Bar Italia is a coffee shop located on Frith Street in Soho Central London.
On January 26, 1926, John Logie Baird gave the first public demonstration of television at 22 Frith Street, the building where Bar Italia[1] is located. The blue plaque above the front door commemorates this event. There is also a little known film about this event.
Bar Italia in its present form was open as a coffee shop in 1949 by the Polledri family,[1] and is still owned by Veronica and Anthony Polledri today.
Bar Italia inspired the song of the same name by the band Pulp, it featured as the last track of their 1995 album Different Class, it features lines such as "It's round the corner in Soho" and "where all the lonely people go".
In November 2010 it was announced that Dave Stewart and Ian La Frenais were writing a stage musical about the cafe which will be called Bar Italia. Stewart was quoted as saying "This coffee shop is very small but what goes on in there is as big as the world."
In July 2011 British artist Ed Gray unveiled a painting of Bar Italia featuring patrons Rupert Everett and John Hurt. It now hangs in the cafe's window.
Bar Italia was awarded the 2010 London Lifestyle Awards - London Coffee Shop of the Year