We were enthralled by a short article in the Camden New Journal about a letter received from one Jill Alexander detailing a thwarted love affair at the turn of the 1960s.
Camden-born Jill wrote saying she used to meet ex-Haverstock schoolboy Michael Gothard at his cafe on 96 Torriano Avenue, Kentish Town, the preferred haunt for a crowd of teddy boys, mods, rockers and greasers.
“They engaged in all sorts of nasty activities, such as collecting protection money from small shopkeepers, small robberies, muggings and the like”, according to the Michael Gothard archive, which also explains that the area was a war damage/slum clearance site: “the cafe was more or less a dump.”
Yet a classic tale of love at first sight blossomed, and the pair were heading for big things in the romance department when a misunderstanding resulted in an untimely split.
Michael managed to make a go of it in acting, appearing in films including Ken Russell’s The Devils, the Three Musketeers and TV show Department S. But in 1992 in a fit of depression he killed himself in Hampstead.
Jill, meanwhile, settled in the now fashionable town of Deal, Kent. Her story came out when she told her son, who then discovered online that Michael Gothard had been a star before committing suicide.
The article ends with Jill asking if anyone out there remembers the cafe at 96 Torriano Avenue (right next door to what is now Torriano Meeting House) – as she’d love to hear from them.
So we thought we’d widen the net and put it out there too. Get in touch below if you have any tales and we’ll forward all comments on.
Read more about Michael on the Michael Gothard archive
4 thoughts on “A love affair, suicide – and a little cafe at 96 Torriano Avenue”
Would very much like to get in contact with Jill.
Michael is perhaps most fondly remembered for his co-starring role as Kai in “Arthur of the Britons”, along with Oliver Tobias as Arthur. His biggest role in terms of fame was probably in “For your Eyes Only” as hit-man Emile Leopold Locque, though he was disappointed by being typecast as a hit-man later in his career. In 2011 a tree was planted in his memory at Woodchester National Trust Park.
Michael Gothard also spent some time in Bristol in the 70’s, I knew an american guy who knew him and met him on the set of Arthur and the Britons, he said he was a great guy and very friendly.
I saw most movies he was in, and didn’t know he had died until I came across it on the internet a few years back, I always felt he had a lot of things going on beneath his gaze.
Depression is a terrible thing, and I really feel for the guy.
I use to watch Auther of the britons when I was 10 and thought Michael Gothard was a nice looking guy I had no idea he had died until today what a tragic end 🙁 R I P