Restaurants, Cafes, Coffee Bars

I worked in Woolies in the 60's and Friday was fish and chips in the staff canteen, they were always very good.

Who remembers The Top Spot steakhouse in the city centre, owned by Greg Rogan & his wife? I worked there in 67, didn't start our shift until 10pm & finished at 2am, were so busy & run off our feet with pub crowd. Loved it, we had so much fun, but worked really hard to earn our money.

Welcome, Sally, to our forum I recall the name, I suspect it was in Bishop Street, but it's not an establishment I recall having used

From The Telegraph, May 2014. Next to the Parson's Nose, Top Spot in Bishop Street hardly got glowing reviews from our readers. It seemed to terrify you all in equal measure, with many saying they had only frequented the club just once.

I remember it, you could go in after the pubs were closed and wearing jeans. It was very rough, the last time I went there was the time I ended up in hospital!

No such things happened in my time. We were in uniform and were regularly schooled on politeness and good service to customers.

There were several government sponsored British Restaurants around the city providing cheap food for city workers. I was a pupil at King Henry's in 1946 and used to go to either the one in the Market (now precinct) or the Gas showrooms in Corporation Street. My favourite dish was cheese souffle made from dried egg. It was the first time I had heard the word "souffle". When my dinner money would stretch to it I went to the upmarket Geisha cafe in Hertford street because I fancied the girl on the till.

The tiny cube-shaped building in the centre of this 1949 aerial view is the Casino Snack Bar in Fleet Street: It can also just be glimpsed nestling between the tall buildings either side in this picture posted earlier by NeilsYard:

Dutchman, yes and the white like arrow in the doorway is pointing at me sitting on a stool just inside,and the the ginger haired fat lady that ran it was probably serving me with a fruit juice, and several boxers, weight-lifters would be sitting around discussing poundages and lifts etc Yep remember it well.

May I had that further up on the left, the Precinct was building work. A little old lady watched a group of men unloading scaffolding planks, asked why so many planks, the workman bent down. 'Shuh, so much rain we are building a Noahs Ark'. The lady indignant 'Don't be so bloody daft, everyone knows there's no elephants or tigers round here' and hurried off. People used to stand around watching the work in progress. There was a great pool of water, the workmen were in process of putting down a few bricks and planks across. The klaxon went for dinner, they left a plank balancing like a diving board, sat around eating chips from newspaper. One guy sat on a newspaper on a heap of sand, eating his chips. Voice from crowd 'Hey Paddy, people from Coventry go to Blackpool to eat chips on the sand, why you bring it all way here?' Different workman, 'Hey leave the guy alone, it's his last supper, he walks the plank next' (laugh from the crowd). Another voice from crowd, Hey, they're building another Bridge over the Kwai but they don't know there's no river yet.' Workman, 'Yeh, well it's a pity they didn't build something better than planks above the bridge of your nose.' You just had to love the Coventry people.

That little building in the foreground right with the two white windows and black wooden beams was still there into the late 1960s early 1970s. I think it was a café.

It was there into the '80's Rosemary

Given something of a facelift - it used to be a bit scruffy inside when I went in there (as a WPC).

Didn't the cafe burn down in the mid-80s, or am I thinking of a different one?

Has nobody mentioned the "elephant in the room"? - the clock. When the photo was first printed that was the only thing which drew my attention and actually recognise the building and its purpose, I had certainly never been in it as a café. A bit awkward winding the clock wasn`t it!