F Flittner Closes!

Great move by the city of London... Could be a cool Edwardian themed coffe shop though, I'm sure there can't be more than two or three hundred places nearby to get a coffee so there is obviously a gap in the market.
 
Great move by the city of London... Could be a cool Edwardian themed coffe shop though, I'm sure there can't be more than two or three hundred places nearby to get a coffee so there is obviously a gap in the market.

Ain't that the truth!

Been in business since 1904, and then gone - just like that!
 
I used to go there when I worked just off Cheapside. Another great old-fashioned barber, long gone, was Posner's, in Exeter Street, behind the Strand Palace Hotel. Then, when I worked "up West", it was the plusher establishments of Jermyn Street that saw to me. I've no idea which are still there, but I bet a few are gone.

A little story. In 1970 I was working for a big advertising agency (Watneys Red, Cadbury Flake, John Players) in St. Martin's Lane. The ground floor of the building had a cinema, restaurants, a pub and, round the back, a barbers. In those days, the London phone number prefixes were 3-alpha, as in TEMple Bar 2424 and, to book a haircut, you picked up your office phone (black bakelite, rotary dial with letters and numbers, for younger readers) and dialled "CUT". He cut my hair for my wedding day, and insisted on trimming up my chin-length sideboards. Happy days.
 
I used to go there when I worked just off Cheapside. Another great old-fashioned barber, long gone, was Posner's, in Exeter Street, behind the Strand Palace Hotel. Then, when I worked "up West", it was the plusher establishments of Jermyn Street that saw to me. I've no idea which are still there, but I bet a few are gone.

A little story. In 1970 I was working for a big advertising agency (Watneys Red, Cadbury Flake, John Players) in St. Martin's Lane. The ground floor of the building had a cinema, restaurants, a pub and, round the back, a barbers. In those days, the London phone number prefixes were 3-alpha, as in TEMple Bar 2424 and, to book a haircut, you picked up your office phone (black bakelite, rotary dial with letters and numbers, for younger readers) and dialled "CUT". He cut my hair for my wedding day, and insisted on trimming up my chin-length sideboards. Happy days.

Any idea what that St. Martin's Lane building is now...?

Talking of The Strand Palace Hotel - I worked in The Strand in the late 70s, early 80s. There was a small kiosk selling all the usual stuff - cigarettes, newspapers etc. Rumour had it that the unassuming man who run it was a multi-millionaire, owning dozens of similar booths all over the city in prime locations.
 
Last edited:
Any idea what that St. Martin's Lane building is now...?

Talking of The Strand Palace Hotel - I worked in The Strand in the late 70s, early 80s. There was a small kiosk selling all the usual stuff - cigarettes, newspapers etc. Rumour had it that the unassuming man who run it was a multi-millionaire, owning dozens of similar boots all over the city in prime locations.
Must be by the St. Martins in the fields church! There's the theatre and Notes coffee shop!
 
Must be by the St. Martins in the fields church! There's the theatre and Notes coffee shop!
The agency (Leo Burnett-LPE) was in the building as 48 St. Martin's Lane. Looking at Google SV, what was the Odeon Cinema on the left corner is now something called "Gymbox". The Black Horse pub was on the other corner and, just to the right of the agency doors, was Ristorante San Martino. The next block down towards Trafalgar Square had Pearl Cross Jewellers and some other shops, and then came the Coliseum.

The whole agency building had been built as the first purpose-designed advertising agency building in London, and it was pretty sumptuous. It now appears to be the St. Martin's Hotel.

That side of St. Martin's Lane, from about New Row down, is all completely changed. Gone, I fear, is the Green Man and French Horn pub at 54, (aka "The Long Bar"), where the landlord cashed my cheques, and the Earl of Mustard used to arrive with a gladstone bag brimful with cash from busking in Leicester Square to the theatre and cinema queues. His £30 or so a night was a bit more than my monthly salary of £42 10s 6d. It seems to have become a French restaurant of the same name, and then morphed into the current "The Real Greek".

I really don't understand how there can be a need for so many cafes and eating places, but it seems to be "a thing" nowadays. It's the same now, here in Suffolk, except that we have a leavening of charity shops as well.
 
The agency (Leo Burnett-LPE) was in the building as 48 St. Martin's Lane. Looking at Google SV, what was the Odeon Cinema on the left corner is now something called "Gymbox". The Black Horse pub was on the other corner and, just to the right of the agency doors, was Ristorante San Martino. The next block down towards Trafalgar Square had Pearl Cross Jewellers and some other shops, and then came the Coliseum.

The whole agency building had been built as the first purpose-designed advertising agency building in London, and it was pretty sumptuous. It now appears to be the St. Martin's Hotel.

That side of St. Martin's Lane, from about New Row down, is all completely changed. Gone, I fear, is the Green Man and French Horn pub at 54, (aka "The Long Bar"), where the landlord cashed my cheques, and the Earl of Mustard used to arrive with a gladstone bag brimful with cash from busking in Leicester Square to the theatre and cinema queues. His £30 or so a night was a bit more than my monthly salary of £42 10s 6d. It seems to have become a French restaurant of the same name, and then morphed into the current "The Real Greek".

I really don't understand how there can be a need for so many cafes and eating places, but it seems to be "a thing" nowadays. It's the same now, here in Suffolk, except that we have a leavening of charity shops as well.

Yes - I don't get the whole 'coffee shop' thing either. They seem to be popping up like mushrooms. How much coffee can people drink?! And it's not exactly cheap, either.
 
The agency (Leo Burnett-LPE) was in the building as 48 St. Martin's Lane. Looking at Google SV, what was the Odeon Cinema on the left corner is now something called "Gymbox". The Black Horse pub was on the other corner and, just to the right of the agency doors, was Ristorante San Martino. The next block down towards Trafalgar Square had Pearl Cross Jewellers and some other shops, and then came the Coliseum.

The whole agency building had been built as the first purpose-designed advertising agency building in London, and it was pretty sumptuous. It now appears to be the St. Martin's Hotel.

That side of St. Martin's Lane, from about New Row down, is all completely changed. Gone, I fear, is the Green Man and French Horn pub at 54, (aka "The Long Bar"), where the landlord cashed my cheques, and the Earl of Mustard used to arrive with a gladstone bag brimful with cash from busking in Leicester Square to the theatre and cinema queues. His £30 or so a night was a bit more than my monthly salary of £42 10s 6d. It seems to have become a French restaurant of the same name, and then morphed into the current "The Real Greek".

I really don't understand how there can be a need for so many cafes and eating places, but it seems to be "a thing" nowadays. It's the same now, here in Suffolk, except that we have a leavening of charity shops as well.
Is this said 'Earl of Mustard' ?
 
Back
Top Bottom