Sunday, March 03, 2013
Walking down Wilton Road
Wilton Road, like the rest of the neighbourhood surrounding Victoria Station, is undergoing great changes. The fine cafe, the Wilton Snack Bar, stood on a corner at 78 Wilton Road. Road. It was described on the Classic Cafes website as "splendid "plain" cafe in the heart of Victoria: top sign, powder blue marbleised flooring, neat rosewood and black leatherette booths. Very cramped." and in the book London Caffs by Edwin Heathcote we can read about the "Big orange letters of the sign..the orange pendant globe lights in the window...the slender blue mosaic-tiled columns...the terrazzo tiled floors ...the brown leatherette and timber banquettes". Next to the big orange letters on the shop front you could read the motif: "Large selection of sandwiches to eat here or take away". Alas this wonderful caff has gone the way of many of its kin, and has suffered gutting and its replacement by a mediocre Mexicon food joint, Taquitos. The same fate has befallen its neighbour, the delightful Italian Restaurant around the corner at Rochester Row, where you could always be assured of a cheery Cockney-Italian welcome. Classic Cafes describes it in the following lines: "A real find. A great local in a brilliant little enclave off Victoria. Curvilinear counter in impressive beige dates from 1953. Classic b&w Formica wall covering. Absolutely superb."
Another feature of Wilton Road that has also made a disappearance is the mysterious street sign of, I seem to recall, Hindon Place, over an arched entrance to some flats at number 64. There is no street there at all, but investigation reveals that once Hindon Place led off of Wilton Road and that according to George Laurence Gomme in his London in the Reign of Victoria 1837-1897, published in 1898, Hindon Place (along with other Westminster streets like , Ship Court, Garden Place, Kine Court, and Pond Place)were destroyed "with their cottages, and gardens enclosed with wooden palings". Now the sign too has gone the way of those little Arcadian enclaves. ( I will be returning to the subject of disappeared London streets very soon).
One solace that Wilton Road offers is that the Le Monde clothes shop is still going strong at number 79. The window is crammed full of an enormous range of caps, trilbys, bowlers and other headgear in all manner of colours and patterns. They also sell second hand canes there! You can see one in the window. Perhaps the spirit of Padre Pio in the nearby shop dedicated to him on Vauxhall Bridge Road performed miracles, making the lame cast away their canes. You can also buy traditional suits and jackets and a range of garish sweaters. I once purchased three pairs of excellent pimp-style silk socks here.
Returning to the subject of Padre Pio, I remember from my Catholic childhood how the Catholic weekly , The Universe, used to boost the reputation of the Italian priest Padre Pio, who apparently suffered the stigmata just like St Francis, with bleeding holes right through both his hands and feet. The high camp and rococco shop front features rows of figurines of the Virgin Mary and of Padre Pio and you can read the slogan " Trust God's Mother Luke 1:48 Pray The Rosary Wear Her Scapular". The shop is full of Padre Pio medals, Padre Pio candles and so on and a life size statue of him stands in the back of the shop. There is a chapel in the basement and a service is celebrated here every day. In addition the rosary is recited regularly here, for example any transactions stopping automatically at 3 pm for such a recitation!! The shop also apparently possesses a pair of Pio's blood stained white gloves!!
Recently I was walking nearby of an early evening when I observed an old woman, hump backed and her body bent forward and sideways, standing for at least five minutes outside the front door of the closed shop. Was she asking Pio for divine intervention?
Labels: Le Monde shop, Lost streets of London, Padre Pio, Pimlico, Victoria, Wilton Road
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Hi Nick - just wondering if you have every read Hooligan Nights (http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Hooligan-Nights-Dodo-Press/dp/1409966445) - I thought it was quite an interesting insite into Victorian south London
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