Building    From 1938 

Ace Cafe

Categories: Food & Drink, Transport

It originally catered for the traffic on the newly opened North Circular Road. Destroyed in a WW2 air raid, it was rebuilt in 1949 and through the 50s became a haven for the 'ton-up-boys' and then for the 'rockers' in the 60s. One of the regulars here was the neurologist Oliver Sacks. Trade declined, as traffic moved to the motorways and it closed in 1969. Interest was rekindled in the 1990s, following the setting-up of the 'Rockers' Reunions' and it re-opened in 1997. It was the location for the 1964 film 'The Leather Boys'.

2019: Reviewed by Londonist.

2021: An impressively active website gives the history and has some great photos.

Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Ace Cafe

Commemorated ati

Ace Cafe

Ace Cafe Built 1938 as part of a service area for the new North Circular Road...

Read More

Screaming Lord Sutch

David Edward Sutch, Screaming Lord Sutch, Third Earl of Harrow 10.11.40 - 16....

Read More

Other Subjects

Anderton's Hotel

Anderton's Hotel

In the fifteenth century this was the Horn tavern. In the early seventeenth century the hotel was popular with the legal community. A new building was erected in 1880, probably the one in this phot...

Building, Commerce, Community / Clubs, Food & Drink

1 memorial
Tabard Inn

Tabard Inn

Set up by an abbot from Winchester to give his brethren somewhere to stay in London and to provide accomodation to pilgrims on their way to Canterbury, in particular Chaucer's pilgrims, who set off...

Building, Community / Clubs, Food & Drink, Literature

1 memorial
Swan and Hoop pub

Swan and Hoop pub

The pub in which John Keats, poet, was born, 1795.

Building, Food & Drink

1 memorial
Highbury Barn

Highbury Barn

Long a rural pleasure resort for Londoners it became notorious in 1861, when Edward Giovanelli demolished the old buildings and built a lavish pleasure ground which attracted large crowds, includin...

Place, Commerce, Food & Drink, Theatre

1 memorial
Samuel Palmer

Samuel Palmer

1857 joined his brother, George, in the family biscuit firm, Huntley and Palmers, based in Reading. Ran the London office and lived with his family in Hampstead in a house close to the site of the ...

Person, Commerce, Food & Drink, Industry

1 memorial

Previously viewed

Royal Society of Arts

Royal Society of Arts

Founded by William Shipley as the "Society of Arts" in Rawthmell's Coffee House. They carried on meeting in coffee houses and taverns but as the society grew they needed more space. Shipley rented ...

Group, Art, Commerce

18 memorials
Corporation of the City of London

Corporation of the City of London

The municipal governing body of the City of London. Officially the 'Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London'. In 2006 the name was changed from just 'Corporation of London' to disti...

Group, Commerce, Politics & Administration

184 memorials
Joan Littlewood

Joan Littlewood

Theatre director. Born Stockwell. 1945 set up the Theatre Workshop which moved into the Stratford Theatre Royal in 1953, many of the company living on site while it was being restored. 1963 created...

Person, Theatre, France

3 memorials
Lady Margaret Georgiana Graham

Lady Margaret Georgiana Graham

Second wife of Sir Henry John Lowndes Graham; daughter of 4th Marquess of Northampton.

Person, Friend / family

1 memorial
Loyal North Lancashire Regiment

Loyal North Lancashire Regiment

Army regiment. Its name was changed to the Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire) in 1921. In 1970, it was amalgamated with the Lancashire Regiment to form the Queen's Lancashire Regiment which in turn ...

Group, Armed Forces

1 memorial