Pub grub, Bar Italia and record shops.
Each Each month we get one of our favourite Londoners to tell us about their experiences of living in the capital. This month it's the turn of Madness frontman and all-round nice geezer Suggs, who's launching a spanking new app with a guide to Camden Town's music venues.
Where did you grow up?
I moved around a lot when I was a kid. I lived in Fulham for a while, hence the fact that I'm a Chelsea fan, and then we lived above a carpet shop, Maples, on the corner of Tottenham Court Road. It was a great place to be as a teen because it was walking distance from the centre of Camden Town and walking distance from the West End. When I was 16 I'd walk down to The Roxy club as punk was just starting, so it was an amazing spot to be in.
It was a funny place, Camden. I didn't see a girl here since 1979, but there were a lot of Irish pubs which would normally have music on a Friday and Saturday nights. So for a young person with not a lot of money it was a great place to be.
What's your favourite area now?
Soho. My mum still lives in Soho and it's where I spend a lot of my time. And like lots of bits of London it is still kinda like a village, there's lots of people who lead ordinary lives and run shops. Bar Italia is like the Post Office there, it's one of my favourite spots, sitting outside watching the world go by. You always bump into someone. My wife doesn't believe me but I get a lot of work done when I'm there.
What's your favourite pub?
It'd have to be The French House. I've been going there since I was a kid as my mum worked in there for a bit. Between 2 and 4 in the afternoon is the best time, before it gets too busy. That's when you get a lot of out-of-work actors and painters, a lot of interesting characters hanging around at that time.
Do you have a favourite shop?
Simons. They do a lot of Ivy League stuff, '50s and '60s American stuff, they always have really great things in there. And even if you ain't got the money to buy it's just an interesting place to look around. They've been going since the '50s, so they've got some really amazing vintage stuff. They were the first people to bring back those Baracuta harringtons and Bass Weejun loafers and all those lovely things.
How do you spend a chilled Sunday afternoon.
What I like to do is go to the New North Road and go down to the canal, and you can walk all the way down to the Thames from there. It goes through Islington and then through Hackney through Victoria Park. You can stop at Broadway Market for a coffee, then there's a great Chinese at Canary Wharf, the Royal China, then get the river ferry back to the West End and get the bus home.
Name something that was better about London when you were young.
Chesse and onion sandwiches. In pubs that's all you could get – great big slices of white bread with cheddar cheese and raw onion. Man's food.
And something that's better now.
I suppose that you can eat something more than cheese and onion sandwiches in pubs! There are so many great pubs serving great food – the Good Pub Guide, fucking hell what an amazing thing that is.
Your favourite music venue?
Kentish Town Forum. It's great having played really small gigs and really massive ones, you get a different feeling from all of them. Playing at the O2 is brilliant for the feeling of enormity, amazing vibes, and then playing the Dublin Castle to 100 people is amazing. But I think the Forum is the perfect size.
Favourite London building?
I suppose St Paul's Cathedral because it's so iconic and has been in so many old movies that I like, like Oliver. And the scale of it, you feel it standing on the steps. And I suppose it sums up London in some rather twee way.
Where did you buy your records from in your younger days?
Rock On in Camden Town. I used to buy them and indeed borrow them on occasion – some of them I've still got to give back. But the owner used to like us and we used to get away with a little bit of that sort of thing. Really great record shop. The great joy in those days was finding records – you'd have to order them, sometimes you'd get them and sometimes you wouldn't.
Your last London meal?
I'd have an Indian from the Holloway Indian Takeaway. It's just a great restaurant that's been there a very long time. You know, other ones pop up and you try them, but I always go back to the Holloway Indian Takeaway – it does what it says on the tin.
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