S&M

Having developed a new found love for the North (of London) I have been venturing up there fairly regularly.



And last night, on a particularly cold and frosty evening I met one of my oldest friends. She picked the place (being a native North Londoner) and we met at the S&M cafe on Essex Road.



Now for those of you that are unaware of the London chain of S&M caffs, don't worry. They are not dark lairs filled with chains and leather, but cosy, greasy spoon esque (but cleaner and newer, and making more effort for the retro look) cafes with perspex chairs, and bakelite tables, and hand scrawled specials.



We first discovered this chain on long ago shopping trips to London aged 16. Every half term and holiday Mini, Sophia and I would venture to the Bath bus station and get on a National Express coach to London at the crack of dawn.



And at the other end we would stumble off the coach and it would still only be about 9am, and we would make our way to Portobello Road, to the mecca of all 16yr old girls - the market.



And it was here that we first discovered the S&M cafes. Sausage and Mash Cafes. Where you choose what sausages you want, with what mash, and then pick a gravy, and it all comes over to the scrubbed tables, with an array of sauces, steaming hot.



Or they do incredible fried breakfasts. With the obvious central component being big juciy flavoursome sausages (and fried bubble and squeak mash). Or sausage sandwiches - big slabs of bread, or a baguette overflowing with sausage and sauce.



And after filling up with S&M the three of us would be ready to face the world of markets, and Oxford Street, and Knightsbridge. And shop til we drop, returning to the coach laden with bags and boxes, often filled with useless novelty purchases, but also sometimes containing one of those perfect purchases. Those things that become so well loved and used, that it is not until they fall apart that you realise how important they are to your life.



My lifelong purchase were a pair of shoes from Tom Cat Leather on Neal St. They were wooden wedges, with a 50's bikini babe design, and the wooden heel had a heart shape carved out of it. They were impossible kitsch, terribly overpriced, and loved to the point of destruction (they about a year ago they finally succumbed, and cracked straight down the middle).



Mini, among her other purchases got a lovely black leather bag. It cost £100, which, as a 16yr old schoolgirl, seems like lifelong savings. But now, despite being a little more battered and squashed, and having new zips and a strap held together with duct tape it is as charming as it was that cold morning in Ladbroke Grove. We were both admiring it in the warmth of the Angel S&M cafe, laughing at our younger selves, and reminiscing about nothing and everything.



Visting the S&M cafe yesterday was wonderful. Not only was it with Mini, but it was a place that held so much significance for my younger self - it was the place in London that locals used, that I, as a 16yr old Bathonian, and foreigner to London, felt was a bit of London that I knew and owned. And now, having been a London resident for the best part of 5 years, I often forget that feeling of awe, and fear, and that tiny bit of desperation to fit into London life