AS fans of The Clash and The Jam and fully involved in the punk scene of the 1970s, designers Cat Santos and Sodge Adams were right in the midst of the world famous fashions of the period.

They set up the Fifth Column t-shirt printing firm in 1977 and this week, as their former factory above Kentish Town Tube station re-opened as Mexican food restaurant Wahaca today (Thursday), their unique history has been celebrated.

Wahaca founder, the TV chef Tommi Miers, has paid tribute to the printers by honouring their cutting edge work on the walls – and have produced a film, available to watch free on Youtube, telling the story of what was there before the burritos.

Cat and Sodge had been running Fifth Column in various places until they found the space above the Tube station for rent. They would eventually stay there for the next 35 years – and produce 1,000s of iconic tee shirt designs.

It all came out of their love for all things punk.

“It was the 1970s and we were real rockers,” recalls Cat.

“We were going to gigs all the time. My partner Sodge was working for a printers in Fulham, making things like posters, and in that true punk spirit he thought: I could do this, and better.”

They borrowed £200, bought some printing equipment and started producing tee shirts from a small place in Kilburn.

By 1981, they had moved to Greenland Place, Camden Town, but after a fire following a huge 21st birthday party for Cat, they decamped for a while to Anglers Lane.

“It was a temporary spot, and we wanted to find a place of our own. We turned left down Kentish Town Road and saw the space,” recalls cat. “It was perfect for us.”

Moving from their home for 35 years was a wrench – they are now managing the firm from Tottenham Hale – but Cat points out it is a sign of the changing face of Kentish Town.

“In some ways we had basically grown too big for the building,” she says.

Deliveries were tricky because Kentish Town Road is so busy, and lugging tee shirts up the stairs was getting harder as the business boomed. Then a rent review came round and it went up, so it was the right time, says Cat.

“I suppose we were the last people of our type left in the neighbourhood,” she says. “Kentish Town used to be full of people making things – dress makers, printers, all types of artisans. They almost all moved out now.”

For Wahaca proprietor Tommi Miers, who now runs 17 branches in the UK selling a vast range of healthy Mexican food, the factories groovy past was a major selling point.

“When we found the site, we knew we needed to recognise the history of what had gone on there for decades previously,” she said.

“Buildings have such a lot of history within their walls and I'm always fascinated by this. We knew we had to celebrate it in our design and lay out.”

She took the decision to call the restaurant Wahaca at the Old Tee Shirt Factory – and has used many of the Fifth Columns iconic designs to decorate the interior. They have also left splodges of printers ink on the walls as tell-tale signs of what came before.

“We just loved the character of the place,” she says.

“We wanted to combine that with what we were doing.”

The restaurant has also helped safeguard another Kentish Town landmark. Sally's Fruitbowl, a grocers stall outside the new restaurant, was at first threatened by the development but following a campaign led by the New Journal, Wahaca told Transport for London the Fruitbowl had to be integral to any new business.

Ms Miers says she was unaware of their existence and the importance of Sally's stall to people living in the neighbourhood when they first put in plans to change the tee shirt factory in to a restaurant.

“We did not know about it, and then we heard there was a campaign to save it, so we immediately re-thought our plans,” she says.

“We did not want to kick them out. We had to keep sally and the Fruitbowl – and we are rapidly becoming one of their best customers – it is perfect to have them on our doorstep.”

Wahaca at the Old Tee Shirt factory is at 276, Kentish Town Road, NW5. 0203 816 9919.