THIS week's picture was one of a set of photographs, recently lent to the Central Library and as soon as I saw it, I was taken back to the early 1970s, when I occasionally visited the Caf� Ol� in London Road. .

There it was, between Kan's Kitchen and the London Road Newsagents, much as I remembered it, and I'm guessing that if I have fond memories of the establishment so will other "Retro" readers.

The ways of preparing and drinking coffee must have changed greatly over the years. When I was a child, the only coffee I ever tasted was either Nescaf� or Camp.

By the time I became a teenager, frothy coffee was all the rage. It was still a bit daring to venture into our local coffee bar - it was where you hung out with your friends, behind steamed-up windows, and it stayed open late. The headmaster of the local grammar school would conduct occasional raids on it, to apprehend boys who had sloped off there during school time.

In Reading, the famous ones seem to have been the Kentuckian Wheel in Duke Street, the Honey Bear in London Street, and the Caf� Ol�.

The caf� had been in London Road at least since the end of the Second World War, when it was Powell's Caf�.

It changed hands several times in the early 1960s before becoming Caf� Ol�, and it finally disappeared from the Reading telephone book in 1977.

I'm told that it was known to the aficionados as "The Caf� [H]ole" and it was at one time notorious for the availability of drugs other than caffeine.

The only times that I ventured in were after a night on the town with friends, when the bars were closed and we wanted to continue talking.

It had very bright neon lighting and there always seemed to be a toddler in a playpen in the corner, even though it was around midnight. I'm afraid I cannot remember what their coffee tasted like.

Please get in touch if you have stories or photographs of Reading's coffee bars, which were so different from the present-day establishments run by large companies which have sprung up on every high street in the last few years.