Vague Memories of Coffee Bar Culture

So far as I can remember there never was one of those signifiers of cosmopolitan life in the early 1960s - the Wimpy bar - in Southall, my first thought was that Southall must have been too provincial but I remember there was a Wimpy in Hayes, a much fringier place. I also remember the one in West Ealing, plastic tables, coffee machine noises and froth, flat grills, that totally unhealthy smell of greasy burgers and onions, coffee, steamy windows in the winter and, the ultimate in romance - the RumBaba. What there was in Southall, though, in a parade of small and rickety shops between the old fire station and the George and Dragon pub, which no longer exists, was a small coffee bar. This was a place of vague Italian pretensions, with a Gaggia machine or something similar, where teenagers not old enough for the pub could go, especially at the weekend. It was near two record shops, one just across the road and the other round the corner in South Road and not far from several clothes shops where things like Levi jeans and purple mohair jumpers could be found. There were also several 'greasy spoon' cafes - I remember one on Featherstone Road, where teenagers could gather.