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Picture source: Paul McCarthy

The Cumberland Stores was situated at 1 Kingly St W1, on the corner of Kingly and Beak St. This pub was run by Jack Brady and his wife Gladys. In the sixties it was frequented by the new beautiful people from nearby Carnaby St and in the seventies by the advertising community. Mick Jagger famously dropped in for a light ale after a news conference following his arrest in 1967 for cannabis use. The pub closed in 1990 and is now the Myung Ga Korean Restaurant.

Source: Paul McCarthy (former barman)

Yesterday I saw the Myung Ga, Korean Restaurant at 1. Kingly St. London W1 on the corner of Beak Street. This took me back to 14th June 1971 when I was a young refrigeration service engineer and attended the Cumberland Stores PH to complete a maintenance visit on the refrigeration equipment in the pub. I was 21 at the time and a keen fan of boxing. Next door in Beak St was the Lonsdale Sports Club and I was told to hang around by the pub staff because the World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Mr. Joe Frazier (Smoking Joe Frazier) was due to arrive to make an appearance at the club and the Cumberland Stores were supplying food and drinks for the event. Luckily, I met Smoking Joe briefly as he stepped out of the car and I managed to get him to give me his signature on the back of my work ticket book. I still have his autograph to this day. Such a shame that the good old London pubs are being lost to endless foreign restaurants.

Paul Clifton (March 2022)

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