Ace Cafe, London – Nostalgia Central

Opened in 1938 and originally built as a transport cafe to serve motorists on the new (at the time) A406 North Circular, the Ace Cafe at Stonebridge near Wembley, North West London, had more petrol pumps than any other garage in Britain, along with a car wash and car repair facilities.

Two years after it was completed, the Ace was badly damaged during an air raid during World War II – the intended targets of the German Luftwaffe were the railway bridges just to the west of the cafe and the nearby railway marshalling yards.

Rebuilt in 1949, the cafe was open 24 hours a day and soon became a mecca for the growing motorcycle fraternity as a place to socialise, show off their bikes (taking advantage of the no-speed-limit North Circular and other nearby rural roads), and listen to rock’n’roll on the jukebox.

And so the Ace became the most famous haunt of the “Ton-up boys” in the 1950s and the Rockers in the 1960s.

In May 1962, a vicar named Father Bill Shergold (pictured below, second from left), who also happened to be a keen motorcyclist, turned up at the Ace Cafe and invited the regulars there to join the 59 Club (a youth club founded in 1959, hence the name) and attend a “blessing of the bikes”.

The Ace Cafe closed its doors in November 1969, and the building became a tyre shop.

The cafe re-opened on the original site in 1997 with a complete refurbishment completed by September 2001. The Ace now operates as a cafe and function venue.

Although it is no longer open around the clock, it has an extensive calendar of events for both motorbike and classic car owners.