Memories
August 2006 Patricia Love & Frannie at Tiles Wine Bar in the '70s
It all seems like a million years ago now, but I was going out with Dave Sibbald who ran Tiles. Frannie was the barmaid and waitress - but there was rather more to her than that. She had her own fan base of customers who used to all vie to sit up at the bar and gaze adoringly at her.
"...she is standing in the doorway of Tiles, I'm sitting at the table side on to the camera, with our other friend Jan."
I remember her sense of humour and mischief, her dimples, her laugh. I was actually a bit frightened and intimidated by her at first - the Tiles gang were a bit of a clique and when I started seeing Dave I was a bit on the outside of it. Dave had been married before and one night after the bar closed the 3 of us went back to his flat in Fulham and Fran rummaged in the chest of drawers to find us something to sleep in, and I remember her putting on his wife's black nightie! I was horrified and yet admiring at her bravery and chutzpah at the same time.
She and I went to an exercise class off Baker Street a couple of times, but we were both rather busty, so we found it quite hard to lie flat face down for one exercise! I wish I had a photo of her and I in our 1970s style black leotards with the footless tights.
"Frannie and I and two guys, - I have no idea who they were, but she and I were getting our photo taken and they just wanted to be in it."
We were all so young and carefree, I think about those days often. I lost touch when Dave and I split up and Frannie moved away from Tiles to open up her own place. Then when I Googled 'Tiles Wine Bar' recently for some research for something I'm doing, I couldn't believe my eyes when I read the obituary by her sister. It was a shock, because even though we weren't best pals, and it's been many years since I saw her, I felt very sad indeed reading it. She was a delightful girl.
Another memory I have is when we piled into my nephew's little MG to go up from her house to Joe Allen's in Covent Garden one Saturday or Sunday afternoon for cocktails with some big wig in the wine business. We broke the car's suspension and were so late that when we got there, the guy had gone. However he had left word that we were to have a drink on him. Frannie ordered a bottle of Champagne.
The two photos that I have of her are attached. In one of them she is standing in the doorway of Tiles, I'm sitting at the table side on to the camera, with our other friend Jan. A still from the past, from a sunny summer evening all those years ago. The other one is Frannie and I and two guys, - I have no idea who they were, but she and I were getting our photo taken and they just wanted to be in it. I look at her hand on my arm in the picture and it takes me back.
Best wishes,
Patricia
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