Coventry Transport Museum is Coming of Age at the Ace Cafe

[dutchman]

It's fashion, motorbikes and rock ‘n’ roll at Coventry Transport Museum.



They have teamed up with Ace Cafe London for an exhibition about the legendary cafe and what it meant to the teenagers who visited it in the 1950s and 60s.

The Ace Cafe was planned as a transport cafe for lorry drivers during the 1930s on London’s North Circular Road and quickly became a place where motorbike riders gathered.

In the 1950s, the Ace became the destination for a new breed of motorcycle riders – teenagers who met there to listen to rock ‘n’ roll, and to burn up the road doing The Ton – the magic speed. They were daring and dangerous, and their lifestyle has influenced fashion, music and motorbikes ever since.

The Coming of Age at The Ace Cafe exhibition recreates the cafe itself inside the city museum and is filled with bikes, clothes and musical instruments from the 1950s and 60s era.

Visitors can choose a song from the working jukebox, have a game on the pinball machine and take a seat at the cafe’s tables... instead of menus they will find potted histories of the motorcycles, the cultural icons, and the music.

Mark Wilsmore, who reopened the real Ace Cafe in 2001, says: “The museum’s curators have come up with an exhibition that is second to none and with which I am absolutely delighted.”

Steve Bagley, Coventry Transport Museum’s head of collections, adds: “Perhaps the most impressive bikes are the two Triumph Bonneville T120s, plus a fantastic BSA Gold Star and a Manx Norton.”

Coming of Age At the Ace Cafe runs until October 2.