| Often dismissed as ‘greasy spoons’, Classic Cafes are actually little gems of British vernacular high street design. This site celebrates their ambience and architecture with over 130 vintage London Formica caffs (and many others around Britain) reviewed, revealed & reappraised. But as Time Out Restaurant Guide noted, the site isn’t simply: “a set of recommendations… it’s a whole aesthetic!”; an immersive re-exploration of a cultural phenomenon that is fading all too fast. The Classic Cafes Book — now long out of print — has been acclaimed by the Royal Institute of British Architects as ‘sumptuous… beautiful… breathtaking… deeply evocative…‘, and praised by the Twentieth Century Society as a work of ‘genius… passionate… elegiac… ‘. |
Nick Garrett 