Happy Birthday, Beau!
Roger, I happened to be in ThatLondon last week for a meal and a piss-up few refreshments with some fellow editorial cartoonists in celebration of the launch of this years Best Of Britain's Political Cartoons 2014 collection (available on Amazon and various other places soon... plug over - don't buy it on my account...the meal was my payment). I had an hour to kill before the gathering, so I decided to take in a few sights and planned a route through the streets of London on my iPhone... which was such an effective guide that I've now renamed it my Ralph McTelephone... But I digress, again...
I was following my phone's instructions, marching confidently in the direction of Big Ben, when I suddenly experienced deja vu, halting me in my tracks. I looked back over my shoulder, and there it was... Stringfellows nightclub, exactly as I almost remember it some 30 years ago, when we gathered there amidst celebrities and models alike, for that infamous Beau Peep party. Except it was shut, and I wasn't already pissed 'relaxed' this time. But it was the same neon light over the door, albeit unlit, that I vividly recall (though Lord knows how, since I think we'd been drinking for three days by the time we got there) from back then.
I paused a while, reflecting on youthful times, before trotting off down the road past Nelson's Column, Downing Street, and taking a quick selfie with the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben tower. Sadly though, I didn't see the old man outside the Seaman's Mission...
