Punk’s celebrity couple photographed by Richard Mann in London theatreland haunt Joe Allen as oblivion beckons
Richard Mann’s 1978 photograph of Sid Vicious and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen touching tongues, captures two things: a couple of punk icons on the way out, and a great restaurant being born. The glory days of the Sex Pistols were gone. But the setting, a restaurant beloved of theatreland’s finest, was curious. “That was their choice,” says Mann now. “Joe Allen had not long been open and they wanted to go there.”
Getting a table wouldn’t have been completely straightforward. The restaurant, which has just celebrated its 40th birthday, was a hit in London’s theatreland from the moment it opened its doors. The British sibling to another in New York, it was also going to prove a training ground for some of the biggest names in the British restaurant business. Both Jeremy King, of the Wolseley, and Russell Norman, of the Polpo group, worked there as maître d’s. Rowley Leigh, later of Kensington Place, was head chef.
Related: Sid Vicious: Little boy lost, by Jon Savage
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