Hound of Hecate

Do you see the cobbles on the streets? Everywhere you look, stone & rock. Can you imagine what it feels like to reach down with your bones & feel the living stones? The city is built on itself, all the cities that came before. Can you imagine how it feels to lie down on an ancient flagstone & feel the power of the rock buoying you up against the tug of the world? And that's where witchcraft begins. The stones have life, & I'm part of it. - adapted from Terry Pratchett

Sunday, June 16, 2019

Time Travel: the Former 100° Grill and Bar, Essex Street

On the corner of Essex Street and (M)Inge Street in the Chinese Quarter is this unassuming building which is in the middle of being renovated again:

In its more recent history it has been the Hundred Degree Flaming Bar and Grill, but there is no indication that in its more distant past it was the Key Bookshop, run by the Communist Party, and upstairs was the Star Social Club:

The social club doesn't show up a great deal in local history but was the location for a folk club and provided a women's/lesbians' space. The Communist bookshop seems to have moved frequently, but I don't know of one now.

2 comments:

Inexplicable DeViceJune 18, 2019 at 8:22 PM
I hope they keep the slatted mirror cladding - classy!

I was disappointed to discover that upon a second glance, the building does not have a large, curved, sculptural adornment on its flat roof. The dark triangle of the not-really-eaves of the shop/house next door (left), presented me with the illusion that it was part of the curve of the building behind. Also not helping is the right vertical edge of said curve, almost exactly lines up with the building on the other side (back right). Its a total optical illusion!
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