Shops and Cafes no longer here.

So many memories
Chiesemans in Lewisham 1950-55. They used to have baby chicks at Easter in a pen in the basement level pet shop and I am sure I rode on a little pony round the department. Could that be true.
Biba in 1965 or so on trips to London.
Tammy Girl Chelsea Girl
Hanningtons in Brighton 1967-69
Cranks in Brighton
Kardomah Cafe in Kingston in 1972
Pierre Victoire and Cafe Rouge in Richmond
All great places with atmosphere. Of course I was so much younger and life was good.
More recently Carluccios in Windsor where my friend sat and chatted at the outside tables to Carluccio himself having a quiet small cigar and coffee.

Sad to seemthem all gone.

Remember a café in Tottenham that had 50 different milkshakes

NotSpaghetti

Anyone remember the "Conti Club" on Harter Street in Manchester?

It was a bit of a "seedy dive" in the early 70s. We went there after most places had closed. It was always packed out it seemed to me. You had to knock on the door, speak through a window thing and go in down some steps into a basement - and then try not to trip over in the crush once inside!

The floor was presumably carpet - sticky with spilt drinks and we used to go to the men's loo if in a hurry (as you might queue for ages if you were "fussy enough" to want to use the women's).
For quite a while the mirror in the ladies was broken and someone had just held it up with judiciously placed screws.

The world and his girlfriend used the "Conti". Very cheap.
Full of atmosphere, adrenaline and joy! Footballers, students, doctors...
Anyone still out after midnight!

you sent me down a right rabbit hole looking for the name of George Best’s club on/off Deansgate, dyk, there are so many nostalgic Club scene threads out there I was almost sidetracked.

I also remember going to the Playboy Club, the restaurant food was amazing, on to the Time and Place, behind the Cathedral,
then onto a little restaurant with red checked cloths I cant remember where, off Deansgate? more of a cafe really.
This would be early 70’s. Great times, good fun, good music, safe, never any trouble or fights, the clothes! fabulous clothes.

NotSpaghetti

Anyone remember the "Conti Club" on Harter Street in Manchester?

It was a bit of a "seedy dive" in the early 70s. We went there after most places had closed. It was always packed out it seemed to me. You had to knock on the door, speak through a window thing and go in down some steps into a basement - and then try not to trip over in the crush once inside!

The floor was presumably carpet - sticky with spilt drinks and we used to go to the men's loo if in a hurry (as you might queue for ages if you were "fussy enough" to want to use the women's).
For quite a while the mirror in the ladies was broken and someone had just held it up with judiciously placed screws.

The world and his girlfriend used the "Conti". Very cheap.
Full of atmosphere, adrenaline and joy! Footballers, students, doctors...
Anyone still out after midnight!

I went to the Conti in the 90s.

I forgot Crawfords in Oxford: a self-service restaurant near Carfax - a godsend to the impecunious. I think it's gone now.

Magenta8

Bridey

Wimpy Bar
British Home Stores
C/A

We still have a Wimpy near where I live. You still get a burger on a china plate with a knife and fork and the drinks are in glasses. The prices have gone up a bit though since my first Wimpy.

We still have a Wimpy where I live too. I always preferred McDonald's but a friend insisted on taking the children to Wimpy because they had china plates etc which she thought made a burger 'proper food'.

Anyone remember the "Conti Club" on Harter Street in Manchester?

It was a bit of a "seedy dive" in the early 70s. We went there after most places had closed. It was always packed out it seemed to me. You had to knock on the door, speak through a window thing and go in down some steps into a basement - and then try not to trip over in the crush once inside!

The floor was presumably carpet - sticky with spilt drinks and we used to go to the men's loo if in a hurry (as you might queue for ages if you were "fussy enough" to want to use the women's).
For quite a while the mirror in the ladies was broken and someone had just held it up with judiciously placed screws.

The world and his girlfriend used the "Conti". Very cheap.
Full of atmosphere, adrenaline and joy! Footballers, students, doctors...
Anyone still out after midnight!

My family moved from a small rural town with one cafe to a small city when I was a teenager. The best cafe ( for a teen with limited funds) there was in a long gone department store- egg and chips was an affordable favourite. It’s not a common dish now. My sister worked in BHS cafe - whilst I worked in the food section, BHS now also long gone. The staff discount was useful!
My gran used to take us into Cowardines in Bristol for a cup of tea and to buy coffee beans.

There is still a Kardomah in Swansea, tbh it's about the only thing left in Swansea , M& S closed last week, they do still have a traditional market though. I used to love the Milkmaid when I was teenager, but reading some of the comments on other posts lots that have have forgotten about.
C&A, BHS, Wimpy. Shoe shops in general they are all gone True Form, Dolcis , Stead & Simpson,

I thought they where long gone Magenta8, no plates and glasses in my day, but it was were we all met up.

In the summer of 1973 my incredibly, sophisticated (I thought so)! school friend had a summer job at Biba in London.
I was very impressed. I had a Saturday job at our local grocers.

Bridey

Wimpy Bar
British Home Stores
C/A

We still have a Wimpy near where I live. You still get a burger on a china plate with a knife and fork and the drinks are in glasses. The prices have gone up a bit though since my first Wimpy.

ABC cafes - London
Lyons Corner House (The Restful Tray) - London

I ate my first Wimpy Burger at Lyons CH - it cost 1/6d (7.5p new money)

Hanningtons in Brighton
Hills of Hove

eddiecat78

Favourite shop ever was Biba - only visited once on a rare trip to London but have never forgotten it

There was one in Manchester - St Anne's Square I think.

SpinDriftCoastal

Manchester? Does anyone remember The Seventh Day on Oxford Road, possibly one of the first vegetarian restaurants. Or, The Plaza where they served vindaloo after a hard night on the town?

Last August
www.thenews.coop/iconic-manchester-worker-co-op-eighth-day-celebrates-55-years/

Croydon was my nearest big town and I remember Allders especially the arcade and two other department stores Grants and I think the other was Kennards .
I used to buy my dc uniform from ladybird in Woolworths .

I think our shops/restaurants/cafes nowadays are very dull in comparison to when we were young.

When DH and I were first ‘courting’ as they used to call it, we went to a French restaurant which was decked out like a cave 😳 We loved it but now one would call it totally Naff!

Gosh yes, Liverpools amazing shops. Owen Owens, George Henry Lees, my mums favourite, Hendersons, Blacklers, Littlewoods C&As , BHS,all the ladies shops on Bold St. I could go on. What treat to go for the day. Now..... I couldn't be bothered it's mostly tat.

I remember the coffee importers in Guildford Grantanow. I
Used to stand outside watching the beans roasting in a big drum and inhale the fabulous smell. I’ve always found the taste a bit of a disappointment though!

Cranks was a wonderful vegetarian place in Soho, way ahead of its time. I could never understand why it didn’t survive because the food was delicious and it always had massive queues.

I loved the Golden Egg too, and Lyon’s Corner House was a treat, particularly the salad bar where you payed half a crown I think, and you could eat as much as you wanted.

SpinDriftCoastal

Manchester? Does anyone remember The Seventh Day on Oxford Road, possibly one of the first vegetarian restaurants. Or, The Plaza where they served vindaloo after a hard night on the town?

It was " on the eigth day" I remember it well, it sold food and clothes at first, then just food. Near Jonny Roadhouse. I don't remember the Plaza though.

Llamedos13

I’ve got that John Collier tune stuck in my head now.

I looked it up, there are vids on youtube ha ha, these used
to play at the cinema before the main film, with the Asteroid
theme of Pearl and Dean

Grantanow

Importers with coffee roasting in the window on Guildford High Street was great. I recall Fields in Hull as a boy.

I remember Fields as well Grantanow also Kardomah in Whitefriargate. The coffee aromas were wonderful. Have to mention Hammonds of Hull as well with its Picadish.

nanna8

Anyone remember Chiesmans in Lewisham ? I used to go there with my Mum and she would order a drip filter coffee in their cafe. It was a big department store.

Yes, sadly long gone. It became an Army and Navy store before eventually closing.

Being a Londoner, I remember all the big departmental stores, The Army and Navy in Victoria, Gamages, DH Evan’s, Whitleys, the South Kensington ones whose names I can’t remember and the one where I had a holiday/Saturday job, Bourne and Hollingsworth.

The Joe Lyon’s cafes and enormous Corner Houses with nippy service. Express Dairies, The Kardoma in Kings Road Chelsea where we went to gaze in the windows of Mary Quant and similar shops that we could not afford

We used to.love going to the Danish Food Centre in Manchester and have never been anywhere like it before or since. The choice of seafood was amazing and there was a cake I liked that involved a layer of almond paste and chocolate icing.
Others have mentioned the Kardomah in the 1960s - it was worth going in just for the coffee smell.
In my.home town of Preston I remember Swedish Modern Furniture Shop ( ahead of its time), Morrows Art Shop in Friargate,.the original Bruccianis and Macfisheries. I took my cookery O level in the 1960s and was making a recipe that involved a green pepper and Macfisheries was the only.place I could get one. How times have changed!