• Created: 2 years ago
• Category: Motorcycle Clubs (Intl)
• Tags: ace cafe ace cafe club

The Ace Cafe was built in 1938 as a roadside cafe to cater
for traffic, particularly hauliers, using the new
North Circular Road. With its proximity to Britain´s then new
and fast arterial road network and being open 24 hours,
the Ace Cafe soon attracted motorcyclists.

Once the cafe was established, the owner's thoughts turned to the motor trade. In 1939 he opened a service station with a battery of 10 pumps on adjoining land, with a spacious washing bay, showroom and repair shop.

In world war two, the building was badly damaged during an
air raid on the adjacent railway marshalling yards.

The Ace Cafe was reopened in temporary accommodation and subsequently rebuilt in 1949.

 The post-war increase in road traffic and advent of the "teenage" phenomena saw the Ace booming, and with it, the arrival of the "Ton-Up-Boys". The British motorcycle industry was at its peak, and along came Rock ´n´ Roll. Not played on radio stations, initially the only place it could be heard was at fairgrounds or on jukeboxes at transport cafes.

It became the place to meet, have a meal or cup of tea,
arrange runs (often to other cafes or the coast)
or simply to mend your bike.

People came to listen to the jukebox, many subsequently
starting bands or clubs. Some gaining success
and considerable reputation.

From this powerful fusion of motorbikes and Rock ´n´ Roll came the legends of record-racing, "drop the coin right into the slot", and race to a given point and back before the record finished.

The Ace Cafe, with its combination of motorbikes, speed and Rock ´n´ Roll was the launchpad for many famous racers and the birthplace for many bands.

The tabloid press carried many articles portraying cafes as the places where decent people didn´t go.

....and WHAT a reputation.....

The cafe played a leading role in the 1963 Sidney Furie film THE LEATHER BOYS, which starred Rita Tushingham, Colin Campbell and Dudley Sutton, utilising many of the cafe's patrons as 'extras'.

Shooting scenes at the Ace Cafe, Furie, eager to achieve realism, took advice from the local riders. "You'd never find an Ace boy wearing them jeans" he was told one morning.

Furie's direction and strong performances combined to make The Leather Boys one of the great British films of the sixties.

Rita Tushingham, Colin Campbell, Dudley Sutton, and author of the novel, The Leather Boys, Gillian Freeman, were all present for the Grand Reopening in September 2001.

The legend of the Ace Cafe lives on in the minds of those who went there, those who wish they went there and those too young to have been there.