Among the Bohemians by Virginia Nicholson

Author:Virginia Nicholson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141933405
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2002-06-15T16:00:00+00:00

In Seymour Leslie’s novel The Silent Queen, illustrated by Nina Hamnett,

the Eiffel Tower is thinly disguised as ‘The Big Wheel’.

Luckily restaurants didn’t have to cost a fortune. At the turn of the century dining out was on the increase, and food in a Soho bistro was astonishingly cheap. But there was more to eating in such places than mere economy; foreign food in these Bohemian surroundings represented something excitingly risqué and ambiguous. A Soho restaurant sent a sexy frisson down the spine. Parmesan and Chianti seemed saturated with sexual innuendo, hors d’oeuvres, steak and vin de table were permeated with Gallic romance. Cheap as they were, these were the surroundings for seduction; the pink-shaded lamps on their tables invited intimacies. H.G. Wells and Somerset Maugham led their heroes and heroines astray in these gastronomic byways of Soho, to risk their reputations over rush-covered flasks of red or a glass of Asti: ‘every bit as good as champagne’. A crème de menthe might go down well afterwards.

Such Bohemian haunts were tarnished with the dubious notoriety of their clientèle. As the journalist Robert Machray (author of The Night Side of London, 1902) commented, ‘Here you may certainly study types of men and women you will hardly behold outside of this district.’ But for him, the prices on the menu were more to the point. Places like the Boulogne, where a meal cost 2s, or Guermani’s – only 1s 6d – were ‘amazing value’. Dinner at the Florence cost 3s, at the Italie 2s 6d. And they were good; though, as Machray reported, ‘you may suspect that some of the dishes on the menu are fearfully and wonderfully made… As for the wines, you can have what you are willing to pay for.’ The Lyonnais was cheapest of all, offering ‘soupe, 1 viande, 2 légumes, dessert, café, pain à discretion’ for 8d. A cheap supper of frankfurters could be had at the German Schmidt’s; but Kathleen Hale’s favourite was always Bertorelli’s in Charlotte Street, where a huge bowl of thick bean and pasta soup cost 6d. ‘I loved that place,’ she remembered:

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