Old Compton Café / Balans
The last stop of the night
The Old Compton Café at 60–62 Old Compton Street was, for a generation of Soho night owls, the last stop of the evening. Open 24 hours, it was the after-clubbing destination: somewhere to arrive at 2 or 3am when the clubs had closed and the night was not quite over. Prady Balan, who founded the café, went on to build the Balans chain that spread across London and beyond while keeping its roots on Old Compton Street.
It served a community that lived nocturnally – performers, clubbers, sex workers, insomniacs, people in no hurry to go home to a city that had once given them nowhere to be. A table would always be found. Balans Soho Society still operates at this address.