Sally Fiber who was conceived and born in an upstairs room in the pub that gave Fitzrovia its name has died aged 81.
She lived above the Fitzroy Tavern for the first 17 years of her life while her parents ran the pub that was the hub of London’s bohemian society and loved by writers.
Her life is celebrated in an obituary carried in The Times as well as in the current printed edition of Fitzrovia News.
Fiber joked that she was “the most purebred Fitzrovian of them all” having been born into the heart of the neighbourhood’s artistic heyday and going on to write a biography about her life at The Fitzroy.
She was born in 1936 to Annie and Charlie Allchild who ran the pub at the height of its fame as one of London’s most most libertarian meeting places. Her maternal grandfather was Judah “Pop” Kleinfeld who had run the pub and who started the charity Pennies From Heaven for the benefit of underprivileged children. She later took on the role of running the charity.
Her family left The Fitzroy in the late 1950s when Fitzrovia’s bohemian life went into decline. In 1957 she married coffee wholesaler Arthur Fiber who died in 2009.
Sally Fiber, historian and charity worker, born 4 May 1936, died 14 August 2017. Obituary: Sally Fiber, Fitzrovia News. Obituary: Sally Fiber, The Times.