Not just Harrow!

Working, as I do, in our offices on a Friday and Saturday night, I am always surprised by the amount of people who talk about being bored with Harrow. As if to suggest there is nowhere else to go!!! I have lived in Harrow since I was 5 years old so from the age of 18 Harrow was one of the places I came to at night. Back then there were only two or three pubs. Where Golds Gym is now used to be a cinema and it had a bar upstairs. The Royal Oak was where it has always been, The Junction pub was a Beefeater restaurant and where Burger King used to be was a pub the name of which I can't remember. Then in the late Eighties a wine bar (wine and cocktail bars were very big in the Eighties) called Mirrarbeaus opened just next to the Post Office in College Road. Mirrarbeaus was very popular and gradually a pattern formed. Back then there were no late licences available and pubs and bars closed at 11pm so it was Mirrabeaus until 11 and then jump in a mini cab and go to Middlesex and Harts Country Club which was in Old Redding Harrow Weald. But, and here is my point, that was only one night,usually the Friday and on the Saturday night we would go further afield. Having failed with all the woman in Harrow, I spread my wings and managed to fail with all the women within the M25. I used to like Richmond and Kingston. A friend of mine always wanted to go to Skindles in Maidenhead and another friend always wanted to go into town. Covent Garden was a favourite place. In particular a cocktail bar called Rumours, there was also a restaurant bar in Cavendish Square I think called the Telephone Exchange. Each of the tables had a telephone and if you fancied someone on table 6 you could dial table 6 and try to chat them up. My phone was always broken or at least I think it was!! Back then getting home from London was not easy. Mobile phones had just been intoduced but they were the size of a brick and none of us could have afforded one, so you had to find a phone box that worked and then find a minicab company that was open. What we used to do was walk down to Marble Arch and try and get a black cab. Sometimes you would wait an hour before one of them took pity on you. Other times you would start walking down the Bayswater Road hoping to find a cab at one of the green huts that the black cab guys used to use. If you had no luck then keeping walking to Shepherds Bush because a few black cabs who hang around near the BBC. Very often by the the time you got to Shepherds Bush you had got your second wind. Grab a coffee and a bacon roll from the all night burger van and just carry on walking back to Pinner. And you trying telling the young people of today that and they won't believe you, they won't believe you. Nowadays of course it is very different. Interline is open 24/7 and have cars in and out of London all night. Book a car in advance and we will be waiting outside when it is time to come home. You don't even need to be that far afield. Ring us from Uxbridge, Watford or Ealing. Of course it would be best to prearrange your minicab and better still if we arrange to take you into London then you can agree a meeting point with your driver and you know who to look for when you come out. Give us a call when you are in town and we can usually be with you in 45 minutes or less. Same with Richmond and Kingston. Put our number 020 8864 7888 in your mobile and give us a call wherever you are. We will always give an honest response time and a price we will stick too. If there is a crowd of you we can send an MPV or 2/3 cars. Definitely something I would have appreciated back in the day stood in the pouring rain, 3 in the morning at Marble Arch.