• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

British Restaurants

S

sylviasayers

master brummie
British Restaurants in Birmingham

Alberta, are you referring to the British Restaurants that sprang up around the end of the war? These were set upwhen rationing was in force
and I think they were meant for workers to have a decent meal at lunch times. There was one almost next door to the Aston Hippodrome, another
on Aston Cross facing Woolworths, and another in Birchfield Road, Perry Barr, I never ate in any of them but if it was raining we young teenagers would spend a couple of hours over a cup of tea or glass of orange juice.
Until the staff got fed up with us and threw us out.
 
I used to go to the BR in Birchfield Road. We used to go first to the ICI Youth Club then head off for pie and mushy peas, they stayed open quite late, and used to turf us out as they locked up to leave. :D
 
I loved all the Brs in Birmingham used the one in Birchfied Road every Saturday before I played football for the ICI ( this is one for Di) :)
 
An elderly neighbour has asked me for information about "British Restaurants" He thinks that they were all around the country usually in wooden huts on vacant land. They were put up after the war and supplied cheap meals. He thinks that there was one in Billesley and Balsall Heath.
Pete
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks Barrie.
I printed the article to give our neighbour, I dont remember them at all.
Pete
 
British Restaurant

Add one more to your list. There was one in Moseley Village, last shop on the right going into town. Sonny Slade worked there for a while (See Mary Street Bakery Posts).
 
British Restaurants

These restaurants were in fact established during, not after the war. They were spread throughout the country so that the population could benefit from plain nutritous food. Plain they have been but they were most enjoyable. I wish that I had a pound for every meal that I had in one. One shilling and two pence, (one and tuppence) for a dinner comprising of meat and two veg and a pudding afterwards. There were several in the city centre, one that I remember very well was in the upper priory by Lewis's. There was also one on the parade at Kings Heath, if I remember correctly there was a milk depot at the back of the shops. The restaurant was, looking at the shops, at the left hand facing the shops, the cinema was at the other end.
Pedro.
 
There was one on Birchfield Road Perry Barr next to the Birchfield Cinema and another on Stratford Road I used them in the 50s 60s but not so sure:)

Peter are you old enough when they were around?
 
I think the one on Stratford Rd was roughly opposite the Mermaid and if I remember rightly you had to climb some stairs as you entered the door. There was another one on Gooch St, Highgate if my memory serves me right.

I also seem to remember one in town on High St or it may have been Dale End.

Here are two interesting sites on the subject of British Restaurants.

https://www.history.ac.uk/ihr/Focus/War/londonRation.html


https://www.worldwar2exraf.co.uk/Online%20Museum/Museum%20Docs/foodrationpage9.htm

pmc1947
 
Pretty shure that there was a British Restaurant in Upper Priory St. off the Old Square. It was on the left hand side facing Steelhouse Lane.
 
I remember the one on Birchfield Road and I have a photo of the one that was at the end of New Street near High Street where the Rotunda is now.
Not sure when they all disappeared though.
 
Rupert said:
Pretty shure that there was a British Restaurant in Upper Priory St. off the Old Square. It was on the left hand side facing Steelhouse Lane.
Click to expand...
Rupert.I think that was Bywaters,(but I could be mistaken)???
I used to go there nearly every Saturday, for my cottage pie and chips. and I'm sure you had to go up stairs to it. that was in 1945/6 Peter
 
jennyann said:
I remember the one on Birchfield Road and I have a photo of the one that was at the end of New Street near High Street where the Rotunda is now.
Not sure when they all disappeared though.
Click to expand...

Lets see it then:D
 
Milk Bars

I left England in 1947 with my family - so I can only remember 'Milk Bars' does anyone remember them?
 
Coopbill and Rupert.

My recollection is the same as Rupert's that it was a British Restaurant on the left side of Upper Priory Street going towards Steelhouse Lane.

Every Saturday my mother would take me in there, yes up to an upper floor, where we queued for whatever was on the menu that day. It was here that I was introduced to the potato mash called "Pom" and the powdered eggs out of tins.
 
British Restaurants

There was a British Restaurant in Ward End Park in the white house known as Park House or Ward End House (picture and potted history of the house at https://www.virtualbrum.co.uk/east.htm ) - but it does not mention it as having been a British Restaurant. I remember going there for lunch frequently with my grandfather just after the Second World War.

Also, on the subject of Milk Bars mentioned in another post in this thread, there was one on Alum Rock Road, near the Capitol Cinema, which was just called "Milk Bar" but was owned by a Mrs Ball and there was another near The Fox & Goose and Beaufort Cinema, on Coleshill Road, called Gardner's. They both served delicious Milk Shakes but I'm afraid that by the end of the 1950's, the Frothy Coffee Bar brigade had moved in and put them out of business.

Does anyone remember McNabb's Ice Cream shop near the island at the bottom of Burney Lane, near Stechford? Nobody made ice cream as tasty as that just after the war, I think they must have kept it in cold storage from the 1930's!
 
re resturants

DAV19390. hello. I can remember mcnabs,but they was in station rd stechford,the depot was in granby ave kitts green.As you say yum yum,ice cream. peter martin
 
Dav19390. yes you are correct there was a restaurant in ward end park it was run by the city of Birmingham restaurants dept as was the one in cannon hill park
 
british Restaurant

I used to visit the one in Northfield, It was next to the cinema, on Bristol road South, my Mum worked, so during school holidays i was given a shilling and told to have my dinner there. I did cheat sometimes, had bread and jam and went to the pictures instead, musicals, Haaaaaaa ;)
 
There was a British Restaurant on Bristol Rd in Selly Oak, if going towards Town it was on the left somewhere by the bridge that goes over the canal.

I used to go in when I was very young up till 1955 when we left Selly Oak,
I always used to run around looking for one of the wooden chairs to sit on that had a pattern of holes in the seat!
 
Here's a picture of The Vittoria Restaurant in Ferdrick Street around 1960 it was prieviously a British Restaurant.
 
There was a BR on the land next to Hughes' biscuit factory in Bordesley Green Road. After eating lunch there, local workers played football on the large area of land behind it. I was always knackered in the afternoons after running around for an hour playing footie! :) It was demolished early 60's and the land became a car park for Morris Commercial employees.

There was also a BR on Aston Road North, near Sutton Street.
 
What is the story behind British Restaurants. Were they a wartime measure to provide a reasonably priced meal with food that was available?
 
Found this on the web......


The Ministry of Food had begun as a department of the Board of Trade just before the war, and was later absorbed into the Ministry of Agriculture. Its records therefore have the prefix MAF. They reveal the great spread of its responsibilities, working through Food Control Committees for local authority areas. The Supply Departments, covered generally in MAF 67, were subdivided by type, the Cereals Group in MAF 84, the Dairy Produce and Fats Group in MAF 85, the Meat and Livestock Group in MAF 88, and others. MAF 99, the records of the Distribution Group, concern emergency services, rationing and communal feeding arrangements. The Food Standards Group, in MAF 101, was concerned with standards and labelling and the distribution of welfare foods such as cod liver oil and orange juice. The Wartime Meals Division encouraged the setting up of industrial canteens, and lent local authorities money to start British Restaurants for the public. British Restaurants were run by local authorities, who set them up in a variety of different premises such as schools and church halls. British Restaurants were open to all, but mainly served office and industrial workers
Click to expand...
.
 
During the school holidays, and when my dad was working overseas, my mom often took us to the British Restaurant in Birchfield Road, as she reckoned it was cheaper than cooking at home. As I recall, the food was edible if not quite gourmet standard, but I could never bring myself to attempting the custard, thank you very much!

Am I correct in saying that the Birchfield Road restaurant became Birchfield Public Library in the early 1950's?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top