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Cyberia, London

1994 establishments in England1994 establishments in the United Kingdom1994 in computingCoffeehouses and cafés in LondonDefunct tourist attractions in London
FitzroviaHistory of the London Borough of CamdenInternet cafés
Cyberia Internet Cafe
Cyberia Internet Cafe

Cyberia, London was an internet cafe founded in London in September 1994, which provided desktop computers with full internet access in a café environment. Situated at 39 Whitfield Street in Fitzrovia, the cafe was founded by Eva Pascoe, David Rowe, Keith Teare and Gené Teare, and the space served as an early hub for those with an interest in computing and the Net. Cyberia was the first internet cafe in the UK, and would soon expand into a franchise, both across the UK and worldwide.Cyberia was intended to be a women only venture, providing a space in which women could learn and play with new technologies in their own space. "To be honest, I thought that all the boy nerds would be hooked up at home and they wouldn't need us. But we had this incredibly fast connection, and they couldn't wait to use our equipment. Actually we really liked that." After its launch, Cyberia soon became popular and settled down to a comfortable half and half, but it did host a weekly women's night to train in digital skills.Cyberia London basement spaces were also a thriving hub of activity. Ivan Pope's Webmedia, one of the first web design and build companies, was the first tenant occupying part of the basement. Subcyberia, home to the post-rave Sunday morning breakfast club and the cafe's gamer space, was frequented with gamers 24/7 such as Richard Bartle. Transcyberia, a "semi-nerd lab room creative technology centre" for software developers and designers, played host to a range of organisations including Michael Gurstein's Community Informatics Research Network. It would see music artists passing through - Kylie Minogue held a press event at the venue, whilst David Bowie would perform a link-up through Bowienet. Cyberia enjoyed superfast internet access as a result of their partnership with the Easynet ISP founded by Rowe and Teare, who operated from the same building as the cafe. In turn Cyberia marketed Easynet products and services and were often the first port of call for Easynet customers looking for support for their new systems. Other early investors in Cyberia included Mick Jagger and Maurice Saatchi.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Cyberia, London (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Cyberia, London
Whitfield Street, London Fitzrovia (London Borough of Camden)

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Wikipedia: Cyberia, LondonContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 51.5201 ° E -0.135 °
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Address

Whitfield Street 31-37
W1T 2HL London, Fitzrovia (London Borough of Camden)
England, United Kingdom
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Cyberia Internet Cafe
Cyberia Internet Cafe
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Fitzroy Tavern
Fitzroy Tavern

The Fitzroy Tavern is a public house situated at Charlotte Street in the Fitzrovia district of central London, England, owned by the Samuel Smith Brewery. It became famous during a period spanning the 1920s to the mid-1950s as a meeting place for many of London's artists, intellectuals and bohemians such as Jacob Epstein, Nina Hamnett, Dylan Thomas, Augustus John, and George Orwell. It is named either directly or indirectly after the Fitzroy family, Dukes of Grafton, who owned much of the land on which Fitzrovia was built. The building was originally constructed as the Fitzroy Coffee House, in 1883, and converted to a pub (called "The Hundred Marks") in 1887, by W. M. Brutton. In the early years of the 20th century, Judah Morris Kleinfeld became licensee. He rebranded it the "Fitzroy Tavern" in March 1919. The licence then passed to his daughter and her husband Charles Allchild who ran it into the 1950s. His granddaughter Sally Fiber who worked behind the bar from a very young age eventually wrote a history of the pub, "The Fitzroy: The Autobiography of a London Tavern" with the help of Clive Powell-Williams. There are photographs on the walls of both Michael Bentine and Dylan Thomas drinking in the pub. Since 2000 it has been the home of the Pear Shaped Comedy Club which runs every Wednesday in the downstairs bar.In 2018, the pub was given a pub design award by CAMRA for its 2015 refurbishment, in which its original Victorian appearance was retained and revived. Polished mahogany partitions with acid-etched glass were installed downstairs to recreate the original snugs, while wrought-iron pub signs in keeping with the originals were erected outside.