‘Phil and Ken ran a gentlemen’s dress shop, a gentlemen’s casual wear shop called ‘Filk’n Casuals’. Phil and Ken. But they wanted it pronounced like ‘Fucking Casuals’, again, very daring. It was next to the Theatre Royal stage door in Bond Street. And they were the first people to do beach shirts and shorts in gaudy, jazzy, Caribbean-type colours for gentlemen. Really, in those days, you wouldn’t be seen dead in that sort of thing, you’d be thought to be that sort of person. But they did very well, and probably at that time were the only people in Britain, I would imagine. I can’t think of anything in London quite as camp as that. They were so outrageous that it was always said that if you went to buy a tie they’d measure your inside leg. Phil was always known as Rose Filk’n, and Ken was known as Esme Filk’n and they really were very, very naughty.’

‘Phil and Ken sold casual shirts, jackets, trousers and underbriefs, which were very brief underbriefs like they wear them today. They used to make them out of odd materials. They had a whole range of them done in cotton gingham, and they used to be all tailored, and the pouch was shaped at the front with a seam down it. They did lovely shirts. And Esme did a lot of leather stuff. It was very daring to wear their sort of clothes, you didn’t find it anywhere else. They did very well indeed. People used to come down specially for a weekend in Brighton and to go round to Aunt Rose’s shop. It was busy all day long on Saturday.

Return down Bond Street to North Street. Turn right and head uphill towards the Clock Tower. Stop at the traffic lights opposite Ship Street.