The Ace Cafe
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The Ace Cafe is an old transport café; it originally opened in 1938 and was designed to accommodate the traffic travelling on the then new North Circular Road. Due to the fact that the cafe was open 24 hours a day it soon started to attract motorcyclists.It became popular with Rockers in the 1950/60s and it was a local haunt for the petrol heads. Today it has been refurbished and Rockers and motorcyclists from all over the world go to the Ace to share stories, fix bikes and see the legend itself.
The cafe was rebuilt in 1949 after being destroyed in a World War II air raid. This happened because the building is very close to the Willesden Railway Marshalling Yard, the actual target of the raid.
A number of events occurred in the Post-war environment to make the Ace Cafe a success, the emergence of the Teenager; increases in road traffic; and the British motorcycle industry being at its peak. Many young people started to meet at the cafe with their motorcycles and listen to Rock'n'Roll music.
The cafe established itself as a cultural hub for rockers, and many bands and motorcycle enthusiast groups formed there.
The original cafe closed in 1969; one usage before it re-opened was as a tyre sales and fitting shop. One abiding virtue was that for some time they did sell and fit motor cycle tyres. However the Ace Cafe was refurbished and reopened in 1997, but no longer for 24 hours. The cafe is now also famous for its various classic and sports car gatherings.
An attempt was made in the 80s and 90s to re-create the Ace Cafe some miles away on the Western Avenue but this was not in the right place and so was not totally successful.
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