Namaste Lounge North Wood Hill : Where Sir Elton John Started His Career

Yesterday, I visited Namaste Lounge just opposite to North Wood Hill underground in the outer skirt of city of London. 

From outside it looks like an old countryside pub. Once you enter inside, you will find a very contemporary North Indian restaurant, it is a lounge , pub,  Shisha  Bar all rolled into one. 

But what impressed me more it’s rich history and the fact that one of the best contemporary singer of our time Sir Elton John started his career as singer at this place. 

Sounds unbelievable, I will take you back to थे past. During sixties, the place was called North Wood Pub . On every Friday, Saturday and Sunday,  it used to be transformed into a gig place. George Hill, who owned the pub earlier , recollects that it was during 1962, he  first engaged the future star at the age of 15, says he : "It wasn't long after I first came here. He lived just round the corner. He came to me and asked for a job playing the piano. I didn't think he was much good to be honest but my wife disagreed and she told me to give him a break.

She was right and I was wrong, as usual.

He stayed playing here for three years.

He played old time songs like Knees Up Mother Brown. I paid him 30 bob a night - that's £1.50 now, and I've still got the piano in my garage."

So Sir Elton John started his career here and the pub’s stage was his home for almost three years, he played under the alias Reggie - his birth name is Reginald Dwight - he belted out self-penned songs, as well as covers of Jim Reeves and Ray Charles’ s hits, some time watched by his mother, Sheila. I also recollect that Elton John wrote in his auto-biography ‘Me’ that on many occasions, there used to be big fights among the guests in late hours as some of them were over drunken and the performers like John , used to jump from the windows to avoid the awkward situation!

It is also interesting to note that this pub was  pictured on the sleeve of his 1975 album Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, which peaked at number two in the charts.

In the year 2010 Namaste Lounge organised a special event to remember the first Gig played by Sir Elton John here  in the year 1962, and a plaque was provided by Performance Rights Society to this affect was fixed at the door of the Lounge.

Let me talk a bit about the food quality. The lounge spécialisés in North Indian food, their Naans are crispy as well as tasty, whatever you get in a typical roadside Punjabi Dhaba is available here right from Tadka Dal , Saag Paneer , Bhindi Do Pyaza , Daal Makhani , their  large mixed Vegetable Platter is also very filling it contains  Batata vada, Samosa , Paneer Tikka , Bhajia. Seating space is huge enough to accommodate 100 odd guests. 

Owned by Yoga Mogantas and Naveen Chande , Namaste Lounge has kept old legacy of music with best DJs on the turntable , off and on Bollywood Dhammal also.  Each night,  it transformed into a happening music and dance place. 

Namaste Lounge shows that tradition and contemporary both can go hand in hand with desi Tadka .