Richard Mann’s 1978 photograph of Sid Vicious and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen touching tongues, captures two things: a couple of punk icons on the way out, and a great restaurant being born. The glory days of the Sex Pistols were gone. But the setting, a restaurant beloved of theatreland’s finest, was curious. “That was their choice,” says Mann now. “Joe Allen had not long been open and they wanted to go there.”

Getting a table wouldn’t have been completely straightforward. The restaurant, which has just celebrated its 40th birthday, was a hit in London’s theatreland from the moment it opened its doors. The British sibling to another in New York, it was also going to prove a training ground for some of the biggest names in the British restaurant business. Both Jeremy King, of the Wolseley, and Russell Norman, of the Polpo group, worked there as maître d’s. Rowley Leigh, later of Kensington Place, was head chef.

At this point, though, it was simply the place for West End actors and directors. They loved its hidden entrance down a Covent Garden alley, its late-night menu of American classics (the burger was, and remains, off menu) and the sense of a members-only club with no fees. And there, occupying a table in a joint that real punks were meant to hate, were Sid and Nancy. “Half the time they were grumpy, half the time cooperative,” Mann says now. “As to the shot, that’s a set up. We suggested they touch tongues.” And what did they eat? “Can’t remember but I know Nancy cleared her plate and then his.” Within six months of this picture being taken Nancy had been murdered. Sid died of an overdose four months after that. As to Joe Allen, that’s still going strong.