Posted 3:28 PM by Paul
A Death in London Taking a short cut through Soho after a meeting I was met with a sad sight. The Kings Head on Gerrard Street home of The Dive Bar was boarded up. The builders were in and the hoarding advertised Wine Bar / Restaurant Premises to Let. A bit of my London history and the history of thousands of other people who had made London their home is gone. The Dive Bar was a dark cellar below the main pub. You descended to it down a flight of dirty narrow stairs not quite wide enough for two people to pass. Dank and cramped with low ceilings the Dive Bar was a place where I would meet Heather and friends for a drink and to listen to a mixture of Jazz, Punk, Bebob, Rock a Billy and Dub reggae. Anything good that the DJ wanted to play. It was an electic mix of people and sounds. Old bohos as well as first time Sohoites and under age drinkers from the suburbs came to the place to drink and talk. It was a friendly place and years ago I would sit there on my own with a half pint and listen to the music if no freidns were available. Two long tunnels, which centuries before probably stored wine, ran under the pavement. If you got in early in the evening you could get a seat on one of the benches which ran their length. If you got in too early the place smelled of damp and disenfectant from the appalling Gents toilet. As the bar filled up to the rafters with maybe a hundred people crammed into its tiny floor area the bad odours dissapeared to be replaced by those of perfume, beer, wine and sweat. We last went there about 18 months ago. The kids were on a sleepover and I had got back from working in Norfolk. Heather was late because she had been on a nightmare series of bus journies after dropping off the kids. It was great night and I was happy to see her appear at the bottom of those narrow stairs anxiously looking out for me. It was just like the first nights we spent together at the Dive Bar. Great fun. I have Joe Norris to thank for both the Dive Bar and Heather. Joe worked with me at Red Wedge in the mid 80s when we believed in the Labour Party. He suggested me as a speaker at a Question Time event at Coventry Polytechnic about the future of the Left in Britain. Heather was at the event and took a shine to me because I has a sense of humour and made sure that I was invited back to her college in Stourbridge to speak. I came back to her college and spoke terribly but she forgave me and even bought me a pint. Now it's 16 years later and we have two children and a house about 5 miles from where the Dive Bar used to be. So - thanks to Joe and thanks to the Dive Bar. Will see its like again? Yes. Somewhere out there there is new Dive Bar and a new London