More than a Million Meals
Fancy going out for a meal
in World War Two? Surely with rationing, you either had to be very rich or
forget it? Not entirely true.
Here in Bedford a million
and a quarter restaurant meals were dished up between March 1941 and the end of
1944.
And all you needed was the
equivalent of £2.50 today!
They were called “British
Restaurants” and we had three in Bedford.
It started out of simple
necessity: feeding hundreds of evacuees from London who turned up at short
notice.
Two days after war was
declared the first evacuees arrived. The Corn Exchange was turned into an
emergency feeding centre from 9am till 7pm.
Hot meals were available
from the second day and by the end of the first week the daily demand for
nearly 700.
False Alarm?
But almost as soon as it had
arisen, the demand ended. The expected bombing of London didn’t take place and most
evacuees went home.
Food provision was scaled
down and switched to 38 Mill St. This had some canteen facilities and was run
by Women’s Voluntary Service (WVS) volunteers.
The fall in numbers
continued and closure was considered in January 1940. Only 104 dinners and 112
teas had been served in nine days.
But suddenly at the end of
July there was a large influx of new evacuees from London as the blitz
intensified. A second facility on Cauldwell St also opened.
On the evening of
September 9th, so many evacuees arrived, the Mill St restaurant stayed open all
night. The WVS weekly report said it had been “overflowing”.
![]() |
38, Mill St today |
38 Mill Street today
|
Mill St was suddenly becoming
very popular. Miss Beatrice Rogers who was running it, reported at a WVS
meeting that in the year to the end of February 1941, 46,886 meals had been
served.
But she said adde that “people
who are earning good wages” were turning up for “cheap meals” and asked if this
could be stopped. She was told that control would soon transfer from Whitehall
to Bedford and perhaps the council might act. But they did not and the well
paid kept coming.
The restaurants were
exempt from rationing, which led to some resentment as the rich could
supplement their food allowance by eating out frequently and extravagantly. In
order to try to restrict this certain rules were put into force.
No meal could cost more
than five shillings, no meal could consist of more than three courses, meat and
fish could not be served at the same sitting.
Government
steps in
But from the start it’s
clear that the Government saw them as more than just feeding centres. The
Minister of Food, Lord Wilton, said they provided “community feeding” in
“community kitchens” adding that “it helps to create confidence, health and a
sense of well-being.”
By early 1941 the
government insisted they be open to all. Churchill disliked the term “community
kitchen” as redolent of “Communism and the workhouse” He suggested “British Restaurant” as it was linked in peoples’ minds with 'a good
meal'. It stuck.
The British Restaurant
habit took a while to develop in Bedford but by the early summer of 1941
it was apparent that the two restaurants could not fully meet all demands.
The Menu
![]() |
Meals being prepared at 38 Mill St JPI Media |
Mid-day dinner:
Soup, meat or fish & 2 veg, sweet:
(often a choice), a cup of tea. Usually cheese and biscuits and a variety of sandwiches
too. Basic – but nourishing.
Tea: Bread
and butter, jam, cakes and savouries.
Clientele
![]() |
Mayor Fred Rickard & diners at 38 Mill St JPI Media |
Mill St was seen as the classiest. It was the headquarters of the three restaurants, it was close to the town centre and had "a regular clientele of business and office people," a council report stated.*
There were a number of
rooms on two floors which “fits in well with the traditional layout of the
majority of public restaurants to which the British public is accustomed.”
The council bought the
premises on May 1st 1944 and a large new kitchen was built at the
rear. By then it was a “high class restaurant and cafĂ©”.
Gwyn St had more
restricted facilities “but is useful located in an area of smaller business
premises and congested house properties”.
Cauldwell St had the best
kitchen but the number of meals sold was below expectations.
The report points out that
existing restaurants and cafes could not have met the demand for a “cheap and
good meal” quickly served.
British Restaurant meals
were cheaper than hotel, restaurant or cafe meals. This was down to the use of
some unpaid volunteers, council subsidies and a council priority in the purchase of equipment. They were also basically furnished.
![]() |
Interior of 38, Mill St JPI Media |
Also the report admits it
was a “relief” to council officials to know that there was an “experienced
service, available, if necessary at immediate notice for a 24 hr day.”
School Meals
Children at all the town’s
schools - including private ones – also got reduced cost meals. 182,661 were
provided between March 1941 and December 1944 at a cost of 6d each. Four out of
the five secondary schools benefitted as well as two of the three 3 evacuated
schools.
Making Money
The three restaurants made
a “reasonable profit”. Most British Restaurants were funded directly by the government.
But in Bedford the council funded them. The report says the decision to do so
was “perhaps” influenced more by having control than concern about profit and
loss.
It adds that at “no
distant date” all capital debt will be paid off - including the purchase of
Mill Street.
“This is a pleasurable
prospect since there has been some agitation in the country that a number of
British Restaurants have failed to pay their way, the deficit falling on the
taxpayer.”
End of the
Road
Even though Mill St was
thriving, the seeds of its closure are clear from the 1945 report. It points
out that a council is not a caterer and the reason for setting up British
Restaurants has “diminished”.
It also acknowledges that the
emergency may not end with the end of the war in Europe. “So long as there are
transferred workers, the housing shortage, shortages in cooking and feeding
utensils, and a deficiency of domestic help within the home, the need for BRs
is likely to remain.”.
But in parliament Tory
opposition grew to what was seen as unfair competition. By 1946 the number of
British Restaurants nationally had halved.
In March 1948, Mill St was
seeing a “steady increase” in customers and the council agreed to pay £520
(£20,000 in today’s prices) to extend it into the ground floor of the Old Fire
Station.
But in July 1949, nearly a
decade after opening, it closed. It was unusual in making money – and for so
long. Miss Rogers who ran it throughout, got a British Empire Medal in the 195 New
Year’s Honours list.
* All quotes and
statistics are drawn from: The British
Restaurants 1941-4. Report of the Bedford Borough Director of Education. March
1945.
Comments
Post a comment
Comment...