THE CITY OF LONDON

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 71, 23 February 1932, Page 3

THE CITY OF LONDON

AND ITS EATING HOUSES. “London and its eating houses” wos the subject of an address by Mr W. G. Black at yesterday’s meeting of the Kotary Club, the speaker explaining at the outset that his association with tho great metropolis had j'j extended over a period of 37 years, w: while five or six of tire working days | of tho week had demanded that he t! secure his mid-day meal, if not his ft evening meal, somewhere in the city, ffl He had thus been furnished with the t opportunity to visit many of those eating houses which can boast some distinction in one way or another. In olden days, explained the speaker, nil ' the public houses within the square i ’ mile which marks administrative London had been termed or styled taverns, while those outside the city had l>een called inns the distinction in title denoting tneir respective functions. Inns had in those days been stopping places for travellers—points at which they halted in their journeys by coach or where they joined the , passenger coaches. Taverns, on the 6; other Hand, hnd been purely drinking | places. It was not till the 19th cenK tury. that the establishment of eating 1 1 houses had become necessary, for pre)j) viously the businessmen in the city and || their staff had worked and lived on 11- the premises. The workers had slept Hr- in the shop itself, under or on the j I counter or at the rear of the premises, || while the proprietor and his family 1 1; had lived overhead. The taverns had « been the popular meeting places of I the people in the evening and busi- | ness had been transacted therein. The

I goldsmiths of London had also made I a tavern their meeting place and the l. oldest bank in England had beenorig- | inally established in one. Many wml J known taverns had disappeared, but j such names as The Mitre, Essex Head < and Cheshiro Cheese were still well known to the present ' generation. | There had been two causes for the | decay of some of the inns and taverns; the advent of the railway caused the coaching services to dwindle and had curtailed the lodging requiremients of the inns, while the people commenced 'k to take up their residence in the suburbs which had restricted the evening trade of the taverns. In the f 19th century the tavernkeepers had S; realised the necessity of catering for the businessmen who could not return (7- to their homes for the mid-day || meal, and so had come into being || what were now known as eating p houses. Originally the meals supfi' plied had been very liberal, but Bp the guest had been expected to drink B| beer with his meal and wine afterm, Varda. If" he displayed a reluctance to do so, he had been made to feel that fe his room was preferred to his comjp, pany. The year 1870 had marked a p new era—the advent of the girl worker—and by 1880-1885 girls were fre- | quenting the business houses of the city" in vastly increased numbers. To meet j| the demands such dining places as the A.B.C. tea rooms, Lockharts, Lyons and Liptons had come into being, while outside the city cook shops or coffee houses had been introduced to meet the wants of carmen and general workers. The speaker instanced the vernacular employed by the frequenters of many of those coffee houses, the expressions employed when ordering their requirements having been quite beyond the understanding of the casual visitor.

Touching upon the Lyons chain of tearooms, tho speaker mentioned that a bell was positioned on every table, but ho had never seen a man with the courage to ring it, and this reluctance had been a subject for caricature. Tho staffs waiting on customers were highly trained and it had been astonishing the manner in whitjh the waitresses had assembled the orders of a lgrge number of diners and had delivered them correctly, oven though there had Leen as many as GO items. At a later date the restaurant had been introduced, and the diner offered ail ever increasing rango of eating places, but at increasing cost as he passed up the scale to establishments of the standard of Itomano’s then to Frascatti’s, the llitz and such ornate places where one was entertained by an orchestra costing as much as £6OO a week. Tile speaker then furnished his hearers with some particulars of the chop houses of Cornhill, Pimm’s, Simpson’s, etc., each having its own little peculiarities and distinctiveness, the cosmopolitan neighbourhood of Soho where . Bohemianism wns, in his opinion, much overworked. Such was also the case to a larije degree in Chelsea, the speaker | explaining that one had to reach the attics of the inhabitants to encounter the true Bohemian.

At conclusion the customary vote of thanks was extended the speaker on the motion of Mr L. H. Collinson.

Itotarian Cresswell, of Hannevirke, was extended a welcome as a visitor to tho club.