POSK, London - what is it like these days?

Am planning to go there some time in the next few weeks - not been for years. What is it like these days? Has it become more of a jazz venue rather than a restaurant and bar?

so londonchick, are you scottish of polish descent? tell us the true :)

I am a Scot living in London. No Polish roots whatsoever... why do you ask?

londonchick,
so why POSK ?
are you polonophil?

LC, I don't know if you've seen this website jazzcafeposk.co.uk/index-en.html or if it's helpful to you. :)

I spend a lot of time in Poland - I visit about 7-8 times a year on business and have friends there. As I've become more involved in Poland, I've made quite a lot of London-Polish friends. I'm about to start learning the language very shortly.


Cheers m'dear... yes, I was looking at the snazzy new website earlier today. Seems like they've expanded the jazz aspect.

Aye, looks good :)

Come on down... :))

Tempting...

When you've been though, tell us your impressions :)

Will do - I'll be going at some point in the next couple of weeks... I'll do a report...

There is nothing worth seeing in POSK at all. Sometimes there is a small art display downstairs, otherwise there is a small cafe on the ground floor where you can buy szalotka (apple pie) if you like that sort of thing. I was in POSK many years ago several times only because it was the G.C.S.E. Polish examination centre and everybody had to attend the examination within the building. I am not even sure if the Polish Language School still exists or the examination for that matter.

That is why your opinion is worth not much, really.

So was I - but I was under the impression that it had changed a bit.


How old are you Michal? Did you do the GCSE in your youth? I kind of imagined you to be in your 50s or maybe even 60s.

If I remember rightly, I took the examination at the same time that my first son was born so it must have been in the Summer of 1993-fifteen years ago. My son was born, we went and stayed in a caravan on a holiday park near to Great Yarmouth and we visited relatives who used to have a caravan on the same site. What a dump-it was called the Wild Duck Caravan Park, later bought out, very rough, like a nasty council esate on wheels! Certainly no sign of any ducks! Anyway, on our return, my examination result was waiting. My God, how time flies by.

Glad to have evoked so many happy memories for you :)

I visited POSK a while ago, mainly to go to the bookshop there. It reminded me a bit of the hard currency shops that used to be in Romania...., in a kinda cute way.

Lots of books though :)

Yes but all rubbish. Have you seen the stupid medals you can buy in that silly little shop of theirs? I did not like the books at all and was not interested in anything.

So I won't be seeing you in there when I go, then Michal? LOL!!

Well they did say they could order any book and that it might arrive...
I did go looking for a specific book which they, um didn't have.

As I said, it did remind me more of Romania than anything else :)

Actually, "polish London" was a disappointment - I expected a larger degree of Polishness. Dublin's polish zone is much better.

I agree with you there. I really don't like Hammersmith - I think that it's the architecture that is just depressing. There are some fab little Polish delis along King Street though.

I kind of liked the tube station though. Curvy.


King Street, St James' - in The City?

Urgh!! No - I hate that tube station. Though maybe that's because when I was there last week, my carrier bags ripped and my groceries went everywhere, at the same time I got all tangled up with my iPod and couldn't find my Oyster Card and people were shoving newspapers and flyers at me from every direction.


No, the main street near Ravenscourt Park that runs along to Hammersmith.

No, if you get back on to the underground line and go to the end, i.e. Ealing Broadway, you can walk to some really nice parks and there used to be a fair sized Polish Community there too. London is large with eight million people and people are mixed up everywhere. You will not find a Polish Community in London like the Chinese Community in Bangkok where simply everybody and everything is Chinese or Polish in the clear sense of the word. I found the same thing in Florida. I went to Little Havana thinking it would all be Spanish and fun and in fact it was a big let down-just a long boring American road with some cross roads and a few small shops.

Aw, that's not the station's fault though, is it? Surely the iPod has to bear some of the blame (iPodować - iPodowam, iPodowasz, iPodowa..., etc heh)


Ah, next time I'm over I'll have to take a look there.


You're right, of course - much the same as Dublin, only on a larger scale. Perhaps I just had built up a high expectation of POSK and it's immediate area.

I used to live for a time in London in the nineties, near one of the er "Irish areas." ;)

I know, I know... It's just one of those bad-mood inducing stations though. Kings Cross has a similar effect.

That's cos it's so vast?

POSK has a coffee shop and a restaurant with very nice food. Definitely worth a visit. From time to time they also have some expositions. Regarding to polish language, the hammersmith and fulham courses for adults runs a polish course based in POSK which is not great but good enough for beginners.