CHANGING LONDON.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 124, 28 May 1938, Page 8

CHANGING LONDON.

PARIS CAFE HABIT GROWS.

There are thousands of cafes, in London. although they are not called cafes, with all the characteristics that make the Park cafes pleasant. People go there less for refreshment than for rest and a place to chat and even transact business —just as people do on the other side of the Channel. A few years ago 'ihese establishments for light refreshment were empty in the morning, and filled up only at the lunch hour and moderately in the afternoon. Now one sees people taking coffee in the morning before beginning their day's work, or dropping in there for a short time during the morning, and often groups of three or four persons may be seen discussing business over a cup of coffee. And before going home many people stop a while and pass half an hour or so in these hospitable places. The most successful "corner houses," with their orchestras, are as much cafes as any in France. More than half the people who enter are going there much less for what they are going to drink than for that congenial atmosphere and the pleasure of responding to the natural instinct of man to congregate with his kind. The only difference between the London cafe and the Paris cafe is that the London cafe does not serve alcoholic drinks. But will this not come? In Paris cafes one rarely sees drinking to excess, and the visitor may sit an hour on the long, comfortable seats inside, or at the little round tables on the terraces outside, and not be expected to consume more than one drink costing a trifle. And in these London cafes, as distinct from the public-houses, one may eit as long as one likes over a cup of tea or coffee.