps right around the block.
The interior is totally untouched since the day it opened. The pastel 1960s style clock still ticks away on the wall, sawdust is scattered on the floor and the same well-worn butchers block is being used to cut meat.

• Added: 23rd of November 2006
• Area: Bloomsbury
• Category: Shops

London WC1A 1BL
020 7836 4731

StillOpen said
“Outside every silver lining is a big black cloud”...
...is the James Smith & Sons' motto and when it comes to English weather, they're usually right! The shop has an international reputation for making umbrellas, sticks and gentlemen's cane. It was the first company to use metal Fox frames (named after Samuel Fox, who invented the first steel umbrella in 1848). In many ways it is the most quintessentially English of the books featured in Still Open.
James Smith founded his shop in 1830 at Foubert Street in London's West End. His son, also James Smith, moved the business to its current premises in 1867, and it has remained in the family ever since.
The shop (a Grade II listed shop, inside and out) is an evocative reminder of the Victorian period. It retains all the original fittings designed and made by master craftsmen employed by the business. The shop front must have resembled many other shop fronts of the period, and is a work of art in itself.

• Added: 16th of November 2006
• Area: Bethnal Green
• Category: Cafes and Coffee Shops

London E2 0AG
020 7739 4873

StillOpen said
Coffee with a history
Opened in 1900 by the Pelliccis, who hail from Tuscany. Nevio Pellicci, known as (Nev to his friends and regulars) is the current proprietor and was born above the shop 79 years ago. He met his wife Maria when she came over from the same Tuscan village from which Nevio originated to help out in the kitchen. Their children too have been keen to learn the business and one can find Nevio junior memorising orders along with sister Anna and their cousins.

This coffee shop is so fantastic that it has been recommended for a Grade II listing by English Heritage, the inspectors have described it as a, stylish shop front of custard Vitrolite panels, steel frame and lettering as well as a rich Deco-style marquetry panelled interior, altogether representing an architecturally strong and increasingly rare example of intact and stylish Italian caf that flourished in London in the inter-war years'.

We can thank Nevio's mother, Eilde Pellicci who supervised the art-deco style marquetry interior, which was created in 1946 by one of the best carpenters known at the time, Archille Capocci. He made a marquetry plaque marked EP' as a sample to be approved, this is now in place of honour behind the counter and can still be seen today.

A fire in 1999 nearly destroyed the caf, but fortunately a regular customer spotted the fire starting in the back kitchen and was able to call the fire brigade before the fire spread to the caf.

Pellicci's also has its own place in popular culture. It was once a meeting place for the notorious Kray gang who lived just round the corner in Voss Street. Nevio remembers the gang as true gentlemen, respectful and charming'. More recent celebrities can be found in an autograph book stuffed with signed pictures from the likes of Robbie Williams, The Gallagher brothers, Pasty Palmer and Ant and Dec.
Each year in August the family shut up shop for a month and return to their roots in the Tuscan village. But after a month Nevio gets restless and is more than happy to catch up with his regulars and start operating the coffee machine once more. It is said by Nevio junior that, he runs around faster than the rest of us and that is at the age of 80!

• Added: 9th of November 2006
• Area: Muswell Hill
• Category: Food and Drink

London N10 3RS
020 8883 5642

StillOpen said
Coffee since 1897
The intoxicating aroma of freshly roasted coffee greets you as you enter through the doorway of this popular coffee and teashop. Founded by the present owners great grandfather in 1897, who left his family farm in Devon in 1863 to set up a shop in London. It was above this shop that he lived with his staff and family.

W.Martyn started out as a general grocery store, selling basic household goods. Two other stores were opened in Golders Green and Finchley, run by his two sons until they both retired in the mid 50's and the shops then closed.

It was in the 1930's when coffee and tea brands became more accessible and it was at this time that W. Martyn decided to become tea and coffee specialists and retailers of fine foods'.
The present owner remembers not being allowed in the shop when he was a small boy, however he enjoys letting his four-year-old son come to the shop in the hope that he will one day continue the family business. The shop is kept in its traditional ways, the owner insists, the staff must count the change back into the customers hands as this has always been customer policy. The dcor has also been left, as it traditionally was when it opened. A typical wooden shop counter stretches the length of the shop, and goods are piled high on hand made shelves. The staff serve customers from behind the counter, reaching high on ladders to collect goods from top shelves or digging deep into the storage containers that date back to the day the shop opened. An old balance set of scales sit on the counter and is still being used today to weigh out nuts, dried fruit and pounds of sugar. Notice the scales have mirrors attached; this was an early day security device! There is also a separate counter with a small opening, where the bills and goods are paid for. The coffee roaster in the front window, roasts a host of different coffees throughout the day filling the shop with a fantastic smell that makes one want to just stay and shop, buying all the things that you just can not get at a supermarket, a delightful place!

• Added: 1st of November 2006
• Area: Soho
• Category: Food and Drink

London W1F 0SH
020 7437 6482

StillOpen said
Italian Delights
With it pistachio-coloured facade and the 1930s lettering, this shop is an unmistakable old-timer. It was first opened around the corner, and relocated to its current site after the Second World War. The Filippi family, from Piacenza, near Milan, bought the shop in 1974, when the original owner (the eponymous Lina) retired, and it is currently run by Tony and Gabriella Filippi, as a family business. The have not altered the dcor, and it layout remains as it was in the 40s, with long counter stretching the length of the shop, behind which are shelves stacked high with wonderful Italian delights.
Tony makes fresh pasta on-site daily and sells it on to restaurants in Soho. The recipe for his popular garlic and wine sausages comes from his hometown in Italy and was handed down to him by a local butcher when he was ten years old.
The delicatessen is well know and much loved, and is used regularly by television chefs Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson.

• Added: 24th of October 2006
• Area: Soho
• Category: Cafes and Coffee Shops

London W1D 7HQ

StillOpen said
Original 1950s Coffee Shop
The New Piccadilly is an original 1950's coffee shop, with all fixtures and fittings dating back to that era. From the pink enamel and chrome espresso maker, to the Festival of Britain-era Formica table-tops, the vintage cash register, the neon lights, and worn booths, everything is exactly as it was half a century ago. Even the menus remain the same where else can you buy a peach melba and banana split?!
The one thing missing is a girl with a beehive, wearing an A-line skirt.
The founder, Pietro Marioni, moved to London with his wife shortly after the Second World War and opened the New Piccadilly in 1951 along with six other cafes on this narrow street. When it first opened it was a rock n' roll hotspot, a place where gangsters and tarts mixed with foreign royal exiles, and where you could buy ravioli and chips for three shillings.


Lorenzo, Pietro's son, who now runs the caf, started to working there at the age of six, washing up and peeling potatoes. Although the other cafes on the street have closed, this one has managed to survive, mostly thanks to Lorenzo's charm, his commitment to informality and his army of loyal diners, immortalised by the wallpaper of postcards from satisfied customer behind the counter.
Marioni says, a good caff should feel like an old comfortable suit you put it on and immediately feel relaxed.
Film director David Yates agrees and says that the caf had a, quintessential romantic quality that was perfect for his film The Girl in the Caf, a love story by Richard Curtis.