The last night was November 30, 1985. They played The Wizard of Oz synced to Dark Side of the Moon —and then a final, silent film: Man with a Movie Camera (1929). No dialogue. Just life.
Jules locked the door at 6 AM. He left a single VHS tape on the counter, unlabeled. No one knows what was on it. Palace Video is gone now. The building is a Pret a Manger. But every so often, a certain kind of Londoner—too young to have been there—will find a grainy, unmarked tape at a car boot sale. Or hear a rumor of a password from 1985 that still works somewhere.
You didn’t join Palace. You were invited. The man behind the counter was Julian “Jules” Thorne —a former art-school provocateur with a lazy eye and a genius for finding films that made the BBFC blush. He wore a Japanese kimono over a torn Sex Pistols T-shirt, and he never smiled. But when you asked for a recommendation, he’d slide a clamshell case across the counter without a word. Pussy Palace 1985 Video
To rent from Palace was to enter a . Your membership was a handshake. Your password: taste. Part Three: The Lifestyle By day, Palace was a video shop. By 9 PM, the shelves rolled back, the projector hummed to life, and the back room became a salon.
Because Palace wasn’t a shop. It was a promise: that the right film, in the right room, with the right strangers, could change your life forever. The last night was November 30, 1985
The Last Frame of Excess: Palace Video, 1985
And they’ll feel it: the ghost of a time when entertainment was dangerous, lifestyle was an art form, and a VHS was not a product but a . Just life
Inside, the air tasted of cigarette smoke, warm VHS tape, and patchouli. The year was 1985, and while London’s West End glittered with yuppies and Duran Duran posters, Palace was something else: a .