| The Spice of Life | |
|---|---|
.jpg) The Spice of Life in 2012 | |
| General information | |
| Coordinates | 51°30′54″N 0°07′19″W / 51.5149873°N 0.1220735°W / 51.5149873; -0.1220735 |
The Spice of Life is a pub at Cambridge Circus in London's Charing Cross Road. The pub was founded as The George & Thirteen Cantons in or before 1759, and later became The Scots Hoose. By 1975 it had been renamed The Spice of Life.
As the Scots Hoose in the 1950s and 1960s, the pub had one of Britain's most celebrated folk clubs in its upstairs room, run by Bruce Dunnet, that featured some of the greatest names of the folk revival, such as Bert Jansch, Al Stewart, Davey Graham, Ralph McTell, Roy Harper, Sandy Denny, Ewan MacColl and The Young Tradition. The club operated under various names, including "The Young Tradition".
In the 1970s and beyond the pub was regularly frequented by members of many rock groups including; The Stranglers, Buzzcocks, Stiff Little Fingers, Sex Pistols, Spandau Ballet, The Faces, UFO even the comedy group The Rutles. Film Directors including Jim Parsons, James Russell, Alan G Parker and Don Letts have also been regular visitors since the mid-nineties.
Members of the Monty Python team have also been among the pubs regulars over the years.
The pub features as a location in Ben Aaronovitch’s novel Moon Over Soho, part of the “Rivers of London” series.
References
- Larwood, Jacob; John Camden Hotten (1951) . English inn signs: being a revised and modernized version of History of signboards. Chatto and Windus. p. 278. OCLC 785385.
- Committee for the Survey of the Memorials of Greater London (1966). Survey of London, Volume 33. University of London for the London County Council. p. 205. OCLC 53051349.
- ^ Laing, Dave; et al. (1975). The Electric muse: the story of folk into rock. Methuen. pp. 89–90. ISBN 978-0-413-31860-2.
- Dallas, Karl (September–October 1999). "A Celebration of Peter Bellamy". The Living Tradition. No. 34. Retrieved 9 October 2009.
- ^ "Obituaries: Bruce Dunnet". The Independent. 23 March 2002. Retrieved 7 October 2009.
- Brocken, Michael (2003). The British folk revival, 1944-2002. Ashgate Publishing. p. 84. ISBN 978-0-7546-3282-5.
- Larkin, Colin (1995). The Guinness encyclopedia of popular music, Volume 2. Guinness. p. 135. ISBN 978-1-56159-176-3.
- Harker, David (1985). Fakesong: the manufacture of British "folksong" 1700 to the present day. Open University Press. p. 236. ISBN 978-0-335-15066-3.
