Restaurants, Cafes, Coffee Bars

Now, I should say that a check of my post will reveal that I did not give the price of egg & chips. The only item I priced in the post was the "special" (fish fingers & chips), and the price of that item was half-a-crown. Were you to argue that the price was a bit much - daily robbery (the actual phrase was "daylight robbery", but either stands) is the term you employ - when considering the cost of plaice & chips, an apple crumble dessert, and a cup of tea available at the PEPPERPOT on Warwick Row (hardly a million miles from the Lower Precinct), then common sense would dictate that I would agree. Regardless, the dispute (if I might call it that) revolved around the Circ's being but a "snack bar", and it was more than that, more even than a Wimpy bar. City centre office workers/shop employees/others had lunch in the place every day of the work-week, and some sad souls had their final meal (call it dinner, supper, whatever) of the day in what the owners and staff of that time were pleased to call a restaurant. In size, I suppose, it was rather akin to a snack bar, but whoever designed it made good use of its circular staircase, and the kitchen - while small - was a fully-functional one. I would like to take this opportunity to admit the truth that some time after I left Coventry (in 1967) the Cir/Godiva/Mushroom became a Wimpy Bar, for the evidence is conclusive. Here's what I think is a new place to discuss, particularly in terms of plain fare at reasonable prices. On the Foleshill Road, opposite the foot of Cash's Lane, was a late evening take-out place called PICKENS (if memory serves, and it doesn't always). There, after an evening on the bevvy, could be found the specialty of the house - a pork & stuffing batch (or bap, if you prefer), with/without gravy. If the change in the pocket did not extend to so lavish a treat as a pork & stuffing, then a stuffing & gravy batch/bap might be bought for a penny-ha'penny (three ha'pence). My, but this inexpensive treat was a filler-and-a-half. Anyone remember this fine "after-hours" dining spot?

Longford Lad, was Pickens here? Photo via Google street view

That's the place, the Nazar Market. I recall distinctly that the door was to the left of the shop window, demanding a sharp turn to the right to approach the counter. However, it is much smaller that I recall - and, of course it could have been any one of the buildings, for frontages change. But I checked on Google maps, and the location assuredly is right. Thank you. Now here's the tough part: a) can you check whether the establishment still sells stuffing batches/baps; and, b) where I might find three ha'pence. b) is the less important consideration, for I have some three-penny bits, so it would be up to the shop to find the right change! Thank you! Delighted.

Yummy yummy, Longford lad, Pickens - pork batches with a little cracklin' That was in the late 50's early 60's for us. Always at the top of our list.

Here is a bird's eye view of the shops from Britain from above website, more like what it looked like in the fifties, even though this is from 1936

Yes that was Pickens batch bar ! Before that they ran a cafe in Victoria Street In Hillfields.

To the left of those shops and past the tree, that shop sold glasses of fizzy drinks. The ice-cream soda was so nice, in fact if I could travel back in time for a day that shop would be at the top of my list

Pickens also sold pigs trotters, very cheap but eating a trotter was a lot of effort for little reward. I left Coventry in 63 but still visit my folks regularly so can pretty confidently answer Longford Lad's question (a) in the negative. To the left and rear of Pickens/Nazar there is a detached building which was a credit drapers when I was a kid. You could buy clothing and repay at the rate of a bob in the pound per week plus about five per cent interest. I had my first suit from there, an Italian pin stripe which I paid for from my paper round wages. The jacket was pinched when I took it off to skate at the Capitol in Longford. I still wish the tea leaf lots of ill luck. Over the road from Pickens on the corner of Cash's Lane the nondescript house used to be a sweet shop. Cash's Lane seemed a mountainous hike when I was little.

The best pork batches in Coventry could be found at Brookies in Earlsdon..

Was that the Brookies in Albany Road that sold superb hot mashed potato? It was introduced to me as "the chip shop that doesn't sell chips"

The Brookies I knew was on Earlsdon Street, and maybe not too far away the present butchers shop. It was a regular butcher by day, but in the evenings did a fantastic pork batch, crackling, stuffing, gravy. It's not inconceivable that the business moved and changed what it sold.

Wonderful faggots, mushy peas & mash as well

Thank you, Walrus - and sorry for the delay.

On this topic, and here I certainly include myself, we have wandered far afield, so I'd like to bring everything back to the original topic; specifically, Coffee Bars in the late 1950s/early 1960s. I remember a coffee bar in the early 1960s - not sure when it opened, but it was operating still in 1964. I have no idea as to its name, but its location is with me to this day. It was was located off the Burges in a narrow access that started out as a covered lane way between what now is Jackson's Hair Salon and the Impulse Bar Club. After a short walk, a very short walk, the covered aspect of the lane way disappeared, and what was left was what appeared to be the rear ends of shops on Hale Street and Trinity Street. What the coffee was like I do not recall, but it was innovative in ways seen much later by Starbucks and the like. The decor had much in common with an overly-large living-room, with more chairs than tables, and said chairs did not have the look or feel of any chairs to be found in coffee shops in Coventry; indeed, some bordered on armchairs, probably of the variety called in those days "cottage", but please do not press me as to the terminology. Who, among my peacenik friends, found this fine little spot in the heart of the city, I have no idea, but what a quiet coffee bar it was. There was no traffic worthy of the name and hardly any passing trade to come in after an hour or so of jostling with fellow customers at Owen Owen or any other such place. In those times - fifty and more years since - 15 to 25 peaceniks might settle in the place in a late Saturday morning, having secured world peace by leafleting in the Precinct and speaking of past political errors by way of a loud-hailer. Just a short walk away from the Upper Precinct was this delightful haven. (If memory serves, that nook in the city centre, also boasted a spot where the Sherebourne surfaced for what might have been close to a hundred yards before heading back underground.) Something tells me that the coffee bar was in back of a store that fronted Hale Street. Nothing tells me what that Hales Street-fronting store might have been, nothing tells me what the coffee bar may have been called. But, perhaps for only one brief shining moment, the coffee-bar was there. In search of lost time, as Proust would have said.

Longford lad are you thinking of Palmer Lane?