Not the former England footballer but the former department store next to Finchley Road tube. John Barnes was a rambling, old fashioned store with a wonderful food hall in the basement. It was the hub of the Viennese Jewish community who’d fled the Nazis and settled around West Hampstead and Swiss Cottage. As a child, I was fascinated by these gentle, cultured but often sorrowful people. Some lived in the elegant 1930s apartment block above the store which, as you approached on the top of the No.13 bus, looked just like an ocean liner. Jewish musicians would then clamber on with their cellos and trombones to go and play at Wigmore Hall and it all seemed terribly exotic. The ground floor of John Barnes is now a Waitrose and those old residents have died off. But still, whenever I go there, this tune will start playing in my head.
I’ve always loved John Barnes.

- Best double a...28th Feb 2015
- I've never se...27th Feb 2015
- Are you a tri...26th Feb 2015
- Loz Newton on...25th Feb 2015
- I once had a ...24th Feb 2015
- Eddie Redmayn...23rd Feb 2015
- 新年快樂22nd Feb 2015
- Any excuse fo...21st Feb 2015
- Would it happ...20th Feb 2015
- 30 years of E...19th Feb 2015
- Oh God, they'...18th Feb 2015
- I think it's ...17th Feb 2015
- The party's o...16th Feb 2015
- My luxury ite...15th Feb 2015
- Red Rose Spee...14th Feb 2015 prev next