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Civic Restaurant


Winkers

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Quote from a former topic:

"They were originally called British Restaurants  (if they were all the same) opened during the war. The Scala Cinema on Winter Street was one for a time and there was one at the Pond Street end of Harmer Lane. "

 

 

 

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Hi,

I have a vague memory of going to the Civic Restaurant behind the City Hall with my Mum and Granny in the 1950's. I can't remember when it closed but I think I was only a little kid. As a little kid the Civic Restaurant always appeared to be very regal with chandeliers and white table clothes. However I think you had to share tables with other people!

Wazzie Worrall (born 1951)

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The only one I remember was in 1960 in Rotherham and was , even to my then "innocent" eyes, basic ...as was the food....worse than Woolies!

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They provided basic meals at a time when rationing limited the variety of food available to most people. I remember visiting the Pond Street and Holly Street restaurants during the war years and until rationing ended on most things in 1952. Wartime school dinners were mainly mashed potato and swede or carrot, with tapioca or semolina for sweet. Chip shops were always busy  when they had the food to sell!  

Given the current world situation, establishments of that type should not be considered as obsolete.

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The National Restaurants were first proposed in 1918 to minimise food waste and use of coal, and the initial ones were in London.  The first one in Sheffield was opened in April 1919 in the old "Lion Restaurant" premises at the corner of Nursery Street and the Wicker.  The food was provided by the council kitchens that had been set up to cook food for poor children.  The restaurant had places for 200 customers, with self service rather than waitresses.

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Interesting. I hadn't realised they were a WW1 initiative. Presumably, they were taken "out of cold storage" at the outbreak of WW2?

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The only Sheffield restaurant was sold off by the council as a going concern in May 1923 and became the Lion Café.  The idea was relaunched in 1941 and by May 1941 there were 317 of them in 159 towns.

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