The Ace Cafe is an old

transport cafe In Britain, a cafe (), also known colloquially as a caff or greasy spoon, is a small, cheap eatery typically specialising in fried foods or home-cooked meals. Though it uses the same word origin as the term "café", it is distinct from the ...

located near

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

, North West London, England. Situated next to the

North Circular Road The North Circular Road (officially the A406 and sometimes known as simply the North Circular) is a ring road around Central London in England. It runs from Chiswick in the west to Woolwich in the east via suburban North London, connecting ...

, it is historically a notable venue in motorcycle culture. The original cafe opened in 1938 and closed in 1969. It re-opened on the original site in 1997 as a cafe, functions, and entertainment venue.

Location

The Ace Cafe is located on a leg on the western side of the North Circular Road, off the junction with Beresford Avenue. On the A406 it is between the

Hanger Lane gyratory The Hanger Lane gyratory is a multi-lane rectangular gyratory – having the Hanger Lane underpass, under its southern limb, for the Western Avenue ( A40). It enables intersection with the North Circular (A406) and the inceptive Ealing Road ...

and the

A404 junction. It is east of the

Alperton Alperton () is an area of north west London, England, within the London Borough of Brent. It forms the southern part of the town of Wembley and is west north-west of Charing Cross. It includes a handful of high-rise and many mid-rise buildings ...

neighbourhood, close by Stonebridge and the Park Royal industrial estate. Apart from the cafe on the original site in London, Ace Cafe London have opened cafes in other countries: Ace Corner

Lahti Lahti (; sv, Lahtis) is a city and municipality in Finland. It is the capital of the region of Päijänne Tavastia (Päijät-Häme) and its growing region is one of the main economic hubs of Finland. Lahti is situated on a bay at the southern e ...

, Finland (opened in June 2011), Ace Cafe Luzern, Switzerland (opened in June 2015), Ace Cafe

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, China (opened in July 2015), Ace Cafe

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, Spain (opened in April 2017), and Ace Cafe

Orlando Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures re ...

, United States of America (opened in May 2017).

History

The Ace Cafe opened in 1938 to accommodate traffic on the then-new

A406 road The North Circular Road (officially the A406 and sometimes known as simply the North Circular) is a ring road around Central London in England. It runs from Chiswick in the west to Woolwich in the east via suburban North London, connecting ...

, locally known as the North Circular. It was built on an area between the

Grand Union Canal The Grand Union Canal in England is part of the British canal system. It is the principal navigable waterway between London and the Midlands. Starting in London, one arm runs to Leicester and another ends in Birmingham, with the latter ...

and

Stonebridge Park Depot ::''Stonebridge Park Depot was also the historic name for part of Wembley Intercity Depot'' Stonebridge Park Depot is a stabling and maintenance depot for trains on the Bakerloo line of the London Underground in England. It opened in 1979, as pa ...

. Because the cafe was open 24 hours a day, it started to attract

motorcyclists Motorcycling is the act of riding a motorcycle. For some people, motorcycling may be the only affordable form of individual motorized transportation, and small- displacement motorcycles are the most common motor vehicle in the most populous c ...

in the evening and at weekends, becoming popular in the 1950s and 1960s with the Rockers, whereupon Reverend Bill Shergold initially visited to invite them to join the

59 Club The 59 Club, also written as The Fifty Nine Club and known as 'the 9', is a British motorcycle club with members distributed internationally. The 59 Club started as a Church of England-based youth club founded at St Mary of Eton church in Ha ...

. The cafe was rebuilt in 1949, after an air raid on the nearby

Willesden Willesden () is an area of northwest London, situated 5 miles (8 km) northwest of Charing Cross. It is historically a parish in the county of Middlesex that was incorporated as the Municipal Borough of Willesden in 1933, and has forme ...

railway marshalling yards caused damage during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Events in the postwar environment made the Ace a success – the emergence of the teenager, an increase in traffic, and the British motorcycle industry at its peak. Young people started to meet at the cafe to socialise, gather their motorcycles, and listen to rock'n'roll on

juke boxes A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that will play a patron's selection from self-contained media. The classic jukebox has buttons, with letters and numbers on them, which are used to selec ...

. Bands and motorcycle enthusiast groups formed there. The cafe closed in 1969, shortly after the opening of the Scratchwood Services at what was then the southern end of the M1 motorway. The ground floor of the building became a tyre sales and fitting shop. The first floor was occupied by a vehicle delivery company.

Rocker revival and refurbishment

With increasing popularity of the Rocker revival and discussions with original 59 Club members,The Rev William Shergold: biker priest
''The Times'', 23 May 2009 the first Ace Cafe reunion was organised by Mark Wilsmore and held in 1994.''

Motor Cycle News ''MCN'' or ''Motor Cycle News'' is a UK weekly motorcycling newspaper published by Bauer Consumer Media, based in Peterborough, United Kingdom. It claims to be "the world’s biggest weekly motorcycle newspaper". The title was founded in lat ...

'' 23 March 1994, p. 48 ''Ace Cafe to open for rocker bash. "Famous rockers' haunt, the Ace Cafe, is to "re-open" 25 years after its closure for an anniversary meeting...Triumph fan Mark Wilsmore has arranged for an exhibition and all-day party at the site in September. The cafe closed in 1969 and now houses a tyre depot on London's North Circular Road''". Accessed and added 2014-10-05 The cafe reopened in 1997, with complete refurbishment completed by September 2001. Rockers and motorcyclists from all over the world attend themed meetings. It is no longer open 24-hours but the cafe now has an extensive calendar of events for both motorbike and classic car owners. It also hosts weekly live music and DJs, and is approved for weddings and civil partnerships.

Film and media

The Ace Cafe was used as a location in the 1964 film ''

The Leather Boys ''The Leather Boys'' is a 1964 British drama film about the rocker subculture in London featuring a gay motorcyclist. This film is notable as an early example of a film that violated the Hollywood production code, yet was still shown in the Unit ...

'', Sidney J. Furie's British

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

-interest kitchen sink drama, starring

Rita Tushingham Rita Tushingham (born 14 March 1942) is an English actress. She is known for her starring roles in films including ''A Taste of Honey'' (1961), ''The Leather Boys'' (1964), '' The Knack ...and How to Get It'' (1965), ''Doctor Zhivago'' (1965), ...

. In the past it has been used for the Channel 5 TV programme ''

Fifth Gear ''Fifth Gear'' is a British motoring television magazine series on Discovery+. It is a continuation of the ''Fifth Gear'' format originally broadcast on Channel 5 from 2002 to 2011, afterwards moving to Discovery Channel in 2012, and then in ...

'' in the seasons 10 to 13 (September 2006 until March 2008), and for ITV programme ''Used Car Roadshow''. It has also featured in the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

Location

History

Rocker revival and refurbishment

Film and media

Awards

See also

Notes

References

External links