Out Of Lockdown

First night in London after Lockdown 2.0 – a sedate, if soggy affair.

Bar Italia is a celebrated Italian café on Frith Street in Soho, London. It was opened in its present form as a cafe in 1949 by the Polledri family, and is still owned by Veronica and Anthony Polledri today.

On 26 January 1926, John Logie Baird gave the first public demonstration of television at 22 Frith Street, the building where Bar Italia is located. The blue plaque above the front door commemorates this event. [see extra]

Open until 5am nearly every day, this cafe has become a hotspot for latecomers, party goers and musicians throughout the years and continues to be a major hotspot in Soho today.

Bar Italia inspired the song of the same name by the band Pulp, which is the last track of their 1995 album Different Class. The song describes the cafe as "round the corner in Soho" and "where other broken people go."