British Restaurants'

[hawksley]

What were the chain of British Restaurants in the 1950s ??? Were they owned by the then Government.???

[SirOracle]

Thank you hawksley.

I am giving my age away here as I well remember having my lunch in British Restaurants in the 1950s. Good plain wholesome food,very reasonably priced.

[Svejk]

///Siroracle, Many Thanks for the first sensible answer. ///

That's not very nice. You had plenty of sensible,if wrong, suggestions.

[woofgang]

i just re read my answer, not ON ration, OFF ration

[Peter Pedant]

How old are you H
I think you may have confabulated/confused/combined cheap restaurants in the fifties with those available in the War.

You/One had the ration book and it was possible to get a basic meal at a British Restaurant (hence your word crap) with a minimum of ration stamps.

This was la,pooned/satirised as a Victory Restaurant (Winston has a Victory Gin and some stew which has pink lumps of meat in it I recall) in 1984. Remember the book came out in 1948 so all this would be fresh in readers' minds.

[SirOracle]

Perhaps correct should have been used rather than sensible by the OP.

[boxtops]

Reference to Muslims eating isn't really relevant in this thread - they were indeed in this country then, as were other foreigners. Don't forget they fought on our side too.... http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/nov/05/muslim-soldiers-first-world-war

[DTCwordfan]

Maybe I was telling porkies, boxie.....

[askyourgran]

Yes how fresh PP? I would have been 7 years old then.

[Peter Pedant]

So do I Sir O - I am still certain they originated in the war because as a country lad (where there werent any) I recollect the conversation with my much elders and betters....

Lunch at 2/6 I think....

Hey didja see the War heroes prog - this one about Belfast ?
Evening Dance double ticket - 15/-
yikes that was quite a lot of money to pay for an evg out !

[SirOracle]

Well pointed out boxtops. It appears to me that DT has been too long \rea ding his choice of right wing daily newspaper and now just cannot help himself.

[FredPuli43]

Weren't hotels and restaurants off-ration, in that they could provide meals without reference to rationing or ration books? It would be a bit odd for people to have to ask how many ounces of meat there were in the dinner and then have to say they could only eat one third of it because they'd be exceeding the allowance otherwise !

[hc4361]

I have very happy memories of the National Milk Bars and am sad they are gone. Excellent breakfasts.
They were nothing to do with the government, though.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-mid-wales-12038590

[New Judge]

Yes Fred, no ration books or coupons were needed to eat in restaurants during WW2. "British Restaurants" provided basic off-ration meals for between 6d and one shilling. At the start of the war there were no restrictions on ordinary restaurants either on what they served or what they charged and no rations were involved. However it soon became clear that the well off were avoiding the effects of rationing by eating out. The government therefore imposed regulations on restaurants. Although ration books were still not needed, they could not charge more than five shillings and there were restrictions on how much food they could serve for that sum. But even with those regulations the wealthy could still avoid the effects of rationing as the restrictions were eased for establishments which provided entertainment and for luxury hotels.

[Buenchico]

>>>What were the chain of British Restaurants in the 1950s ?

1950s? According to Wikipedia, they only lasted until 1947:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Restaurant

[FredPuli43]

Thanks, NJ, that explains something. One of my earliest memories was of sitting in what must have been a high chair, in the grandest hotel in Blackpool (the Imperial?), one Christmas circa 1950. That I can still remember the service and luxury of it all, the attention paid to the infant me, and the abundance, rather indicates that 5 star hotels were definitely not controlled. My parents had taken Christmas there, I see now, because of that abundance. My mother later told me that one guest had 'bought the bar' one night, paid for every drink of every customer. Not everyone suffered financially in the War; apparently this man had got himself a government contract to supply uniforms or some such.