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Buzzy's Bistro
Adam and Jane Busfield advise: "My father, Brian Busfield (from
whence the name derives and who was actually a dental surgeon in Beckenham),
owned Buzzy's Bistro in the 1960s. You walked down an alley that actually
said 'down this alley you will find Buzzy's Bistro' and you found
the doorway to the basement, a few yards before the rubbish-bins,
so what I remember very clearly is the insalubrious smell! However,
it didn't put anybody off it seems. Once inside, there was a reception
desk and coat-check, and the DJ with his shelf after shelf of singles.
The minute a new release was available, he bought it. Buzzy´s was
the first Dine and Dance venue in London. Then you descended a steep
flight of stairs down to the restaurant itself (so the Bistro was
below ground). Red and white check table-cloths, candles in straw-covered
bottles covered in wax drippings, and a tiny round dance floor. The
original boilers with their round metal-plate doors were kept - the
doors painted matte black. Minimal lighting and banquettes created
an intimate atmosphere. I recall seeing Paul McCartney and Jane Asher
entwined once".
"My dad once told me that Ringo Starr used to go there, and actually
had part of his wedding reception at Buzzy's. I was 11 years old at
the time, but accompanied my father some Sundays when he went to check
all was in order. Double prawn-cocktail followed by banana-split was
my standard lunch! The food was good, especially the steaks, all cooked
by a highly temperamental chef who, when drunk, was known to threaten
the waiters with a meat-chopper. In the evenings, people would dance
between courses and have to be thrown out in the early hours. In time,
the idea was copied and my father and his partner struggled to compete,
having to re-decorate too often to make it a viable proposition. Loving
food, they set up Rustums Le Gourmet (it was further down the road,
just a few doors from The Vale turning, on the north side of the road
- 312?) in Kings Road and also owned an Indian restaurant Haddy´s
(or Hadi's) in Old Brompton Road, Knights in Knightsbridge (just before
you got to the old Bowater House junction, where One Hyde Park now
stands) and Monsieur Jacques (afterwards Le Gourmet) in Queensway".
"Alas, they all had to close around 1971 when profits dwindled,
rents soared, and the competition became too much - but the creation
of Buzzy´s, in the early 60s, set the scene for trendy eateries where
you could have a good meal while listening to the latest hits and
observing the jet-set of the day".
Blacklands
The area known as 'Blacklands' formed part of the estate of Charles
Cheyne, 1st Viscount Newhaven, who purchased the manor of Chelsea
and Chelsea Place with the dowry of his wife, Lady Jane Cheyne, in
1657. Blacklands comprised about 90 acres and prior to c.1770 was
mostly open grazing land described as '... a lonely place where a
cow keeper tended the commoners' cattle'. A report from 1729 stated
'On Sunday morning last, about 8 o'clock, Mr. Rogers of Chelsea, crossing
the common in order to go to Kensington, was knocked down by two footpads
who robbed him of his money and beat him in a barbarous manner and
then made off across the fields towards Little Chelsea'. The name
is perpetuated in the adjacent Blacklands Terrace.
8-9 Blacklands Terrace was used as a location in the film 'Blow-Up'.
Kweens Mini-Store
Anne Sutherland, who worked there in 1967/1968 has kindly provided
the following:
"I applied for a job from an advertisement in The Times newspaper.
It read 'Wanted - super secretary for super job with super clothes'.
I got the job and started work in the attic as secretary to Mr. Frank
Federer and Mr. Henry Keith who owned a clothing manufacturing company
based in Bolsover Street called 'Keith Federer' which traded with
the 'Kweens' label. On the ground floor of the shop was a retail space
and a door to a stock room. The second floor comprised the directors'
offices and an empty floor space for modelling the clothes for prospective
buyers. All the garments sold in the shop had the 'Kweens' label and
were sold to independent boutiques all over the country. There was
a garment called 'Pan Pan' which consisted of a very short dress with
round neck and cap sleeves. Hundreds of these, in different colours,
were produced and the factory worked flat out. They were very popular".
"I shared the attic office with an accountant/book keeper who
was constantly trying to keep the books straight as any new boutiques
buying goods from us without the correct references had to pay in
cash and, more often than not, Henry would put the money in his shirt
top pocket and forget he had it so invoices went out for goods that
had already been paid for. I was expected to work long hours. Often,
just as I was going home an extra letter or two were found for dictation
and, when Henry discovered my train got me to the office half an hour
early, he quickly utilised it. If he had a client in the showroom
and no one else was available I had to find time to model the clothes
too! There were two or three assistants in the shop and I believe
a Mr. Mendoza was stockroom manager. A Mr. Paul Leader was the Sales
Representative. The back window of my office overlooked the Club dell'Aretusa
but I only remember seeing Twiggy pushing a lettuce around her plate
and Lionel Bart".
Quorum
Just off the Kings Road, at 52 Radnor Walk, designer Alice Pollock
opened Quorum in Ansdell Street W8 in 1964, to be joined in 1965 by
Ossie Clark and his future wife Celia Birtwell, who designed fashions
and fabrics respectively. The Radnor Walk building also housed the
English Boy male modelling agency on the second floor, run
by Pollock and Sir
Mark Palmer, a baronet, an Old Etonian and former page of
honour to his godmother, the Queen. The first floor was occupied by
Brian Jones and girlfriend Suki Potier. The boutique was well-known
for its extravagant fashion shows, usually attended by celebrities
such as The Beatles. David Gilmour (of Pink Floyd) was a delivery
driver for Quorum for a while. In 1969, Alfred Radley became a partner
in the business and Clark started designing for Radley as well as
Quorum. The business was bought out by Radley Later in 1969. It also
occupied 113 Kings Road between 1969 and 1972
Inside Quorum
Painter and designer Molly Parkin started making hats and bags
for the trendsetting shop Biba in 1964. She later opened her own boutique,
number not known, which she sold to the photographer Terence Donovan
in 1965.
Stop The Shop
Owned by Harry Finegold, who also owned 'Just looking' at 88, 'Stop
the Shop' opened in mid-June 1968 with a ground floor occupied by
three 'revolves', one 20 ft in diameter and two smaller ones each
5ft.The all black interior of the shop was accessed via two peripheral
ramps, one leading to the main sales floor area ( raised about 18
inches above ground level ) and the other to the lower level where
the roughly circular space was dominated by the central support column
of the upper 'revolve', surrounded by an octagonal mirror arrangement.
The large 'revolve' rotated at less than 0.5 rpm although it was possible
to turn it considerably faster. Unsuspecting customers stepping onto
it were likely to stumble, an event that was keenly awaited by onlookers
watching through the curved glass facade. Two rotating display windows
on either side of the main frontage ran somewhat faster and the rotating
'Stop the Shop' sign on the perimeter of each gave considerable movement
to the whole elevation.
The mannequins that formed the main display were sited on the central
axis and appeared to rotate more slowly, giving the impression of
customers seeming to be orbiting a static display. 'Stop the Shop',
therefore, did not have anything in its window except people. There
were occasional problems with loading and a dozen people crammed onto
one side of the platform could bring the 'revolve' to a halt due to
the safety mechanism installed by The Bolton Turntable company, its
designers and manufacturers. The black interior was lit only by movable
spotlights, some with colour effects, and the walls and floors were
carpeted in charcoal grey Wilton. The small, carpeted changing rooms
were rotating semi-cylinders and the facetted mirrors lining the entrance
ramps gave the effect of customers leaving the shop splitting into
multiple people walking away in different directions. These optical
effects were designed by Garnett, Cloughley and Blakemore who also
did work on other Kings Road outlets. The site was taken over by Italian
fashion house 'Fiorucci' in 1975, establishing them in London, with
the store sporting roller skating ramps.
Kleptomania
Tommy Roberts, along with his wife Mary and his new business partner
Charlie Simpson opened the original Kleptomania at 10 Kingly Street,
Soho, in 1966. The Kings Road branches at 108 and 162 were added shortly
afterwards, but his interest in them was short-lived as Roberts moved
on to open 'Mr Freedom' at 430 in 1968/9. Kleptomania handled Paul
Reeves fashion designs under the label name 'Sam Pig In Love'. Tommy
Roberts: "In the style of 'Granny's' decor, the interior of Kleptomania's
back room was repainted in purple and magenta and enhanced by the
addition of an ultraviolet light surrounded by antique shawls gathered
across the ceiling. ...... a hi-fi (allowed customers to) appreciate
the aural pleasures of Love, The Mothers Of Invention and the Velvet
Underground". "Kleptomania metamorphosed into an incense-filled, 'hippified'
haven". "Any customer coming through the door and 'spoiling the vibes'
was felt to be an inconsiderate nuisance". The original 'I Was Lord
Kitchener's Valet' was opened by Ian Fisk and John Paul at 293 Portobello
Road, Notting Hill, in 1966. In the summer of 1967 Fisk and Paul dissolved
their partnership. Fisk took sole ownership of the premises, which
became the Injun Dog head-shop (subtitled 'Once I Was Lord Kitchener's
Valet').
Paul and new partner Ian Richardson, managing director David Morgan
and manager Robert Orbach opened a new branch of 'IWLKV' in Foubert's
Place, Soho, selling militaria and Swinging London novelty items.
In 1968 Paul added two more, in Carnaby Street and Wardour Street,
and soon expanded to sites in Piccadilly Circus and in the Kings Road
(on the corner of Jubilee Place), where the shop superseded Kleptomania,
and another branch sited at number 65 that was called 'I Was Lord
Kitchener's Thing'. Robert
Orbach: "The name 'I Was Lord Kitchener's Valet' was thought up by
Ian Fisk just because we sold Victoriana. It conjured up images of
Edwardian smoking jackets, top hats and canes and Birdcage Walk on
Sunday - pure nostalgia". "In about 1967 we took over Kleptomania
on the Kings Road, so we were now operating in both streets. Carnaby
Street was really run by working class people. The upper middle class
Cambridge crowd were all in the Kings Road and they didn't like us
working class heroes. For a while the Kings Road did better than Carnaby
Street. There were rope barriers down the centre of the shop to direct
people towards the cashier. The till was going all day long".
Chelsea Palace of Varieties
Previously occupied by Wilkinson
Sword's Oakley Works, where guns and swords were made,
the building was replaced by the Chelsea Palace of Varieties (a music
hall theatre designed by Wylson and Long and built by contractor C.T.
Kearly) which opened on the 13th April 1903. It seated 2,524 on two
levels, stalls and pit, and a box gallery. By 1923 it was also being
used as a cinema but was sold in 1925 to Variety Theatres Consolidated
after which, until it closed in March 1957, it reverted to live performances
only. During 1956 the Palace hosted a Radio Luxembourg talent contest
which was won four weeks in a row by Fantasie coffee bar regulars
Chas McDevitt's Skiffle Group. It was during this competition that
Chas met 20 year-old Glaswegian singer Anne Wilson, performing under
the stage name Nancy Whiskey. Together they recorded 'Freight Train'
which became a hit on both sides of the pond and the success it brought
allowed Chas to eventually open his own coffee bar in Berwick Street
in Soho, inevitably called 'The Freight Train'.
The Theatre was taken over by Granada Theatres in 1951 and renamed
the Chelsea Granada in 1957, with the intention of turning it into
a cinema, but it was subsequently leased to Granada Television who
remodelled it for use as their 'Studio 10'. TV shows produced in this
studio over the next eight years included 154 episodes of 'The Army
Game' and three series of a variety show called 'Chelsea at Nine',
which featured many top acts who were appearing live in London. A
note of interest is that Granada owners Sidney and Cecil Bernstein
only gave their studios even numbers, so this was, in fact, the fifth
Granada TV studio. Billie Holiday gave her last (recorded) performance
there on 23rd February 1959, performing 'Strange Fruit', 'I Loves
You Porgy' and 'Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone', only the
first two of which survive. Granada abandoned the building in 1966
and it was demolished to be replaced with flats and the Heal's furniture
store.
The Cremorne Estate
An
initial plan for the estate was turned down in 1962, on the grounds
of population
density and a lack of architectural merit. A new plan was drawn up
by Eric Lyons,
architect, and E.G. Goldring of the Chelsea borough engineers, to
include 8 tower blocks
grouped around podiums with interconnected walkways. After an inquiry
held in 1965 the
Minister of Housing turned down the borough's plan but was prepared
to treat Chelsea's
application as exceptional because of the high standard of layout
and design. The plan
was adapted and the revised scheme, for 765 flats in blocks of 5 to
14 storeys forming
three irregular squares, with two level walk-ways, and including underground
parking,
shopping centre, church, public house, and community centre, with
a school on an
adjoining site, received ministerial approval in 1967. Building work
finally started in 1969
and the first families moved in by early 1975.
Cremorne
Gardens and Estate
430 Kings Road
Owned by Vivienne Westwood and famous for its large 'backward' clock,
this has been the location for some of London's most famous fashion
boutiques since 1963:
4.30
(1963 - 1966)
A 'girls boutique'. Jonathan Aitken (of The Young Meteors) said
of it: "At 430 Kings Road ex-naval officer Bill Fuller, aged
33, and his girlfriend Carol Derry, 26, sell the cheapest clothes
in London this side of Biba and have an unusual line in imported
French style".
Hung On You (1966
- Sep 1968): The boutique was owned by Michael Rainey, who was
a son of notorious society figure Marion Wrottesley. He was
married to Jane Ormsby-Gore (daughter of Lord Harlech) who was
a contributing editor of Vogue and who became Rainey's business
partner when the boutique was originally started at 22
Cale Street, Chelsea Green in 1964, moving to the Kings
Road in 1966. "Michael (Rainey) would find lovely materials,
all made in London in the East End by proper old-fashioned tailors.
He was a great stickler. The Stones and Beatles would come in
and say, 'We want four of those'…".
In an interview for Town magazine Rainey said: "We are not tailors,
but we will make things up for people if we think their ideas
are good". Their prices were high (shirts being as much as 7
guineas) but customer Richard Neville recalled "Groovers didn't
mind paying triple for a floral chiffon shirt, because Mick
Jagger had probably bought one like it the day before".
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Mr
Freedom (1969 - Dec 1970)
By early 1969 Thomas Steven 'Tommy' Roberts was looking for a better
business opportunity than Kleptomania. He withdrew his capital from
the business with a view to acquiring premises in the Kings Road,
saying "In the King's Road I could sell style, not just knick-knacks
to passing tourists". The owner of the 'Hung On You' boutique, Michael
Rainey, was a friend of his and had decided to sell the business and
the stock to finance a personal spiritual journey to India, so they
agreed a deal for Roberts to take over the lease and stock for £1200,
with a weekly rent of £25 payable to the landlord.
Roberts took it on in a partnership with Trevor Myles (who had previously
supplied Kleptomania with beads and bells) and the boutique was re-named
'Mr Freedom', after the satirical 1969 William Klein film. Tommy Roberts:
"We wanted to be comic-land, totally different, not a bunch of barrow-boys
selling knock-off kaftans". The shop exterior was designed and executed
by the Electric
Colour Company artist collective and much of the interior
was decorated by Les Coleman and Jeff Edwards of Mediocre Murals,
with George Hardie of Nicholas Thirkell Associates as the principal
graphic designer in a team including Pamla Motown. The basic colour
of the interior was blue, with red splashes and a lot of neon and
perspex. The decoration consisted largely of pop art posters, American
flags, images from comic books and rock 'n' roll motifs, illuminated
by a revolving mirror ball. Tommy's 'boardroom table' was a pinball
machine!
The
premises were very small - only a few hundred square feet - but were
still managing weekly sales of c. £5000 by the end of 1970. Tommy
Roberts had outgrown it and was looking for a larger outlet where
he could create a 'palace of fun' where both the fashions and ambience
could be equally outrageous, settling on a three-storey building at
20 Kensington Church Street. He acquired the lease with new partner
and old friend John Paul. JP invested £50,000 into the 'new' Mr. Freedom
but the shop was to last less than a year. Trevor Myles departed to
move back to 430 King's Road where he opened 'Paradise Garage' and
Tommy Roberts was forced to call in the receivers in March 1972.
Paradise Garage (May 1971
- Nov 1971)
In May 1971, the lease for 430 was taken over by Trevor Myles who
opened the short-lived Paradise Garage boutique, selling Hawaiian-style
shirts, vintage denim and general Americana. Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne
Westwood sold 1950s rock and roll records in a backroom. Once again,
the decoration was provided by the Electric Colour Company who were
instructed to create something to 'cross South Seas charm with American
authenticity'. The internal 'set' contained caged lovebirds, a jukebox
and even an extremely small dance-floor while, outside, a bamboo sign
was erected on painted corrugated iron and a 1950s petrol pump was
placed on the forecourt, very often accompanied by Myles' tiger-striped
Ford Mustang. The premises also contained something called 'Osteria'
- a restaurant/bar?
Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, with Malcolm Edwards (aka 'Talcy
Malcy') acquired the lease in 1971 and were to create a series of
boutiques on the premises, catering for the swiftly changing fashion
scene. These were:
Let
it Rock (Nov 1971 - 1973)
In October of 1971 Malcolm McLaren and Patrick
Casey, a friend of his
from art school, started a stall in the back of Paradise Garage selling
items collected by McLaren including rock & roll records, magazines,
clothing and other 50s memorabilia. Trevor Myles (who ran Paradise
Garage) relinquished the whole of the premises to McLaren and Casey
in November. The shop was renamed 'Let It Rock' and stock included
new and second-hand Teddy Boy clothes designed by McLaren's girlfriend
Vivienne Westwood. The corrugated iron shop front was painted black
with the name of the shop in pink lettering. The interior was given
a period look with items such as 'Odeon' wallpaper and Festival of
Britain ornaments, furnished in the style of a 1950s living room.
Bespoke tailored drape jackets, skin-tight trousers and thick-soled
'brothel creeper' shoes were the main items retailed under the label.
In a newspaper interview in 2004 Malcolm McLaren recalled: “For me,
the answer lay at my first store on 430 King’s Road, where I sold
the ruins of pop culture – a jukebox stood proudly in the centre of
the store. Among this rock’n’roll debris of posters and memorabilia
and old records, stood some fine ancient jackets in leather, velvet
and tweed resembling clothes worn by such dead stars as Eddie Cochran,
Gene Vincent and the Shangri-Las. All of this stuff was situated in
a field of glitterdom that I had named Let It Rock in 1972. Within
a year, I was bored with it all. Bored with the same surrogate suburban
teddy boys that drifted in from God knows where. Bored with the hippies
and refugees of Chelsea’s swinging 60s looking for charity and kindness.
Bored with the demands of the BBC wardrobe department and their dreadful
revivalist TV shows. I felt like Steptoe and Son. I was lost in dead
tissue. I wanted something new.”
Too Fast to Live Too Young to Die
(1973 - 1974)
The boutique interior was changed in 1973 and the shop was given a
new name, 'Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die', A new range of clothing
from Britain's early 1960s 'Rocker' fashions, featured garments under
their label including chains, leathers and sleeveless T-shirts printed
with socially provocative statements that mirrored Westwood's politically-informed
design inspirations. In a homage to James Dean with the boutique’s
name, the signage featured a black background with the shop’s new
name in white lettering around a large skull and crossbones, echoing
a new era of youth subculture.
Sex
(1974 - 1976)
In the spring of 1974 the shop underwent another transformation
and was rebranded with the name SEX. The frontage included a 4ft
sign made of pink foam rubber letters spelling 'SEX' and the shop
interior was adorned with chicken wire and graffiti from the SCUM
Manifesto. Red carpeting was put in and rubber curtains covered
the walls. The boutique traded in fetish and bondage wear supplied
by specialist labels such as Atomage, She-And-Me and London Leatherman
as well as McLaren and Westwood designs. Jordan (Pamela Rooke)
was a sales assistant. Among their customers were the four original
Sex Pistols group members of which the bass-player, Glen Matlock,
worked there as a sales assistant on Saturdays. Sid Vicious also
used to put in the odd shift. The group's name was suggested by
McLaren in partial promotion of the boutique. Other notable customers
and patrons included occasional assistant Chrissie Hynde, Adam
Ant, Siouxsie Sioux, Marco Pirroni and Steven Severin. The store's
designs confronted social and sexual taboos and SEX sold cut-up
shirts with pictures of Karl Marx and Third Reich insignia.
Vivienne Westwood said: "We're not just here to sell fetish clothing
but to convert, educate, liberate". Other items offered for sale
included T-shirts carrying images of the Cambridge Rapist's face
hood, semi-naked cowboys from a 1969 illustration by the US artist
Jim French, trompe-l'œil bare breasts by Rhode Island School of
Design students Janusz and Laura Gottwald and pornographic texts
from the book School for Wives by the beat author Alexander Trocchi.
Other designs included clear plastic-pocketed jeans, zippered
tops and the Anarchy shirt which used dead stock from the 1960s
manufacturer Wemblex and bleached and dyed shirts decorated with
silk Karl Marx patches and various anarchistic slogans.
Seditionaries (1976
- 1980)
430 King's Road was renamed 'Seditionaries' in December 1976,
continuing under that name until September 1980. As 'Seditionaries:
Clothes for Heroes', the shop underwent brutalist interior and
exterior styling with large murals depicting images of bomb damage.
Harsh bright lighting and cavities perforated the ceiling, created
by McLaren. Westwood's innovative garments now included punk signatures
and designs were licensed to the operators of the boutique Boy
at 153 King's Road, (formerly Acme Attractions) who continued
to sell them over the next eight years.
' Boy London' was founded by Stephane Raynor and John Krivine
in 1976. Krivine sold the company in 1984. Westwood was one of
the architects of the punk fashion phenomenon of the 1970s, saying
"I was messianic about punk, seeing if one could put a spoke in
the system in some way". Peter York (Harpers & Queen): "Despite
its low-key manner the shop is oddly uncompromising. Seditionaries
is single-minded. The stuff is quite expensive too…it's a shop
for the elite of Radical Displacement".
Malcolm McLaren died in 2010 from mesothelioma, which he maintained
he had contracted from being exposed to asbestos while stripping
the shop to change it to 'Seditionaries'. |
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World's
End (1980)
In late 1980, the 430 King's Road shop re-opened under the name 'World's
End'. The building was redesigned by McLaren and Westwood and realised
by Roger Burton, Jeremy Blackburn and Tony Devers to resemble a the
styles of the 'Olde Curiosity Shoppe' and an 18th-century galleon.
A large clock was installed externally with a mechanism that rotated
backwards and with the floor raked at an angle. McLaren and Westwood
launched the first of a series of collections from the outlet at the
beginning of 1981 and collaborated for a further three years. World's
End remains open as part of the late (died 29th December 2022) Vivienne
Westwood's fashion empire.
The World's End Estate
The Metropolitan Borough of Chelsea commissioned the design of the
World’s End Estate in 1963. Eric Lyons produced a design whose housing
density exceeded the LCC’s limits of the time. The borough and architect
refused to accept any design that resulted in a reduction in the site’s
overall population, and a public enquiry ensued. Ministerial approval
for a design providing 750 units of Council housing was finally granted
in December 1966. Work began in 1968 when 11 acres of low rise Victorian
housing occupying the site was demolished. Construction proper began
in December 1969 and, following several breaks in construction, including
an infamous builders' strike, was completed in April 1977. The first
tenants moved in as the works neared their conclusion and the majority
of properties were occupied in the period between 1975 and 1977. Immediately
adjacent to the estate are a small number of community facilities
that were built at the same time and in the same style. These include
the Chelsea Theatre (originally the community centre), Ashburnham
Primary School, St. John’s Mission Church (which had previously existed
on the site) and Omega House (providing space at ground level for
the local supermarket). The north side of the estate faces Kings Road
with frontages onto World's End Place and the Kings Road beyond.
The Sweet Shop
After success in selling her own collection of knitwear
to Quorum and the Kings Road boutiques, designer Laura Jamieson opened
her own
boutique just off the Kings Road in 1967. The premises were rented
from the council at £7
per week and sold, amongst other things, wall hangings, tunics and
patchwork and
applique cushions of her own design and items designed first by Trevor
Miles (who went
on to open Mr. Freedom with Tommy Roberts) and, later, Willy Daly
who had worked with
Ossie Clark. The shop's customers included Twiggy, Jean Shrimpton
and Keith Richards,
and Laura designed the outfit worn by Grace Coddington at her wedding
to restaurateur
Michael Chow in 1969 - an apple green devore silk velvet dress appliqued
with wild rose,
scalloped below the knee with a daisy chain belt of brown and cream
suede around the
hips. In early days the shop's external appearance was just white-painted
board and,
although not having the main road's exposure, received a lot of publicity
in the daily press
and Vogue magazine due to the quality of its products and its clientele.
Gandalf's Garden
Situated just off the Kings Road at World's End, in Edith Grove, the
former Home
and Colonial store became Gandalf's
Garden, named after the wizard in Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings'
trilogy. What was essentially a 'tea shop and craft centre', but actually
a whole counter-cultural 'mystic' community, was founded by Muz Murray
and flourished for a short time at the end of the Sixties as one of
the 'in' establishments of the London hippie and underground scene.A
closely associated retail outlet (Gandalf's Garden Shoppe) and an
iconic 'underground'
magazine (6 issues) were also operated under the same name.
The external decoration was created by Michael McInnerney and Dudley
Edwards working as 'Om Tentacle'. Inside, large cushions were
provided for use by customers while drinking their 'Chinese tea' and
the basement of the building housed toilets and an area where homeless
people could be fed and spend their time during the day. In the evenings,
this area was used for 'spiritual meetings' of various sorts and it
gained a global reputation for being one of the first 'centres' to
invite speakers and teachers to give talks and presentations on many
spiritual beliefs and practices, including popular mysticism, meditation,
yoga and the occult. The Kings Road location of Gandalf's Garden,
and the magazine, ceased operation in 1971 and the 'business' dispersed
into other 'Gandalf's Garden seed centres' around the world. In an
advert from 'International Times' (IT):
Come dream awhile at Gandalf's Garden Shoppe 1, Dartrey Terrace,
King's Road, Worlds End, Chelsea, London, S.W.10 Phone: FLA 6156.
Over a bowl of Chinese tea you really do meet the "gentlest people"
at Gandalf's Garden Shoppe. Some days someone wanders in with his
sitar and plays awhile. Others bring guitars and soothe us all. Some
days you come in and bring your flute or play our ocarinos. Anyone
can happen at Gandalf's Garden Shoppe. Come dream awhile and try it.
Gandalf's Garden Mystical Scene Magazine. Issue Three out now. Send
3/6 P.O
Granny Takes a Trip
'Granny' was probably the first 'psychedelic' boutique and was opened
by Nigel Waymouth, his girlfriend Sheila Cohen and John Pearse, after
looking for an outlet for Sheila's collection of antique clothes.
The premises had been acquired in 1965 and opened in December after
Pearse, who was a Savile Row-trained tailor, agreed to join them.
Waymouth came up with the curious name (which was also used as the
name of a 1967 song
by 'The Purple Gang', banned by the BBC) and the boutique
was featured in the famous 'London - the Swinging City' issue of 'Time'
Magazine.
Internally it was initially 'a mixture of New Orleans bordello and
futuristic fantasy', with marble-patterned walls, lace drapery, beaded
glass entrance curtains and an art-deco Wurlitzer that provided the
music. With the growing 'hippie' influence, around 1968, this changed
to purple-painted walls and lighting with Aubrey Beardsley erotic
prints and the heavy smell of incense, patchouli oil and 'other substances'.
Author Salman Rushdie commented that "psychedelic music, big on feedback,
terrorised your eardrums". It was, however, more famous for its external
appearance(s), including the 1966 mural of a native American chief
and the 1967 'Jean Harlow' mural. Most famous of all is probably the
1948 Dodge saloon car which appeared to have crashed through the wall
and onto the forecourt.
The car was also subjected to colour makeovers - canary yellow and,
most memorably, in black and gold with glittering stars. The Dodge
feature was kept after the sale of the shop to Freddie Hornik in 1969
until complaints from the local authorities forced its removal in
1971. The artist, Waymouth, also contributed to the psychedelic look
of Gandalf 's Garden's rival Oz and other 'underground' magazines.
In 1967 he and another artist, Michael English, formed Hapshash and
The Coloured Coat, a graphic-design partnership that produced the
most distinctive pop posters of the time. The clothes, though of very
high quality, were very high-priced and tended to attract an 'elite'
clientele, which just added to its legendary status. Sales assistant
Johnny Moke (who was to Later open his own boutique on the road at
396) recalled "We used to cut up blouses and dresses and turn them
into shirts or tops for men. What was great about Granny's was that
there were no boundaries. Anything went and they kept on changing".
Pearse was unhappy with the increasingly 'hippie' image of the shop
and eventually they ended up selling the business to Freddie Hornik,
who had previously worked at Dandie Fashions, (and his partners Marty
Breslau and Gene Krell), in 1969. Hornik changed the style completely,
stocking more 'dandified' clothes and catering for the 'glam rock'
look. He also opened a branch in West Hollywood, USA. The London premises
at 488 closed in 1974, the name being sold to Byron Hector who opened
a shop under the same name elsewhere on Kings Road, eventually closing
in 1979.
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