The ‘dive bar’ in Mount Pleasant

MAYBE it will take years to know the full cost of the coronavirus and the lockdown.

Certainly we will never forget the neighbours and loved ones who died – our paper did everything we could to ensure their stories were told, rather than become the dots and lines on government mortality graphs.

As we move further away from that strange and sad time, however, we see other scars.

There are businesses which scraped through the pandemic – ourselves included – but having survived the immediate crisis, were hit with an economic one.

Even now we are seeing favourite places disappear from the map, and more will no doubt follow, never really recovering from the immense financial hit.

Harrington had all of this mind when flicking through London’s planning files this week and seeing the application to turn 59 Mount Pleasant – on from Holborn – into a new medical centre for people wanting ultrasound scans.

The address had before Covid been considered an off-the-beaten-track treat, a “dive bar” cherished by those who know London’s quirkier night spots.

The kung fu-themed Pimp Sheui had retro arcade machines – good ones! – and film posters on the wall.

Rows of television sets flickered with vintage movies.

Like all bars, it was forced to close when the virus swept through and the nature of the venue meant it was hard to reopen when the different comeback rules for socialising were introduced.

The bar had set up a “GoFundMe” fundraiser in which its fans made more than £5,000 of donations to try and help get the bar back up and running.

In the appeal, owner Sipheng You, known as Slash, said the pandemic had “caused many hardships” and that “business grants and loans helped, but weren’t enough”.

The bite here is that Pimp Sheui was operating perfectly fine before things had to close, and had hundreds of glowing reviews from customers online who described it as a hidden gem. It had the aura of being somewhere only those drinking there knew about without ever being cliquey.

Neighbouring Camden has been handed a planning application for a “change of use” to the property which said that the there are designs for “two consulting rooms with medical scanning equipment, including ultrasound… There would also be a reception and waiting room and staff and patient facilities.”

It said it had been “vacant for some considerable time” with no offers from anybody wanting to run the premises as a bar.

In these times, you could understand the nervousness to take it on, but, it’s sad isn’t it?

A zingy little cocktail bar added to the things London lost to the lockdown, even if we didn’t know it at the time.