CAFES

Ace Cafe

Location: North Circular Road, NW10 7NN. West of the North Circular Road's junction with Beresford Avenue.

Aerated Bread Company

Miss Turnbull, the manageress of the Aerated Bread Company shop at London Bridge, was given to sharing a pot of tea with a number of her favourite customers. She suggested to her employers that they might wish to allow their customers to buy cups of tea. In 1884 the company opened the first tea room in London. It became somewhere that respectable women could go to unchaperoned. Within five years the business had dozens of cafes. The company was regarded as paying its waitresses poorly.

In 1894 J. Lyons started opening its own branded cafes. A.B.C. responded by broadening its menu and becoming more restaurant-like.

In 1923 A.B.C. had 250 cafes. Three years the company opened a flagship teashop opposite Victoria Railway Station.

In 1955 A.B.C. was acquired Allied Bakeries. It reduced the number of Central London teashops and increased the number of suburban ones. In 1959 it sold its Victoria outlet to Speirs & Pond. In the 1960s the use of teashops started to decline. In 1976 the company's Camden Town factory stopped making cakes.

Location: 233 Fleet Street EC4Y 1AA

16-17 Railway Approach, London Bridge Station, SE1 9BZ

Abford House, 15 Wilton Road, SW1V 1AN (orange, red)

Caffs

A largely part of any caffs turnover was derived from serving high calorific food to people who carried out manual labour. Much of it being fried. For the convenience of their predominant clientele, they tended to open early in morning and close mid-afternoon. There were usually formica tables and a very large tea urn standing on the counter.

At the start of the 2020s numerous caffs were either closing or being repurposed into coffee shops. The development was attributed to a number of factors. There had been a shift in the workforce from blue collar work to white. As a result, not as many people were consuming calorie-dense breakfasts. People had also become more health conscious and were more likely to seek out vegan food and fresh fish. Pubs had become more likely to serve food and a number of coffee shop companies had become entrenched nationally. In addition, many caffs had been run by immigrants. The second- and third-generation were proving inclined to try to earn livings that were more remunerative and which had less anti-social hours.

The name a la mode derived from a style of beef.

Coffee Bars

Pino Reservato was a Milanese salesman who sold dental equipment. He made his first visit to Britain in 1951. At the time, coffee was still subjected to a price controls regime. The Italian despaired at the quality of the brew that he was exposed to. It was made in urns that were often left to simmer for hours on end. The following year, the controls were done away with. The salesman approached Gaggia, the Italian coffee machine makers, and took up the concession to sell their products in the U.K.. He established the Riservato Partners office on Soho's Dean Street. He did not have an import licence for the machines and so had to smuggle them into Britain via Ireland and the Isle of Man. In 1953 he established the Gaggia Experimental Coffee Bar in the basement of the Dean Street building. Members of the catering trade came to see the Gaggias in action. However, they were uniformly of the opinion that the high-pressure extraction was wasteful of coffee.

The Moka Bar on Frith Street was set up by Maurice Ross. It was Britain's first coffee bar. The premises were formally opened in 1953 by the Italian movie star Gina Lollabrigida. Others mushroomed across Soho, attracting students and teenagers . They soon spread across London and then the country. Coffee bars became one of the crucibles where Britain's capacity to produce innovative youth cultures was forged.

Location: 10 Dean Street, W1D 3RW (red, turquoise)

29 Frith Street, W1D 5LG (pink, brown)

Website: www.gaggiadirect.com

Bar Italia

The Bar Italia coffee bar is open 24 hours a day. It has been run by the Polledri family since the late 1940s.

Location: 22 Frith Street, W1D 4RP (pink, white)

Website: http://baritaliasoho.co.uk

J. Lyons

Samuel Gluckstein built up a cigar making business. In 1887 Salmon & Gluckstein opened a cigar shop on the Edgware Road. This, it built up into a chain as well as creating a number of cigarette brands. Glucktein's son Monte took Lyons into catering by providing catering for the large exhibitions that were feature of the age, using Joe Lyons as a frontman. In 1891 the firm opened its own Venice-themed exhibition at Olympia. Almost five million people attended it. Two years later Lyons bought the venue. It then staged a Constantinople-themed one. In 1894 it started to open its own branded cafes. The first one was at 213 Piccadilly. These were pitched upmarket from A.B.C.'s teashops.

In 1909 the first Lyons Corner House opened in Coventry Street off Piccadilly Circus. It was an arcade that contained a variety of restaurants for different budget. There were also shops that sold various kinds of food and drink. Lyons took to selling loose tea to grocers.

Lyons sought to make its outlets identical to one another to give the public assurance that they would know what they would experience. In 1925 its waitresses started wearing identical uniforms and soon became known as Nippies . The term was probably meant to indicate speedy service. (They were to inspire the musical Nippy (1928), which starred Binnie Hale (1899-1984).)

In 1933 Monte's son Sir Isidore, a Conservative M.P., persuaded the newspaper proprietor Viscount Rothermere to stop supporting Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists. The argument was aided by a threat to end Lyons's advertising in the peer's newspapers. In 1939 George Orwell lamented that the 162 teashops demonstrated the sinister strand in English catering, the relentless industrialisation that was overtaking it. Both the Strand and Regent Street Corner Houses developed gay clienteles.

Lyons diversified its activities too widely and had to sell its property portfolio. In 1977 the Strand Corner House became the last one to close. The following year Allied Breweries bought the company for 63.6m.

Location: 7-14 Coventry Street, W1D 7DH (blue, pink)

14-16 Oxford Street, W1T 1BB (purple, brown)

Orchard House, 458 Oxford Street, W1C 1AP. The six-storey building was designed for J. Lyons by the Trehearne & Norman architectural practice in the 1930s. The lower floors were occupied by Marks & Spencer, which over the years extended its occupancy upwards through the structure and then northwards into the Orchard Street extension. ()

213 Piccadilly, WIJ 9HF (purple, orange)

5 Strand, WC2N 5HR (orange, purple)

The Partisan Coffee House

In the early 1960s The Partisan Coffee House was a birthplace of the New Left.

Location: 7 Carlisle Street, W1D 3BW (orange, brown)

Regency Cafe

Regency Caf opened in 1946. It has been used as a location for several movies and television series.

Location: 17-19 Regency Street, SW1P 4BY (red, blue)

Website: https://regencycafe.has.restaurant

Workers Cafe

Workers Caf opened in 1986.

Location: 172 Upper Street, N1 1RG (blue, brown)

Website: www.workers-cafe.co.uk

David Backhouse 2024

CAKESandPASTRIES

CAKES & PASTRIES

Buns

The Widow s Bun

The buns are provided by Mr Bun's Bakery in Chadwell Heath

The bun is presented to the landlord by a sailor at 3p.m. on Good Friday. The sailor who presents the bun leaves behind his cap.

Location: The Widow's Son, 75 Devons Road, Bow, E3 3PJ

See Also: FOLK TRADITIONS

Cakeage

It was reported in 2009 that some bars and restaurants had introduced a new charge - cakeage. This was modelled on the existing practice of corkage. A sum was charged if people brought their own cakes to a meal or social event.

Cake Straightener Bates

Alan Bates (1934-2003) was born in Belper, Derbyshire. At the age of fifteen he befriended the actor and future director John Dexter. At seventeen he won a place to train at R.A.D.A. His big break was playing Jimmy in the initial theatrical production of Look Back In Anger (1956). He went on to act in a series of television kitchen sink dramas. He appeared in a series of movies. These included: Whistle Down The Wind (1961), Zorba The Greek (1964), Georgy Girl (1966), and Women In Love (1969).

Bates had a sweet tooth. He was nicknamed Bounty Bar Bates and was known for the catchphrase I ll just straighten up the corner of that cake .

Contemporary Bakers

Fortitude Bakehouse

Fortitude Bakehouse.

Location: 35 Colonnade, WC1N IJA (orange, purple)

Website www.fortitudebakehouse.com

Konditor

In 1993 Gerhard Jenne, a German, bought a bakery in Waterloo.

Konditor & Cook was renamed Konditor and focused on cakes.

Location: 22 Cornwall Road, SE1 8TW

Website: www.konditor.co.uk

Cough Tarts

The dean's son was the natural historian Frank Buckland. As a young man, Buckland fils trained and worked as a doctor. At a clinic that he held in St George's Hospital an old woman presented herself. She had a cough and was quite specific about which medicine she should be prescribed for it, claiming that the concoction had cured a friend of hers of the same condition. The youthful physician could see no reason not to comply with her wish. A few days later she attended his clinic again. She was still coughing. She suggested that she should be supplied with a larger bottle of the solution. Again, Dr Buckland acquiesced to her desire.

This interaction recurred a number of times and the doctor's suspicions were aroused. Upon one of her visits, he issued her with her now customary prescription. She left the consultation room and went to the hospital pharmacy, where she was issued with yet another bottle of the medicine. She then left the building. Buckland had her followed. She returned to her home. From it she ran a small bakery business. It was learnt that she had recently had a roaring success with a new recipe for mouth-watering tarts that were sold from a stall in front of Chelsea Hospital.

Buckland had someone buy some for him. He tried one and found that it was delicious and had a decidedly more-ish aspect to it. Its flavour was reminiscent of something. He then asked the pharmacy in St George's for a bottle of the cough medicine. He removed its top and took a small swig of the contents. This had the same mouth-watering taste as the tarts had had.

Location: The Lanesborough, 1 Lanesborough Place, SW1X 7TA (red, orange)

See Also: HOSPITALS

Gunter s

Negri s was a celebrated tea rooms. The business was founded in 1757 by Domenico Negri, an Italian pastry cook. His brother-in-law James Gunther joined him in the firm and eventually became its sole proprietor. Mr Gunter renamed the business after himself. He developed a catering concern that furnished refreshments for aristocratic balls and assemblies. His son Robert entered the business and eventually headed it.

During the 1930s Gunter's tea rooms relocated within Mayfair. They closed in the mid-1950s. They were survived by the catering operations.

It is reputed that in the 1830s Gunter's tea shop was the only place in London where an unchaperoned woman could meet decently with a man.

Location: 7-8 Berkeley Square, W1J 6ES (red, pink)

See Also: ESTATES The Gunter Estates

Maison Bertaux

Maison Bertaux is a Patisserie Fran aise that was founded in 1871. It is a much-appreciated establishment.

Location: 28 Greek Street, W1D 5DQ (purple, grey)

Website: www.maisonbertaux.com

Marzipan

Eliza Marchpane (1760-1830) had a career as a courtesan in Paris and Vienna. In the latter city she encountered marzipan. She retired to London where she held a salon. There, the confections that were served featured the paste.

Patisserie Valerie

Patisserie Valerie is a chain of patisseries. The first outlet opened in Frith Street, Soho, in 1926. During the Second World War bomb damage necessitated the business's relocation to Old Compton Street.

Location: 44 Old Compton Street, W1D 4TY (turquoise, yellow)

Website: www.patisserie-valerie.co.uk

Tax

In 1991 the Customs & Excise argued that Jaffa Cakes were a biscuit and that therefore they should be subject to V.A.T. whereas the product's makers stated that they were a cake and that therefore they should be zero-rated. The latter party pointed out that with age they hardened, as cakes do, whereas biscuits soften. The tribunal ruled in the makers favour.

In 2007 the Customs & Excise admitted that for two decades it had been wrongly charging V.A.T. on Marks & Spencer's chocolate tea cakes. This led to the company receiving a multi-million pound refund.

In 2014 in a case brought by Lees of Scotland and Tunnocks, the First Tier Tax Tribunal ruled that snowball snacks were not biscuits and that instead they were cakes, which made them liable to V.A.T.. The essence of the ruling was that they distinctly more crumbly than biscuits were.

Location: McVitie's Factory, 10 Waxlow Road, NW10 7NY

See Also: GRAIN Grain Types and Usage

Website: www.jaffacakes.co.uk

Twelfth Night Cake

In his will the comic actor - and former pastry chef - Robert Baddeley (1733-1794) left a bequest of 100 to be invested so that a Twelfth Night cake and punch should be given to the cast who performed at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane on 6 January. It is reputed that he was prompted by the experience of arriving at the theatre one 6 January and finding his colleagues quiet and downcast. Immediately, he had sent out for food and drink in order to try to lift their mood. The practice was instituted in 1796. The cakes furnished in the 21^stC have often been themed to coincide with the current production.

Location: Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Catherine Street, WC2B 5JF (red, purple)

Website: www.drurylanefund.com/the-baddeley-cake

David Backhouse 2024