Medici Coffee Bar (Rochdale)

The Medici Coffee Bar was in Rochdale and opened in 1961.

It was between Drake Street and Baron Street near to Dennis Hope’s and it was in an upstairs room, which you walked up stairs to get to.

The owner of the club was Mike Carr (b. Michael Joseph Carr, c. 1941 d. March 1968, Stockport, Cheshire, England in a road traffic accident). He lived with his mother Mrs. Carr and his sister Miss Pat Carr in Dewhirst Road, Syke, Rochdale, Lancashire.

Carr had been to school with drummer Larry King (b. Lawrence Arendes, Tuesday, August 5, 1941, Dock Road, Huyton, Liverpool, Lancashire, England d. Tuesday, March 14, 2017, Aintree Hospital, Aintree, Liverpool, Merseyside, England). King was later in a number of bands including Wimple Winch (Early 1966 - Late 1967), which Carr managed.

It was the first coffee bar to be opened in Rochdale.

Apart from the evenings and weekends, this was a favorite lunchtime haunt for pupils of The Technical School, many coming back late to afternoon lessons after a coffee in The Medici Coffee Bar.

The bar remained open for approximately three years. The Medici Coffee Bar closed in ca. 1964.

Sadly, Mike Carr died in a road traffic accident in March 1968 in Stockport, three months before he was to marry Miss Brenda-Marie Whitton.