The London Lounge

Leavitte & Peirce

Leavitte & Peirce is a one of a kind store in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that stocks a supply of games, toiletries, canes, walking sticks, umbrellas, pipes, and of course tobacco. This is a place straight out of N.J.S.'s Book II, stocking the same sort of miscellany: from cufflinks to umbrellas mixed all in with a good whiff of fine tobacco.

On the way in, we noticed a brass plaque outside the door, with a poem by Mark D. DeWolfe Howe, Class of 1882:

Narrowly parted from the yard,
a little college long has stood.
no flunkster ever yet was barred
from gaining all he might of good
about a brand of special knowledge
untaught within the larger college:
to know a good pipe when he tried it,
and lips and teeth to breath had plied it…

A ghost of Nicholas Storey was seen sitting in the upstairs seating area (which is outfitted with chess tables, rarely used for games) and grumbling about smoking no longer being allowed on the premises, reading reviews of his books. He had just made his way from Brattle Square, where he stopped by Colonial Drug, a purveyor perfumes and shaving brushes on a street once known as Tory Row (the Tories have since been evicted and fled.)


The Colonial druggist, mustache wax and all.

So, it is true!. Thank you Noble Savage for the confirmation.
I'm staying two blocks down at The Commander for this long Labor Day weekend and yesterday while walking around the Square I thought I had spotted NJS shopping for American clothes at J. Press. I believe that -surely in an effort to better blend with the crowds out in the streets- the ghost was trying on a sack blazer and a pair of Cremieux with ducky prints.

While you're there, go down Holyoke street for the Andover Shop where they have a good mix of English and American styles. However, they really can, and do, make things up as you want them to (say really wild trousers from your mother's window curtains), all you have to do is ask. Once you walk in, be sure to look up, there's a floor above the shop where the sewing machine is at work.

A bit of history here.

I am sad to report that Colonial Drug has departed from the Square to Watertown, and also that Storey Nicholas has apparently left the London Lounge, or at least his old account is gone.

Noble Savage wrote:I am sad to report that Colonial Drug has departed from the Square to Watertown, and also that Storey Nicholas has apparently left the London Lounge, or at least his old account is gone.

He decided to stop posting on this & similar forums some time ago but retained his membership of the LL so I always hoped he'd return to posting here. I guess that won't be happening now.

Russell wrote: He decided to stop posting on this & similar forums some time ago but retained his membership of the LL so I always hoped he'd return to posting here.

Since he decided -a couple of years ago- to stop writing in blogs and fora, our remembered NJS has published profusely on topics as diverse as -among others- boutonnières, style icons Beau Brummel and James Buchanan, and British adventurers. I hope some of you have been able to follow him and -like Russell- that someday Nicholas will return to the LL.

For the members who have not yet had the pleasure of reading this, a nice interview with the aforementioned elusive Mr. Storey.

http://www.keikari.com/english/intervie ... as-storey/

Good to see a note on NJS.
Always enjoyed his writing and reading his point of view.
Certainly appeared eccentric and opinionated and that's what made him endearing.
I doubt that he has any use for his London clothes now in Brazil.

There's the lesson I learned , just need shorts T shirt flip flops and warm weather.
Ties, waistcoats, EGs?? Leave that to the working classes and dandies. It was once nice.

I'm heading for warmer climes with only a light bag filled with the bare minimum and a nice companion to go along for the ride.

Still, the minimum can be worn stylishly!

Cheers NJS.!