You can still go there
10 October 2009
by Simon Calder
One virtue of the 1960s: the dreadful term "staycation" was a good
four decades from being coined. At the time, mind, the majority of
Brits had no option but to holiday at home. Even though the
package-holiday industry was expanding rapidly, the government did
its utmost to keep us at home with a limit on overseas spending of
just £50. So the best way to travel vicariously was to visit exotic
locations in Britain that distilled the essence of Abroad and served
it up to the passer-by.
The greatest concentration of such establishments was in Soho in
central London, which also happened to be the hub of cultural
revolution that swept upon Britain. That passionate era is celebrated
at the National Portrait Gallery in an exhibition that opens on
Wednesday: "Beatles to Bowie: the 60s exposed". It will no doubt
attract many curious tourists from around the UK.
Some will be keen to tap into the energy that transported their
parents and Britain from post-war gloom to post-modern
enlightenment. Older visitors may hope that monochrome images of
moody pop stars will revive memories of that decade though, as they
say about the Woodstock Festival, if you can remember it you weren't
there. But if you can't remember Sixties London, don't fret: it's
still there. In the course of half-a-mile along Brewer Street and its
continuation, Old Compton Street, you can set the controls for the
Sixties, and roll back the years to the time of rock.
Walking east along Brewer Street, you sense the human geography has
barely changed in 40 years: the sex industry is barely concealed,
drug culture is celebrated at Hemp Trading (number 17), and
rock'n'roll journals predicting the imminent arrival of Elvis on
British shores are on sale at the Vintage Magazine Co (number 39).
There are more practical enterprises, such Romanys Ironmonger's
(number 51) that, from the look of its windows, still charges in
shillings and pence; and the Brewer Street car park, a shrine to
motoring built on such a modest scale that you sense nothing bigger
than a Mini would squeeze in.
To find yourself instantly translated to Italy, cross Berwick Street
(nodding northwards to that absurd 1960s techno-monument, the BT
Tower) and follow your nose into Lina Stores, a delicatessen that has
long provided a seductive alternative to la dolce vita, a compendium
of colour and scent that takes you straight to the land of plenty of
olives (see pages 10-11) useful in the days when you couldn't get to
Italy for the price of a decent salami.
Today Old Compton Street is, if I may, a good place for a gaycation.
But there are still survivors from the days before homosexuality was
invented. Gerry's Wines and Spirits (number 74) looks as though it
should have a fine selection of British Sherries and Continental
Lagers. Nudge a couple of doors north along Frith Street: Bar Italia
is pure 1960s, save for plasma TVs showing Sky News. Focus instead on
the faded Formica tops and black-and-white photos. And breathe... the
aroma of the Near East at the Algerian Coffee Stores at 52 Old
Compton Street, a useful proxy for a country still on the Foreign
Office danger list.
At the east end of Old Compton Street, traverse Charing Cross Road to
Macari's music store. There, in the window, in all their
transistorised glory, is an array of Stylophones. Think of it as a
primitive iPhone: you couldn't make calls, send emails or work out
which way is north. But thanks to a metal stylus connected by a
flimsy wire to a keyboard, you could tap out a tune on what was
proclaimed as "the original pocket electronic organ". Time to travel
back to the 21st century.
--
Travel's best years? A Sixties timeline
The 1960s comprised a decade of rapid changes in travel. In the first
year alone, the first successful hi-jack of a US domestic flight to
Havana took place, and the last steam trains ran on the London
Underground. And besides that:
1960: O'Hare Field opened as in Chicago's main airport, and
immediately became the busiest in the world taking the title from
Midway airport, in the same city.
1962: the first passenger hovercraft service began between the Wirral
and Rhyl in North Wales.
1963: Dr Richard Beeching recommended closing 5,000 miles of railways
in Britain, and one in three stations.
1965: a ferry first crossed to the Isle of Skye on a Sunday.
1968: the first Channel crossing by a car-carrying hovercraft.
1969: the Boeing 747 flew for the first time on 9 February, beating
Concorde by three weeks. The Jumbo carried passengers from the
following year; the supersonic jet entered service in 1976.
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