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LONGSTAFF: No, I had a brother … about 18 months older than me. But it’s just odd snatches of memory you get from a very early age. So I was less than three years old when that happened. I think Germany ran out of bombs, or planes, I’m not sure which. You know you can remember certain things even when you were very, very tiny, and I do remember … you know, and I was only … I think the air raids finished in about 1942.
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LONGSTAFF: Yes, in 1945, was when we had VE day. But, anyway, so I was raised there.ĪNGLIN: Were you about six or seven when the war was over? We did have a lot of air fields around us, especially as the war progressed. They were after factories and ports and air fields. Cambridge never really got bombed because there wasn’t really a lot of industry there. So, anyway, that was in Cambridge and the grocery store was called “Longstaff’s” and, my parents had that … and, anyway, then of course, I remember the war … We had our own air raid shelter at the time, in our stock room, and I remember being dragged down in the middle of the night, twice. LONGSTAFF: But that’s all we have in common. We both were raised, you know, above a grocery store … So, just like Margaret Thatcher and I, we both had similar rearing. My parents had a small grocery store, something about the size of a 7-11 type store … about that size … and we lived above it. LONGSTAFF: Well, I was born in Cambridge, England, in 1939 just prior to World War II starting. Obviously you are from the United Kingdom in some locale, so tell us where you came from originally. So they always say the best place to begin is at the beginning. So, Richard, thank you for agreeing to participate in this project with The Dallas Way.ĪNGLIN: Thank you. Richard and I have been acquaintances for many years, and he has agreed to give an interview and answer some of our questions and talk about history for a while. Richard, now retired and living in Florida, takes us through his own personal life story, both in England and the United States, his public life as a retailer in Oak Lawn, his deep involvement with the Dallas GLBT community, the torment of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s and 1990s, his humiliation before the American courts in a futile struggle to become a citizen of the United States, and his hopeful view toward the future.ĪNGLIN: This is Mike Anglin, and I’m acting as the interviewer here on behalf of The Dallas Way, and this is March 31, 2014, at about 2:15 in the afternoon. When complete, the development will include 450 apartments.Ĭaven CEO Gregg Kilhoffer told Dallas Voice that he’s been approached with offers from developers for years, all of which would involve tearing down the bar buildings along Cedar Springs.Ĭonstruction is planned to start in mid-2022, pending zoning approvals and community feedback.Mike Anglin interviews Richard Longstaff, the legendary godfather of Cedar Springs and the owner of popular clothing store Union Jack. The first of two phases, designed by Dallas-based GDA Architects, will include a tower up to 20 stories tall with space for multiple new restaurants and retail establishments. “We don’t plan to displace a single tenant.” It’s all being built into the fabric of what’s there,” developer Michael Ablon to The Dallas Morning News. Caven owns Station 4, JR’s Bar & Grill, Sue Ellen’s and TMC, as well as many of the surrounding parking lots.Īs a condition of the sale, Caven will continue to operate its bars in their current locations, which will be incorporated into the larger project with a pocket park, 70-foot waterfall and other outdoor community spaces. Caven Enterprises has sold its land along Cedar Springs to developer PegasusAblon with plans for two mixed-use high rises, according to the Dallas Voice.