The
Popular Cafés and the State
Restaurant
Until
1903 the Lyons restaurant business was
concentrated on their popular teashops.
The Trocadero Restaurant had opened in
1896 but this was a very grand affair
affordable by only the middle and upper
classes. To fill the gap between the
teashop and the Trocadero a new brand of
restaurants emerged. The first of these
opened in Manchester in October 1903 and
was known as Victoria Mansions. Primarily
a business restaurant its opening hours
were restricted to between noon and 9 p.m.
In 1904 two new London restaurants opened: the Birkbeck
Café, Holborn, (known as the
businessman's café), and the
Blenheim Café, New Bond Street.
Unlike the teashops, all three restaurants
were licensed. Although the Birkbeck
remained open until 1923 and the Blenheim
until 1921 these two London restaurants
were not considered successful. However,
the Victoria Mansions continued to
flourish.
With the opening of the Popular Café in Piccadilly,
London, on 10 October 1904, another -
super-restaurant - was ushered in. It
enjoyed instant success by offering a
four-course luncheon for 1s. 6d. and with
the benefit of musical accompaniment. It
was here that Victor Sylvester, the famous
bandleader and broadcaster, started his
show-business career. The Popular
Café had seating for 2,000
customers and it remained open until the
start of the Second World War.
Like the teashops, gratuities were forbidden to be accepted by
the waiters who were later supplemented by
waitresses. The place was of palatial
proportions, consisting of a very large
ground floor restaurant, an enormous grand
hall, a commodious banqueting hall,
spacious lobby entrance, cloak rooms,
service rooms etc. In the main floor
café, the treatment of the wall was
in hand-painted panels of small design
with satin wood paneling and gilded
enrichments, let in and supported by
linked pilasters of marble. The ceiling
had exhibits in the Pergolesi style picked
out with delicate tints of greys,
gold-browns, heliotrope, and green, with
gilded mouldings running round. The
ceiling light was in cloisonn glass in
colours out-lined in gold wires to show up
the design. A marble staircase led to the
balcony, which had a Greek marble
balustrade with gilded enrichments. The
lighting arrangements consisted of four
large 'electroliers' and forty smaller
ones, suspended from the ceiling.
The lobby entrance had a Roman-style mosaic floor and coloured
panels; and the entrance hall contained
white statuary. Each floor had a separate
kitchen service with pneumatic tube
connections and electric lifts. The
kitchens and offices were lined with white
glazed tiles.
Afternoon musical teas were one of the special features of the
Café. The main floor café
and balcony was exclusively utilised for
this purpose from 3 to 6 p.m., and
shoppers from Piccadilly and Regent Street
appreciated the arrangements. Silver tea
services and daintiness in every detail
were some of the key-notes of the
afternoon teas, and the band played
continuously during the afternoons. This
was one of the largest cafés in
Europe.
The success of the Popular Café in Piccadilly
encouraged Lyons to open the State
Restaurant, Liverpool, in January 1905 and
they followed this with the Popular
Café, Manchester, in January 1906.
Although both cities had world-famous
hotels, their restaurants did not quite
meet the needs of the middle-class
resident or shopping public. Although no
records have survived describing these two
provincial restaurants, they achieved the
same instant success as the Piccadilly
restaurant. The service was similar to
that of the London establishments and they
were supported by a miniature Cadby Hall
in Liverpool complete with bakeries,
kitchens and all the necessary equipment
for the teashops and restaurants in the
north of England. Music too formed part of
the service and this was expanded to
include vocal concerts in the early 1920s.
Another popular restaurant which received
little publicity within Lyons was the
Arcade Café in Leeds. Opened in
October 1903, it was originally more
up-market than the teashops but a few
years later it converted to a teashop and
closed as such in July 1938. The Popular
Café, Manchester, closed in July
1938 followed by the State Restaurant,
Liverpool, in July 1949. The Piccadilly
Popular Café closed in July 1939.
©
Peter Bird 2004
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