Situated exactly on the site of the Criterion Buffet was the "Pic", a dancing saloon of a decidely inferior class where anybody entering (except perhaps the Angel Gabriel) was bound to have a row. Hat smashing in that delectable spot was the preliminary to a scrimmage, and when it is recollected what "hats" were in the long-ago sixties, it will be easily understood that any interference with them was an offence to be wiped out only with blood. 
    ... The "Pic," despite its central position, never attained popularity, and was the resort of pickpockets, bullies, and "soiled doves" of a very mediocre class. On Boat Race nights, however, an organised gang of University "men" invariably raided it, and by smashing everything balanced the account to a certain extent.

'One of the Old Brigade' (Donald Shaw), London in the Sixties, 1908