The menu c.1955 at Wheeler and Co. on Old Compton Street. A year or so before, Donald Maclean ate oysters and drank Chablis for lunch there during his last day in London.

Menu at the Café Royal on Regent Street, June 1942. Only three courses allowed and Kipper sur Toast a mere 2 shillings…

The menu for the Vita Sun Café at the Coventry Street Lyons Cornerhouse, c.1926. The café was sponsored by the New Health Society whose main aim was 'to teach the advantages of the right food, fresh air, sunshine and exercise'.

The British Museum’s ‘refreshment department’ menu from 1900

Now in recovery Billy the Cat rewatches his favourite scene in Truffaut’s Day for Night.

1960. Cleo Laine performing at the Flamingo Club’s 'Jazz Nursery' on Wardour Street.

Billy the cat went AWOL for 36 hours but came back this morning with terrible deep cuts all over. Just taken him to vets who said that he’s been run over but will be ok he thinks.

Sleeping lamb in the early morning sun up the road from my house in the Senni valley. bannaubrycheiniogbreconbeacons

Victoria Station in 1974, my first bank account was with Midland. In 1934, apparently, it was the biggest deposit bank in the world

Preparing to build Sir Giles Gilbert Scott's Bankside Power Station (now the Tate Modern) in 1947

Glass covered central heating tower on Pimlico council estate near Dolphin Sq, 1950.

Chelsea Bridge c.1960

All set for tomorrow

The Gateways lesbian club at 239 King's Road on the corner of Bramerton Street - c.1953, unknown photographer

Legalise Freedom? St Agnes Place, Vauxhall, 1984 - photo by Peter Marshall.

Old Compton Street in 1936

Brian Jones at his flat on Elm Park Lane in Chelsea, 1965. His favourite records at the time were ‘Baby Please Don’t Go’ by Them, Nina Simone’s ‘Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood’ and ‘Mr Tambourine Man’ by the Byrds - photo Bent Rej

My book still seen out in the wild occasionally- this time on a tram from Scotland. I hope you’re enjoying it whoever you are

A nine year old Ian Dury and his mum Peggy at the Festival of Britain in 1951. Ian had contracted Polio two years previously, most likely, he believed, from a swimming pool at Southend-on-Sea during the 1949 polio epidemic.

Similar vibes in my house last night youtube.com/shorts/02cAr...

@mhairim.bsky.social ha ha “Mack the Wife”

Outside Guy’s Hospital on VE Day May 1945

In 1984, Rubén Blades wrote four stories of everyday people who vanished without explanation. Four decades and countless covers later, their ghostly presence still echoes through Latin American music, memory, and consciousness. The Haunting Echo of Rubén Blades's 'Desapariciones':

Joan Crawford asks her assistant to bite off a loose thread from her dress at the Dorchester Hotel, London, July 1956 - photograph by Thurston Hopkins.

Cabaret girls at the Paradise Club in 1939. Situated at 189 Regent St, it described itself as ‘London’s latest and most exclusive niterie’ although the comedian Terry-Thomas described it as the type of place known in the business as an ‘upholstered sewer’.

The great George Cole was born 100 years ago this week. He plays George Smiley in John Le Carre’s Call from the Dead on BBC Sounds. It’s from 1977 I think and I’m really enjoying it. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Members of the corps de ballet in their dressing room before Cinderella, Sadler's Wells Ballet, 1960. Photo Roger Wood

Vandaag in de jukebox in mijn hoofd 🎶 open.spotify.com/track/7G47al...

Dorset Road in Vauxhall, 10th March 1964 the factory was Morris Singer and co - a bronze foundry business.

Young people: If you wanted a snapshot of what London football was like in the days of yore, this is a pretty good start. CFC firmly operating in the second tier (in a number of respects), Spurs swaggering around in the cups (but still not consistent enough in the league), dangerously rundown>>>

Alan Whicker at a rather dilapidated Stamford Bridge for the half-time FA cup 6th round draw, March 1982. Spurs went on to beat Chelsea 2-3.

I have a new next door neighbour it seems

A view of prefab houses from the London Park Hotel, Elephant and Castle, 1973

Paul Simon on Argyll Street in 1965 - photo Chris Walter

The Sunset Club at 50 Carnaby Street in 1951. Popular with American GIs, jazz was played until seven in the morning.

An incognito Goldie Hawn in London’s Portobello Road market, 1969, by Enrico Sarsini.

With the news about the redevelopment of the Euston Tower, a good time to put up this great article by @robnitm.bsky.social on the Flashbak site. flashbak.com/joseph-levy-...

A local farmer has given me some Welsh Mountain lamb. It’s just over half a kilo and looks like it could become chops if I had a cleaver. Which I don’t. How shall I cook it?

Apple Music has my back

I see Ace are reissuing Gather In The Mushrooms. If acid folk's your thing, there's a lot here to love. Compiled by @rockingbob.bsky.social

@rockingbob.bsky.social Hi Bob, how are things? I was wondering where this lovely Bill Wyman story came from? www.thetimes.com/article/f175...

My next door neighbour and a very handsome fellow

Bridget St. John on the cover of Time Out, 1969. Photo by Ray Stevenson

Bombed Regency Staircase, Upper Brook Street, Mayfair c. 1942 - photo by Bill Brandt

A customer at a late-night coffee stall on the junction of Tothill and Victoria Street, 1952 - photo by Charles Hewitt

'Couple At Party' in Highgate, 1955 - photo by Thurston Hopkins

Marianne Faithfull in Ossie Clark, 1973 - photo by David Redfern.

Marianne Faithfull in the Salisbury pub, Saint Martin's Lane, 1964 - photo by Gered Mankowitz