Ace Cafe London

Back in 1938 when the Ace Cafe first opened the new North Circular Road was bringing traffic to its door and, thanks to its 24 hour opening, soon became a popular meeting place for motorcyclists and petrolheads. A stray World War II bomb meant it had to be rebuilt in 1949 but it continued to thrive and in the 1950s and sixties the Ace was renowned as a hang-out for rockers and rebels. So much so, in fact, that it starred as the backdrop to the 1963 Sidney Furie film 'The Leather Boys', which starred Rita Tushingham, Colin Campbell and Dudley Sutton as well as many of the cafe's patrons as extras. Shutting in 1969, it was relaunched and refurbished in 2001, continuing the cafe's long history as a centre of biking activity. While the cafe runs as a regular restaurant during the day, at night it has live music on a couple of Saturdays every month and a 2am late licence. But it's not just bikers who gather here, regular car events also take place throughout the year so if you drop by any night or weekend you can be sure there'll be some car, bike or music event taking place. Large scale events like the annual Ace Cafe Reunion attract up to 12,000 riders - quite a sight when they take to the road.